BILL & TED Face the Music

Moderator Kevin Smith

Keanu Reeves

Alex Winter

Samara Weaving

Brigette Lundy-Paine

William Sadler

Director Dean Parisot

Writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson

The boys are back, Bill and Ted!

Kevin: This movie is adorable, it makes people feel adored, hopeful and a time machine journey, references to old friends, it was a perfect movie experience. Stay through the credits. How did this begin?

Chris: It stated in 1983 and an improve group with some friends to play with the characters. The suggestion was two teenage boys studying history that don't know anything about history. They struck us as funny instantly and we started playing with them.

Kevin: Before Keanu and Alex played Bill and Ted, you played Bill and Ted?

Ed: We took questions as Bill and Ted and everything was either 'excellent' or 'bogus'.

Chris: We wrote letters and Bill and Ted and spoke like Bill and Ted. Long before we started to put them into a movie or anything like that, we just enjoyed them.

Ed: There is a story we told before which is that it was hard for us to imagine who would take the characters over and we were not involved in the casting project or anything. We were in Arizona where the movie was about ready to shoot and we were in a line at a McDonalds and we were complaining to each other like 'gawd, I bet whoever they cast won't be able to do it the way we hoped' and all that. There were two guys in line in front of us at McDonalds goofing off and talking to each other and Chris and I were like 'now THOSE should be the people that play Bill and Ted' and we were on the set of the first rehearsal and it was Bill and Keanu. Unbelievable (to which Keanu gives the thumbs up!)

Kevin: It is a small world. Whose idea was it to turn the characters into a screenplay?

Chris: We were going to write a skit movie with a bunch of different skits because we just had a bunch of silly ideas and Bill & Ted were going to be one of the pieces in a 10-minute piece. It was my Dad, Richard Matheson who wrote I AM LEGEND, and I ran it by him, and he said you could make a whole movie about that'. We started looking at it that way.

Kevin: Richard Matheson is in the DNA of Bill & Ted.

Chris: In that respect yes.

Kevin: Bill & Ted became part of the pop culture and how quickly was a sequel which was called Bill & Ted Go to Hell, but you had to change that right?

Ed: Yea, the script was that they go back and have to take another test, an English test and Chris and I didn't want to rehash that but we had this other idea, which was what if we kill them and just send them to hell and call it Bill & Ted Go to Hell and they were just not into it surprisingly. Until we flew to Massachusetts I think and Keanu was doing a play there, Shakespeare right?

Keanu: yes.

Ed: We flew there and told them we have two ideas, the one they want us to do and this other one and if we didn't have the backing of Alex and Keanu there was basically no way we were going to do the second one. We got to do the weirder version which I'm so grateful for.

Kevin: When did they say it had to be Bogus Journey and not Go to Hell?

Chris: I think that was the shooting title when we were in production, I think that's what it was called. When it came time to release it they were not going to release it.

Kevin: When does FACE THE MUSIC come into your lives?

Alex: There wasn't really a version years ago. We all went on our merry way and stayed good friends. It was some years ago now, some ten years ago that Chris, Ed, myself and Keanu were having dinner and they said they had another idea for a Bill & Ted and laid out this very summary version of a piss take of Dickens going back into your life finding out each reiteration of your life was worse than the previous. Pretty damn funny. None of us had thought of embarking on a third. Even that night I think we all kind of looked at dinner as 'this isn't really worth doing and no one really needs this unless its really great' and we can magically hold on to the creative well enough that it maintained its integrity of that initial idea. Thus began a very long road to get us to sitting in front of you on our laptops.

Kevin: Let me take it to the boys. Did you have to audition for Bill & Ted?

Keanu: We went through a very vigorous audition process. The first audition I recall in the end there were ten artists and we would revolve doors playing either Bill or Ted and interacting with each other. There was a lunch and went to the end of the day.

Alex: It was a triathlon more than an acting audition. It was a grueling and somewhat unnecessarily prolonged experience. In retrospect, everyone who made the movie was super young. It was a nice way to say no one knew what they were doing. Keanu and I became friends through that process. Eventually we got to know each other a bit and very relived when we finally got it.

Kevin: When did you know that Bill & Ted were a pop culture phenomenon?

Keanu: I think as soon as people started yelling in the streets. I know when I was on the street people would yell, "be excellent!" and "party on!" so I was like, alright, cool.

Alex: I remember going to Paris on vacation right after the first one came out and being seeing a couple of skate-punk kids that were like 10, 11, 12 years old and they were talking like Bill & Ted and it hit me at that point that it had sort of seeped into the culture on some level.

Kevin: The extension of that story line, of course, into BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC includes a new generation. Sam and Brigette, what is the process by which someone ascends to the position of B&T in the movie?

Brigette: We had to audition, it wasn't as rigorous by any means that, we didn't have a lunch. It was like a fifteen minute in and out. It was good, for myself personally I had never seen the film so and I didn't want to see it before I went in because I wanted to go in blind. I watched it a two second clip of what their voices sounded like and I went in and was just as goofy as possible and the second time I got to read with Sam.

Ed: Wait, you did a whole two seconds of prep?

Sam: Yep, that's how I got to where I am. I did my two second research.

Kevin: Everyone in the audience listening, that should be an inspiring story because everything your teachers told you about being prepared doesn't matter.

Brigette: Trust me, that's what I learned in high school, cram in the bathroom before and you're good.

Sam: Just cram! I hadn't seen the films either.

Kevin: Seriously? Neither one of you saw the movie.

Sam: No, I was born in '92. I think it was quite, I could be wrong, I mean I know a few Ozzie's that have seen it but I think it’s an American cultural phenomenon. I could be ignorant about that. I remember getting an email with the audition and what is Bill & Ted and my partner leapt off the couch and started doing this surfer voice I'd never heard before and started talking in a voice and that's when I realized that this film had an impact on the culture of America. Jimmy was like 'dude, you know, you have to do the audition bro!' and I was like who are you and who did you just become.  (Keanu is laughing) He immediately said, 'you have to get this job and watch both movies back to back right now'. We had so much fun and I hadn't seen films like that before, it was so innocent and so naïve and delightfully funny. Next, I'm in Santa Monica reading opposite Brigette and gave it my best shot. It was really daunting trying to fill Bill & Ted's shoes but still trying to make the character different from doing an impression of them. That was the tricky part.

Kevin: In that respect did you study Alex and Brigette did you study Keanu?

Sam: I won't speak for Brigette but for me I watched Alex's performance and tried to study his physical way that held himself as Bill and try to bring that more into a feminine but different from Bill. To make it different but the apple not falling far from the tree.

Brigette: Totally like watching the movie but also like the experience of meeting you guys and becoming friends with you guys but secretly watching you all the time to see how you move your arms. The crazy part of being an actor. Billie and Thea are geniuses in the way that Bill & Ted and goofy and naïve looking for the answer, so I feel that's where we found a way into those differences.

Alex: The first time we performed with you guys, I remember one scene where I was facing off with you guys, it was a really wonderful moment. It’s not saying we were worried about who was going to play these characters, but it was really important that they didn't feel like knock-off's of Bill & Ted and that they were their own people. We both sort of sighed at the same time at the performance because it smacked of family really more than imitating us. They are completely their own characters.

Kevin: The first thing that I was struck by was Bill & Ted was a PG venture. As I'm watching, they chose a PG 13 hand. When you get the script was there any trepidation Dean?

Dean: Yes, its daunting because they are iconic and it’s hard to come back after 30 years. All of that was part of the puzzle to put it together. To contemporize it and bring the characters back at middle age and with their daughters. At the casting there was no question. The weird thing was that it was obviously them and then we put up photographs of Bill & Ted against Sam & Brigette it looked like their daughters. It’s to their credit because they became their daughters and nothing else mattered.

Sam: I will say as young women with makeup it is easy to be too glam so they did a perfect job of making us still different but making us their daughters.

Dean: We looked at them as young musical savants. Everyone you just talked about got together to create those characters that weren't glam at all but artistic.

Kevin: Movies are made up of moments, give me your favorite moment?

William: The very first shot of the take of the very first scene that I did I was supposed to be hopscotch and cheating at it and I tripped. I caught myself and sprained my wrist and I thought 'this is a disaster, I'm off to such a great start'.

Dean: He did the rest of those scenes with a swollen wrist.

William: The really fun moment was when Alex and Keanu, we finally are reunited on screen. It was just gang busters from there. It was like we never left off.

Kevin: That will bring inflammation down.

Sam: I think watching those three have that very special moment, that was really touching and incredible and I felt incredibly lucky to be there to watch that. A close second was the first scene of the film where Brigette and I are watching our fathers perform. I never laughed so hard seeing Keanu Reeves go from John Wick to Ted dancing around and I was crying with laughter.

Brigette: Everyone who we find throughout history who is a musician is a brilliant musician. Watching them play, Patty Ann Miller is the most phenomenal drummer watching her use bones on a turtle shell.

Ed: The reason I was hesitant at first is that my two moments weren't on set. One was a night where some of the actors who played some of the musicians played with us one night. It was a community. I think my favorite moment was on a day when we were shut down because of weather we were stuck in a town called Covington, Keanu hosted the cast and crew and it was a 1:00 performance of John Wick. Alex hosted a lunch after and we just hung out and none of us could work and I thought, this is amazing.

Alex: There are a couple but the first week, the movie was hard physically but we are older, and the script was more physical. It was super physical, and I remember half way through week on and we were shooting a scene and the whole family is there and people I've known most of my life. Keanu and I got into character and we just went off and I remember coming off set and thinking "Bill and Ted are back!".  It's like you don't know, not that we did a great job but internally they are really fun to play and you sort of have to let them go and do their own thing. There is a real ensemble thing, when that groove is happening and working, especially because the tone is so specific, that was it for me, the moment I felt that emotionally. Meeting with Billie and the girls at Death's house, riffing with Sadler again, having him in my face and the baggage from our past and the kids there.

William: My favorite moment too!

Keanu: Sorry not sorry. There is nothing like, I can't feel or laugh or do anything like the way working on this film does and working with Alex. That doesn't exist anywhere else in the world for me. To partner up and work on the craft side of it and get to play these characters Chris and Ed have created and be their children. There is no other place where I can laugh like this. To the craft and play these characters, there are a few scenes stand out but every day as Al gives a wonderful performance. Playing older versions of Bill and Ted and getting to play off Alex and the situation and the words doesn't exist anywhere else with the laughter and connection.

Kevin: How nice you don't get to shoot people in a movie.

Keanu: What are you talking about, that's fun to do that, what do you mean.

Kevin: You let Bill & Ted grow up in the movie.

Searchlight Pictures ANTLERS

Director Scott Cooper

Producer Guillermo del Torro

Mod Steven Weintraub

This is the story of the Wendigo, translates to a diabolical wickedness that devours mankind. When the English settled they left the Native Americans to starve and this is the of horror.

What TV series would you like to guest writer/direct?

Guillermo: Night Gallery, Kojak, anything that I saw as a kid. The fantastic tv and movies in the 70's. It was a beautiful time.

Scott: Godfather or Jaws, every time I turn the tv on they are on and I stop to watch regardless of where the film is at. I'd watch THE CONVERSATION.

Guillermo: CREATURE FORM THE BLACK LAGOON, FRANKENSTEIN, ROAD WARRIOR, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, they are in constant rotation and BLADE RUNNER. I see fragments of 10 movies everyday.

Favorite ride at Disneyland?

Guillermo: Haunted Mansion

Scott: Sadly for me, I've never been.

Guillermo: Wow.

Scott: I've just never found myself at Disneyland.

Guillermo: You can still do that, you're my guest, lets do it. I beg for people to come.

Scott: You have invited me.

Guillermo: I'll go at the drop of the hat. I'll go anytime you want. The strange combination is the three filmmakers that influences me the most are Disney, Hitchcock and Bunuel. Strangely, the three of them intersect somehow.

Scott: They intersect in your work. Now that you mention that I can absolutely see that.

Guillermo: I think Hitchcock and Brunel have a lot in common like MARNIE and VERTIGO.

What project would you make if you had the funds?

Scott: My wife thinks I'm commitment phobic, there is a film that I've wanted to make for several years that I've written about a series of murders that take place at West Point in the 1800's and a cadet who is unlike all the other cadets. He is poetic, he's irrational, he's extremely passionate and the world would come to know him as Edgar Allen Poe.

Guillermo: I'd produce it. I'd do FRANKENSTEIN as a two or three part story. In order to encompass the book you have to deal with points of view. It’s a complicated exercise. It's like you begin making the movie and think you should be making any other movie than the one you are making.

Scott: We know what it takes to get the film mounted and to marshal all the forces.

Guillermo: If you start a movie without absolute dread, you are not a filmmaker. You have to have all the preparation in the world. It's like launching a spaceship, the moment the countdown goes 4,3,2…and you think 'this is going to explode, we are going to burn' something and that moment elongated in a few days or weeks is what it is like being a filmmaker. You prepared everything but this thing is alive now.

Scott: I didn't go to film school so my education is watching lots of movies a lot of director commentaries and interviews. All of the directions I admire the world over have said their least favorite part of making a film is shooting. They like the writing and cutting but there is so much pressure.

Guillermo: The editing is you are typing with the most expensive typewriter in the world. It comes with words already formed but it cost millions of dollars depending on what you are doing. No doubt you are typing with image or sound. The thing that I do miss is the audio commentary because I believe in the physical medium of DVD's and Blu-ray, I have and alphabetized over 7,000 movies that I love to access like a library. Every day we try to watch three movies.

Scott: No body has the film knowledge that you have Guillermo:

Guillermo: What you say you learn. I was texting with a filmmaker I admire and he said that he loved that I keep the physical medium and I told him its because I watch the extras and the commentaries. Sometimes I listen to it twice because I forget. It's been great, we've been texting during the quarantine and others asking what they are watching and why they are watching it. This indoor quarantine has been a fantastic learning experience.

Scott: In many regards, it certainly makes you realize what is important. If anything it makes you think about how important time is. If you are going to make a film you better really want to make it.

Guillermo: If you really study a filmmaker you admire, you can break down their use of the lens, their composition, movement of camera and action. If you put the time that's a new tool in your toolbox, you do it different but as a tool. In THE DEVILS BACKBONE I put  dolly in the middle of the group and with a mini jib I was told to get a techno crane to push without even touching the floor I repeated the move in another sequence. That's a new tool that you keep and learn to use that.

Scott: That is how I self teach. I mean with the Coen Brothers.

Guillermo: The Coen Brothers are the best filmmakers right now. They are superb story tellers but they are the ones that hold the most mystery for me. Some of the things they do go beyond, they are pure faith, pure poetry and I've interviewed them a couple of times at Caan and I can tell you things they do but their instincts are all their own.

Scott: An utterly mysterious, not a wasted movement with camera or dialogue.

Talk about Antlers.

Scott: I would say that its really about, the film looks at the heart of what it means to be an individuals and all the crisis we are facing. Climate crisis, our treatment of Native Americans, abject poverty without feeling like a message film wrapped into a horror film.

Guillermo: The texture of the movie is based on a short story, you made it very different making it a Scott Cooper universe. People say why do you produce and I saw to learn from the filmmakers. I told you this, I was watching your dailies religious and I would say 'this is a beautiful moment or this is a beautiful movement'  but there was a certain energy between the spaces that your film has. I said where is that in this one and you showed me your first assemble and I said oh, there is a Scott Cooper movie. To me, it's a continuation of your preoccupations but it’s a proper horror tale.

Scott: This is my first immersion into the supernatural. With each movies I want to be on unfamiliar ground because I think risk is one of the great pleasures of making art and making films. I think horror films are for people who are interested in the darkness inside themselves who don't want to face it or confront it directly. I think it can provide and environment for people to escape. I recall my brother who is much older taking me to see John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN for the first time in a theatre and I left utterly terrified at realizing what film could do to you. Even at a young age. I think anytime you can do that you can move the audience whether it be a gangster movie or a film about an aging country musician or OUT OF THE FURNACE or even a western, I think that's the goal. For me, this genre allowed me to do it. Because I said to Guillermo, first of all I wouldn't have made the film if Guillermo wasn't producing it firstly, I said to Guillermo that my goals for this film is for it to be disquieting, for it to be tense and human at its center but also terrifying. The audience will be the judge. Those were the goals!

The film has a message without having a message.

Scott: I'm not a fan of message movies and my hope is that if people happen to see my films more than once, they will see that there is something very subtle that you didn't see the first time. In this particular film, while I wanted it to be really quite horrifical and terrifying and certainly in moments it is, I wanted us to really feel like what it is to be an American today and also to show the world as it really is. You have a young boy who is in a great deal of pain who is dealing with a lot of familiar issues and that is one of themes in the film but you also understand that the Wendigo figures into the film and we know that that is Native American, well, as I thought somewhat of an allegory or some type of folklore but as it turns out my Native American advisors really, really believe in it. So the Wendigo figures into the story. The Wendigo is this murderous spirit that is summoned by nature against a callous mankind. Its clear we are abusing mother earth as I mentioned we are abusing Native Americans. We have since we first came to the shores of America and then also abusing drugs and the

opioid crisis and so that hovers underneath the surface. The Wendigo represents greed and colonialism.

Guillermo: I think there were two things that I was really compelled by and the myth is the Wendigo, the more it eats the more hungry it gets and the more it eats the weaker it gets. It is a metaphor for the deprivation and a lot of family rage in the movie. Every character in the movie is enacting or suffering from family rage of some kind. Ultimately it is a bunch of broken characters attempting to get together. I think that was one of the things that I loved about what you did. I mean we worked very close, and it has been one of the great pleasures producing with you and I was really very happy with the wave you wove that rage ultimately 'if you love something, would you be able to kill it?'. That is the central question of the movie. Or even 'would you preserve it alive?' and in a strange way it is something that is very personal for me too because it is the first question I asked in KRONOS. The girl keeping the vampire grandpa in an attic and I thought 'this has echoes of that for me'. Obviously I didn't mention it so you could come to that alone.

Scott: And look at PAN'S LABYRINTH, it is clear that it touched a nerve with you in a great way. One of the pleasures of working with Guillermo is that when you have a producer that is also a director, and I've had Ridley Scott and Tony Scott produce and Robert Duvall, its not the first time I've had a director produce. They really understand what you are going through on a daily basis, through shooting, through cutting. Guillermo is always available and is extremely generous with his time and any time that I would have a script question, certainly when I was shooting at night, I would email or text him, in the creation of the Wendigo, there is no one better than Guillermo at that. That is why I said I would only make this film with him. It is really wonderful to have someone who really knows what you are going through in the most difficult of times I have to say.

Using Native American consultants.

Scott: If we go back one film before this, HOSTILES, a film that I made with Christian Bale, it was really important for me as someone who is a white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant, Episcopalian raise guy, if I'm going to discuss the Native American folklore or any themes that course through Native American life, I want to have people who know much more about it than I do and I want to get it right. So I had consultants from HOSTILES come to work on this film, his name is Chris Eyer who directed SMOKE SIGNALS which was recently admitted into the Library of Congress.

Guillermo: Yes, fantastic movie.

Scott: He is a good guy and a close pal of mine and has really helped me understand Native American causes and then I reached out to Grace Dillon who is a Professor of Indigenous Studies at Portland State University and considered to be the foremost authority on the Wendigo in America. She was the one that really educated me that 'oh no, Native Americans, First Nations, its not folklore for them and it is not a myth. They truly believe in it because it represents greed and colonialism when we first came to the shores of what is now America pillaging all their resources and forcing them to cannibalism'.  That taste for human flesh and out of that rose the Wendigo. So just on a psychological and social level and just understanding Native American plight because those causes for me are incredibly important and no mistake that two films in a row for me deal with Native Americans. So Grace Dillon and Chris Eyer were incredibly helpful.

The creature?

Guillermo: The Wendigo have very specific cues for you to follow in the way it is described and you have to follow those precepts. The antlers, for example, I said you have to remember we are not creating a monster, we are creating a god. The designs must have effects that are completely unnatural that are almost surreal or abstract. I said the bones need to look more like coal like in the mines. We approached it without any fear and approach it with some glee and that allowed everyone to bring to the table their best game. We said very clearly we can not have a monster we have to see him and say he looks ancient, powerful and one with nature. So those were the things that we were doing.

Scott: Yes, it was an incredible learning experience for me obviously never having worked with a monster or even a concept artist Guy Davis who works with Guillermo quite closely, he would sketch concepts with continual refinement. Guillermo thought on a much, much deeper level which is if we are talking about what this murderous spirit is doing to the earth, it comes from the center of the earth, its crust, ore, its ember. The Wendigo looks like that and its an incredibly beautiful design. They took what Guy, Guillermo and I put on page and made this in record time with no a lot of money, an incredibly compelling god. Guillermo and the folks at Legacy created something that I think is unique.

Guillermo: We knew it from the start, we said Mr. X is going to be 50-50 and we are going to have the monster physical but we going to enhance it which is what I have been doing since MIMIC, since 1997 I've been doing this. I take a practical creature and little portions of it become digital. In the case of THE SHAPE OF WATER, the eyes would blink and the micromovement of the face, in the case of BLADE II the upper portion was make up and the upper jaws were digital most of the time. We did the same approach here. We said lets base it on the puppet and then have the arm completely digital or the mouth is completely digital. That is what I think keeps the eyes distracted.

Directing adult material with kids.

Scott: Well, I remember when Guillermo and I were working together in Vancouver and he said there are two things you shouldn't do is worth with kids and monsters. I have two children and a monster but in this particular in this instance as I'm sure it was with PAN'S LABYRINTH, the actors in this film was their first part. Was that the case?

Guillermo: Relatively, she had done other parts but no standing roles.

Scott: I think we saw 900 to 1000 young boys and there was a quality that I was looking for that I wasn't quite finding. Other child actors are groomed by their parents to becomes stars. I wanted to find a kid that had never seen a film camera, searching we found him. Because I have two young daughters I knew how to communicate with him. After a time he felt safe around us. I think some of the reactions you are seeing form him are genuine reactions because the film is filled with a great deal of shadow and he's dealing with some familiar rage and the breakdown of the nuclear family. It was not an easy shoot for him but you have to make sure they trust you and never put him in a situation that is frightening. Psychologically it is a tough part for him. His performance, Jeremy Thompson, is one of the best I've seen.

Guillermo: Remember sometimes you are seeing a two minute scene and it took all day to shoot. The boy is going to see the monster sitting around eating a bagel and drinking some coffee and there's a lot of that energy down. As long as you treat the actors with respect and care, no matter what age, that they are in good and intelligent hands. They become great partners.

Scott: At one time I was an actor with an unremarkable careers and I tend to write for certain actors and have certain actors in mind. I had it with Jeff Bridges in CRAZY HEART and Christian Bale. I work with Jessie Plemmons in this film, this is our third film together and I had Kerrie Russell in mind for a long time because she is such a relatable actor and someone who is really open with the audience but with all the filmmakers and actors and completely put you at ease. It seemed really fresh as a teacher coming back to this small town in Oregon, leaving for reasons that will come out in the film, to reconnect with her brother played by Jessie Plemmons. Because I had been an actor I felt like I spoke the same language.

Use of coverage.

Scott: I generally don't shoot with more than one and everyone once in a while I'll use two. I don't shoot a lot of coverage or a lot of rehearsal. It’s a live wire of getting it between action and cut. With each film I'm learning to tell the story with the camera than dialogue. Guillermo is much more experienced than I am making as many films as he has.

Guillermo: I'm most single camera films because that brings position but you can use multiple cameras with great positions. There was a sequence in BLADE II with 13 cameras for a single take. We couldn't do it twice. CRIMSON PEAK, THE SHAPE OF WATER, those were single camera. You do them more like a melody. In a movie like PACIFIC RIM you are going to need them for the action films. If you are going to shake the whole set you want the positions to be the same. Shooting with kids sometimes you need two cameras because you are going to get something that is unrepeatable. I don't do what you would call overage. Coverage is for directors that find the rhythm in the editing room. That is a certain type of editor. I like to find the final form in the editors room.

What is the process for the camera.

Guillermo: I write 'Maria is at the door…she steps in' , every dot and dash is a camera. You have a storyboard and then you have the actors and you either throw the one before out the window or you preserve it. I think the beauty of camera is that the lens and camera are brush strokes. It is not style, its substance.

Scott: In the writing stage for me, it is through adjectives or I write camera moves in or we will talk about what a character will do in the scene. Once you get there and rehearse it with the actors and unless you are locked in it you will know where you are going to place your opening shot in that particular scene. Then we are motivated by the movement or the crux of the scene whether the camera is pushing in or pulling back.

Writing now?

Scott: I can say Christian Bale who is my closest pal and collaborator we have a couple of films we are going to make pending time. I've written a piece for Elizabeth Moss and I'm not quite sure what will be next.

Pandemic changes.

Guillermo: We have been going through more schedule changes than ever. I was saying the other day that the blessing of having this cast is amazing but the difficulties are rescheduling. Everyone is on demand and going everywhere. I think that one of the things I'd like to think is that for every problem there is one simple and graceful solution. You might not see it right away but I think we've found the silver bullet to make it work. It's not easy, its not easy also to simple anticipate how the set is going to work. You are operating a large surgical theatre. You have to be sterile, everyone in conditions that are almost clinical. The way you approach and stage with the extras, the way you hire them and now have to buy them out for many, many weeks. You have to have them be monogamous to the film. There are dozens and dozens of pages of questions. My feeling is that this is going to go on for another few months and shooting is going to be interesting. Filmmaking is the art of extracting beauty from diversity.

CONSTANTINE Celebrates its 15th Anniversary

Moderator Steven Weintraub

Director Francis Lawrence

Producer Akiva Goldsman

Keanu Reeves

When was the last time you did anything like this for CONSTANTINE?

Keanu: Probably not since the film was released.

Francis: I think it was the premier junket was the last time.

How did you get involved Akiva?

Akiva: I had a deal at Warner Bros. at the time and convince people to let me be a producers. The script was laying around that I thought was so compelling. We started prepping the movie and then we stopped prepping and the movie went to sleep for a while. Slowly but surely the idea was durable enough and outlived what ever struggles it had. So began this restructuring of Constantine with the three of us playing various parts in order for us to get it up and alive again. I watched it again last night for the first time in a long time and it was really cool.

Was drew you to the character of Constantine?

Keanu: I wasn't familiar with the character, I hadn't read Hellblazer so I didn't know the character. It was brought to me by my manager at the time. When it was brought to me, Akiva and Francis were already on board with the project. I did some research on the character and I was not hesitant but I'm not English and I'm not blonde and the character is. I had to reconcile that and part of that was what was at the base of the character. What could I bring to the character and why would I do it? It’s a wonderful and beautiful character, this kind of humanitarian, cynic, tired, world weary, tired of all the rules and morals and ethics and angels and demons but still a part of it. I loved his sense of humor. I had seen a few of Francis videos, I think the Lady Gaga video was the most recent. When I went to the meeting to meet Francis he had all the boards up and a vision was there of the film which I really loved. I was excited to have the opportunity to work with Francis and then got to meet with Akiva and get up to speed with the tea. I love the film, I love the character and it was cool to play that role and jump into it.

And Francis?

Francis: It took a while, my first meeting was with Bob Brassel and the script was brought to me and I went in and had to convince Bob that I had a vision for the movie and I was responsible film maker. I spent a fair amount of time convincing Bob and got past him and make the rounds to the producers. I went to New York to meet Akiva. Keanu was finishing up the Matrix sequels in Australia and it was about a nine month process. I met with Keanu a day or two after he got back from Australia. We had an epic four or five hour meeting talking about the characters and all that. I was very nervous but there was a ton of work in the presentation itself and some of my ideas were already integrated into the script. It would have been a giant bummer had it not worked. Look, I was a music video and first time director guy so there were definitely things to overcome, there was real convincing that needed to be done with every single person I met along the way.

Film came out in 2005 from the comic books?

Francis: I definitely wasn't looking at comic book movies as references, I was looking a noir films like BLADE RUNNER over any comic book movie, like THE THIRD MAN or MALTESE FALCON. I wanted that o influence the aesthetic of the film itself.

Nolan's BATMAN was filming as well, was that an issue?

Francis: In all honesty I think Warner Bros didn't care that much about the movie at that time while we were making it. It all changed when they saw the first cut which was an amazing thing to see. There was a transition of power right as I got the job to make the movie so people at the top inherited the project and went along with it but I don't think they had much faith in it so I wasn't being noted by the studio at all.

Akiva: We were doing something weird. It was noir, it was stylish, it was horror and it was comic book. You could have comic horror, you can have science fiction comic you can have comic book romance but from the first frame of the movie you sudden go 'oh sh*t, I'm in good hands' and once Francis gets you and carries you to Keanu and that hallway and the possessed girl, you suddenly are in for a ride. And not one you actually expected so the studio said 'hmmm, maybe we better pay attention now'.

Francis: I remember we cut together a 25 minute sizzle reel and had a screening and that was the most nervous I was. We were showing it to the new president at Warner Bros. and now we were on the radar, suddenly they were excited. It sounds weird because it wasn't a cheap movie to make and we were off their radar till that footage. My first time at Comic Con we screened it in Hall H with the sizzle reel. The great thing Keanu did from early on was, we had set the story in Los Angeles and its still not often that you get to shoot in Los Angeles and Keanu, if I'm right, you put it in your deal that it had to be in L.A. Not Atlanta or Vancouver or one of these places to cheat it for L.A.

Keanu: No.

Francis: That battle was done long before we got the green light which was fantastic.

Keanu: I love L.A. and I love filmic L.A., I love being on the streets, I love the early dawn, I love the deep night, the color of the lights, people who are on the street, it's got a good vibe.

Francis: Because we got to shoot in L.A. and thanks to Keanu that we got to shoot in L.A. I actually chose Naomi because she had done TRAINING DAY and I loved the set decoration and I saw that it wasn't about going to the L.A. landmarks, its was getting into real L.A. like Koreatown and Echo Park, places people hadn't shot in that much. She was great with all that.

Keanu: Shout out to Frank Capello as well, the roots of the tree.

Francis: There was good team spirit on this film for my first.

Keanu: You got spoiled.

Francis: Yes I got spoiled by all the love the cast and crew had for the project and the energy everybody had going forward. It's not like that on everything and you don't need too many spoiled apples to ruin the mood. This team did not have that at all. Great team spirit the whole way through.

How have you stayed grounded?

Keanu: I love what I do and I like going to work and I like being creative and we are all in it together. Just go play and have some fun. We had a really wonderful cast and to what Francis was saying everyone loved the material and working with him. It was one of those experiences where you get a relationship with the production design etc. and the world your moving in. The relationship between the operator and the first AC you work hand and hand in the ballet of the vision of the director and make the shapes and hit the marks. Mark Lebaunch was just awesome.

Francis: Pam was the first AC and Daryl on the dolly grip.

Keanu: A great L.A. crew, the best in the world.

Akiva: A part of why Keanu put L.A. in his deal, which is, if your going to shoot L.A. for L.A. and you are actually there, the city helps inform every piece of the production.

Was it always just going to be CONSTANTINE?

Keanu: Come on, you had Chazz, you had Midnight, what are you talking about.

Talk about bringing in other D.C. characters?

Francis: Not while I was on it, we were focused on Constantine's world and not weaving in the other classic DC heroes.

Did you battle the R rating?

Francis: Originally when we started we thought it would be an rated R film and then Warner's went through PG13 because of what it cost. We got a list of what you would and couldn't do in a PG 13 film and we followed that list to a T. How many times you could curse, the blood, the violence and all these things. We screened it for the MPAA and five minutes into the film they put down their pads and said we got a hard R for tone. This was not something that was on the list. There was an overwhelming sense of dread is what I heard form the opening scene onward and they thought there was nothing we could do about it. So we had a PG 13 movie that was rated R. I mean we could really have gone for it with intensity and violent to get an R. rating so we got screwed on that. We did try to fight it but we obviously didn't win that battle.

Would it get an R today?

Akiva: There is a weird subset of religious horror and that seems to get an R more quickly. What you learn is that no matter what the guidelines are its purely subjective and that's subjectivity has sort of an ebb and flow based on the group designating the rating. We have a lot of demons and demons seem to trigger and R rating. There you have it, I've given prospective filmmakers the key to getting an R. rating, just have demons, you're welcome.

Cigarettes or rain?

Keanu: That was fun. What are you talking about.

Francis: There were a couple of days were he went green from smoking those fake cigarettes.

Keanu: Oh yea that smoke from the spider in the glass.

Francis: But we got the shot and Keanu gave me this (holding up Constantine's shotgun)

Keanu: The homies shotguuuuuuuuuuuun! Yes!

Francis: This is the best wrap gift I've ever gotten for a movie. Keanu had the prop guy make a second one of these. It's made of bronze and weighs about 35 pounds. Do you have yours?

Keanu: No.

Francis: It's probably in a Raiders of the Lost Ark box somewhere.

Keanu: I so enjoyed working with Francis and Akiva, just having Francis vision and Akiva's story sense and humor and experience really, and then the crew that was assembled and the cast. Playing that role, I get to have these great moments with all of the characters in the films, throwing down with Peter as I'm bleeding out and that confrontation. Throwing town with Tilda Swinton chocking me with her foot on my throat, working with Shia LeBeouf and his dying scene. There were so many, and the dialogue is so juicy and that hard boiled thing and that mystery. For me at the opening in the film me back on a bed holding up a mirror and being flat to the ground. There were so may times working with so many artists. The costumes were great and the production were great. Everyone came in and rolled up their sleeves, working with Rachel Weiss and we had a short hand, working days, working nights - so for me there are moments working with everyone. Walking into those buildings and shooting on - FILM!.

Any additional pressure as first time director?

Francis: In all honesty the pressure I felt was to focus on the story, get the story right and to work with the actors. I feel like I wanted to focus on story and acting and let the 10-12 yeas of video be second nature. It’s a visual art and I like the visual side of things and images so I enjoy the world building aspect so I leaned into that. I felt the pressure to make things look good. I think people were worried that I would work on the story and character.

There is an after the credit scene.

Francis: That was Akiva's idea which I thought was very cool. It wasn't part of our initial photography. After the sizzle reel and we got them excited I went back and said we'd like to redo this and Akiva has an idea so they gave us additional money to get footage.

Akiva: There isn't a lot of explanation on anything so it was a way to close that story and opening other stories should we every have gotten to do them.

Francis: There is the scene right before Constantine goes to hell and he sees the cat and puts it into his lap and he held its face and thought Keanu was going to peel his face back. In the world of Constantine it totally made sense. He has way of doing things and connections to thing. His line, "Gawd I hate this part". When I first read the script, hell was this inky black voice and I wanted to play with time going to either heaven or hell. I pitched to Kiva that going to hell coming back would be like no time at all but you could be only be actually gone a millisecond. We shot about 360 frames a second, the wind on Rachels hair and the door shutting. The idea of hell wasn't just a void, I liked the idea of giving heaven or hell a geography. Coming up with this idea that where ever you are there is a heaven, every where you are and a haven version of where you are. We sat her apartment next to the 101 freeway and gave it all a sense of geography and some relief and grounded it instead of it being a blank voice.

Akiva: Its Francis's idea and an amazing idea, hell has geography - there is hell L.A., hell Brooklyn, hell your mother-in-law's house, there is a whole earth that has hell. Now hell got to be new, entirely unexpected. In the original script it was the small hell but black and white. It's something to think about, its disturbing and I love it.

Francis: We looked at nuclear bomb test areas so when heat hits the structure and you get this super high wind, heat incinerations, we thought that's what hell should be like. That's how we get that hell, forest fire, heat and really a nasty place to be.

Keanu: I remember being in hell and I remember being in the apartment. I remember the cat, I didn't know what I was going to do with the cat till the cat woman told me what to do. (curling the cat's face) Sometimes we didn't know what we were going to do but we'd just do it. That scene plays to a lot of what you are talking about. I love that the demons had their brains gone so the seed of the soul had been scooped out like eating and urchin. That was interesting and fun and the way their joints moved backwards. Doing the wire jump, that was fun. That sequence has the half in and half out has the cinema, playfulness, humor, dread and has that what is going to happen. That sequence when you go in and go back out and coming back to John and steam coming off his back and the physical cost and the toll that ook him and then the drama flip. The sister and the reveal and the momentum of storytelling and the intimacy of Rachel and her sister.

Francis: Part of the idea is that it was always a bit surprising.  One of the things that I've learned from Akiva is that a mistake some people make with scares and surprises that often you enter into a scene as a filmmaker specifically to surprise unless you feel that you are drawn in through a character moment and a connection where you feel like you are there not because a scare is coming. So when a scare or action comes in you are surprised.

A talk of a sequel then?

Akiva: It endlessly came up, we would probably make it tomorrow. We tried a lot of different ways, it was always to the studios a little bit of a feathered fish. The oddness which is a lovely thing about the film. It's not really action packed its just action. Those seem to get harder and harder to make, as much as we've wanted to and we've had ideas. Yea, we've talked about it.

Francis: We talked about sequels more than the studios. The movies did fairly well and this is when people still sold DVD's but it wasn't a knock out success or critically acclaimed at the time. In the fifteen years since it's release, every time I do junkets, I am signing CONSTANTINE dvd's. People really love this movie and I think it's found a sort of a new life in a weird way. I think people have discovered it recently weirdly, its had a cult fan base but people have discovered it in a new way. It sucked calling Michelle Monahan to cut scenes, we really liked the work she did. Constantine was in a relationship with Michelle's character in the movie and we decided that Constantine was better alone without a companion to lean on. When we got to shoot the extra footage, we tried to fashion new scenes. I had to tell her we were cutting her scenes and we came up with some new scenes, we shot it and tried it but it didn't work. The only piece that stayed in the movie was the moment at the end when Constantine lights the fuse. She hated that line and it was the only time in the movie. It was purely a story thing that made us cut her.

Was there talk of being blonde?

Keanu: No.

Francis: We never talked about it, in costumes too was the change of the coat and we ended up going with the black one and it was different than the graphic novels. There were slightly inconclusive test screenings. Religion is a very polarizing element in story telling. There are people that are very religious and might get offended by something and people who aren't religious at all and feel like they are being preached at. There was a person who had me explain heaven and hell because he didn't believe in either so he was confused by it all.

FX's and FX on Hulu Brings ARCHER Who Still Steals My Heart Year After Year

Aisha Tyler - Lana

Chris Parnell - Figgis

Judy Greer - Cheryl

Amber Nash - Pam

Lucky Yates - Krieger

Casey Willis, executive producer

Casey: We are really excited to connect with you virtually with fun stories, witty banter and some fun hints and tidbits about season 11. I want to thank everyone for being here. It’s a little bittersweet because we talk about how the only time we see each other is at these conventions so I'm sending you a virtual hug and kiss. I will miss the cosplay from the Archer fans. One year at Dragon-Con it was an outlaw country Cheryl.  Another great cosplay was also at Dragon-Con and the first year we went as a group and comic book artist Adam Hughes was dressed as Pam. We recorded the last two episodes of ARCHER while under quarantine, did that make it difficult and what did you think about that.

Chris: They had these safety protocols and we didn't touch each other because I usually touch a lot of people in the studio.

Aisha: I come in after Chris and everyone was traumatized.

Chris: I have a lot of love to give.

Judy: I tried to figure out how to record form home and it was the pain for a bum and then I found out you guys went to the studio and I said 'can I go to the studio?'

Amber: I thought it looked the same to me.

Judy: We walk in on our own anyway. I feel like it was definitely clean and spaced but it wasn't any different. I go in the front door and straight to the studio.

Aisha: Don't look at anyone in the eyes, yell 'let’s get this done' and run off on your unicorn.

Judy: There is one good thing is that there is a liquor store right next door and they always had toilet paper. Last night I was introduced to dry vermouth on the rocks, now that's a drink.

Aisha: There is red vermouth and white vermouth and dry vermouth and the white vermouth on the rocks is the most delicious thing.

Judy: I've only had white vermouth because every Tuesday is my Zoom knitting group and we do a different signature drink and last night was that. You guys can talk now if you want.

Aisha: Did anybody else find the supermarkets didn't have anything but the liquor stores had everything. I mean mine had anti-bacterial dial, fresh limes, N95 mask, it was insane.

Judy: I learned early on that her Bodega market and I couldn't find garlic and sure enough they had one of those garlic socks.

Aisha: Support local businesses.

Amber: My parents are preppers, so he had masks, Clorox, paper towels and wipes and made my bug out bag and had all the toilet paper I needed.

Chris: I refuse to give my local store my business because I use Amazon.

Casey: Judy mentioned her knitting which you've been doing for quite a while. Has anyone else got interesting quarantine hobbies.

Aisha: Does drinking count as a hobby.

Judy: I am into craft cocktails. I don't consider a light beer alcohol anymore.

Aisha: That's like water.

Judy: Happy hour is getting earlier.

Aisha: I cannot have a meeting before 11 a.m. in the morning because I'm sleeping in my bed so now, I'm available between 1 and 4. Can we meet? Nah, I'm booked till 1.

Casey: Normally when doing a Comic Con panel, we talk about the season that's already happened. This time, lucky viewer, we've recorded everything and here in Atlanta and we are working on the last couple of episodes. What guy are you guys excited about in the real world and not a coma season?

Amber: The scripts were so funny. I loved being in space and on the island and thought it was super fun but something excited about being back in the real world and super fun to see what everyone has been up to.

Chris: It has been a challenge keeping my son occupied and just started an art class on Zoom. He's enjoying that and then we do a neighborhood karate class and they are going to do a neighborhood hip hop class. People are outside and socially distance.

Lucky: I'm coming to your neighborhood.

Aisha: Does not showering count as a hobby. I've perfected it.

Amber: Telling your partner 'hey, maybe today is a good day to take a shower!'

Judy: Can I draw you a bath?

Aisha: Lead by example.

Lucky: What was your question?

Casey: It’s about a little show we do call ARCHER. So, Season 11?

Aisha: We can't say anything, we can't give anything away.

Casey: This happens to all of us coming into work. There was three of us in a giant conference room and the first half hour we were so happy to see other people that were talking and b.s.'ing. Maybe we can do hints and spoilers, there are going to be cool guest stars. One that I can reveal, we are very excited, Simon Pegg is going to be in the season.

Aisha: That means I can't wait to run up to him on the street and say 'hey Simon you were on my show!' and he can say 'stop touching me I don’t' know who you are!'.

Casey: The other person I want to talk about as a reoccurring guests star came to us via Judy Greer - its' Jamie Lee Curtis. I don't want to say anything about her character.

Judy: Earlier Aisha was talking about the many, many feature films I am in and one of them came out two years ago from the Halloween franchise starring Jamie Lee Curtis and I was offered the role as her daughter. When we first showed up for rehearsals in Charleston, I introduced myself to her and she went right into ARCHER. I think it was maybe how I got the job because she was an executive producer on the movie. So, she and her son really bond over ARCHER and it’s his favorite show and she loves it. I said 'Jaimie, 100% I could get you on the show' and she's like 'oh really' and I said yes.

Aisha: I'm always surprised when reputable people like our show.

Judy: I still feel surprised to know people watch our show.

Aisha: We are a little group of weirdos.

Lucky: Speaking of weirdos, where is Jon Benjamin.

Casey: He is out in the wilderness watching birds.

Aisha: Is he camping or doing some survivalist thing?

Judy: I don't get that from him.

Amber: I doubt it.

Lucky: Is he at a drum circle.

Amber: He's doing Naked & Afraid.

Casey: I have a couple of fan questions as well. Having lived with these characters more than a decade have you had an episode play out in your dreams.

Chris: I never remember my dreams.

Judy: Me either, because of passing out.

Aisha: Have you ever dreamt about a character you've played.

Chris: When I was in collage we were doing a story theatre, fairy tales and  we were travelling around the state in empty theatres and college gymnasiums and one of my characters is a crow and I go 'kaaaa kaaa kaaa' and my roommate said I was doing it in my sleep. I was in character as a crow.

Aisha: You are a method actor.

Lucky: Maybe Chris is our three-eyed raven!

Judy: I don't know what that is.

Casey: When things get stressful at work I always dream about when I worked at a chain restaurant 20 some odd years ago but never about ARCHER.

Aisha: This isn't a stressful show.

Amber: Casey is always stressed out.

Judy: This is the easiest thing to ever make.

Casey: Wonderful animators and artists know this is not easy.

Aisha: To echo what Casey said the animators on the show are the best animators on television doing the most beautiful and complex show and they work very hard. We clowns come in and our sweat pants so thank you very much.

Judy: How old is the Archer baby now?

Casey: I think one is nine or ten years old.

Judy: Is that the one who was the model baby for Seamus.

Casey: I don't recall but let’s say… yes. If the Archer cast could star in a James Bond film what would it be?

Aisha: Octopussy

Lucky: Stink Finger or The Man With the Golden Rod.

Aisha: A Liter of Vodka isn't Enough.

Chris: A Good Day to Sploosh.

Casey: Which Archer catch phrase are you tired of having repeated back to you?

Aisha: It’s got to be Lana…I love you and appreciate you and I'll give you a halfhearted "what", it gets weathered.

And it’s the shrieking! People are delighted by it and I try to put my 'what' back into it.

Casey: People ask me how I come up with catch phrases and I say they are pretty organic. Anything that works super well in the booth, Adam would say it’s got to come back. They are all things that organically happen.

Amber: That still happens now and there are times we have a reaction and we try it and it will come back.

Lucky: It's like 'smoke bomb' wasn't in the script but we bounced a few things around and 'smoke bomb' is the thing we all liked.

Judy: We also had ISIS first.

Aisha: Terrorists ruin everything!

Casey: the Shazam Isis Hour and we had t.v. Michael Grey who was Shazam in the television show. I think we have to wrap it up.

Aisha: I have a question for everyone. Do you notice when you are on Zoom you don't know how many times you touch your face, but you star into the abyss if your own eyes. I've been touching my face a lot.

Judy: Now I want to touch my face.

Aisha: Wash your hands and don't touch your face.

Casey: And if you do, we can all be back together again. Before we go, we have some big exciting news and you are hearing it first here. ARCHER's 11th season will air Wednesday, September 16th at 10 p.m. on FXX and on FX Hulu. From our families to yours, we wish you the best and sincerely appreciate the continued support and until next time San Diego Comic Con family.