Quench editor Beau Beakhouse headed down to London to speak with Richard Linklater, the Oscar nominated director, about his new film Everybody Wants Some!! Watch the video here, or have a read of the transcript below.
Quench: The first thing I wanted to ask is did you have a concrete vision going into the film that you wanted to create or was it in the production, where you worked out what type of film it’s going to be?
Richard Linklater: Well it’s always both. You have a script and a really strong kind of vision, a tone that you’re going for, I think that’s probably in the DNA of the piece.┬á But exactly what it becomes is kind of based on the cast you have, their energy. I’m like the head coach trying to make that team maximise itself, so largely it’s going to be what it’s meant to be based on who they are. Fortunately I just had a really wonderful cast; they took it to a place where I wanted it to go, and where they were able to get to.
Q: So the links to Dazed and Confused┬áhave been made, but it’s not just in terms of time; it’s the visual links and similarities between the two films?
RL: I think so, it was kind of in the origins of it. I always thought of it as my high school film a long time ago;┬á[Everybody Wants Some!!]┬áwas my college film. There’s just a big gap of time between them. This feels like a film I might have done a long time ago so it was fun to kind of go back, to see if I could still do a big youthful ensemble, a music kind of movie, and I found out I could. It was a lot of fun and whatever experience I’ve built up over the years, and confidence, I think made me have even more fun with it and maybe even be a little better at it actually. But the link is there nonetheless, it’s kind of grounded in a school even though there’s not much school in either movie – that was high school, this is college, and it’s kind of like that’s the centre of their universe in a way.
Q: Does it almost feel like you’re following up a train of thought?
RL: Yeah, and it’s personal too. That’s where I was at that moment in history, more or less. At this time, I was in college, I was with those guys going to those clubs, meeting a girl in the theatre department, going to different parties. So yeah, it is personal.
Q: The particular time and place, is that where the autobiographical side comes in?
RL: Yeah, yeah. I’ve been lucky to get to make films like that, that you can actually explore an exact moment in your own past. I like doing that in movies in general, but sometimes it’s not a past that I’ve lived through, it’s a historical moment.┬á But to do something from your own past is pretty special.
Q: And was the music a particular feature in that past?
RL: Yeah, the music is very important atmospherically to tell the story, because music is such a big element of your life – especially at that age; it kind of articulates stuff you can’t. But it captures the energy of the different environments they find themselves in. so music was very easy for me, those were all songs that I had very personal relationships with, I didn’t have to do any research! It was all in my memory.
Q: Within the film there are lots of themes of individuality or finding the person you are; is that something you particularly wanted to explore?
RL: I think that’s one of the themes of the movie. Within this collective group mentality, very competitive and masculine world, there’s also this idea hovering of individuality and I remember thinking ‘who am I?’ and ‘who do I want to be?’, ┬á’how do I differentiate myself from everybody around me?’, ‘how am I different or the same?’ These are questions that, at that age, you’ve been given this adult responsibility so it’s time to start deciding. Your choices start to become your own and you’re kind of on the hook for it. You’re determining the person you’re going to be in adult life.
Q: And the character seems to find the people he’s most similar to?
RL: Yeah, you find where you’re supposed to be, if you’re being honest with yourself. He finds a young woman who’s probably closer to him, who he finds more depth in.
Q: That’s great, well thanks for talking to us. There’s one last thing: are there any films that you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you got particularly excited about?
RL: I haven’t seen a lot of films lately, no. That’s a tough question to answer, not exactly! I just watched The Red Shoes with my daughters the other day – always inspiring.
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! is in UK cinemas now.