Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch were cool with that?
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There are a lot of long shots—like the one where we’re walking up the hill with [Rudd and Hirsch] when they’re going to pound a stake into the ground. There’s a lot of sequences of them not speaking and just doing some work. We were really trying to establish a physicality in their performances. Paul and I had talked about Buster Keaton and Super Mario Brothers as influences on his character—and trying to come up with a strange hybrid of those two. It was fun to find [moments] where their body language could say things we didn’t necessarily want the dialogue to say.
I’m not a big video game player, but I remember one time someone left a Nintendo at my house, along with the Super Mario Brothers game where they hit stuff with their heads. And the theme song was really nice—I always think about it. At one point, I was thinking about using that music as our theme song [in Prince Avalanche], finding an orchestral version of it.
- Emile Hirsch and Paul Rudd in Prince Avalanche
You mention the period detail. This is your first period piece, isn’t it? I mean, not counting Your Highness.
What surprised me most about Prince Avalanche was how much it retains the sensibility of the studio comedies you directed while looking like an art film.
- The Sitter
What are some moments of the studio films that you regret having to cut?
