Richard Linklater doesn’t believe in Hit Men, but he believes in patience.
You have filmed Blue Moon this summer. What’s new in this movie?
From Assassin, I made two films. One was my French film, Just vague, was established in 1959, and then Blue Moon, Set in 1943, in the New York musical world. I guess there are two portraits of artists.
Blue Moon It’s something you’ve been wondering about for a while.
Both are 10 year pregnancies.
Looks like that’s the topic you’re interested in.
Yeah, I don’t mind sitting with something and just waiting for the right moment. Some things happen pretty quickly, but that’s not how it happens. Maybe it’s good that I don’t have someone handing me money, like, “Oh, have you finished the script yet? Hey, do it.” Like, No, you’re going to think about this for another 10 years and have to fight to make sure the right moment comes. But I don’t mind the long gestation period, because then, when you actually shoot the film, you’ve really answered all those questions.
With Childhood and now We roll happily, where you’re actually filming for many, many years—
In both cases, it’s not like thinking and starting in 10 years. It’s like starting, and then you’re breaking down the thinking over the years. It’s a pretty quick jump in the beginning.
I really wonder if then Childhoodsuccess, if other people try to do something similar. If you have a few copycats out there. But I think you are the only one who has done it.
What a strange question. There’s a reason why no one does it. It’s incredibly impractical; there are so many things that can go wrong. And then [for] filmmakers, who are all control freaks, it’s giving up a certain element of control to the unknown. You can’t control the future, so you have to accept a partnership with a big unknown partner, which I like. It doesn’t scare me, but it still doesn’t make a lot of sense in theory.
Do you consider yourself a patient person?
It’s a combination of energy and drive. I have so many stories I’m trying to tell. And the only reason I’m okay with that 10 years is because I’m doing other things. But I think I’m patient. I’m patient with actors. You know that thing, “they don’t suffer fools”? I suffer fools. But I’m persistent. To get in the ring with me is to work.
Are there any emerging filmmakers that you’re really excited about?
You show your age when you say “upstart” and then you say someone is 47; they’re not 28. It’s like “but compared to me”. [Laughs] I don’t pretend to listen that way, but I am communicating. [with some]just through the Austin Film Society. We help films in our own way, with workshops and stuff. I’m always around young aspiring filmmakers, and I find that both inspiring and a little sad for me, unfortunately—just knowing that the opportunities that were there when I was their age, I’m not sure where they are now.
