1
00:00:00,210 --> 00:00:02,910
- I think every film you have in your head

2
00:00:02,910 --> 00:00:04,320
is just a challenge.

3
00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:06,370
To me, the director's job is like,

4
00:00:06,370 --> 00:00:07,203
well, how do you tell...

5
00:00:07,203 --> 00:00:08,036
There's a lot of stories.

6
00:00:08,036 --> 00:00:08,900
Think of all the stories in the world.

7
00:00:08,900 --> 00:00:10,470
They're comin' at you all the time.

8
00:00:10,470 --> 00:00:12,684
You know, it's like well,
how to tell a story.

9
00:00:12,684 --> 00:00:15,267
(upbeat music)

10
00:00:17,751 --> 00:00:18,584
Yeah.

11
00:00:19,790 --> 00:00:20,953
- You cool, man?

12
00:00:23,380 --> 00:00:24,230
- Like how?

13
00:00:24,230 --> 00:00:26,670
- I think hadn't been a
lot of hit teenage movies

14
00:00:26,670 --> 00:00:27,770
at that moment.

15
00:00:27,770 --> 00:00:29,840
You know, the archetype
is Rebel Without a Cause.

16
00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:31,540
You know, there's a car wreck,
there's death, there's...

17
00:00:31,540 --> 00:00:33,180
You know, it's such a big deal.

18
00:00:33,180 --> 00:00:35,130
And I'm just workin'
from a personal place.

19
00:00:35,130 --> 00:00:36,370
I'm just saying.

20
00:00:36,370 --> 00:00:37,750
Well, I don't remember a lot of that.

21
00:00:37,750 --> 00:00:39,570
The essence for me of being a teenager

22
00:00:39,570 --> 00:00:42,150
was just riding around
lookin' for somethin' to do.

23
00:00:42,150 --> 00:00:44,540
I crammed everything
interesting that happened to me,

24
00:00:44,540 --> 00:00:46,010
like my Freshman year of high school

25
00:00:46,010 --> 00:00:47,270
into kinda one day

26
00:00:47,270 --> 00:00:50,030
where nothing's happening
but everything's happening.

27
00:00:50,030 --> 00:00:53,170
McConaughey came in just
in the audition process.

28
00:00:53,170 --> 00:00:56,900
Even though he hadn't acted
he met my casting director

29
00:00:56,900 --> 00:00:59,420
who was in a bar in Austin.

30
00:00:59,420 --> 00:01:00,710
Matthew just went over to him

31
00:01:00,710 --> 00:01:02,070
and just started talking to him.

32
00:01:02,070 --> 00:01:04,750
My only problem with Matthew
is he was too good looking.

33
00:01:04,750 --> 00:01:06,850
I imagined a much sleazier guy.

34
00:01:06,850 --> 00:01:10,348
No one can ever say Matthew
got in on his looks, he was...

35
00:01:10,348 --> 00:01:11,181
(laughs)

36
00:01:11,181 --> 00:01:12,690
His looks were working against him.

37
00:01:12,690 --> 00:01:14,820
I kinda worked him into the movie.

38
00:01:14,820 --> 00:01:16,460
I liked him, and we had an opening.

39
00:01:16,460 --> 00:01:17,970
Oh, what if Wooderson pulled up?

40
00:01:17,970 --> 00:01:19,780
And so, he said he was kinda nervous,

41
00:01:19,780 --> 00:01:23,750
and he was thinkin' like what
he would say before his lines,

42
00:01:23,750 --> 00:01:24,774
and he just...

43
00:01:24,774 --> 00:01:27,000
- [Matthew McConaughey]
Alright, alright, alright.

44
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:28,600
- It was somethin' Jim Morrison said

45
00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:30,860
in a live concert thing.

46
00:01:30,860 --> 00:01:32,210
I got a letter from a guy once

47
00:01:32,210 --> 00:01:33,660
who said he had a brain injury,

48
00:01:33,660 --> 00:01:36,750
and had kinda forgotten
a big chunk of his life,

49
00:01:36,750 --> 00:01:37,583
including high school,

50
00:01:37,583 --> 00:01:39,230
and so he was thanking me for the movie.

51
00:01:39,230 --> 00:01:42,180
He was like, oh, that's what
I now think of as high school.

52
00:01:42,180 --> 00:01:43,166
So.

53
00:01:43,166 --> 00:01:44,100
(laughs)

54
00:01:44,100 --> 00:01:45,150
It's just weird, what...

55
00:01:45,150 --> 00:01:48,090
The place it fills in people's psyches.

56
00:01:48,090 --> 00:01:48,940
- So listen, here's the deal.

57
00:01:48,940 --> 00:01:49,773
This is what we should do.

58
00:01:49,773 --> 00:01:51,340
You should get off the
train with me here in Vienna

59
00:01:51,340 --> 00:01:52,550
and come check out the town.

60
00:01:52,550 --> 00:01:54,290
- Kind of a minimalist, you know?

61
00:01:54,290 --> 00:01:57,550
I did the same with I guess
you'd call it a romantic movie.

62
00:01:57,550 --> 00:02:00,090
You know, most stories
oh, they meet, they kiss,

63
00:02:00,090 --> 00:02:01,630
they get in bed, and
then the story starts.

64
00:02:01,630 --> 00:02:02,620
Here's the obstacles.

65
00:02:02,620 --> 00:02:04,940
Here's all the wacky
stuff that happens to 'em.

66
00:02:04,940 --> 00:02:06,550
I was like no, I don't want to.

67
00:02:06,550 --> 00:02:09,780
I wanna make it just about
what goes on between two people

68
00:02:09,780 --> 00:02:12,740
who are very much
infatuated with each other.

69
00:02:12,740 --> 00:02:14,240
We always joke, Ethan, Julie, and I,

70
00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,400
like the lowest grossing
trilogy in history

71
00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:18,150
is definitely the Before trilogy.

72
00:02:18,150 --> 00:02:20,540
The freest we ever were was
probably the second one,

73
00:02:20,540 --> 00:02:22,960
just because no one even
knew we were making it,

74
00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:23,793
no one cared.

75
00:02:23,793 --> 00:02:24,930
We would look at each other every day

76
00:02:24,930 --> 00:02:27,100
and say you know, there's
about four people in the world

77
00:02:27,100 --> 00:02:29,680
who care about this movie.

78
00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:31,930
But, we just realized those characters

79
00:02:31,930 --> 00:02:32,920
were still alive in us,

80
00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:35,740
and had somethin' to say
about this new phase.

81
00:02:35,740 --> 00:02:38,000
You know, they were like
23 in the first film,

82
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,410
32 in the second, 40ish in the last one.

83
00:02:41,410 --> 00:02:43,895
So, life is very
different at those stages.

84
00:02:43,895 --> 00:02:46,478
(guitar music)

85
00:02:47,930 --> 00:02:50,810
It was a fun script, but
I still thought like,

86
00:02:50,810 --> 00:02:52,820
you know, it was a little
cheesy or somethin'.

87
00:02:52,820 --> 00:02:54,800
I mean, it just didn't seem like my thing.

88
00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:56,580
In the script they won the contest.

89
00:02:56,580 --> 00:02:57,510
I was like, they can't win.

90
00:02:57,510 --> 00:02:58,630
You know, it's a little too...

91
00:02:58,630 --> 00:03:00,660
It's more fun if they lose,
that's the whole point.

92
00:03:00,660 --> 00:03:01,970
It was like a Indie film to me.

93
00:03:01,970 --> 00:03:03,960
I shot it the same way
I would anything else.

94
00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:05,410
We just had all that support.

95
00:03:05,410 --> 00:03:07,470
We could get 600 extras for the show.

96
00:03:07,470 --> 00:03:09,420
We could get the Andrew Lloyd Webber song.

97
00:03:09,420 --> 00:03:10,840
We could get AC/DC.

98
00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:11,860
We could get all that.

99
00:03:11,860 --> 00:03:14,810
So it was great to make
a film in that spirit

100
00:03:14,810 --> 00:03:16,909
but with full studio support.

101
00:03:16,909 --> 00:03:20,630
("Immigrant Song")

102
00:03:20,630 --> 00:03:22,760
10 years before, exactly 10 years before,

103
00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:25,490
I hadn't got a Led Zeppelin
song that I'd wanted for Dazed,

104
00:03:25,490 --> 00:03:27,690
so I knew a little bit
more about how to do it.

105
00:03:27,690 --> 00:03:30,000
And then I said oh,
let's do a little plea.

106
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:32,950
I put a camera on Jack
and had him ask the guys.

107
00:03:32,950 --> 00:03:34,557
- We need your song, man.

108
00:03:34,557 --> 00:03:35,510
(applause)

109
00:03:35,510 --> 00:03:37,007
We need the Immigrant Song.

110
00:03:37,007 --> 00:03:37,840
- And it worked.

111
00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:38,673
It was great.

112
00:03:38,673 --> 00:03:40,950
I felt very full circle,

113
00:03:40,950 --> 00:03:44,673
that I was able to clear a
Led Zeppelin song finally.

114
00:03:48,330 --> 00:03:51,150
I had this story, just about growing up,

115
00:03:51,150 --> 00:03:53,200
that I couldn't quite
crack the form of it.

116
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:54,620
It wasn't workin' in my head

117
00:03:54,620 --> 00:03:57,130
because I was tryin' to
cover too many years.

118
00:03:57,130 --> 00:03:58,220
So, I had a problem.

119
00:03:58,220 --> 00:04:01,260
I had a storytelling, cinematic problem.

120
00:04:01,260 --> 00:04:03,320
It was just at the moment I gave up

121
00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:04,970
that I had this idea, and it's like,

122
00:04:04,970 --> 00:04:06,970
oh, well, if I filmed a little every year,

123
00:04:06,970 --> 00:04:08,610
I could cover it, you know?

124
00:04:08,610 --> 00:04:10,180
So it all came to me in a flash.

125
00:04:10,180 --> 00:04:13,300
Each year of the 12 years is
kinda like it's own short film.

126
00:04:13,300 --> 00:04:15,980
The shoot is only 40ish days total,

127
00:04:15,980 --> 00:04:18,370
but we spent a year in
preproduction and a year...

128
00:04:18,370 --> 00:04:20,520
It's so around the edges.

129
00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:22,900
You spend so much time
editing, so much time in prep.

130
00:04:22,900 --> 00:04:24,920
So, it makes no sense.

131
00:04:24,920 --> 00:04:26,630
But it's just what you
had to do every year.

132
00:04:26,630 --> 00:04:29,610
You know, it's just, it
was kinda the fun part.

133
00:04:29,610 --> 00:04:31,330
The team gets back together.

134
00:04:31,330 --> 00:04:34,210
I think they had a lot of fun
watchin' the kids grow up,

135
00:04:34,210 --> 00:04:36,556
you know, it was like summer camp.

136
00:04:36,556 --> 00:04:37,970
- You'll never guess what happened.

137
00:04:37,970 --> 00:04:39,150
She disappeared.

138
00:04:39,150 --> 00:04:40,360
Bernadette.
- What?

139
00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:42,360
- I think fundamentally on
the adaptation you just...

140
00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:43,460
You always have to ask yourself

141
00:04:43,460 --> 00:04:45,340
what's this book about?

142
00:04:45,340 --> 00:04:47,150
To me, what it was about

143
00:04:47,150 --> 00:04:50,040
was this artist who'd
lost touch with herself.

144
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,170
It's about a deep
mother-daughter relationship.

145
00:04:53,170 --> 00:04:55,830
It's a portrait of a
long-term relationship

146
00:04:55,830 --> 00:04:56,960
between her and her husband.

147
00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,200
The artist who's not practicing their art

148
00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:03,520
is, you know, kind of a
potentially kind of toxic person.

149
00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:05,820
It's like a self portrait of myself

150
00:05:05,820 --> 00:05:07,030
if someone just said oh, we're not...

151
00:05:07,030 --> 00:05:09,010
You can't make a film for 10 years or...

152
00:05:09,010 --> 00:05:10,300
I don't think it would take too long

153
00:05:10,300 --> 00:05:13,270
that I would be kind
of where Bernadette is.

154
00:05:13,270 --> 00:05:14,140
I feel it in myself

155
00:05:14,140 --> 00:05:17,540
even when I can't get one film
off the ground or something.

156
00:05:17,540 --> 00:05:19,530
It's not happening quick enough for me.

157
00:05:19,530 --> 00:05:21,520
I can be kind of biting and...

158
00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:22,830
You know, I'm a big believer

159
00:05:22,830 --> 00:05:25,940
in the kinda therapeutic value of art.

160
00:05:25,940 --> 00:05:28,140
Art's kinda the ultimate coping mechanism,

161
00:05:28,140 --> 00:05:29,750
I think, for the person doing it.

162
00:05:29,750 --> 00:05:31,040
I think it's important

163
00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:33,210
for people to be able
to express themselves.

164
00:05:33,210 --> 00:05:34,530
I feel that way all the time,

165
00:05:34,530 --> 00:05:36,350
like, when I'm doing somethin',

166
00:05:36,350 --> 00:05:38,660
I'm like oh, yeah, this is
satisfying something in me

167
00:05:38,660 --> 00:05:42,133
that keeps me from being
a menace to society.