Street sat down with Nash Edgerton, director of The Square, to discuss spiders, stuntwork and freak accidents
Street: You do everything – acting, editing, directing, writing, stuntwork – is their a certain role you like most?
Nash Edgerton: No I don’t think – I kinda like doing a bit of everything. Obviously the control freak in me likes being a director, the show-off in me likes doing stunts. I feel like if I’m not directing then I’m learning from someone else who is. And I like not having the responsibility sometimes, but I kind of like all of it.
Street: Both Spider and The Square contain freak accidents that alter the plot. What draws you to them?
NE: Well, you see them in real life, and I wanted the film to feel very real and feasible. You know, Ray – the decisions he makes and the situations he puts himself in leave him open to those kinds of things happening. The same way that Jack does in Spider – he puts him and his girlfriend in a situation that’s going to cause something bad to happen. I kind of like [including freak accidents] and seeing how the characters deal with them.
Street: How long was The Square in the works for? NE: From the initial idea to finishing it was probably at least five years, amongst doing other things at the same time. We just kept refining it until we felt it was ready to make, because it was quite a complicated story to tell with so many characters and plotlines. I really wanted to make sure it flowed and tied up nicely.
Street: The film is extremely immersive. How did you pull that off?
NE: I feel like Steadicam, which is what I used for most of the film, definitely gave that effect of feeling like you were experiencing what the characters were experiencing. It adds to the tension and the dread. And I like to create dread. I like making people feel uncomfortable in the cinema.
Street: Your brother wrote the screenplay and plays the arsonist in the film. How was it working together?
NE: Joel’s my best friend. We have a similar sense of humor, we’re both aiming for the same end result. We work really well together. It’s great to have someone I can be straight-up with about stuff. I think we have skills that complement each other. He definitely has more strength in writing and acting than I do, and maybe I have more in directing and editing and stuntwork. There’s no real competition between us – it just works.
Street: What inspired your brother to write this film?
NE: My brother is obsessed with those stories in newspapers – ten, twelve pages in and just a couple of paragraphs talking about some crime that happened, and they don’t give you any details. That was his inspiration. He read about the skeleton of a baby that was found in the foundation of building being dug up, but it didn’t have any information of who it was or how it got there.
Street: How difficult was the transition from making short films to a feature length movie?
NE: Very. Short films are quite easy to keep in your head – the whole thing. You usually shoot it in order and you might shoot it in two days or over a weekend. Shooting a feature film takes weeks and you have to shoot it out of order because of time and money, and you’re constantly jumping back and forth. The challenge is trying to keep aware of where every character is at and where their performances should be pitched and what the tone is. You have to keep your stamina up because you’re shooting for so much longer. […] I would eat, drink and sleep the film, and dream about it, and not sleep because of it.
Street: What can we look forward to in the future?
NE: I’m writing another film at the moment with Joel. And I’m going to make a sequel to Spider, because nobody makes a sequel to shorts. I feel like Jack hasn’t quite learned his lesson yet.
