- Hello, friends.
As Brightburn hits theaters, I caught up
with producer James Gunn
and star Elizabeth Banks
at the Four Seasons, ooh,
to talk about their
nearly 15 year friendship,
whether the new film is
launching its own franchise
of super-villains, and
Gunn's future with Marvel.
(exciting music)
It has been 13 years since
you guys worked together
on Slither.
- Oh my God.
- Geez, wow, I don't think
we realized that.
- [Patrick] Sorry, make you feel old.
- We were only 16 years old.
- I know, it's so young.
(Patrick laughing)
And we still are so young.
- Yes.
- And you've both aged beautifully.
How often have you guys
talked in the interim
about working together again?
- Oh, a lot.
- Yeah.
(Elizabeth laughing)
We talk a lot about working together,
we also just talk a lot.
- Just hang out.
- We, we're just very
regular friends, ya know.
Which is great, and it
makes this type of thing
all that much easier.
- Yeah and I have a real trust in James,
and, when he came to me with this movie,
which melds two of your favorite things,
horror and superheroes together,
I knew that I would be
in really good hands.
And then, Yarvo, Dave
Yarovesky, the director,
we had like a really amazing conversation,
just about the way in to this movie,
with the parenting aspect,
which is what drew me to Tori.
You know, and all of the questions she has
about parenting a problem child.
You know, and one she's
sort of in denial about,
and the limits of unconditional love
and the anxiety of parenting
in this moment in time
is also really fascinating to me.
- [Kyle] Maybe there is
something wrong with Brandon.
- [Patrick] Can you tell me
a little bit about Jackson,
and the search for him?
- [James] That was really hard.
I mean, because we needed
a kid that, you know,
had that All-American
hero look, but could also
be a demon kid.
(Elizabeth laughing)
That's Jackson.
- [Elizabeth] Yeah, totally.
- And I think he also needed
to be a really good actor,
who we could look at
and put our hopes onto.
For a big part of the film,
we're watching Jackson
and hoping--
- [Elizabeth] Rooting for him.
- [James] Yeah, we want him
to make the right choice!
- [Elizabeth] Yeah.
- [James] We want him to be the good guy.
I'm not even sure I've
totally given up that--
- Me neither!
At the very end of the
movie, you still believe,
maybe there is goodness inside of him,
and I think that's an innately human idea.
'Cause I'm pretty sure
it's not an alien idea.
- It is, it is an alien idea.
(laughing)
Part of that is that you like this kid.
And that is what a movie star is, really.
And he's also a great kid
just hanging out on set.
- [Elizabeth] Yeah.
- James, you've said that
Rocket is sort of your avatar,
in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
Do you feel the same way
with any of the characters
in Brightburn, any other
superheroes that you're
working with now?
- I love the concept of Brightburn.
I love the story of this kid,
and I'm really moved by
it, and saddened by it,
and I think it represents
a lot of fears that we have
in life at this point.
I relate to Tori quite a bit.
Because she loves something so, so much,
and is unable to look at
it as maybe it's something
that's not good for her.
And I think I've felt that way
about projects I've worked on.
I've felt that way in relationships.
I think it's a very common thing
that anybody can relate to.
I also really relate to Kyle an awful lot,
who's standing on the sidelines going,
wait a second, what is going on?
Am I not giving enough, or are
we being totally taken here?
He represents this doubt
that I also really relate to,
so there's a lot of characters.
- Uh, (bleep) has a cameo
at the end of this movie,
which was amazing for me to
see because I love (bleep),
and I know that you guys
have collaborated many times.
- Yep.
- But he also kinda sets up future films.
Was that the point of
that scene, to try and
set up other things?
- Well I think the point of--
First of all, I always
think, first and foremost
about this movie by
itself, and I think that
what that is is like, this is
not an isolated experience.
- Yes.
- There are other things
like that happening in the world.
- Just blows open the
world of the movie, right?
It's like, not so much just
about Brightburn, Kansas,
all of a sudden.
It's like, wait a minute,
this is a phenomenon, ya know?
- I think we have possibilities
of places that we could go,
if people like this movie.
If people enjoy it, and
they wanna see more,
I think that we are always
there to be able to provide.
(Elizabeth laughing)
- [Brandon] I wanna do good, Mom.
I do.
- You were a producer role on this film.
You've done producing work in the past.
You exec-produced the most
recent Avengers films.
- [James] Yep.
As Marvel moves in to
more of the celestial,
with The Eternals and things like that,
since you've kinda built
that up, do you think
you'll do more producing
work in that arena as well?
- I will.
I mean, I'll keep
producing stuff, ya know.
I think that, at the end of the day,
producing something like this
where I really was on set
every single day, and working with Dave,
and working with Elizabeth,
and trying to make this movie,
is a little bit more
fulfilling, in some ways,
than what I do with,
say, Marvel, you know,
where I'm giving notes on
scripts and helping them out
with the character and
guiding and overall thing.
I think, yeah, I'll keep,
I'm a filmmaker, so I like
making movies and telling stories.
- We like watching 'em.
Elizabeth, you've become quite
a filmmaker yourself with--
- [Elizabeth] I'm on
my second big feature.
- [Patrick] Yeah, you're doing fantastic.
Do you guys ever share notes on directing?
As filmmakers, now that
you're both filmmakers.
- I send him scripts and ask
him to give notes. (laughing)
- We, no, we definitely do.
Also, I think that there
was a time, you know,
it wasn't that long
after Guardians came out,
and Pitch Perfect 2 had just come out--
- [Elizabeth] Yeah.
- And, we were probably at,
just white-hot intensity
in terms of being wanted
by everyone in Hollywood
to try to--
Ya know, and I hadn't signed
my deal for the sequel
to Guardians or whatever.
- Yeah.
- And so, we went through that together.
- Yeah.
- I remember having dinner
with you and Max, and
we were talking about,
what do we choose to do next?
Like, how do we handle this, exactly?
Like, we're used to being people
that are trying to direct.
(Elizabeth laughing)
- Yeah, and now it's like, you can direct!
What do you wanna do?
- Yeah, yeah.
- It was like, wait, I have options!
- Anything!
Yeah, yeah, and then this is
like the most spoiled thing
to say, but in some ways,
sometimes it's easier
to not have that many
options, because then you
only have a couple things
to make a choice from.
But when suddenly you're
white hot in Hollywood,
and you can do anything you
want, then all of a sudden
you're like, oh my gosh,
it's totally up to me
and not to fate?
(Elizabeth laughing)
That's hard!
- Yeah, well, it's a lot of pressure, too.
- Yeah, people don't know the hardships.
(Elizabeth laughing)
- Oh and, speaking of that
end, James, you've had
a bit of a second chance now in Hollywood.
What do you wanna do with it?
What's it like now for
you, having gone through
what you just went through?
- I would like to make
Brightburn, and have the world
(Elizabeth laughing)
see, have the world see that.
You know, listen, I am
really excited going between
making big, huge studio
films and coming back home
and helping, nurturing newer talent
in creating smaller projects.
And myths come in all shapes and sizes,
and hopefully people will
keep going to the theater
and seeing them in all shapes and sizes.
- And you two talked
about your relationship.
You're friends, you've been
friends for a long time.
When James is going through
what he went through,
did you guys talk at all about it?
Do you have any thoughts for yourself?
- I mean, I called you right away.
- Yeah, we talked immediately.
(laughing)
Yeah, we're friends.
- Yeah, I said I love
you and I want the best.
- Yeah, she said she loves me,
which is what was great.
And I mean, like, listen,
I think that, you know,
there's a lot of stories
that come out about Hollywood
and how everybody's cutthroat,
and willing to cut and run
any time things go wrong.
What I've found is
that, as I've been here,
I'm good at one thing, and
that is choosing quality people
to surround myself with.
Quality people in terms of
talent, and quality people
in terms of just their souls.
And, I've been very,
very lucky to have people
like Elizabeth in my life,
and I'm the same way with her.
No matter what happens in her life,
I will always be her
friend, and she has my love
no matter what.
And, same is true of her
husband Max, and you know,
of so many people.
Dave Yarvo, my brother
Mark and Brian, who worked
on this movie, and there's
so many people in this movie
that I love and care for.
And at the end of the day,
I make a lot of movies,
but if I don't enjoy making them,
what worth is it making them?
I like to be surrounded
by people who are just
the best people in the world,
and that's what I got to do
with this movie, which is amazing.
- Thank you so much, you
guys, I appreciate it.
- [James And Elizabeth] Thank you.
(exciting music)
