It's hard to compare, actually. This is my third franchise movie, essentially, but they were all bizarrely different. What's great about this one is it feels homegrown, and it feels really lowkey, and it feels personal, and intentional, and specific. So what actually made the pressure lower is that I did it with the people who created it, and who loved it.
Going into the movie, let's talk about the Jimmies. Obviously for British audiences, and I presume less so for Americans–
–They have no fucking idea.
For us the gang is pretty clearly [inspired by] Jimmy Savile. How familiar were you with him before you came to the film?
Super familiar. I was living in the UK when all of it happened. Obviously in the States we have similar… I don't know if anyone's as fucking heinous as that creature.
Well, there was that guy with an island.
It happens every so often, where a beloved figure like that, the truth often comes out, and you're like, Jesus Christ. So I knew about it, but what was so interesting is that I didn't pick up on it when I read the script. I was just like, “Oh cool, Jimmies in tracksuits and blonde hair.” Because it wasn't about him, similar to the way that we used The Teletubbies. It was just about the childhood iconography that's perverted and corrupted by this character [Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal]. But also, he's fucking evil. And then all of those little pieces of shit die at the end. So they get some comeuppance.
On a lighter note: how about The Teletubbies?
My Americanness is coming up a lot because this is a British series, and people ask me, “Oh, did you know The Teletubbies?” And I did. But I'm also like, “Oh, but I grew up watching EastEnders as well.” That's because my dad was born and raised here. My grandma and I would watch Chef!, The Vicar of Dibley, and all of this stuff on WLIW21 in New York. And I have family here, and I've been here a lot, so I have a peripheral Britishness going on in my life. So some things I can't tell if it's just because of my family, or it's because they were airing Teletubbies in the States.
I remember them being referenced in The Simpsons, so I'm sure it transferred in some way.
They're bizarre creatures.
Yeah. Physiologically, I really don't know how that works.
Also, the one with the purse is so funny. It's like, you're the weirdest things ever, you live in a crazy place, but you have a purse. I don't get it.
We all need a purse. I want to talk a little about the tonality of the film: between the Kelson and Samson scenes, and then the stuff with the Jimmies, you've almost got this split between a fairly light-hearted, almost-comedy, and then this ultra-violent, incredibly macabre horror. How did you go about balancing those two stark tones?
That was the thing that excited me the most. The thing that was great about it is that they were imbalanced, and they represent these two different worldviews that come to a head. I thought about how beautiful what's happening with Kelson is, and how brutal what's happening with the Jimmies is, and how I can make those worlds visually distinct inside of that.
I think the humour is a big thing that connects them, because the Jimmies are funny in their own way, and then Kelson and Samson are fucking hilarious in their own way. But I also think the stakes are high in each [section], because when you realise what's happening with Samson, you're like, “Oh shit, are we gonna get there?” And when you get into the Jimmies and their brutality, you're like, “Oh god, are they gonna fuck up what's happening over there?” That they feed into each other also helps with the balance.
