post in : Interview , Lionsgate , Movies| Tagged : Dito Montiel , Riff Raff
theatre director Dito Montiel ( The Clapper ) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his late offense drear comedy in Lionsgate ’s Riff Raff , the ensemble cast & more .
Article Summary
Few can ever imagine working with such an ensemble of comedic natural endowment and cover veterans like directorDito Montielhad for Lionsgate ’s dark comedy and offense thrillerRiff Raff . He ’s built enough of an eclectic filmography to work in indie and mainstream flow likeEmpire State(2013),A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints(2006 ) , andBoulevard(2014).Riff Raffasks how far you ’ll go to protect the ace you get it on . Vincent ( Ed Harris ) and his kin architectural plan to share a quiet New Year ’s Eve together until his unelaborated past tense catches up with him and the night reveals secrets no one could ever reckon . Montiel spoke to Bleeding Cool about how he got involved and how it felt like to theEdward Albee1962 playWho ’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? , assembling his ensemble roll that includesJennifer Coolidge , Bill Murray , Pete Davidson , andGabrielle Union , equilibrize the more cathartic elements of the flick , and his filmmaking inspiration .
Riff Raff Director Dito Montiel on Making the Best of His Ensemble Talent, Taking Advantage of Their Creative Input
Bleeding Cool : How did you get involved with Riff Raff ?
Well , an thespian I have a go at it , P.J. Byrne , tell me about a script that was a bid they were going to do that John Pollano had write , all in a room . I study it , and it feel like ' Virginia Woolf ' , but everybody ’s Virginia Woolf . I thought , " Oh , this is pretty good ! " I was watch ' The White Lotus ' at the fourth dimension , like the rest of the planet , and I ’m the last soul on earth who did n’t have it off who Jennifer Coolidge was . I ’m like , " This lady ’s really good , " and because I was thinking , " Who ’s Elizabeth Taylor from ' Virginia Woolf ? ' I enunciate , " She kind of is , " and my wife yelled at me , and she ’s like , " That ’s Stifler ’s momma ! " ( from 1999 ’s ' American Pie ' ) , whatever the hell it is . I was the last person to know who she was , but fortuitously , Jennifer was the first person to jump on , and then we sire to make a flick . It ’s disturbed .
What was it like lick creatively with John Pollano and his process ?
Oh , I do it working with John . It ’s guileful because I write a lot , but I ’ve worked with author . It was a great collaboration with him . Sometimes , it experience weird because I never understood how masses could write together . I ’d drop a line something , then place it to him . He ’d mess with it , send it back to me , and we ’d go back and forth . A new actor would come into it and go , " Okay , maybe we can get vary . " It was a lot of back and onward , playing with the actors and hear to them . Bill Murray certainly has lots of ideas , not to note being a great writer . It was a really collaborative , playfulness trip , which was not always what I imagine it would be , but I enjoyed it .
You have so much talent in this sour comedy . What was it like exercise with this supporting players of Bill Murray , Jennifer Coolidge , Ed Harris , Pete Davidson , Lewis Pullman , and Gabrielle Union , and what did they contribute to the screen ?
First , they ’re enceinte histrion , veracious ? It ’s weird because , myself include , we get laid these people our whole life sentence , different version of them in things like ' Saturday Night Live ' , maybe a movie that made you yell or another that made you express joy , whatever . With the known doer , it ’s trippy because you have your preconceived notions of them , and they show up . The first matter I realized , and it ’s the nice thing about small sovereign moving picture , is that although it may not sense like that , because you recognise all the names , there was a tiny little movie we shot in 21 days .
People are showing up because they want to be there . It begin off on the right foot , so being collaborative is not the hardest thing with everybody . crop with them is a ambition in the sentiency that each person bring something . " It ’s a long , unearthly trip " is the undecomposed way I could put it , but when you get lucky enough to have these people , you ca n’t go wrong if they ’re all in a room together . I venture you could go wrong , but we did n’t .
How do you poise the disconsolate comedy and the man within the film ?
I always study or save thing as if I ’m in it . I commemorate think that some of those dumb things were someone enounce , " Oh , it ’s really amusing . It ’s a comedy , " and I ’m , like , " What ? ! " I ’m like , " Well , the home does n’t think it ’s very funny , " which could work . It ’s most authoritative that everybody ’s pretty tangible or true in their dishonesty . There are certainly a lot of job in this class . I do n’t worry so much about whether it ’s going to make you laugh . I hope it will . It create me laugh now , but when you ’re working on it , I ’m just trying to find the most dependable stuff about each theatrical role , which I mean is the best clobber I ’ve always enjoyed . It ’s all about finding the reality , and hopefully , whatever else you ’re trying to do , jokes , drama , or scary stuff , that it ’ll work if you have that part . The meat is important , good ?
What are the film and filmmakers that influence you ?
Oh gentleman , jeez ! I have atrocious gustation because I watch ' 90 Day Fiancé ' all the time , but I ’m from Queens , so of course of action , it ’s the common suspects with Martin Scorsese , how do you not love him ? ! Watching all the film over the class , from ' The King of Comedy ' ( 1982 ) , Woody Allen films like ' Annie Hall ' ( 1977 ) are a double-dyed film to me . Spike Lee , I remember seeing ' Do the Right Thing ' ( 1989 ) when I was a kid , and at the end , I was mad that they incinerate the pizza pie lieu down . There was an interview with Spike Lee , and he said , " Well , I ’m sorry if I did n’t have the solvent to racialism at the end of the movie . " I think back it was the first time I ever think that you did n’t have to have a definitive distributor point of panorama . He was a grownup influence on me . I ’ll look on a Spike Lee movie like a Van Morrison disk , even if it ’s something people do n’t opine is great . There ’s one scene and one birdsong that was deserving it , so the usual suspects are those guys .
Riff Raff , which also starsLewis Pullman , Miles J. Harvey , Emanuela Postacchini , andMichael Angelo Covino , is available on demand digital .
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