July 19, 2024 • 19 mins
M. Night Shyamalan and his daughter, Saleka, stop by to talk about their new movie, "Trap", in theaters August 2nd!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Live from the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome to the show. M Night Shamalan and his daughter Silika.
So good to have you here, having us well, thanks
for being had in two weeks. This film, they're saying,
this is the film of the season. Trap it's coming out.
Are you a little nervous right before a film comes out?
I do get that way.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I don't like that part of it, of the anxiety,
because I've finished the movie and so you know, in
that stoic thing, you should let go. I don't have
control over this part of it. And then I'm still
holding it tight. This is movie sixteen, you know, so
it's like thirty years and sixteen movies.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's just stop already.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, but he just want your baby.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So it's like your baby's about to go out into
the world and you want everyone to like your baby.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Sometimes they have any control over that. Yeah, sometimes they
don't like your baby. But this is very interesting parallel
that's going on. Of course, your daughter Selika is here,
and of course she is featured in the film, and
we're gonna get it into that in a moment. Well,
so it's like having a daughter, you know, I mean
you got to let her go one day and let
her fly. I'm equally bad at that. Yeah, is you're
(01:05):
not doing well? I mean are you still do you
still live at home? Or are you there half the time?
Pretty much? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
He built studio in the house, so I work there.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
There you go. It's this is another premise for a film,
the dad who just can't let go. It's called being Indian.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
That's the first thing I thought.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I was very Indian of you explain that, Kandy.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Any people love to stay with their family until we die.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
There's nothing wrong with get.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Married and then you have permission to leave. But like,
but I don't live with the family, and it's so stressful.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
How did you not be there?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I love it. I'm glad you.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
It's a different yeah, different concept of nuclear family.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And you know, as it puts, like, am eighteen, let's
go to the University of Miami, let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
That's a different mentality than Hey, you know, go to
the closest college you can and you know, come back
and see us and have food and you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Know, you wash your dryer. Yeah, exactly, the refrigerated We'll
let you eat our food.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
There's definitely a lot of you know, Asian guilt that's
in votes. And so when we dropped there a college,
I was that was literally the worst moment in my life.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Up to that point. Oh you broke your heart.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Literally just sat in the car and wept.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
But how far did she go from? She went to Brown?
She went It was.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
About, Oh my son goes to in England to school.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So how is that?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I know, Yeah, that's not allowed that we should go
back to that moment and cry just for a moment.
All right, let's talk about the film. Okay, trap like
it's in theaters only theaters only now the trailers, and
I'm not going to say what I think this is
about because I don't want to screw anything up. But
Josh Hartnett, Josh Hartnett could be play a creepy, creepy character.
(02:39):
But this character he's playing as a dad taking his
daughter to see Lady Raven, is your character, right? What
a cool dad? It's like all the dad you see
its a Tater Swift concert. You know there's something going
on there and I can't put my finger on it.
I don't want to start guessing. I don't want to
screw anything up. Am I kind of right?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
You haven't said anything. Okay, good, but yes, you're right.
You know the culture of being in going in concerts.
Sometimes you write something and the culture moves away from you,
or it moves towards you. And since I we thought
of the idea, the culture moved towards us. With Taylor
Swift and Beyonce and you know everything, even Kendrick, everything
(03:19):
you can imagine, the culture has moved towards this thing
of going as a group to go see an artist
is the thing that everyone is talking about, and especially
with Taylor and the whole families and you see the
girl Dad's going And obviously everything I write is based
on kind of my relationship to the girls or our
family in some way.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
But you're not creepy like Josh Hartnett. Well, Josh is
not creepy either. At back. He's the sweetest guywees.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
He came we were shooting in Ireland and he came
from he lives in London, said hey, can I come
see you. We were thinking about who to cast in
the role and we talked about being dads of three girls.
Just I was like, this is the guy, this is
the guy. You know, It's not about just the actor
or the actress. It's where they are in their lives
and so it's a combination of their skill set but
(04:05):
where they are emotionally.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And josh Is just was dead on.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I was like, I was seeing the superstar, was seeing
somebody that you would fall in love with, which is
what I what I need for the movie.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, obviously his character has a lot going on. How
much can we say? I mean, I don't want to
get any away, but I think I think he's he's
up to no good in this film. It's very possible.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
If we saw it in the trailer, can we.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Say, yeah, yeah, it's you. He he looks several looks
on his face. It leads me.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
He's a bad guy.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, you know, it was something that that was stuck
in my head. Well, first of all, Sleek and I
was talk we're talking a lot about music, and I
was like, gosh, we should we should do something like
Purple Rain, you know, where you write something an album
for a narrative purpose.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
So, Selika, what was it like. Well, first of all,
to talk about your character, your character Lady Ray and
of course is featured as the big performer at this
colisem that's sold out how many times did your dad
call upon you for ideas? Did he did he fold
you into the into the creative process for your character
or for anything else with Trap?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Well, for music wise, I wrote all of the music,
produced all of it. So I think that was obviously
a big element of the character itself. And I think
the idea for the movie we was just something we
were kind of ideating on for a while, and how
to bring music and film together. You know, it's obviously
an Indian culture. That's a very big thing Bollywood movies.
You know, music and film are kind of equals and that,
and so something that feels very natural when we wanted
(05:36):
to do it in our own kind of Shyamalan way.
But yeah, I think the original ideas we kind of
brainstorm together, and then he wrote the most incredible script.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Now I'm going to ask the question, don't get don't
get upset because asking a father a question like this
about his daughter, Yea, does someone chop your daughter up
in this film? I mean he's had a fair question.
I can't say, do you get chopped up in this film?
Have you mutilated no cameras? I don't know. I mean, look,
we're talking about not reality, this is okay. You never know.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Any point when she wanted to do this for a living,
did you say run the other direction?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Did you try to like, well, we know in our house,
I kind of we are is sacred. This is not
This is not a transactional thing. This is not an
opportunistic thing. In fact, it's the tears have come the opposite.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Way where I'm where.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I'm like, we don't need another person going into the
arts to prove that they have value or to get
validation or become famous or make money. If those are
your motivations, please don't do it. This is not what
we want in the world because you are just stealing
everyone's agency. Only do it to give And if you
have something that you want to give your point of view,
(06:47):
then then let's do it. It's a beautiful thing to
be an artist to speak. So I'm really tough on them.
And then and then we have all the Asian work
ethic stuff and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You're just not working hard enough.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
So you know, you know what the Asian fist Asians
and yeah, wow, it's terrible.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
You guys are like the one one percent of Indian
parents who are not disappointed in their children for not
being a doctor.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I love that. I know she's the academic in your family, man,
in your in your family, how many doctors? How many attorneys?
And then a radio person. Yeah, and so they looked
at you like, what the.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Hell are you still ask me all the time when
I'm going to get a real job. This is the
real job. I'm telling you, you.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Have to do it.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I love to see this though.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I don't think my parents even I don't think they
really got it until I was on the cover of magazines.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And then they bought every magazine and they do. But
we do.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I do talk about the Asian this unusual marriage between
the arts and our family and the upbringing of being Asian.
In fact, you know, you can talk about that, you
know when I'm like, hey, stop being so Asian on stage.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I mean, for me, it's been a process because I
came from classical piano, which is, you know, very disciplined
and and you know, you don't make mistakes and and
kind of don't put your own personality into it in
a way, and so kind of coming to writing my
own music, it was a challenge for me to come
out of like trying to do everything perfect, and so
now my challenge is to just be free and kind
of learn how to perform and all that. And so
now he's helping me kind of get out of my shell.
(08:15):
But you know, growing up, it's all you know, you
want to get the straight a's, and you want to
be perfect on the SATs, and you want to get
the classical piano piece perfect at the recital, and you know,
if we didn't, it's like tears and you feel like
you failed. So that mentality is definitely deeply ingrained.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
And most of the time your Indian parents will tell you, oh,
yeah failed if you're wondering first And.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I think I came home with like a B plus
at my first semester at Brown, and they were like.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
What happened?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
What is this letter?
Speaker 4 (08:41):
And I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It's Brown more, I.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Didn't remember that. That's terrible.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Work.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Let's work through this right now.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Well, I'd gone straight a's on my high school and
then it was like first semester of college and I
took a like a senior course and I was trying
to do some thing and I think I got like
a B plus and they were like, there's a bee.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
What is this. Okay, let's all stop being so Asian
were more open. Let's get back to Trap please, all right,
so again two weeks from today. It's in theaters only.
And you, of course are known night for these films
that have these crazy twists, these twists and these turns.
(09:22):
But there's something else I've noticed about your films. And
even in the trailer on Trap, there's just something you
do with these shots, these these angles, you know that
something's about to happen. I don't know, I got tension
built up in my neck just by the way you
handle how the camera relates with the actor. You can
(09:47):
see it coming and it's like hair stands on the
back of your And I've noticed that. I've noticed that
all the way back to uh I See Dead People.
I mean, all all the way back to that that
film which I was in to you, of course, six
sixth Cents was actually it's still one of my top
five favorite films of all time, that how do you
use something like a lens to build tension? Well, first
(10:09):
of all, thank.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
You for that in articulating that it is it is
the primary thing of cinema that it's important to me.
The process you're talking about is the cinematic integrity of
each shot.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And there's two philosophies. There's kind of like.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
That I don't want to get We could go on
and on about this, but like a hunters and gatherers
philosophy in my mind, you know, And the gatherers philosophy is, hey,
I'm going to shoot all of you and different things.
Anything that comes back, oh great, I'll shoot that, I'll
shoot this, and then we gather it and then we
put together a kind of a meal afterwards based on
the best of the things we've gathered. But there's the hunters,
and those are the much much rarer because it's highly dangerous,
(10:47):
which is I'm not shooting you.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I'm not shooting you.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I'm going to do your shot like this, and it's
going to move over to her line over here, because
that's when you get distracted by her, and then then
it's going to move over here. And that's all we're doing,
and we're going to do twelve takes of that. That's
all we're gonna do. That's a hunter mentality. It's high risk,
but I feel more in that that way for me
as a viewer in every frame and so you know,
(11:09):
I'm going up against you know, Deadpool and and Inside Out,
you know seven and all these movies, and all I
got is this, That's all I have.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
And there's one shot in the trailer of Josh Hartnett's face.
You could see he's very tense. His face is stone,
it's stones extreme, and then out of nowhere, his lip
has one little nervous twitch. Yeah, And I was like,
and when his little lip twitch you saw the trailer, right,
(11:42):
I was like, holy yeah, something's going on here. It
was definitely a hair raising moment. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Again, he's so incapable of inauthenticity. So that's at a
particular moment where he feels he has no moves left
and he's going to be caught. And in the intensity
of the this thriller happening in a pop concert is
that it's becoming like too much. What was funny is
now becoming, you know, a funhouse mirror aberration. And so
(12:07):
he's feeling all this in that moment, and all we
talk about is where you are and you're you're out
of moves brilliant.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So obviously he's done some bad stuff, clearly.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
So when you are working with your dad on something
like this.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Obviously, he's made sixteen movies and you're now starting to
venture into this. I know you're an actor and you're
a professional, but are there any times you're like, Dad,
I do not like that angle.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Take it out.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Oh that's not an option conversation. I don't even know
what's going on over there.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
There's talking about that wide angle distorts your body. I'd
be like, Dad, don't you dare?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
It was like, when I saw the movie, I had
to process a little bit my insecurities of just seeing
myself on screen because I'm just not used to that,
and you know, you notice all of the flaws that
you hate about yourself. So that was a process. But
during the shoot, it's not something that I was thinking
about are supposed to think about? And I would never
dare tell him to do anything has to do.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Only mom does that. So as you set up for
a release, for instance, Trap in two weeks, what's that
anticipation journey like for you? I mean you're still two
weeks out, Yeah, So what happens between now and the
day it releases? Like, where do your emotions go? I mean.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
I'm just excited. I mean we haven't two weeks of
getting to kind of travel the world and talk about
the movie and talk about this amazing experience that for
me was like just one of the greatest experiences of
my life. And you know, I just admitted the album
two days ago, you know, and it's coming out with
the movie, and so I'm excited for that music to
be out and extremely nervous and you know, all of
the things. But it's all very positive and I'm very
(13:46):
proud of the movie and I can't wait to watch
it again.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Oh that's so cool. Yeah, I love that. Congratulations. This
must be just exhilarating for you.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
It's very exciting. I'm like freaked out and excited all
the time.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
You deserve to be freaked out. If before you get
out of here now, I can talk about the album,
which is coming out in two weeks. Right now, If
someone says, hey, night, what's this movie about? It's such
a stupid question, but it's it's a very very pure question.
What's the movie about? What journey are people going to
go on when they sit down to watch this?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
You know, For me, if I feel like I have
the right idea, that's half of it, and then I
have to find the right angle on the idea.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Then that's the other half of it.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
How I'm telling you the story, you know, so you
know in this case, it's a story of a man
who realizes he goes to a concert with his daughter
and realizes that the FBI and the police have set
a trap for a serial killer at this concert. And
then you realize that he's the serial killer. And so
(14:51):
that's the angle. So I'm putting you in his shoes,
and you're gonna love him.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
There, you go love him. We're gonna love the serial killer.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
And so what does that make you feel when you're
you're with him? Like I made you, I've made you
him and now you're in a trap.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So now what?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And at the same time, you know, all this dark
stuff's happening, but there's still a pop concert going on,
tailor swip concerts still going on.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
There's a lot of comedy. There's a lot of comedy.
There's a lot of comedy. There's a knife butchery people,
something for the whole family. You know.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
It came this thing that I'd heard about when I
was a kid. It happened in Washington, d C. I
don't know if you guys remember this. They had an
event where they gave away on radio. They gave away
Super Bowl tickets to all these people and they all
showed up and you had to sign your name and
they'd verified and they came and was watching to see
came this thing and there's cheerleaders and mascots and music
and parade and everything, and they everybody checks in and
(15:45):
comes in and you know, and then they go into
this this this ballroom and they're all there and it's like,
however many like five hundred, one thousand of them, and
then they shut the doors and said they were all
criminals that they were trying to catch.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
You're all under arrest. I remember this all place was
under wrest.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Everyone, every cheerleader, every mascot was a police officer. Everyone
there was a police officer. And they trapped the whole
thing and literally you can look this up and it's
absolute mania. They're like dancing with them when they come in. Yeah,
all these criminals are so pumped aboat.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
It was called Operation Flagship, so really yeah, and uh yeah,
so you feel like that was this This is that.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
This feeling like of being that this is absurdist. You
know that it's happening at this kind of event, This
is where I'm gonna get caught, you.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Know, streams of Humanity in one place.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
In two weeks. The album's out, so let's talk about it. Yes.
How many? How many songs? Fourteen fourteen tracks and you're
performing all of them? Yes, yeah, and they all feature
they're all featured in the film as well.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Different amounts, some little bit and some more more featured.
But yes, excited, I'm very excited.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
I have a question about this, Yes, So you don't
ever fiddle with his process when it comes to directing
and shooting a movie. Did he have anything to say
about process when it came to writing the songs for
the movie?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Writing, not necessarily, but I think in terms of finding
the right sound for the moments and placing the songs
in the right scenes. It was very collaborative because it's
his vision and what he's imagining, and every song was
very specific. It wasn't like, oh, just write a bunch
of songs and we'll put in the background. It was like,
in this scene, this is happening, and there's a song
playing from this moment to this moment, and then it
transitions to this song. So it was very, very prescribed
(17:25):
and very curated in terms of what does the song
sound like production wise, what is the arc of production
through the beginning to the end of the movie and
the end of the concert. And it does escalate and
it has to kind of follow Josh Hartnell's characters kind
of feelings and anxieties and ups and downs, and so
I kind of tried to ride with him, even though
it's being played by this other character. So it has
(17:45):
to kind of work down with things, cause it's very
specific process. And we talked through every single song and
then once we had the right songs that we wanted,
we talked through different positions and then you know, lyrically,
some of them were too on the nose for certain spots,
so we had to move them around and things like that.
But yeah, so it was that part was very collaborative,
but the writing, he really let me kind of be
free with that and and just take inspiration from, you know,
(18:07):
the characters in the script, which is like my favorite
thing in the world to do.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, there was songs that were Selika and songs that
were Lady Raven, and so I was like, well, that
one's Selika, that one doesn't, that doesn't fit in a movie.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
So are you going to get a writing or producing
credit on this album.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Oh no, I didn't do anything. I love that. Yeah,
it's been it's been beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And even when you know, she when when Columbia Records
can't you know, started hearing her stuff. And I do
think it helps sometimes to think of yourself as a character,
you know, rather than yourself. You can you know, you're
actually more honest.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
In some ways and and.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Freer, so just by writing as another character. And so
I think when Columbia heard it and felt this kind
of you know, the beauty of the intentions and things like that,
it would kind of all just went click for everybody.
So you still have to finish college?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Was she finished?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Finished?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You're all good? Now, you're all good. Now. Two weeks
from today, an album drops and a movie drops. Film drops,
of course we're talking about trap. Uh night, Selika, Thank
you guys so much for coming in, Thank you, congratulations,
thank you. I play a song, of course. The answer
is yes, uh save me? Why are we playing save me?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
I would say it's one of the earlier songs you
hear in the movie and in kind of the world
of Lady Raven, we imagine this as like a single
that came out before. But of course in writing, you
know the lyrics are thematically relevant, but I won't say
too much.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So if you play Save Me, do we say this
is Selika or do we say this is Lady Raven.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
It's Sea.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
We'll tell Lady Raven we said night, Thank you guys
for coming in. There you go, he's going to say,
he's going he wants whenever,
Live from the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome to the show. M Night Shamalan and his daughter Silika.
So good to have you here, having us well, thanks
for being had in two weeks. This film, they're saying,
this is the film of the season. Trap it's coming out.
Are you a little nervous right before a film comes out?
I do get that way.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
I don't like that part of it, of the anxiety,
because I've finished the movie and so you know, in
that stoic thing, you should let go. I don't have
control over this part of it. And then I'm still
holding it tight. This is movie sixteen, you know, so
it's like thirty years and sixteen movies.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's just stop already.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, but he just want your baby.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
So it's like your baby's about to go out into
the world and you want everyone to like your baby.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Sometimes they have any control over that. Yeah, sometimes they
don't like your baby. But this is very interesting parallel
that's going on. Of course, your daughter Selika is here,
and of course she is featured in the film, and
we're gonna get it into that in a moment. Well,
so it's like having a daughter, you know, I mean
you got to let her go one day and let
her fly. I'm equally bad at that. Yeah, is you're
(01:05):
not doing well? I mean are you still do you
still live at home? Or are you there half the time?
Pretty much? Yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
He built studio in the house, so I work there.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
There you go. It's this is another premise for a film,
the dad who just can't let go. It's called being Indian.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
That's the first thing I thought.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I was very Indian of you explain that, Kandy.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Any people love to stay with their family until we die.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
There's nothing wrong with get.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Married and then you have permission to leave. But like,
but I don't live with the family, and it's so stressful.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
How did you not be there?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
I love it. I'm glad you.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
It's a different yeah, different concept of nuclear family.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And you know, as it puts, like, am eighteen, let's
go to the University of Miami, let's go.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
That's a different mentality than Hey, you know, go to
the closest college you can and you know, come back
and see us and have food and you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Know, you wash your dryer. Yeah, exactly, the refrigerated We'll
let you eat our food.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
There's definitely a lot of you know, Asian guilt that's
in votes. And so when we dropped there a college,
I was that was literally the worst moment in my life.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Up to that point. Oh you broke your heart.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Literally just sat in the car and wept.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
But how far did she go from? She went to Brown?
She went It was.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
About, Oh my son goes to in England to school.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So how is that?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I know, Yeah, that's not allowed that we should go
back to that moment and cry just for a moment.
All right, let's talk about the film. Okay, trap like
it's in theaters only theaters only now the trailers, and
I'm not going to say what I think this is
about because I don't want to screw anything up. But
Josh Hartnett, Josh Hartnett could be play a creepy, creepy character.
(02:39):
But this character he's playing as a dad taking his
daughter to see Lady Raven, is your character, right? What
a cool dad? It's like all the dad you see
its a Tater Swift concert. You know there's something going
on there and I can't put my finger on it.
I don't want to start guessing. I don't want to
screw anything up. Am I kind of right?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
You haven't said anything. Okay, good, but yes, you're right.
You know the culture of being in going in concerts.
Sometimes you write something and the culture moves away from you,
or it moves towards you. And since I we thought
of the idea, the culture moved towards us. With Taylor
Swift and Beyonce and you know everything, even Kendrick, everything
(03:19):
you can imagine, the culture has moved towards this thing
of going as a group to go see an artist
is the thing that everyone is talking about, and especially
with Taylor and the whole families and you see the
girl Dad's going And obviously everything I write is based
on kind of my relationship to the girls or our
family in some way.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
But you're not creepy like Josh Hartnett. Well, Josh is
not creepy either. At back. He's the sweetest guywees.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
He came we were shooting in Ireland and he came
from he lives in London, said hey, can I come
see you. We were thinking about who to cast in
the role and we talked about being dads of three girls.
Just I was like, this is the guy, this is
the guy. You know, It's not about just the actor
or the actress. It's where they are in their lives
and so it's a combination of their skill set but
(04:05):
where they are emotionally.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And josh Is just was dead on.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I was like, I was seeing the superstar, was seeing
somebody that you would fall in love with, which is
what I what I need for the movie.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, obviously his character has a lot going on. How
much can we say? I mean, I don't want to
get any away, but I think I think he's he's
up to no good in this film. It's very possible.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
If we saw it in the trailer, can we.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Say, yeah, yeah, it's you. He he looks several looks
on his face. It leads me.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
He's a bad guy.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah, you know, it was something that that was stuck
in my head. Well, first of all, Sleek and I
was talk we're talking a lot about music, and I
was like, gosh, we should we should do something like
Purple Rain, you know, where you write something an album
for a narrative purpose.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
So, Selika, what was it like. Well, first of all,
to talk about your character, your character Lady Ray and
of course is featured as the big performer at this
colisem that's sold out how many times did your dad
call upon you for ideas? Did he did he fold
you into the into the creative process for your character
or for anything else with Trap?
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Well, for music wise, I wrote all of the music,
produced all of it. So I think that was obviously
a big element of the character itself. And I think
the idea for the movie we was just something we
were kind of ideating on for a while, and how
to bring music and film together. You know, it's obviously
an Indian culture. That's a very big thing Bollywood movies.
You know, music and film are kind of equals and that,
and so something that feels very natural when we wanted
(05:36):
to do it in our own kind of Shyamalan way.
But yeah, I think the original ideas we kind of
brainstorm together, and then he wrote the most incredible script.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Now I'm going to ask the question, don't get don't
get upset because asking a father a question like this
about his daughter, Yea, does someone chop your daughter up
in this film? I mean he's had a fair question.
I can't say, do you get chopped up in this film?
Have you mutilated no cameras? I don't know. I mean, look,
we're talking about not reality, this is okay. You never know.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Any point when she wanted to do this for a living,
did you say run the other direction?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Did you try to like, well, we know in our house,
I kind of we are is sacred. This is not
This is not a transactional thing. This is not an
opportunistic thing. In fact, it's the tears have come the opposite.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Way where I'm where.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I'm like, we don't need another person going into the
arts to prove that they have value or to get
validation or become famous or make money. If those are
your motivations, please don't do it. This is not what
we want in the world because you are just stealing
everyone's agency. Only do it to give And if you
have something that you want to give your point of view,
(06:47):
then then let's do it. It's a beautiful thing to
be an artist to speak. So I'm really tough on them.
And then and then we have all the Asian work
ethic stuff and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You're just not working hard enough.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
So you know, you know what the Asian fist Asians
and yeah, wow, it's terrible.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
You guys are like the one one percent of Indian
parents who are not disappointed in their children for not
being a doctor.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I love that. I know she's the academic in your family, man,
in your in your family, how many doctors? How many attorneys?
And then a radio person. Yeah, and so they looked
at you like, what the.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Hell are you still ask me all the time when
I'm going to get a real job. This is the
real job. I'm telling you, you.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Have to do it.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I love to see this though.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
I don't think my parents even I don't think they
really got it until I was on the cover of magazines.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And then they bought every magazine and they do. But
we do.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I do talk about the Asian this unusual marriage between
the arts and our family and the upbringing of being Asian.
In fact, you know, you can talk about that, you
know when I'm like, hey, stop being so Asian on stage.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I mean, for me, it's been a process because I
came from classical piano, which is, you know, very disciplined
and and you know, you don't make mistakes and and
kind of don't put your own personality into it in
a way, and so kind of coming to writing my
own music, it was a challenge for me to come
out of like trying to do everything perfect, and so
now my challenge is to just be free and kind
of learn how to perform and all that. And so
now he's helping me kind of get out of my shell.
(08:15):
But you know, growing up, it's all you know, you
want to get the straight a's, and you want to
be perfect on the SATs, and you want to get
the classical piano piece perfect at the recital, and you know,
if we didn't, it's like tears and you feel like
you failed. So that mentality is definitely deeply ingrained.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
And most of the time your Indian parents will tell you, oh,
yeah failed if you're wondering first And.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I think I came home with like a B plus
at my first semester at Brown, and they were like.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
What happened?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
What is this letter?
Speaker 4 (08:41):
And I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
It's Brown more, I.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Didn't remember that. That's terrible.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Work.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Let's work through this right now.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Well, I'd gone straight a's on my high school and
then it was like first semester of college and I
took a like a senior course and I was trying
to do some thing and I think I got like
a B plus and they were like, there's a bee.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
What is this. Okay, let's all stop being so Asian
were more open. Let's get back to Trap please, all right,
so again two weeks from today. It's in theaters only.
And you, of course are known night for these films
that have these crazy twists, these twists and these turns.
(09:22):
But there's something else I've noticed about your films. And
even in the trailer on Trap, there's just something you
do with these shots, these these angles, you know that
something's about to happen. I don't know, I got tension
built up in my neck just by the way you
handle how the camera relates with the actor. You can
(09:47):
see it coming and it's like hair stands on the
back of your And I've noticed that. I've noticed that
all the way back to uh I See Dead People.
I mean, all all the way back to that that
film which I was in to you, of course, six
sixth Cents was actually it's still one of my top
five favorite films of all time, that how do you
use something like a lens to build tension? Well, first
(10:09):
of all, thank.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
You for that in articulating that it is it is
the primary thing of cinema that it's important to me.
The process you're talking about is the cinematic integrity of
each shot.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And there's two philosophies. There's kind of like.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
That I don't want to get We could go on
and on about this, but like a hunters and gatherers
philosophy in my mind, you know, And the gatherers philosophy is, hey,
I'm going to shoot all of you and different things.
Anything that comes back, oh great, I'll shoot that, I'll
shoot this, and then we gather it and then we
put together a kind of a meal afterwards based on
the best of the things we've gathered. But there's the hunters,
and those are the much much rarer because it's highly dangerous,
(10:47):
which is I'm not shooting you.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I'm not shooting you.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
I'm going to do your shot like this, and it's
going to move over to her line over here, because
that's when you get distracted by her, and then then
it's going to move over here. And that's all we're doing,
and we're going to do twelve takes of that. That's
all we're gonna do. That's a hunter mentality. It's high risk,
but I feel more in that that way for me
as a viewer in every frame and so you know,
(11:09):
I'm going up against you know, Deadpool and and Inside Out,
you know seven and all these movies, and all I
got is this, That's all I have.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
And there's one shot in the trailer of Josh Hartnett's face.
You could see he's very tense. His face is stone,
it's stones extreme, and then out of nowhere, his lip
has one little nervous twitch. Yeah, And I was like,
and when his little lip twitch you saw the trailer, right,
(11:42):
I was like, holy yeah, something's going on here. It
was definitely a hair raising moment. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Again, he's so incapable of inauthenticity. So that's at a
particular moment where he feels he has no moves left
and he's going to be caught. And in the intensity
of the this thriller happening in a pop concert is
that it's becoming like too much. What was funny is
now becoming, you know, a funhouse mirror aberration. And so
(12:07):
he's feeling all this in that moment, and all we
talk about is where you are and you're you're out
of moves brilliant.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
So obviously he's done some bad stuff, clearly.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
So when you are working with your dad on something
like this.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
Obviously, he's made sixteen movies and you're now starting to
venture into this. I know you're an actor and you're
a professional, but are there any times you're like, Dad,
I do not like that angle.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Take it out.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Oh that's not an option conversation. I don't even know
what's going on over there.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
There's talking about that wide angle distorts your body. I'd
be like, Dad, don't you dare?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
It was like, when I saw the movie, I had
to process a little bit my insecurities of just seeing
myself on screen because I'm just not used to that,
and you know, you notice all of the flaws that
you hate about yourself. So that was a process. But
during the shoot, it's not something that I was thinking
about are supposed to think about? And I would never
dare tell him to do anything has to do.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Only mom does that. So as you set up for
a release, for instance, Trap in two weeks, what's that
anticipation journey like for you? I mean you're still two
weeks out, Yeah, So what happens between now and the
day it releases? Like, where do your emotions go? I mean.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
I'm just excited. I mean we haven't two weeks of
getting to kind of travel the world and talk about
the movie and talk about this amazing experience that for
me was like just one of the greatest experiences of
my life. And you know, I just admitted the album
two days ago, you know, and it's coming out with
the movie, and so I'm excited for that music to
be out and extremely nervous and you know, all of
the things. But it's all very positive and I'm very
(13:46):
proud of the movie and I can't wait to watch
it again.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Oh that's so cool. Yeah, I love that. Congratulations. This
must be just exhilarating for you.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
It's very exciting. I'm like freaked out and excited all
the time.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
You deserve to be freaked out. If before you get
out of here now, I can talk about the album,
which is coming out in two weeks. Right now, If
someone says, hey, night, what's this movie about? It's such
a stupid question, but it's it's a very very pure question.
What's the movie about? What journey are people going to
go on when they sit down to watch this?
Speaker 1 (14:21):
You know, For me, if I feel like I have
the right idea, that's half of it, and then I
have to find the right angle on the idea.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Then that's the other half of it.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
How I'm telling you the story, you know, so you
know in this case, it's a story of a man
who realizes he goes to a concert with his daughter
and realizes that the FBI and the police have set
a trap for a serial killer at this concert. And
then you realize that he's the serial killer. And so
(14:51):
that's the angle. So I'm putting you in his shoes,
and you're gonna love him.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
There, you go love him. We're gonna love the serial killer.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
And so what does that make you feel when you're
you're with him? Like I made you, I've made you
him and now you're in a trap.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So now what?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And at the same time, you know, all this dark
stuff's happening, but there's still a pop concert going on,
tailor swip concerts still going on.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
There's a lot of comedy. There's a lot of comedy.
There's a lot of comedy. There's a knife butchery people,
something for the whole family. You know.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
It came this thing that I'd heard about when I
was a kid. It happened in Washington, d C. I
don't know if you guys remember this. They had an
event where they gave away on radio. They gave away
Super Bowl tickets to all these people and they all
showed up and you had to sign your name and
they'd verified and they came and was watching to see
came this thing and there's cheerleaders and mascots and music
and parade and everything, and they everybody checks in and
(15:45):
comes in and you know, and then they go into
this this this ballroom and they're all there and it's like,
however many like five hundred, one thousand of them, and
then they shut the doors and said they were all
criminals that they were trying to catch.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
You're all under arrest. I remember this all place was
under wrest.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Everyone, every cheerleader, every mascot was a police officer. Everyone
there was a police officer. And they trapped the whole
thing and literally you can look this up and it's
absolute mania. They're like dancing with them when they come in. Yeah,
all these criminals are so pumped aboat.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
It was called Operation Flagship, so really yeah, and uh yeah,
so you feel like that was this This is that.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
This feeling like of being that this is absurdist. You
know that it's happening at this kind of event, This
is where I'm gonna get caught, you.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Know, streams of Humanity in one place.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
In two weeks. The album's out, so let's talk about it. Yes.
How many? How many songs? Fourteen fourteen tracks and you're
performing all of them? Yes, yeah, and they all feature
they're all featured in the film as well.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
Different amounts, some little bit and some more more featured.
But yes, excited, I'm very excited.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
I have a question about this, Yes, So you don't
ever fiddle with his process when it comes to directing
and shooting a movie. Did he have anything to say
about process when it came to writing the songs for
the movie?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Writing, not necessarily, but I think in terms of finding
the right sound for the moments and placing the songs
in the right scenes. It was very collaborative because it's
his vision and what he's imagining, and every song was
very specific. It wasn't like, oh, just write a bunch
of songs and we'll put in the background. It was like,
in this scene, this is happening, and there's a song
playing from this moment to this moment, and then it
transitions to this song. So it was very, very prescribed
(17:25):
and very curated in terms of what does the song
sound like production wise, what is the arc of production
through the beginning to the end of the movie and
the end of the concert. And it does escalate and
it has to kind of follow Josh Hartnell's characters kind
of feelings and anxieties and ups and downs, and so
I kind of tried to ride with him, even though
it's being played by this other character. So it has
(17:45):
to kind of work down with things, cause it's very
specific process. And we talked through every single song and
then once we had the right songs that we wanted,
we talked through different positions and then you know, lyrically,
some of them were too on the nose for certain spots,
so we had to move them around and things like that.
But yeah, so it was that part was very collaborative,
but the writing, he really let me kind of be
free with that and and just take inspiration from, you know,
(18:07):
the characters in the script, which is like my favorite
thing in the world to do.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, there was songs that were Selika and songs that
were Lady Raven, and so I was like, well, that
one's Selika, that one doesn't, that doesn't fit in a movie.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
So are you going to get a writing or producing
credit on this album.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Oh no, I didn't do anything. I love that. Yeah,
it's been it's been beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
And even when you know, she when when Columbia Records
can't you know, started hearing her stuff. And I do
think it helps sometimes to think of yourself as a character,
you know, rather than yourself. You can you know, you're
actually more honest.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
In some ways and and.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Freer, so just by writing as another character. And so
I think when Columbia heard it and felt this kind
of you know, the beauty of the intentions and things like that,
it would kind of all just went click for everybody.
So you still have to finish college?
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Was she finished?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Finished?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You're all good? Now, you're all good. Now. Two weeks
from today, an album drops and a movie drops. Film drops,
of course we're talking about trap. Uh night, Selika, Thank
you guys so much for coming in, Thank you, congratulations,
thank you. I play a song, of course. The answer
is yes, uh save me? Why are we playing save me?
Speaker 4 (19:22):
I would say it's one of the earlier songs you
hear in the movie and in kind of the world
of Lady Raven, we imagine this as like a single
that came out before. But of course in writing, you
know the lyrics are thematically relevant, but I won't say
too much.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So if you play Save Me, do we say this
is Selika or do we say this is Lady Raven.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
It's Sea.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
We'll tell Lady Raven we said night, Thank you guys
for coming in. There you go, he's going to say,
he's going he wants whenever,
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