Amy Adams & Denis Villeneuve Reunite 8 Years After 'Arrival'

You are very honest.

As I was having trouble with a moment in a scene

and I came up to you with all of my angst,

I'm in the little orange suit with my hood off,

talking at what must have been a mile a minute.

And I looked at you and you go, To be honest,

I don't understand anything you've said.

[Amy and Denis laughing]

[Denis and Amy speaking foreign language]

How are you?

Good to see you, my friend. Good to see you too.

[pleasant calm music]

The first time I've met you, it was like,

I was really impressed how thoughtful and present.

Mm. And just like right now,

look at me with your eyes. [Amy laughing]

And, but in French we said

[Denis speaking French]

it means like a quiet power.

Mm. There's

a very strong presence.

And I was really impressed the first time I've met you,

I must say.

When I first met you, I was just getting off of a film.

It was a really hard experience

and I was like, I'm not reading anything.

I don't know if I'm working again.

I was like, Mm-hmm.

and my very smart and thoughtful team said,

You can not read anything, but you have to read this

first. Oh yeah, wow, wow.

So I was adamant.

I'm like, Great, I'll read it.

I got to the end of it.

I was so moved.

And then of course immediately had to read it again.

So by the time I met you,

I think I'd read it like three times maybe.

But what I remember most about meeting you was

you had a very honest energy and you were

very open and very vulnerable

and I felt very safe with you.

Mm. And I knew to do this,

I'd need to take that leap,

'cause it was one of those things,

I always felt it's either gonna be one of the things

I'm the most proud of or we're gonna miss.

Right? [Denis laughing]

But it was worth it. Flirting with disaster.

Flirting with disaster, yeah.

But it was worth it

'cause there was such a beautiful possibility in the script.

And you communicated that to me

and I immediately felt safe.

And I remember you said, Okay, well I was gonna do this

or Sicario first, so I'll go do Sicario.

And I thought, Oh, we're never gonna make it.

And then you came back a year later and we made it.

Yeah, it's a Yeah.

promise I've made,

that project was fundamental, so important to me.

Mm-hmm. But I was feeling

that I needed to finish something else

before and jumping into that project,

which is still to this day, one of the

most beautiful experience I have on set, yeah.

[Amy] Me too, absolutely.

I remember how grounded you were as we were shooting.

I felt you were fearless.

Mm. There was something about,

like, I give an example,

we were doing a scene in the hospital

Mm-hmm. with a tiny baby,

like a very, like a newborn. Oh yeah, yeah.

[Denis] Like he has a couple of days old

or something. Yeah.

[Denis] And the baby was a bit of course agitated

and you took him and you were so calm

Mm. and the baby

became relaxed right away.

And you asked me, I remember you said,

No, no, I don't look real.

You wanted to show your shoulders, add a sweat on you,

mess up your hair, and I was like, so moved

Oh. by your appetite,

your desire for authenticity. Mm.

And for to bring something real.

Because the more we will be close to something,

the more moving, the more real it would

look like. Yeah.

So I at that time I was feeling

that we were walking in the same direction.

Yeah. I felt

that you are the best ally for me,

to put all my chips on you [Amy laughing]

because the visual effects all that is not important.

What is important is if you believe in

Mm, yeah. what we were about to do.

And I felt that all the time.

You were my stronger, Oh.

you were my rock during this movie.

I well, you were my rock. [Denis laughing]

I remember I put so much time and energy

and worked so hard, especially 'cause we're,

you know, working in this tightrope

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

of trying to play things so it can play both ways, right.

Because of the reveal at the end.

I had to do so much work to understand like

how do I play a character so that

the first time you watch it, you think that it's one thing

and then the second time you watch it,

you can see it from a totally different perspective.

So that was always in my mind.

So I'd done so much work and came in with all of this

like energy and I still remember the first day

and we were going through the script

and I was like just hammering you with questions

and thoughts and this and the next day you gave me

one of the greatest gifts a director has ever given me.

Where you said, You own her, I'm giving her to you.

I know that you know her and she's yours now.

And I don't know why I've never really thought about

being able to have that kind of faith in myself.

Mm-hmm. But when you

had that faith in me, I just felt free.

The way that you're able to create an environment

of mutual respect from all departments

Mm-hmm. is a really rare talent.

And Thank you.

everybody is in the process together.

Like I never felt that I was separate

from any of the departments. Mm-hmm.

It always felt like we were building something.

And that felt so unique to me and so different

than a lot of the films that I've worked on.

Dune is a little epic.

A lot of people have a point of view, I imagine.

What is nice about doing that adaptation

is that you have always like a north star.

The book Mm.

is like a kind of bible Yeah.

for everybody, there's always something.

The book is so dense, so rich, so much descriptions.

There's a spirit to it that sometime when you make movies,

a movie that you wrote yourself or that you have to,

it's a music or a painting or something that would be the,

but with a book, you have the object.

As I'm doing the adaptation writing,

it can be a burden.

Sometimes you feel like walls around you that you cannot,

but otherwise, I really love to adapt.

I like being a part of an adaptation as well

for the very same reason.

Because if I ever get stuck, if I ever wanna know

where the character's at, books have a much

stronger internal monologue for the characters.

Especially a book like Nightbitch

which is written in totally an

Nightbitch, yes. internal monologue.

So I can always go back

and see kind of what she was thinking in the moment

or kind of the environment, how she described something.

So even if I'm not saying it or even if

the thought isn't being voiced at any point,

I can internalize that.

Marielle Heller who adapted Nightbitch

did such a great job at sort of mining it out.

She really did like the lion's share.

And then she'd call me and we'd talk about things

and kind of think about what was important

to us to communicate, but she delivered that script

and I was like, if I make any notes,

it's only to make myself look like

I'm smart enough to make notes because

it was just beautiful. Mm-hmm.

I had no notes. Mm.

I was like, I get it.

Mari does a lot of the monologues that are done,

not really breaking fourth wall,

but like Yeah, yeah, yeah.

the internal monologues spoken out loud.

I'm never going to be smart, happy,

or thin ever again.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I'm turning into a dog.

[Jen and Liz laughing]

You're so funny. [dog howling]

Having had read the book and having that voice in my head

really did help me understand sort of the music

that I would be playing, you know.

That's interesting,

'cause I don't know if the actors who play in Dune

can dive more into their characters by reading the book.

In some ways it's like a, Mm.

there's a distance between the adaptation.

So I don't know if they can, but for me as a director

and for my production designers and for all

of the other department, Yeah.

the book is definitely a reference.

Each shoot is different.

Yeah. Dune Part Two

was singular about that experience.

It's just that I started the shoot tired.

Yeah. Because

I had done Part one, do the post,

do the press, do the award season.

Yeah. And then

went into a prep writer. Straight.

straight, straight, there was no time to rest.

There was no time to re-energize.

Mm-hmm. And I was

a bit worried about that.

I was excited to do the movie, but I was,

and what kept me alive through all those weeks

were really the actor's performances.

Take my life, Usul.

It is the only way.

I'm pointing the way. [crowd murmuring]

Slow down.

[Paul speaking Chakobsa]

[crowd murmuring]

To have that kind of spark that happens of the camera.

Yeah. That joy,

that gave me the necessary energy to go through the journey.

This is why everybody loves working with you

because you have so much reverence and respect for actors

and it's just lovely Oh, you're sweet.

to work with, you really do.

You are very honest.

That's one of the things I talked about

when I first met you, that it struck me,

and tell this story on set

'cause it's when I knew I trusted you.

[Denis laughing] As I was

having trouble with a moment in a scene

and I came up to you with all of my angst

and I'm in the little orange suit

with my hood off walking next to you

talking at what must have been a mile a minute

'cause I was like, had a problem and a question.

I was working it out in my head and I was talking,

I was doing this and this and I go,

but then this, this and this, this.

And I stopped and I looked at you and you go,

To be honest, I don't understand anything you've said.

[Amy and Denis laughing]

And I said, That's okay

'cause I think I just worked it out in my own head.

[Denis laughing] And really,

I think I just needed a sounding board.

But the fact that you just were like,

I don't know what she said, [Denis laughing]

because I was mumbling and talking so fast.

And once you told me that you must have known

it's not what I wanted to hear.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was

what I needed to hear [Denis laughing]

and it made me also realize,

Oh actually I already figured it out.

But I trusted you 'cause I knew

you would always tell me the truth,

you know? [Denis laughing]

I'm like [burbles], you know.

But I think That's very funny.

I remember. Yeah.

But it's just known, but sometimes specifically on set,

I understand that in the movie nature of Arrival,

for you it was very complex storyline.

Mm-mm.

But I was trying to keep it visceral

Yeah. because otherwise

we will lose ourself in the, yeah.

No, I loved it.

I always loved when you pushed

and pulled and brought your ideas.

You were great to work with

'cause although you had a lot of faith in me

bringing my point of view to it,

you still were able to direct a vision for the character

and for the film and for the energy of the film.

And without losing the character,

which is amazing. But that's something

I absolutely, and not that I know

we go too much in the love fest,

but I love how much you trusted me.

Yeah. That means the world to me

that when you, because when as a director,

it's like you built a boat, you said to everybody,

We're gonna discover a new continent,

and you hope that boat will not sink.

You hope the winds will blow in the right direction

and you hope you will find something at the other end.

But still that can happen only if people trust you.

And I felt that you were a force

that driving everybody forward, yeah.

Thank you.

[Denis] What you did with Jean-Marc Vallee

Mm-hmm. on Sharp Objects.

It was absolutely incredible. Yeah.

He did an incredible job. I was like really impressed.

And I think that John-Marc really, it was like blossoming.

I dunno if you can say that.

Like becoming even the best work.

I did really enjoy the long format

of character development. Yeah.

And kind of getting to spend time

and moments and really explore that.

Are you open to, no, I'm kidding, I'm like,

I'm gonna pitch him something while we're on the couch.

No. Personally,

I don't, I'm not, I love to watch it.

Mm, got it. I love to love it.

But I am not inspired by the long form.

[Amy] Yeah.

I love the economy of time of a

feature film. Yeah.

Like there's something more contained that I prefer

about that. If I was gonna ask

or say what I'd want you to do is something with me.

Yeah. [laughs]

[laughs] Just anything with me.

We should do- That's sounds

so desperate. What I would love

is to do a musical with Amy Adam.

[gasps] That would be so fun.

We could practice at karaoke.

That's, no, that won't happened

No. Because

we've been to karaoke together

and that was like, I'm still grateful

that you're still talking to me.

Oh, you're so funny. because

you're wonderful. never go karaoke

with Amy Adams, that's. [laughs]

I can never hear Skyfall the same way.

[Denis laughing]

Darren and I, every time we hear it do you,

you are wonderful.

Every time I hear Skyfall, I still, me too.

I think of you and Darren. [laughs]

Yeah, it was wonderful.

It was lovely to chat with you, Amy.

Great to see you again.

Lovely to see you.

Always lovely to see you.

I'll see you

Singing. karaoke.

[Denis and Amy laughing]