Interview (Written): Rian Johnson

A conversation with the writer-director of Knives Out.

Rian Johnson, whose writing-directing credits include Brick, The Brothers Bloom, Looper, and Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi, has a new movie coming out this weekend: The comedy crime drama Knives Out. Background:

Acclaimed writer and director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper, The Last Jedi) pays tribute to mystery mastermind Agatha Christie in KNIVES OUT, a fun, modern-day murder mystery where everyone is a suspect. When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan’s untimely death. With an all-star ensemble cast including Chris Evans, Ana De Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell, KNIVES OUT is a witty and stylish whodunit guaranteed to keep audiences guessing until the very end.

Some excerpts from an GQ interview with Johnson.

You name-check Clue in the movie. Along with Murder, She Wrote and a few other big genre touchstones.

It’s funny how, on the one hand, that seems meta. But if you’re familiar with whodunit fiction in the golden era — back in the ’20s and ’30s — it’s amazing how quickly the genre turned meta back then. They’re making jokes to each other about being like Sherlock Holmes. Or there’s a character who loves murder mysteries and starts talking about how she would have done it. The genre almost never wasn’t self-aware.

[But today] the reference most people have in their head for this kind of stuff is Clue or Murder by Death. It tends to be parody. And [Knives Out is] kind of cheeky and self-aware, but it’s not a parody of murder mysteries. I need that part. The movie part that I’m excited about. But it doesn’t really click until there’s also something personal I can work with. It’s like two gears clicking together.

So what made it personal this time around?

It was the fact that whodunits are uniquely suited, for different reasons, to talking about class. Because you’re inevitably looking at a cross-section of society with your suspects, and there’s just a built-in power dynamic between whoever is killed and all the people who had motivations for wanting them killed. So I applied that idea to America in 2019.

It’s been almost two years since The Last Jedi hit theaters. How does it feel when you reflect on it now?

It’s the experience of my life. Everything about it — the process of making it, the process of putting it out, having gotten to interact with the fans of the past couple of years — I just feel so blessed. It’s still dreamlike to me that I got to be a part of [Star Wars] in this way. It still doesn’t feel quite real. Top to bottom, it’s been one of the very best experiences of my life, and it probably always will be.

We’ve talked a lot about writing characters, and finding the right actors to play them. Is that process any different when you’re writing for characters, and actors, with as large a cultural footprint as Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker, or Carrie Fisher’s Leia?

No. It’s similar. Because at the end of the day, what I try to do with any story is find the heart of what it means to me, and why I connect with it, and what I deeply care about in it. And then set that as my goalpost and find my way to that.

So I’m tapping into having been a Star Wars fan, and having Luke Skywalker be my hero since I was 5 years old, and really getting to the heart of What do I identify with? Looking back at Episode VII and everything that came before: What is his path? What does that mean to me? Where does he go next? And it’s the same thing. You have to find your way into the character and internalize it, and have it come from your heart. I think that’s the only way to write characters that feel alive on the screen — whether they’re a new character in a whodunit or Luke Skywalker.

Takeaways:

• But it doesn’t really click until there’s also something personal I can work with. Make sure you have a personal connection to the story you’re writing. This is especially true if you’re writing on spec. There is absolutely NO REASON to write a spec screenplay unless you are PASSIONATE about the story. If you’re writing on assignment, it’s imperative you discover something about the story that resonates with you on a personal level. Hopefully, it’s one or more of the story’s characters.
• What is his path? Where does he go next? When you are dealing with your story’s Protagonist, it’s critical you figure out what their destiny is. I call it Narrative Imperative. There’s no one way to figure that out, but in my experience the best way is to immerse yourself in the life of the character and ask questions. Lots of questions. Lots and LOTS of questions. Dig into their personal history, identify the key backstory elements which will come into play in the ensuing narrative, and zero in on the nature and trajectory of their character’s arc.

Here is a trailer for Knives Out:

Movie Website

For the rest of the GQ interview, go here.

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