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Im trying to figure out how this film came about.
She agreed to become involved, and, at that point, it started getting serious.
I decided to reach out to her.
I didnt know her.
So we met up in Los Feliz [in Los Angeles] and started talking.
Deborah, I know you have written aplay, but you had never written a screenplay.
For another, I am actually well situated to work on a project concerning women of around 70.
And that was very, very important to me.
I didnt really know that Meryl was involved until much later.
Ive seen a lifetimes worth of movies about hugely pathetic old people.
Particularly, women are portrayed as sort of clownish, adorable, theoretic creatures.
And the idea of elderly beauty is just considered a joke, at least in most of the U.S. Our lives actually just get more interesting and, in a way, more dramatic.
From what I understand, though, you didnt write a typical script.
Ive never been somebody that wants to make this job seem like its magic.
Ive tried to be transparent with people about how something was done.
[The actors] were always told what to say.
What they werent told washowto say it.
I like telling people how we did things.
If you didnt know, youwouldntknow.
Eisenberg: It was, in fact, very detailed and controlled.
Along with that quality is, of course, the aesthetic adventurism thats really a hallmark of his movies.
Because the confines were so severe of space and time and situation.
Of course, the three leads all had more than half a century each of honing their skills.
So you could say, Well, it was very free.
But it was free in the way a great flying trapeze act is very free.
The skill has to be practically superhuman.
Im hoping youll talk more about those confines.
You shot on theQueen Mary 2for two weeks with some additional reshoots.
I understand there was a very minimal crew.
Steven, you had a camera on a wheelchair as a dolly.
You didnt have to shoot guerrilla style.
We had three full sets of cameras.
In this case, a ship that costs three-quarters of a billion dollars to construct.
Thats a great movie set.
So it was really a combination of a movie and a play at times.
Steven, you are known for keeping costs down.
Meryl has said she worked for way less than her usual quote.
We went to them and said, This will only work if we can do it forX.
And they said, Lets do it.
So they were very open to the idea.
I think that hopefully, at some point going forward, this will result in some bookings.
And he said, No, Im going to getthreein.
The technical aspect was really incredible to me.
It was amazing to see.
Soderbergh: The first three days were scary to me.
We were behind after the first three days, which is not a feeling I enjoy.
We had a lot of material we had to get on the boat.
You cannot impose yourself on this ship or on the cast or on the crew.
So, for me, it was three days of surfing all of it and finally finding a pocket.
Why is this scene here?
What is it doing?
And if something needed to happen in every scene, we would talk about it.
Like, If this scene were gone, would the movie survive?
Then it shouldnt be there.
And if its going to be there, it needs to fit to survive.
We had a lot of discussions about what each scene was supposed to do.
Are you at liberty to say how much the movie cost?Soderbergh: No.
I would never say that.
No, I take it back.
There will come a time when I can.
Eisenberg:I dont think it could look any better.
Soderbergh:I dont either.
If Id had twice as much money, it would not look twice as good.
We did everything we wanted to do.
