INT: Wong Kar Wai

One of the beauties of the Cannes Film Festival is the
opportunity to interview talented artists at private oceanfront
beach clubs. Director Wong Kar Wai and the star of MY BLUEBERRY
NIGHTS Norah Jones (read my review of the film HERE),
sat with a select few press folks to talk about the challenges of
making their much buzzed about flick at the film festival.
Both were incredibly sweet and gracious as they spoke about
their individual and collaborative experiences.
It was quite apparent that there was a deep mutual admiration
and respect between the director and first time actor.
Check out what they had to say below…

Wong
Kar Wai

How did this film come
about?

It all begins with Norah Jones because I wanted to work with
her. Then we decided we couldn’t do it in Chinese so we would do
it in English and in NYC where she lives. Working in a different
city with a different language gave me the consistence and I thought
it could be challenging.

How did you choose your
location and why did you shoot in

Memphis

?

I like

Memphis

as a city because it has certain structures and the look of the city
is very classy in a way. The other thing is I feel close to the city
because of the music and the thing is because of Tennessee Williams.

What was the biggest
challenge for you?

I wanted to make sure that MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS is not a
Chinese version of

America

. I just didn’t want to
impose myself. I wanted it to be as authentic as possible.

What was the challenge
in working with Norah Jones as a first time actress?

To break for lunch on time.
It’s been easy to work with Norah because in a way she’s
confident. It was very
enjoyable working on Norah’s growth from a newcomer into an
actress. The thing is
that she has to keep herself at a certain weight and I always work
very long hours and food for her is very important.
So, I had to break for lunch on time to make sure she eats
and gets her energy.

Were you very hands on
with the actors or did you give them creative freedom?

This journey [of acting] is a concept but it was Norah and
Jude [Law]…to meet them is a curse because I have to borrow
something from them from their own characters and they have to put
in all this detail. So,
in a way I’m just watching them and they deliver and contribute to
these characters.

You have a longstanding
association with Chris Doyle. Is there any reason you didn’t use
him in this film?

He was busy shooting LADY IN THE WATER or something and we
had to schedule with Norah because she had to work on her album the
week after shooting.

You said yesterday at
the press conference that when you hear Norah Jones voice, even
without seeing her, it tells a story. Can you elaborate?

Well the first thing that stuck with me was imagining her
standing on the corner of the street and looking up seeing her
boyfriend with another girl. Somehow, when I hear her voice it gives
me that picture. It’s the starting point of the film.

How long did it take to
shoot the famous kissing scene?

It took one day. There were two kisses and in a way, my line
producer said the film is about the second kiss.
She travels all the way to get the second kiss, we shot it in
2 scenes, and each one took a full day. In a way it looks simple it
was a very technical thing. It’s like a stolen kiss and Jude had
to pop up his whole body on the counter because his face had to be
90 degrees on the counter. They
asked if we can just make it shorter and I said, “no, people will
expect the touch of the lips and we have to make this moment prolong
and delay this moment as long as possible.” By the time they are
finally kissing each other it’s an evolution.

You have a unique style
of filming. Is there
someone you model yourself after?

Maybe my style is too romantic. People asked why I shot this
film in NY through glass, why was it so tight and it is really for
practical reasons because the place was so small and we didn’t
have a lot of money to have extras. So I wanted to shoot it this way
so even when we only have 2 people in this diner, it still seems
like a lot of people. It’s
also sometimes a technical thing.

Can you talk about the
writing process?

Normally when I work on a Chinese film, I write the script
myself. This time I had
to work with a writer, which was Larry Block because I admire his
work and I like his style. So
the way I worked was that I wrote down great details about this
story and then I asked to write a shooting script and used that to
start working on the film and I asked him to improvise during the
shooting.

What are you working on
next?

I have a couple of projects but nothing definite, yet.

Norah
Jones

What was it like for
you to transition from singing to acting?

The biggest challenge was that I never acted before or did a
movie before but my nerves were a big challenge and sort of letting
myself be in the moment and be confident.

Did the other actors
help you?

So much, the entire crew and all the actors made me able to
do this by being cool and nice, be open, and make me feel
comfortable. Especially Kar Wai, he would come up to me between
takes and pats me on the back and say whatever he had to say.
Any direction he ever gave me was very sweet and it was good
for me. I needed that. He had the confidence in me that I didn’t
even have because I obviously didn’t know what he had in mind.
I had never acted so he instilled it in me by being so
confident. I trusted him
because I thought he was a great filmmaker so we had this weird
faith in each other that made it happen.

Did Kar Wai approach you to do this film?

Yeah, he approached me and I had never heard of him before so
I watched IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and I thought it was amazing. I was
on break from the music industry. I needed a long break; a year or
two from tours so I thought it was a good time and opportunity to
try something new. So
when I met with him he asked if I wanted to do it and I did.

Kar Wai’s films are
famous for the way they shape women.
Did it make you nervous when you saw IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE?

Oh no, it made me excited. I was hoping he would help me out
in that department. If you’re going to be directed or be in a film
as a woman, that’s the director you want to have around.

What was it like
working with Rachel Weisz?

She was really wonderful and nice. I just really enjoyed
watching everyone and I got to work with all these amazing actors
one on one. It was a
great lesson. I learnt so much in working with each one of them.
Rachel especially had a very limited amount of time and she came in
and just nailed it. That was hard because she kept being bit by
mosquitoes during takes.

How many times did you
have to kiss Jude Law and how was that for you?

Actually, my neck was in a cramp but it was fine. It was
interesting because it was the most choreographed and most important
scene technically to shoot. We
spent 3 days on that scene and not more than half a day on any other
scene so obviously it was very important for the director.
We kissed like 95 times.

Were you guys really
eating the pies?

I was yeah. I was able to spit it out sometimes but I even
had 3 slices one night. I
didn’t really like pies before but now I really like it.
I even have a thing for blueberries now.

Would you like to act
again?

No, I would love to, I really enjoyed it and would love to
have that experience again, but I also don’t have to.
I’m fulfilled. What
a cool experience I had and I don’t think I would do it again but
I mean I would if it was the right situation just like this one.
It just kind of happened and it made sense but if something
cool came along that made sense then I would try it.

It seemed as though
your acting progressed with the evolvement of your character in the
film. Could you talk
about that?

I think it was really interesting and it was crazy for me to
watch it and realize. I
had a feeling we did most of the early scenes in the movie in an
early shoot and I was totally inexperience and was terrified but it
kind of worked for the character actually.
I think the director did that on purpose actually. There
definitely was a lot of parallels between my character’s journey
and in my journey making my first film as an actress.
I became much more comfortable and I think it worked because
my character wasn’t comfortable with anything. In the beginning,
she is freaked out and doesn’t know what’s going on.
By the end she has really grown up. I think that is why she
took the trip in the first place, to figure things out, and that’s
what happened.