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I guess the preproduction on this was years and years, he said.
It was a lot of my childhood and youth.
It took on uncompromisingly dark material with such an exuberant sense of style and boundless energy.
It completely blew my mind, that book, and just made me start thinking about being a storyteller.
I was like, Oh, Ill adapt that.
I called him up and he said, Oh, come on over.
Eric Watson, producer:My only awareness of Selby at that point wasLast Exit to Brooklyn.
Aronofsky:When you read Hubert Selby, Jr. youre expecting someone more likeHenry Rollins.
But he was very slight, and he was dressed in a pair of underwear.
He lived in a studio, maybe a one bedroom a small, humble thing.
He was this incredibly peaceful, gentle soul, andhe gave me his blessing.
Watson:After we madePi, we were the indie darlings of that year.
Everybody was asking us, What do you want to make next?
We met all these executives who wanted to work with us and said anything you want to do.
I asked him, What is that?
He said, Its a Selby book, but I couldnt finish it.
It was just too much for me to handle.
Im like, Well, can I borrow it?
I took it with me on a skiing trip with my parents and grandparents and it ruined my vacation.
Aronofsky:So I read it.
Its just very cinematic, the book.
Images were popping off the page in my head, of how to interpret this.
We went out, we found Selby, and I think we optioned it for a thousand bucks.
Do you mind if I set it there?
He was like, No.
I rented an apartment out in Sheepshead Bay, and I just started working on it.
Watson:Selby had written [a screenplay adaptation] years before.
Watson:We sent the finished screenplay to all those people whod said anything you want to do.
Nobody called us back.
So we learned a lesson about Hollywood they dont always mean what they say.
They said, Well, we believe in you guys.
If you put a cast together, well give you this much money.
Aronofsky:It was still challenging.
I think three weeks before we were shooting, our budget got cut by $1 million.
It was very scary.
I can remember getting that phone call that we lost a quarter of our money.
I think I might have shed a few tears.
And a lot of people said no to us.
I went to a lot of actors before I settled on this cast.
I may have told Ellen, but I think she was fourth or fifth down the list.
There were a lot of great actors that said, No fucking way.
And I was like, I guess thats a compliment.
Who on earth is going to want to see this movie?
I had never heard of it.
Within the first three minutes I went, Oh, I get it.
The guys an artist.
So I said, all right, Ill do it.
He was a very young man, but I was impressed with his film.
So I felt secure.
Aronofsky:I didnt really know Jareds work at all.
So I had to really educate myself on him.
Watson:Tobey Maguire, that was someone who said no to us.
He made me earn it, for sure.
There were multiple auditions.
I remember him calling me one time.
I wasnt shy about it either, it wasnt that sort of process.
Once I got the role, I remember reading with a lot of people for other roles.
Darren read with every actor in town for the part that eventually went to Jennifer.
Watson:We had a lot of actors show up for that role.
We were surprised at the response that we got.
They hadnt met each other.
They did the scene, and she basically threw him around the room in the audition.
And we were just like, wow.
Leto:I think she threw a chair across the room.
Jennifer Connelly, Marion Silver:I remember loving the script and feeling strongly about it.
I found it moving.
Devastating, but also really moving.
I remember wanting so much to be part of it:I really want to fight for this one.
And it was a bit of a fight.
I think Darren wasnt entirely convinced about the idea of me for a while.
Aronofsky:I definitely loved Jennifers work fromOnce Upon a Time in America, one of my favorite films.
She came in, and I was not expecting anything, and she left with the role.
Im going to kill myself.And Im a happy person.
But when I look at a movie, I dont just look at the script.
If theres a book, I read the book.
If theres a director attached, I watch the directors work.
And thats exactly what I did.
Watson:[Wayans] had gone tothe performing arts high school in New York.
We knew that he had that background with him, and that capacity.
We had no fear about it.
We knew wed be okay.
And he never really chose to do [drama] again, but he could have.
Wayans:Its not that I dont do drama.
I studied drama for four years every day.
Aronofsky:I wanted to cast Dave Chappelle.
I begged him, but he wasnt really interested in acting at the time.
But I always felt like a comedian for that role would be great.
Wayans:I slept in the same clothes, literally, for ten days.
I would talk like the character.
My boys would come over to the house Omar Epps was concerned, like,Are you okay?
I ad-libbed all this stuff aboutTappy Tibbons, just crazy stuff.
I was channeling Tony Robbins, walking down the street, talking to people.
Some people knew me but didnt know my name.
Aronofksy:All of the younger actors got there a month before or something.
We even went to a nightclub to Twilo or the Tunnel one night.
I remember it only because in the middle of the night they turned on the lights.
I guess they got raided by the police.
Wayans:I sat with Darren and he explained the vision.
Because I was like, why is a black guy talking like hes in the 1970s?
But I got what he was saying its a new cool.
Its a film that demanded that.
Connelly:I took to making a bunch of my own clothing and accessories.
Wayans:We sat with addicts.
We went to a clinic and talked about the effects of heroin.
We did a lot of research.
I was like,Hey bro, I grew up in New York.
I know how cold it is.
I dont have to do this.
Leto:No one forced me tolose weight for any film Ive ever done.
I thought that was a good place to be.
Connelly:It manifests differently, that hunger.
I just tried to focus mostly on that sense of something missing.
A lot of people can relate to that feeling.
Wayans:Im not the kind of guy that stays in character.
When they say cut, Im back to Marlon, back to having fun.
Jared is the opposite of me.
He stays in it the entire time.
So when they say cut, hes eating like, raisins and a nut, and Im eating lunch.
Im not starving myself, because I noticed black guys were still buff even though they were heroin addicts.
Not everybody gets skinny, not everybody gets emaciated.
So I would tease Jared often because he was crabby because he wasnt eating.
Whereas Jared and Jennifer really, it was harder for them.
They had to interact with each other and deal with themselves.
Connelly:Our working relationship was good.
Watson:They approached acting from a different place.
And so trying to find that magical take four was all the thing we were doing.
We shot it twice.
Emotionally, Jared was really there between takes one and five, and Jennifer was better later.
[Darren] comes to me one day.
Hes like, I want to shoot that again.
Im going to shoot that scene again.
Im like, Are you kidding me?
We dont have the time to shoot that again.
And then I realized, hes right.
Because the actors needed a certain amount of time to be prepared for where they had to go.
He was with me every day.
I was still nursing him.
It was the beginning of having to learn to surrender to the moment and not hold on to something.
Aronofsky: I was terribly intimidated by Ellen.
Burstyn:Darrens mother and father were on the set every day.
Theyre both professors, brilliant people.
When Darren shotPi, his mother was the caterer.
She did have that Brooklyn accent, which was very helpful to me.
I came in and talked to her every day so I could take up her intonation.
She was my coach.
Watson:[Burstyn] was incredibly generous with teaching us.
Probably the most generous with Darren, and trusting of him.
And I think that was a two-way street for them.
He was bringing a lot of energy and enthusiasm and ideas that she hadnt encountered as an actress.
It was very hard to get off.
Its not fun at all.
I dont recommend that to anybody.
It broke my heart every time I read it.
And its two people sitting at a table how are you going to make that interesting?
Libatique:That scene was difficult to shoot because whose scene is it?
Harrys coming to the realization of whats happened to her, ironically after enjoying some success selling drugs.
And now, were on the other side of things.
Leto:It was my first day and my first scene, I believe, with any dialogue.
I was maybe overprepared at that point, just raring and ready to go.
We filmed Ellens side first and I was so nervous and excited that I lost my voice.
We had to shoot my side on another day.
He was a tender young actor, which made him easy to love.
We really never could imagine going with another take.
Aronofsky:I was devastated.
Then I was watchingSeven Samurai,because sometimes Ill watch my favorite films while working on a movie.
Theres this amazing breakdown by Toshiro Mifune in the movie, and its actually soft.
I was like, Okay.
Good enough for Kurosawa, its definitely good enough for me.
Burstyn:Im thinking about the wonderfulpoem of Mary Oliverswhen she talks about how she wants to greet death.
The last line of it is, I dont want to end up simply having visited this world.
And I think thats what Sara was feeling like she wasnt looking forward to something new and wonderful happening.
She realizes that shes getting old.
And how many chances does she have to do something?
Aronofsky:WithPi, the whole film is in Maxs head.
That started a visual grammar and different techniques that we decided to move throughout the film.
Me and Matty talk about it as expressionist filmmaking were not going for purely photorealism.
Connelly:I was so impressed by Matty and the way he worked.
It was a totally different style of filmmaking than I had experienced.
For example, theres a scene where I have a camera rig on that I was wearing.
I had never done anything like that before.
Libatique:It was basically just a weight belt and a monopod stuck out.
Its one of those techniques you have to use sparingly, or else it becomes a little distracting.
Its not unlikeSpike Lees dolly shot.
The effect was great and it spoke to another layer of subjectivity to get to.
That was the crux of the design angle on that movie and he was really excited about it.
But I had not pitched on a movie before, so I had no visuals or anything.
Watson:The scene withEllen cleaning the apartment, its a motion-controlled camera.
She basically had to do it in one take we had to choreograph everything she did.
Burstyn:And there was no rest.
It was just, do it and do it at top speed.
That was very challenging.
There were a lot of different technical things going on that I had never experienced before.
I was panting by the time we finished.
I remember him sending me a clip of the scene where Ellen Burstyn first takes the speed pills.
He put She Watch Channel Zero?!
by Public Enemy under it.
It was fantastic, just brilliant, but it didnt do anything but say, Oh, thats cool.
There was no subtext to it.
We realized at that point we were in trouble.
I had written a lot of stuff in advance, but in this hip-hopish vein.
I nearly quit at one point because I didnt think I could do it.
We came right on the heels of the height of MTV.
It happens in a montage, then, you see the aftermath.
Aronofsky:We even used it sometimes when [Sara] would check the mailbox.
Rabinowitz:So much of what everybody loves about the editing ofRequiem for a Dreamwas baked into the script.
SNAP, she opens the cap.
BOOM, she pops one into the palm of her hand.
And he had these sound effects in all caps.
And the second time he did it, he explained a lot less in the script.
Watson:The trap of a heroin movie is, you see people shooting up, right?
Chinlund:It was important that we show these people as people with lives and creative output.
It was a story about people and how easy it is for them to get derailed.
Aronofsky:I was never interested in heroin, per se, even though thats whats in the book.
Theres only that one shot of the needle going in the arm when its all sore and gross.
Libatique:He said to me, You think its too much?
Im like, Youre going to ask me that?
Youre going to ask me thatnow?
So What Are We Going To Do Now?
Watson:We basically shot [the sex show scene] in the very last night.
We had a closed set.
We had a lot of rules and regulations going into that.
It was very stressful for me, because if something went wrong that wouldve been really bad.
The guys in the scene werent actors, except forStanley B. Herman.
The women in the scene, they were strippers by profession.
They were very professional about it.
But when youre in your 20s, you dont really think about 20 years later.
Rabinowitz:I think Jennifer was only there relatively briefly, and they got those shots of her.
But everybody was on their best behavior.
Jennifer gets in position and were shooting her close-up.
Nobodys making a sound.
Were shooting, and Jennifer said in position, Is anybody going to make any noise?
Everybody just looked at each other like, Oh my God, yeah, of course.
Yeah, of course.
We were so tense because, look what this womans having to do.
Connelly:It was a scene that was important to the film.
But I dont remember personally feeling comfortable doing it.
Chinlund:We had been dressing the set all day.
It was echoing through the canyons of the Upper East Side.
I was so excited.
We had a little talk and it was the personal information, and he had told me a name.
I dont remember what it was, but I was like, Great.
Im going to get a name on the credits.
But I never did.
Im still just a Big Tim Party Girl.
Rabinowitz:It was upsetting to me, how far he pushed the actors.
We had to sift and sift it wasnt as beautifully designed as everything else he was doing.
Im proud of what we did, it came out pretty good.
No, no, you watch it with her.
He had his own chair.
It was Hubert Selby Jr., who had just showed up on set.
The first time you would get maybe 12 frames of each image.
The second time you would get maybe one less.
Each one was a few frames shorter.
The ending just had no relief.
Thats probably somewhat what I looked like by the end of that job.
Mansell:Id sent Darren this CD of ideas with about 20 pieces of music on it.
Little clips of things that I did.
We got to the scene where Jennifer Connellys character sleeps with her psychiatrist.
Shes leaving his apartment afterwards, and the cameras attached to her, and shes walking down the hallway.
Ive never seen anything like it before.
Suddenly this piece of music just attached to the screen and what was going on.
Darren describedRequiem for a Dreamas a monster movie, and that was the monsters theme.
Rabinowitz:Clint Mansell and Brian Emrich, the composer and the sound designer, were on from preproduction.
So this was an extraordinary thing.
Im like, Well, yeah.
We could break it down that way.
Thats the Kronos Quartet.
He pitched them on the idea and once they saw the music, they were totally onboard.
They did their own orchestrations from my demos.
We went to Skywalker in San Francisco to record.
The music is, in the best possible way, heavy-handed.
And I think thats the beauty of it.
Burstyn:A lot of the directors Ive worked with, Ive worked in their second film.
They hadnt gone through the Hollywood meat grinder.
They were still doing what their artistic souls prompted them to do.
Watson:We made that movie for $5 million.
In New York at the time, it should have cost 7 or 8.
One thing we have learned was that your financial restrictions can force you to come up with creative solutions.
Chinlund:We were just giddy the whole time.
Watson:The first time I can remember showing it to people was at the midnight screening at Cannes.
You could feel this electric feeling as we were watching it.
And he leaned forward and hes like, Look what youre doing to this room.
Leto:I havent seen very many of my films, but Darren was adamant.
Walk the red carpet, see the movie, and have the experience.
I really am glad that I did.
There was a standing ovation, and he just couldnt believe it.
Aronofsky:Then of course, we never got an R rating.
And if you dont, we dont know what to tell you.
That limited how many screens it could go on.
But on the positive side, controversy creates publicity.
And so we definitely milked the publicity of having the NC-17 rating as much as we could.
Theyre always surprised that I didnt put that up front and center.
It was a very trying experience.
It was brutal at times.
You do what you do and then they go off and have their own lives.
I support this football team called Wolverhampton Wanderers.
I knew we were going to win that game we did, we won three-nil.
Thats the one that puts people over the edge.
Litteer:Its a great film.
I think that I thought it was going to be the thing that would catapult me into more success.
But it was hard for me to get people to see me in other ways.
Once I was doing a concert at Joes Pub and I finished and somebody screamed Ass to ass.
But in the end, I feel like Im theRequiem for a Dreamgirl.
Chinlund:I think people recognize it as being sincere and real and entirely devoid of irony.
We meant everything we said, we met everything we did.
Connelly:It was so innovative.
Libatique:I grew up as a first-generation Filipino in America.
Wayans:Everybody has a deficiency.
Everybody has a deep-seated pain that allows them to seek drugs and artificial elation.
Finding a sober way to deal with that and fill yourself with love.
It was a lesson for me, especially right now in my life after losing my mom.
I understand that theres never going to be anything to replace her.
The only thing I can seek is a different kind of love, a healthy kind of love.
People wanted to haveRequiemfront and center on the shelf.
Maybe still is … what the fuck do I know?
Making films is a tricky business.
They dont often turn out how you hope they would.
This one met and exceeded all expectations.
It feels good to be part of a great film, thats for sure.
Aronofsky:Its a whole different world now.
If I were a young storyteller, Im not sure Id be making an independent film.
Id probably be trying to tell a story in another punch in of way.
I havent seen [Requiem] in a very long time.
I could remember shooting every single thing.
But I tried to hold onto that energy, because I think thats why you do it.
Youre trying to make something different.
