Author: Melissa Howland

What is the impetus of the idea?

MIKE CAHILL : This idea was floating around in my head for a decade. But it wasn’t until I met Michael [Pitt] on a general meeting in Brooklyn that the abstraction became concrete. I had a lot of research – I had researched the eye, the fact that eyes are unique, all of our irises are unique, I was fascinated by the fact that the eye forms when you’re in your mother’s womb and stays the same your entire life, identical twins have different eyes – and if you look at the poster, it’s aesthetically beautiful and feels very spiritual in a way, but it also feels very scientific and like a nebula in space. But again, it wasn’t until I was given the opportunity to meet Michael – I leapt at the opportunity because I had admired him from afar for a very long time as an artist for all the choices he makes; whenever he’s in a film, I’m super-excited to see it just because his choices are surprising and bold and thoughtful in the role and in the scenes. So we chatted, artist to artist, and it was in the middle of the conversation – I was swept up by his amazing sense of humor and personality, and incredible wisdom and insights on the world – and it was interesting because Michael as an artist has such integrity and the things he does are for the purpose of the art. In many ways, that’s very similar to Ian who is doing the purpose of the work. It felt like to capture the truth of a Ph.D. student whose prime goal is discovery, something just gelled, and right in that moment I said, ‘Michael, can I tell you a story?!’ I told him about the duplicate eyes and Ian Grey and he was very encouraging and said, ‘You’ve got a future, kid.’ (Laughs)

MICHAEL PITT : He explained to me the story as though it was something he read in the science journal about duplicates coming up, and I was like, ‘This is amazing. This is true?’ and he was like, ‘No, I just made it up.’ (Laughs) I was like, ‘Who the fuck is this guy?’ But then two really interesting things happened when he did that: 1) I wasn’t surprised. In thinking about it, I wasn’t surprised. I wanted to read up on it, what was going on, but there was this weird realization for that minute that I believed he was informing of something that had just occurred. I wasn’t surprised. That was really interesting. And then, I was like, ‘At the end of the movie or later at some point, if you can put the audience in the same place that you just put me where they believe it or want to believe it or go on a suspension of disbelief, I think we can do something really cool.’

What about the leap of faith aspect and the balance of science versus religion?

MIKE CAHILL : Throughout history, science and spirituality have collided. This is not a new thing at all; this has been going on forever.

MICHAEL PITT : It used to be dangerous to discover scientific things.

MIKE CAHILL : Yeah, burned at the stake. But I had this feeling that science and spirituality don’t have to be at odds with each other. There’s an experiment Karen does in the film, which is based on a real experiment, which is modifying worms that have two senses – smell and touch – and modifying them to have vision. Scientists can do that in a laboratory today. They do, do that. When I learned about that, that blew my mind, and all of a sudden it shed a lot of light on how science and spirituality actually are right, not on the same plane, but they don’t have to be colliding with one another. If this worm all of a sudden has access to another world that we know is there, it’s right there on top of it – light, sound is all around – and sound and light are indirectly influencing each other – the light of the sun will warm an apple and the worm can smell that – and through that metaphor, you understand how, first of all, five sense are by no means the limit. That’s too much hubris to say we’re the top of the sensorial perception species. So it follows that there must be more domains that we don’t have access to; that’s the metaphysical. There are so many religions – there’s like five or six huge religions with hundreds of millions of followers – and we’ve been trying to create narratives to explain that which is only having its echoes in our tangible, touchable, testable realm. And when you can wrap your head around that thought – the worms – you find that you can reconcile the two quite easily. I find. Does that make sense?

Which comes first for you – the scientific what-ifs you’re asking, or the characters?

MIKE CAHILL : For me, as a writer the way it works is, concept comes first, and then the imperative story within that concept emerges. So with Another Earth, it was string theories, concept of multi-verse and duplicate earth, and who needs to meet themselves most – so that’s where the character emerges. With this, it’s iris biometrics, the iris returning, whose story do we need to tell in that paradigm – so all this science stuff is just the texture, but the story is about a man who loves deeply and loses that love, then loves again in a totally new and different way, and coming to terms with that loss and the different types of love, which you could tell without science-fiction at all, but it just makes it cooler.

So you’re a bit of a romantic then?

MIKE CAHILL : Yeah, totally. No, not at all.

MICHAEL PITT : The kid’s a Romeo.

You said that you would like to challenge your audience with the roles that you take. Is there any particular role or challenge that you are looking for next? 

MICHAEL PITT : I have a couple of projects that I’m developing right now. I probably shouldn’t talk about them. [Laughs] What I’m trying to do right now in my career is… I’ve had a really amazing career where I’ve gotten to work with some amazing directors who’ve sort of taken me under their wing. They’ve had huge resumes, and have changed cinema in a lot of ways. I’m really trying to be active in working with the new generation of filmmakers – Mike being one of them. I’m putting what i’ve learned into that, and supporting that. Also, being more active and not sitting around waiting for the projects to come, because if you are selective it can… Before I did ‘Boardwalk Empire’ I had just done a film with Michael Haneke, who’s an amazing director. He may be the smartest director – most intellectual director that I’ve ever worked with. [Looks at Mike Cahill and laughs] He’s in his 70’s though, so you’ve got some time.[Laughs]

MIKE CAHILL : I bow down. [Laughs]

MICHAEL PITT : You know, working on a level – you know, some of his films are really hard to watch. It’s not necessarily a pleasant experience – but working with him… that guy is working on a whole nother level. After having that experience, it kind of messed with my head… a little bit. I was like “I’m not going to work on something if I’m not positive. Unless creatively it interests me. I’m not going to go backwards after having that experience.” and I didn’t work for three years. I was either going to have to move out of my house in Bed-Stuy, and I was like “First of all, aren’t I supposed to be some sort of a famous actor? Second of all, where do you go when you have to leave Bed-Stuy? [Laughs] Where the fuck do you go?” Luckily, [Martin] Scorsese gave me that project. What was amazing about meeting him was he saw my choices. It had a lot to do with it, and when that happens you’re just like ‘Whew!’ [Laughs] You’re not doing it for nothing. There are people…

Both Michael and Brit seem to have that same language where they’re both trying to be choosey in their roles. What is that like, as a director, to work with actors that are so responsible with their careers, and what they want to do, and their storytelling?

MIKE CAHILL : I mean, it’s a huge privilege. It’s no secret that this movie is a very inexpensive movie. You know everyone who’s involved is passionate about it. They’re not coming for a paycheck. They’re coming because of the art form. What I was so impressed with everyday in working with Michael and continuing to work with Brit is the amount of work that they put into it – building up to it – to build these characters. He doesn’t just show up on set. He’s so involved. Ian Gray is his. He created Ian Gray, and that involved spending time in the laboratory, working with scientists, learning the mundane movements that they would do, extracting DNA, eye cleansing with saline solution, and burning gels.These guys would soak it up and make these mannerisms baked in to their own DNA. I witnessed the shift in energy. We called Michael Ian when we were filming, the entire time. Even when the cameras weren’t rolling. It was as if an ionic charge of all his cells became Ian. It’s something that is really, really hard to describe… but really easy to witness, or to pinpoint and see. You know that people are coming together because they want to be there, and they want to do the work. It just makes life a lot easier.

How much does location inform an actor, because obviously New York, you live there, you film there… there’s an energy… 

MICHAEL PITT : …I love California though… I want to say that for the record. I’m not a hater. [Laughs] People assume that if you’re from New York that you hate California.

No, no, no. I’m leading somewhere different… 

MICHAEL PITT : Sorry. [Laughs] What was the question?

When you go to New Dehli, how does that inform you – the environment there? Most people will never get an opportunity to partake in that landscape, so… 

MICHAEL PITT : What do you mean?

Didn’t you shoot in India?

MICHAEL PITT : That was a set.

MIKE CAHILL : No. That was a set!

That was a set?

MICHAEL PITT : No, I’m just kidding! [Laughs] We did that in the studio.[Laughs] That would be amazing! One thing, that I’m super blessed to do… One of the advantages of being an actor is that you do get to travel to these places, all over the world. Early on in my career, it just so happens that I was digging a lot of filmmakers were doing in Europe, so I got a chance to go there, and work there, and I kind of went the other way. I mean, I love traveling. People ask me ‘What place don’t you like?’ and I’m like ‘None!’

Did you sense the spirituality there?

MICHAEL PITT : Oh! That place is a pulse. It’s a giant place of spirituality, science, corruption, extreme beauty, extreme tragedy. I had to shoot a film right after. If I didn’t, and this is not that uncommon, I probably would have gotten lost for a couple of months.

This movie was a breath of fresh air because I had just watched ‘Hannibal’, and then there you are [in this film] looking beautiful. You’re not crazy… Safety!

MICHAEL PITT : It’s safe for my mother! ‘Can I watch this one?’ [Laughs] Poor mom.

You’re saying you warned her about THE DREAMERS? 

MICHAEL PITT : Ahh… yeah. She was warned about that.

You have made such interesting choices. Obviously, you’ve kind of touched on that. I know it may seem like a very simplistic question, but what was it in Ian? What kind of muscles did you get to stretch, or what was it that you got to do that you haven’t really gotten to explore before in your character?

MICHAEL PITT : Well, I’m constantly trying to learn. I would be very nervous if I get to the point where I wasn’t. I just don’t even know where you would go after that. It’s a character that I haven’t been able to… I haven’t played yet. It’s kind of something that I think… It was really technical. It was a seriously challenging role. I wish I had more time with that role. That’s kind of normal. I always feel that way, but this one in particular wasn’t easy. Just getting over the scientific jargon… I don’t say line that I don’t understand, so you’ve got to get a general understanding of the lines. Mike was amazing because he spent a lot of time with me. Also, his brother was a scientist who really taught me to understand the basis of what they are doing. That’s just like a technical thing. And then, he’s {Mike Cahill] just, like, this creative genius who’s got a short hand in science. It wasn’t that uncommon for him to get inspired at 2 o’clock in the morning and say ‘Oh! I just wrote a three page scene.’ [Laughs] So, there were those technical things, just character things, that were needed to technically run its repetition. But then, on a more instinctual level, I loved playing this character. It was… he was so passionate about science, and so, sort of… in one direction about data, and proof, and trying to create this little light that’s burning about what he believes… and in another sense, how does a guy who’s a little socially awkward, what does he look like. That was fun, but difficult. It was a really challenging role.

Did you empathize with the plight of losing someone that you love right in front of them, and then starting the next chapter of his life, and starting over again… letting love be rebirther to him, and seeing something new?

MICHAEL PITT : Do you mean at the end?

Not to give too much away, but after the tragic element occurs in his life, he allows himself, with Karen… 

MICHAEL PITT : Yeah.

… to love again. 

MICHAEL PITT : Working with Brit, and deciding how we were going to approach that relationship was really interesting. We gave a lot of thought to it. It was something that’s difficult. The way that I looked at it was that these things were, this love was happening. He had no idea that this was evolving, and then in that scene when they kiss, I think it was as surprising to him, at that moment. It came out of a really desperate moment, that these two bonded, and it was like that they had been turning into this relationship and from that moment fourth moment, I never played it in a way where that was ever shaken. He new that she was the one. The only thing that through that off balance was when tragic things happen is not having closure. It’s important to take the time to close whatever chapter, whatever that means. He never did it. He kind of lived with it. Stuffed it aside and lived with it. Of course, at some point it comes back.

I ORIGINS is in select theaters now, opens everywhere tomorrow