 The story was, er, 
 it was just, you know, 
 came out of me thinking back on my 
 own personal experiences. 
 For whatever reason, my mind shot 
 back to me as a drummer 
 with a very terrifying teacher 
 and how I felt every day in 
 band rehearsal. 
 It was probably because I still, 
 to this day, 
 have monthly nightmares about it. 
 So it's just, you know, 
 a memory that's always been very 
 present in my mind. 
 And it just occurred to me, 
 a few years ago, 
 that maybe 
 it could actually make a movie. 
 I'm sorry, I'm sorry. 
 What's your name? 
 Andrew Neiman, sir. 
 You know who I am? 
 Yes, sir. 
 Then why did you stop playing? 
 Meeting Damien in person 
 and really getting to... 
 to have a talk about the central 
 themes of the film, 
 and how he wanted to, 
 er, affect an audience. 
 He was impeccably prepared, 
 but also able to think on his feet 
 and collaborate 
 and it was just the ideal 
 shooting environment. 
 I really didn't know what 
 my expectations were for Damien. 
 You know, 
 my first kind of introduction to him
 as a director was really, you know, 
 the first day on set. 
 And I just remember him 
 being extremely efficient in how... 
 in how he was shooting the scenes. 
 You know, we'd shoot from one 
 angle for, like, two min... 
 or for two takes, and then 
 he would say, "OK, moving on." 
 Then we'd go to another angle, 
 and I remember thinking at the 
 time, like, 
 either this guy's, like, really good
 and did all of this prep, 
 and knows exactly what he wants, 
 or we're not getting 
 enough, you know, kind of coverage. 
 There's a lot of scenes 
 that is just purely on me. 
 You don't see JK, 
 or the other way around. 
 And...and so, yeah, I... 
 I just... I was blown away by what 
 Damien did with the film. 
 You're here for a reason. 
 You believe that, right? 
 I'm here for a reason. 
 It started with the emotion 
 then, from there, 
 it becomes about 
 how you capture that. 
 And so we shot it 
 kind of like a thriller, 
 and sort of 
 it was even plotted as a thriller, 
 and it was very much sort of 
 done in the style of certain '70s, 
 kind of paranoid kind of movies, that
 I just personally love and adore. 
 Erm... 
 But all in the interest of 
 kind of really mapping that 
 sort of anxiety in a very subjective 
 way onto the screen. 
 I want to be great. 
 And you're not. 
 I want to be one of the greats. 
 And I would stop you from 
 doing that? 
 Yeah. 
 You're right, 
 we should NOT be dating. 
 I was just really drawn to his drive
 and his ambition, and his... 
 his determination to become, 
 you know, one of the greats, 
 and I don't think there's anything, 
 you know, 
 wrong with kind of wanting to make 
 a stamp, you know, on this Earth, 
 and to really kind of put 
 your fingerprints all over something
 and have people, as he talks 
 about it, talk about you, 
 kind of long after you're gone. 
 Working with Miles, you know, 
 we quickly developed a rapport 
 and a rhythm of working together 
 and he's such a good listener, 
 which is not... 
 something you always find in 
 especially a young actor, 
 and, you know, I mean, the final 
 product of the film is... 
 95%, you know, 
 exactly as Damien wrote it. 
 That 5% that we ended up having 
 the freedom to kind of 
 create on our own was...was a 
 really joyous part of the process. 
 Little trouble, there. 
 Some of the pieces of music 
 in the movie were pieces 
 I played myself as a drummer. 
 Whiplash, Caravan, so...those were 
 kind of starting points in a way. 
 So I, I... 
 I knew what it would 
 sound like in those cases, 
 and I kind of knew what 
 it would look like, 
 or what I wanted it to look like... 
 Pick it up! 
 ..that it would be this movie 
 that was very up close and personal, 
 even uncomfortably so. 
 That we'd see the blood, the sweat, 
 the tears, literally, you know? 
 It's the closest that 
 instruments get to sports. 
 And, er, and I did want this movie 
 to kind of flirt with 
 the ideas of physical violence 
 and the sort of physical toll 
 in the way that boxing 
 movies or dance movies do. 
 And so drumming within 
 the big band jazz world is 
 the closest you get to that. 
 Damien and I kind of worked on, 
 you know, we talked about, 
 there's...there's...you know, 
 the way they have their shoulders, 
 there is kind of like a slant, 
 and just kind of the way they sit, 
 you know, over the drum kit, 
 cos every...every style of music is 
 kind of defined by... 
 you know, the drummer can be 
 defined by that era, you know? 
 If I was playing an '80s 
 kind of hair rock guy, you know, 
 it's more theatrical 
 and this and that, 
 and then if you got the grunge, 
 it's kind of the, you know, 
 the headbanging, 
 and then, you know, 
 but with jazz, it's, 
 you know, it's a certain posture 
 and a certain way 
 they kind of sit over the kit, 
 that was something I really 
 got into because it was the most, 
 you know, the most 
 physical, you know, training 
 that I had to do 
 for any character that I've done. 
 Most of the shots in the film, 
 we were playing live, 
 Miles and everybody else 
 in the band, 
 but they also were just 
 so wonderfully spontaneous, 
 and so much of the film... 
 of my character in the film lives 
 in other people's responses to him. 
 It felt to me like this was a guy 
 who, you know, 
 thrives on intimidation and using 
 sort of physicality 
 and these guys are, you know, 
 real musicians, who trained with, 
 you know, some pretty serious guys, 
 so I think some of them didn't have 
 to work too hard 
 at being intimidated by their 
 conductor, because, you know... 
 it's a tough world and 
 there are a lot of guys out there 
 that are not unlike 
 Terence Fletcher. 
 His lack of regard for... 
 for anything outside of, you know, 
 creating great jazz. 
 His single-minded focus 
 and his, er, his, er... 
 He completely just doesn't 
 care about what collateral damage 
 there may be, 
 and that, you know, I mean, that's 
 the central debate of the film, 
 really, is, you know, what cost is 
 too great? 
 Ah. 
 Ready? OK. 
 Five, six, and... 
 Were you rushing 
 or were you dragging? 
 I...I don't know. 
 If you deliberately sabotage 
 MY band, I will gut you like a pig. 
 Oh, my dear God. 
 Are you one of those 
 single tear people? 
 In a weird way, this movie's a love 
 story between, you know, 
 these two people, and it's a very 
 twisted, sick love story, 
 but it is...kind of it does 
 operate in that way, in a sense. 
 In the sense that it...it hinges 
 on their relationship, 
 and, um, and the ups 
 and downs of that relationship. 
 And so, you know... 
 you had to have a duo that you wanted
 to watch 
 and you wanted to see together 
 and the movie had to hum 
 when they were together. 
 So it was important to me 
 that the movie keep pushing 
 the envelope a bit, 
 in that...in that way, 
 and that as the movie progresses, 
 it gets increasingly... 
 crazier and crazier as our character 
 gets crazier and crazier. 
 Most of the guys in the band really 
 didn't know what was coming, 
 cos most of them never 
 really read a script. 
 They were just there cos 
 they could play. 
 And with Miles, he's just, you know,
 such a good combination of, 
 you know, a trained actor, 
 but a guy who, er, 
 you know, who lives in the moment, 
 and can be very spontaneous, 
 both in terms of what he's giving, 
 and how he's responding, 
 so that was, you know, 
 that was a big part of what was fun 
 on set, 
 was just Miles and I sort of 
 throwing the ball back and forth. 
 Even though I was throwing it 
 directly into his face, 
 as hard as I possibly could. 
 You're done. 
 I guess that's where the 
 acting comes in, 
 because in real life, you know, 
 JK and I were joking around and 
 we're talking about, like, 
 baseball, and he's telling 
 these stories 
 from Broadway and stuff. And then 
 as soon as action happens, boom. 
 Then you're this more 
 impressionable person, 
 you're this kid, 
 a little more vulnerable. 
 You're this person who's very much 
 intimidated by this figure, 
 but when you get a script like this 
 that's so kind of complete, 
 there's no really gaps in it. 
 You know, for me, anyway. 
 Like, I've... 
 It's very clear what my character 
 wants, what his character wants, 
 and so from there you just 
 kind of let it fly on the day. 
 All set? 
 One, two, mm, and... 
 FAST JAZZ BEAT 
 Not quite my tempo. Connelly? 
 OK. Yeah, I'll take it... Connelly? 
 ..right from the top. 
 I can do... No. We'll go with 
 Connelly now. 
 Hey, do you mind? 
 OK, man. Ready? Mm-hm. 
 One and two and... 
 ARRHYTHMIC BEAT 
 Perfect, Connelly. (Oh, my God.) 
 See, this to me 
 is the beauty of studio band. 
 You walk in here an alternate, 
 who knows when you could be 
 the new core? 
 Oh, my God, are you serious? 
 I was definitely thinking about a lot
 of musical films, 
 West Side Story, things like that, 
 but also even silent films, 
 you know, ironically. 
 That sense of rhythm through 
 film-making, 
 that sense of pure cinema, erm... 
 Those moments of pure cinema 
 I really, really kind of love, 
 where it just becomes 
 about juxtaposing image and sound 
 and seeing what can result. 
 I guess it's those moments where, 
 to me, cinema gets close to music, 
 where really the closest art form, 
 er, to it is...is music, 
 and so it made sense to me 
 that that's where we wanted to 
 aspire with a lot of this film. 
 Try practising harder, Neiman. 
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