5 Quick Questions with Nash Edgerton, Director of The Square

You might recall my rather favorable review of the Australian film The Square, a few weeks ago. Well, while the director Nash Edgerton was in town presenting his film to the Philadelphia Film Festival, he took some time out to sit and answer a few questions for our readers here on Geekadelphia. It was great chatting with the up and coming Director, and really getting a bit more perspective into the making of The Square.

1.So what inspired you to go from doing stunt work, to being a director?

Well, I guess I have been making short films for quite a while now. That kind of started out with me and my friend Tony trying to shoot an action sequence to put on our show reels; to try and get stunt jobs.

My brother at the time had just started out as an actor as well, and he said, “maybe the same thing could work for me.” So I got a friend to write a scene, and we were going to try and shoot that as well; so he could use that on his reel to get acting work.

So he and his friend Kiran, and my friend Tony and I went out and started making this thing, which basically became a short film. It was simply this dialog sequence followed by this action sequence. I think the four of us really enjoyed the process of making it so much that we kind of had a revelation, that we keep making films beyond like our sort of vocations as like stuntmen and actors.

2. So what was the inspiration behind The Square?

It was Joel’s idea; he is quite fascinated with the small stories in newspapers that are like 10 pages in. The articles are usually only like usually 1 or 2 paragraphs, and they talk about a strange crime very generally, and never really go into any background details of it.

He always reads those things and imagines how it got to that point. One day he read one about a guy who was digging up the foundations of a building, and he found a skeleton of a baby. This article had like nothing beyond the details of that skeleton being found, and he started thinking about ideas of things that could have led to the point of someone being found in the foundations of the building; and it kind of went from there.

3. Coming to such an established genre as the heist film, what do you think The Square brought to the table that was new and exciting?

Well we tried to base it in, and really play it as straight and as real as humanly possible; and not have it kind of  have a heightened or surreal quality to it. I think playing it that way really adds to the tension of it. Setting it in a real situation, with real characters gives it a certain gravity.

Take for instance Carla, who is not really a femme fatale or anything; its not like she is this really sexy girl trying to manipulate people. She is just like a regular girl. I just wanted to show that these kind of situations can really happen to ordinary people as well.

More after the jump!

Joel(Left) and Nash(right) on the set of The Square

I think you do that really well, in the fact that your characters really seem quite multi-dimensional.

I really think real life is more complex. People aren’t just black and white. Everyone has a bit of good and bad in them, in the way they handle themselves and make decisions. You know it’s the same way why I didn’t want Carla’s husband to be this typical bad guy, wife beater or anything.You know by the time he finally does hit his wife; he is actually upset about it. Its not like he beats her all the time, they just don’t communicate properly.

Next take Martha, Ray’s wife  in their relationship they have just kind of fallen out of love with each other; it’s not like she is a nag or anything and he has to get away from her. I really didn’t want to make it that easy for them to do what they are doing in this film.

4. Was the square inspired by the Ozzploitation films of the 70s at all?

I am sure through osmosis of watching them while growing up. But I think anytime I am inspired by films its not like I watch them and say, “I want to make something like that.” It’s more I am reminded of how a film makes me feel, and I am working on trying to recreate that feeling. It’s really fun trying to recreate that tension, and that sense of dread .

5.What was behind the decision to put your short film Spider before The Square?

Spider definitely gives people a sample of my sense of humor, and my dark side. I guess and using the short as a prelude really lets you know what you’re in for. I tried to do it in Australia as well, but no one sort of went for it. But when I first screened it for distributors here, when they saw it, they were definitely into the idea.

That is how they use to do it, they use to show shorts before feature films; I think Pixar is still doing it and that’s great. But it’s really just to get people in the mood, before the film starts, and let them know it’s ok to laugh. Because The Square is played so straight, I think some people really need that to let them know it’s alright to let it out, you could get quite bottled up otherwise. I thought Spider really gave people a sense of what kind of filmmakers we were before the film even started.