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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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Live from the Mercedes Benz Interview Lounge. Welcome to the show. M Night
Shamalan and his daughter Silika. Sogood to have you here, having us
well, thanks for being had intwo 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 afilm comes out? I do get that
(00:20):
way. I don't like that partof it, of the anxiety, because
I've finished the movie and so youknow, in that stoic thing, you
should let go. I don't havecontrol 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 sixteenmovies. It's just stop already. Yeah,
but he's want your baby. Soit's like your baby's about to go
out into the world and you wanteveryone to like your baby. You know.
(00:43):
Sometimes they have any control over that. Yeah, sometimes they don't like
your baby. But this is veryinteresting parallel that's going on. Of course,
your daughter Selika is here, andof course she is featured in the
film, and we're gonna get itinto 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 lether fly. I'm equally bad at that.
Yeah, is you're not doing well? I mean are you still do
(01:07):
you still live at home? Orare you there half the time? Pretty
much? Yeah. He built studioin the house, so I work there.
There you go. It's this isanother premise for a film, the
dad who just can't let go.It's called being Indian. That's the first
thing I thought. I was veryIndian of you explain that, Kandi.
Any people love to stay with theirfamily until we die. There's nothing wrong
(01:30):
with get married and then you havepermission to leave. But like, but
I don't live with the family,and it's so stressful. How did you
not be there? Yeah? Ilove it. I'm glad you. It's
a different yeah, different concept ofnuclear family. And you know, as
it puts, like, am eighteen, let's go to the University of Miami,
let's go. That's a different mentalitythan Hey, you know, go
to the closest college you can andyou know it's come back and see us
(01:52):
and have food and you know,you wash your dryer. Yeah, exactly,
the refrigerated We'll let you eat ourfood. There's definitely a lot of
you know, Asian guilt that's invotes. And so when we dropped there
at college, I was that wasliterally the worst moment of my life up
to that point. Oh you brokeyour heart. Literally just sat in the
car and wept. But how fardid she go from? She went to
Brown? She went It was about, oh, my son goes to in
(02:15):
England to school. So how isthat? I know, Yeah, that's
not allowed that we should go backto that moment and cry just for a
moment. All right, let's talkabout the film. Okay, trap like
it's in theaters only theaters only nowthe trailers, And I'm not going to
say what I think this is aboutbecause I don't want to screw anything up.
But Josh Hartnett, Josh Hartnett couldbe play a creepy, creepy character,
(02:38):
but this character he's playing as adad taking his daughter to see Lady
Raven, is your character, right? What a cool dad? It's like
all the dad you see it isa Tater Swift concert. You know there's
something going on there and I can'tput my finger on it. I don't
want to start guessing. I don'twant to screw anything up. Am I
kind of right. You haven't saidanything. Okay, good, but yes,
(03:01):
you're right. You know, theculture of being in going in concerts.
Sometimes you write something and the culturemoves away from you, or it
moves towards you. And since Iwe thought of the idea, the culture
moved towards us. With Taylor Swiftand Beyonce and you know everything, even
Kendrick, everything you can imagine,the culture has moved towards this thing of
(03:22):
going as a group to go seean artist is the thing that everyone is
talking about, and especially with Taylorand the whole families and you see the
girl Dad's going. And obviously everythingI write is based on kind of my
relationship to the girls or our familyin some way. But you're not creepy
like Josh Hartnett. Well, Joshis not creepy either. At back.
(03:42):
He's the sweetest guy, sweetest person. He came we were shooting in Ireland
and he came from he lives inLondon, said hey, can I come
see you. We were thinking aboutwho 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'swhere they are in their lives and so
it's a combination of their skill setbut where they are emotionally. And josh
(04:06):
Is just was dead on. Iwas like, I was seeing the superstar,
was seeing somebody that you would fallin love with, which is what
I what I need for the movie. Well, obviously his character has a
lot going on. How much canwe say? I mean, I don't
want to get any away, butI think I think he's he's up to
no good in this film. It'svery possible if we saw it in the
(04:29):
trailer, can we say, yeah, yeah, it's you. He he
looks several looks on his face.It leads me he's a bad guy.
Yeah, you know. It wassomething that that was stuck in my head.
Well, first of all, Sleekand I was talk we're talking a
lot about music, and I waslike, gosh, we should we should
do something like Purple Rain, youknow, where you write something an album
(04:53):
for a narrative purpose. So,Selika, what was it like. Well,
first of all, to talk aboutyour character, your character Lady Ray
and of course is featured as thebig performer at this colisem that's sold out.
How many times did your dad callupon you for ideas? Did he?
Did he fold you into the intothe creative process for your character or
(05:14):
for anything else with Trap? Well, for music wise, I wrote all
of the music, produced all ofit. 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 werekind of ideating on for a while,
and how to bring music and filmtogether. You know, it's obviously an
Indian culture. That's a very bigthing Bollywood movies. You know, music
and film are kind of equals andthat, and so something that feels very
(05:34):
natural when we wanted to do itin our own kind of Shyamalan way.
But yeah, I think the originalideas we kind of brainstorm together, and
then he wrote the most incredible script. Now I'm going to ask the question,
don't get Don't get upset because askinga father a question like this about
his daughter. Yeah, does someonechop your daughter up in this film?
(05:55):
I mean he's had a fair question. I can't say, do you get
chopped up in this film? Haveyou mutilated? No camera? I don't
know. I mean, look,we're talking about not reality. This is
okay. You never know any pointwhen she wanted to do this for a
living, did you say run theother direction? Did you try to like,
well, we know in our house, I kind of we are is
(06:16):
sacred. This is not This isnot a transactional thing. This is not
an opportunistic thing. In fact,it's the tears have come the opposite way
where I'm where. I'm like,we don't need another person going into the
arts to prove that they have valueor to get validation or become famous or
make money. If those are yourmotivations, please don't do it. This
(06:38):
is not what we want in theworld because you are just stealing everyone's agency.
Only do it to give And ifyou have something that you want to
give your point of view, thenthen 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 allthe Asian work ethic stuff and I'm like,
you're just not working hard enough.So you know, you know what
(06:59):
the Asian fist Asians and yeah,wow, it's terrible. You guys are
like the one one percent of Indianparents who are not disappointed in their children
for not being a doctor. Ilove I know, I know she's the
academic in your family, man,in your in your family, how many
doctors? How many attorneys? Andthen a radio person. Yeah, and
(07:19):
so they looked at you like,what the hell are you still ask me
all the time when I'm going toget a real job. This is the
real job. I'm telling you todo it. I love to see this
though. Yeah. I don't thinkmy parents even I don't think they really
got it until I was on thecover of magazines and then they bought every
magazine and they do. But wedo. I do talk about the Asian
(07:43):
this unusual marriage between the arts andour family and the upbringing of being Asian.
In fact, you know, youcan talk about that, you know
when I'm like, hey, stopbeing so Asian on stage. Yeah.
I mean, for me, it'sbeen 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 kindof don't put your own personality into it
in a way, and so kindof coming to writing my own music,
(08:05):
it was a challenge for me tocome out of like trying to do everything
perfect, and so now my challengeis 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.But you know, growing up, it's
all you know, you want toget 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, andyou know, if we didn't, it's
like tears and you feel like youfailed. So that mentality is definitely deeply
(08:28):
ingrained. And most of the timeyour Indian parents will tell you, oh,
yeah failed if you're wondering first AndI think I came home with like
a B plus at my first semesterat Brown and they were like, what
happened? What is this letter?And I was like, I don't know.
It's Brown more, I didn't rememberthat. That's terrible. Can work.
Let's work through this right now.Well, I'd gone straight a's on
(08:54):
my high school and then it waslike first semester of college and I took
a like a senior course and Iwas trying to do some thing and I
think I got like a B plusand they were like, there's a bee.
What is this Okay, let's allstop 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
(09:18):
night for these films that have thesecrazy twists, these twists and these turns.
But there's something else I've noticed aboutyour films. And even in the
trailer on Trap, there's just somethingyou do with these shots, these these
angles, you know that something's aboutto happen. I don't know. I
got tension built up in my neckjust by the way you handle how the
(09:43):
camera relates with the actor. Youcan see it coming and it's like hair
stands on the back of your AndI've noticed that. I've noticed that all
the way back to uh I SeeDead People. I mean all all the
way back to that that film whichI was in to you, of course,
six sixth Cents was actually it's stillone of my top five favorite films
(10:05):
of all time, that how doyou use something like a lens to build
tension? Well, first of all, thank you for that in articulating that
it is. It is the primarything of cinema that's important to me.
The process you're talking about is thecinematic integrity of each shot. And there's
two philosophies. There's kind of likethat I don't want to get We could
(10:26):
go on and on about this,but like a hunters and gatherers philosophy in
my mind, you know, Andthe gatherers philosophy is, hey, I'm
going to shoot all of you anddifferent 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 akind 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 highlydangerous, which is I'm not shooting you.
(10:48):
I'm not shooting you. I'm goingto do your shot like this,
and it's going to move over toher line over here, because that's when
you get distracted by her, andthen then it's going to move over here.
And that's all we're doing, andwe'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 inthat that way for me as a viewer
in every frame and so you know, I'm going up against you know,
(11:11):
Deadpool and and Inside Out, youknow seven and all these movies, and
all I got is this, That'sall I have. 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 stonesextreme, and then out of nowhere,
(11:33):
his lip has one little nervous twitch. Yeah, And I was like,
and when his little lip twitch yousaw the trailer, right, I was
like, holy yeah, something's goingon here. It was definitely a hair
raising moment. Yeah. Again,he's so incapable of inauthenticity. So that's
at a particular moment where he feelshe has no moves left and he's going
(11:54):
to be caught. And in theintensity of the this thriller happening in a
pop concert is that it's becoming liketoo much. What was funny is now
becoming you know, at a funhousemirror aberration. And so he's feeling all
this in that moment, and allwe talk about is where you are and
you're you're out of moves brilliant.So obviously he's done some bad stuff.
(12:16):
Clearly when you are working with yourdad on something like this. Obviously,
he's made sixteen movies and you're nowstarting 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 thatangle. Take it out. Oh
that's not an option conversation. Idon't even know what's going on over there.
(12:41):
There's talking about that wide angle distortsyour body. I'd be like,
Dad, don't you dare? Itwas like, when I saw the movie,
I had to process a little bitmy insecurities of just seeing myself on
screen because I'm just not used tothat, and you know, you notice
all of the flaws that you hateabout yourself. So that was a process.
But during the shoot, it's notsomething that I was thinking about a
supposed to think about, And Iwould never dare tell him to do anything
(13:03):
has to do. Only mom doesthat. So as you set up for
a release, for instance, Trapin two weeks, what's that anticipation journey
like for you? I mean you'restill two weeks out, Yeah, So
what happens between now and the dayit releases? Like, where do your
emotions go? I mean I'm justexcited. I mean we haven't two weeks
(13:26):
of getting to kind of travel theworld and talk about the movie and talk
about this amazing experience that for mewas 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'scoming out with the movie, and so
I'm excited for that music to beout and extremely nervous and you know,
all of the things. But it'sall very positive and I'm very proud of
the movie and I can't wait towatch it again. Oh that's so cool.
(13:50):
Yeah, I love that. Congratulations. This must be just exhilarating for
you. It's very exciting. I'mlike freaked out and excited all the time.
You deserve to be freaked out.If before you get out of here
now, I can talk about thealbum, which is coming out in two
weeks. Right now, If someonesays, hey, night, what's this
movie about? It's such a stupidquestion, but it's it's a very very
(14:13):
pure question. What's the movie about? What journey are people going to go
on when they sit down to watchthis? You know, For me,
if I feel like I have theright idea, that's half of it,
and then I have to find theright angle on the idea. Then that's
the other half of it. HowI'm telling you the story, you know,
so you know in this case,it's a story of a man who
(14:37):
realizes he goes to a concert withhis daughter and realizes that the FBI and
the police have set a trap fora serial killer at this concert. And
then you realize that he's the serialkiller. And so that's the angle.
So I'm putting you in his shoes, and you're gonna love him. There,
you go love him. We're gonnalove the serial killer. And so
(14:58):
what does that make you feel whenyou're you're with him? Like I made
you, I've made you him andnow you're in a trap. So now
what? And at the same time, you know, all this dark stuff's
happening, but there's still a popconcert going on, tailor swip concerts still
going on. There's a lot ofcomedy. There's a lot of comedy.
There's a lot of comedy. There'sa knife butchery people, something for the
(15:22):
whole family. You know. Itcame from this thing that I'd heard about
when I was a kid. Ithappened 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 awaySuper Bowl tickets to all these people and
they all showed up and you hadto sign your name and they'd verified and
they came and was watching to seecame this thing and there's cheerleaders and mascots
and music and parade and everything,and they everybody checks in and comes in
(15:46):
and you know, and then theygo into this this this ballroom and they're
all there and there's like, howevermany, like five hundred, one thousand
of them, and then they shutthe doors and said they were all criminals
that they were trying to catch.You're all under arrest. I remember this
all place was under wrest. Everyone, every cheerleader, every mascot was a
police officer. Everyone there was apolice officer. And they trapped the whole
(16:07):
thing and literally you can look thisup and it's absolute mania. They're like
dancing with them when they come in. Yeah, all these criminals are so
pumped aboat. It was called OperationFlagship, so really yeah, and uh
yeah, so you feel like thatwas this This is that this feeling like
of being that this is absurdist.You know that it's happening at this kind
(16:27):
of event. This is where I'mgonna get caught, you know, streams
of Humanity in one place in twoweeks. The album's out, so let's
talk about it. Yes, howmany? How many songs? Fourteen fourteen
trucks and you're performing all of them? Yes, yeah, and they all
feature they're all featured in the filmas well, different amounts, some little
bit and some more more featured.But yes, excited, I'm very excited.
(16:52):
I have a question about this.Yes, So you don't ever a
fiddle with his process when it comesto directing and shooting a movie. Did
he have anything to say about processwhen it came to writing the songs for
the movie? Writing, not necessarily, but I think in terms of finding
the right sound for the moments andplacing the songs in the right scenes.
It was very collaborative because it's hisvision and what he's imagining, and every
song was very specific. It wasn'tlike, oh, just write a bunch
(17:15):
of songs and we'll put in thebackground. It was like, in this
scene, this is happening, andthere's a song playing from this moment to
this moment, and then it transitionsto this song. So it was very
very prescribed and very curated in termsof what does the song sound like production
wise, what is the arc ofproduction through the beginning to the end of
the movie and the end of theconcert. And it does escalate and it
has to kind of follow Josh Hartnell'scharacters kind of feelings and anxieties and ups
(17:40):
and downs, and so I kindof tried to ride with him, even
though it's being played by this othercharacter. So it has to kind of
work down with things cause it's veryspecific process. And we talked through every
single song and then once we hadthe right songs that we wanted, we
talked through different positions and then youknow, 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
(18:02):
collaborative, but the writing, hereally let me kind of be free with
that and and just take inspiration from, you know, the characters in the
script, which is like my favoritething in the world to do. Yeah,
there was songs that were Selika andsongs 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. Soare you going to get a writing or
producing credit on this album? Ohno, I didn't do anything. I
(18:26):
love that. Yeah, it's beenit's been beautiful. And even when you
know, she when when Columbia Recordscan't you know, started hearing her stuff.
And I do think it helps sometimesto think of yourself as a character,
you know, rather than yourself.You can you know, you're actually
more honest in some ways and andfreer, so just by writing as another
character. And so I think whenColumbia heard it and felt this kind of
(18:49):
you know, the beauty of theintentions and things like that, it would
kind of all just went click foreverybody. So you still have to finish
college? Was she finished? Finish? You're all good? Now, you're
all good. Now. Two weeksfrom today, an album drops and a
movie drops. Film drops, ofcourse we're talking about trap. Uh night,
(19:10):
Selika, Thank you guys so muchfor coming in you congratulations, thank
you. I play a song,of course. The answer is yes,
uh save me? Why are weplaying save me? I would say it's
one of the earlier songs you hearin the movie. And in kind of
the world of Lady Raven, weimagine this as like a single that came
out before. But of course inwriting, you know the lyrics are thematically
(19:32):
relevant, but I won't say toomuch. So if you play save Me,
do we say this is Selika ordo we say this is Lady Raven.
It's Sela. We'll tell Lady Ravenwe 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. Welcome to the show. M Night
Shamalan and his daughter Silika. Sogood to have you here, having us
well, thanks for being had intwo 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 afilm comes out? I do get that
(00:20):
way. I don't like that partof it, of the anxiety, because
I've finished the movie and so youknow, in that stoic thing, you
should let go. I don't havecontrol 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 sixteenmovies. It's just stop already. Yeah,
but he's want your baby. Soit's like your baby's about to go
out into the world and you wanteveryone to like your baby. You know.
(00:43):
Sometimes they have any control over that. Yeah, sometimes they don't like
your baby. But this is veryinteresting parallel that's going on. Of course,
your daughter Selika is here, andof course she is featured in the
film, and we're gonna get itinto 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 lether fly. I'm equally bad at that.
Yeah, is you're not doing well? I mean are you still do
(01:07):
you still live at home? Orare you there half the time? Pretty
much? Yeah. He built studioin the house, so I work there.
There you go. It's this isanother premise for a film, the
dad who just can't let go.It's called being Indian. That's the first
thing I thought. I was veryIndian of you explain that, Kandi.
Any people love to stay with theirfamily until we die. There's nothing wrong
(01:30):
with get married and then you havepermission to leave. But like, but
I don't live with the family,and it's so stressful. How did you
not be there? Yeah? Ilove it. I'm glad you. It's
a different yeah, different concept ofnuclear family. And you know, as
it puts, like, am eighteen, let's go to the University of Miami,
let's go. That's a different mentalitythan Hey, you know, go
to the closest college you can andyou know it's come back and see us
(01:52):
and have food and you know,you wash your dryer. Yeah, exactly,
the refrigerated We'll let you eat ourfood. There's definitely a lot of
you know, Asian guilt that's invotes. And so when we dropped there
at college, I was that wasliterally the worst moment of my life up
to that point. Oh you brokeyour heart. Literally just sat in the
car and wept. But how fardid she go from? She went to
Brown? She went It was about, oh, my son goes to in
(02:15):
England to school. So how isthat? I know, Yeah, that's
not allowed that we should go backto that moment and cry just for a
moment. All right, let's talkabout the film. Okay, trap like
it's in theaters only theaters only nowthe trailers, And I'm not going to
say what I think this is aboutbecause I don't want to screw anything up.
But Josh Hartnett, Josh Hartnett couldbe play a creepy, creepy character,
(02:38):
but this character he's playing as adad taking his daughter to see Lady
Raven, is your character, right? What a cool dad? It's like
all the dad you see it isa Tater Swift concert. You know there's
something going on there and I can'tput my finger on it. I don't
want to start guessing. I don'twant to screw anything up. Am I
kind of right. You haven't saidanything. Okay, good, but yes,
(03:01):
you're right. You know, theculture of being in going in concerts.
Sometimes you write something and the culturemoves away from you, or it
moves towards you. And since Iwe thought of the idea, the culture
moved towards us. With Taylor Swiftand Beyonce and you know everything, even
Kendrick, everything you can imagine,the culture has moved towards this thing of
(03:22):
going as a group to go seean artist is the thing that everyone is
talking about, and especially with Taylorand the whole families and you see the
girl Dad's going. And obviously everythingI write is based on kind of my
relationship to the girls or our familyin some way. But you're not creepy
like Josh Hartnett. Well, Joshis not creepy either. At back.
(03:42):
He's the sweetest guy, sweetest person. He came we were shooting in Ireland
and he came from he lives inLondon, said hey, can I come
see you. We were thinking aboutwho 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'swhere they are in their lives and so
it's a combination of their skill setbut where they are emotionally. And josh
(04:06):
Is just was dead on. Iwas like, I was seeing the superstar,
was seeing somebody that you would fallin love with, which is what
I what I need for the movie. Well, obviously his character has a
lot going on. How much canwe say? I mean, I don't
want to get any away, butI think I think he's he's up to
no good in this film. It'svery possible if we saw it in the
(04:29):
trailer, can we say, yeah, yeah, it's you. He he
looks several looks on his face.It leads me he's a bad guy.
Yeah, you know. It wassomething that that was stuck in my head.
Well, first of all, Sleekand I was talk we're talking a
lot about music, and I waslike, gosh, we should we should
do something like Purple Rain, youknow, where you write something an album
(04:53):
for a narrative purpose. So,Selika, what was it like. Well,
first of all, to talk aboutyour character, your character Lady Ray
and of course is featured as thebig performer at this colisem that's sold out.
How many times did your dad callupon you for ideas? Did he?
Did he fold you into the intothe creative process for your character or
(05:14):
for anything else with Trap? Well, for music wise, I wrote all
of the music, produced all ofit. 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 werekind of ideating on for a while,
and how to bring music and filmtogether. You know, it's obviously an
Indian culture. That's a very bigthing Bollywood movies. You know, music
and film are kind of equals andthat, and so something that feels very
(05:34):
natural when we wanted to do itin our own kind of Shyamalan way.
But yeah, I think the originalideas we kind of brainstorm together, and
then he wrote the most incredible script. Now I'm going to ask the question,
don't get Don't get upset because askinga father a question like this about
his daughter. Yeah, does someonechop your daughter up in this film?
(05:55):
I mean he's had a fair question. I can't say, do you get
chopped up in this film? Haveyou mutilated? No camera? I don't
know. I mean, look,we're talking about not reality. This is
okay. You never know any pointwhen she wanted to do this for a
living, did you say run theother direction? Did you try to like,
well, we know in our house, I kind of we are is
(06:16):
sacred. This is not This isnot a transactional thing. This is not
an opportunistic thing. In fact,it's the tears have come the opposite way
where I'm where. I'm like,we don't need another person going into the
arts to prove that they have valueor to get validation or become famous or
make money. If those are yourmotivations, please don't do it. This
(06:38):
is not what we want in theworld because you are just stealing everyone's agency.
Only do it to give And ifyou have something that you want to
give your point of view, thenthen 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 allthe Asian work ethic stuff and I'm like,
you're just not working hard enough.So you know, you know what
(06:59):
the Asian fist Asians and yeah,wow, it's terrible. You guys are
like the one one percent of Indianparents who are not disappointed in their children
for not being a doctor. Ilove I know, I know she's the
academic in your family, man,in your in your family, how many
doctors? How many attorneys? Andthen a radio person. Yeah, and
(07:19):
so they looked at you like,what the hell are you still ask me
all the time when I'm going toget a real job. This is the
real job. I'm telling you todo it. I love to see this
though. Yeah. I don't thinkmy parents even I don't think they really
got it until I was on thecover of magazines and then they bought every
magazine and they do. But wedo. I do talk about the Asian
(07:43):
this unusual marriage between the arts andour family and the upbringing of being Asian.
In fact, you know, youcan talk about that, you know
when I'm like, hey, stopbeing so Asian on stage. Yeah.
I mean, for me, it'sbeen 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 kindof don't put your own personality into it
in a way, and so kindof coming to writing my own music,
(08:05):
it was a challenge for me tocome out of like trying to do everything
perfect, and so now my challengeis 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.But you know, growing up, it's
all you know, you want toget 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, andyou know, if we didn't, it's
like tears and you feel like youfailed. So that mentality is definitely deeply
(08:28):
ingrained. And most of the timeyour Indian parents will tell you, oh,
yeah failed if you're wondering first AndI think I came home with like
a B plus at my first semesterat Brown and they were like, what
happened? What is this letter?And I was like, I don't know.
It's Brown more, I didn't rememberthat. That's terrible. Can work.
Let's work through this right now.Well, I'd gone straight a's on
(08:54):
my high school and then it waslike first semester of college and I took
a like a senior course and Iwas trying to do some thing and I
think I got like a B plusand they were like, there's a bee.
What is this Okay, let's allstop 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
(09:18):
night for these films that have thesecrazy twists, these twists and these turns.
But there's something else I've noticed aboutyour films. And even in the
trailer on Trap, there's just somethingyou do with these shots, these these
angles, you know that something's aboutto happen. I don't know. I
got tension built up in my neckjust by the way you handle how the
(09:43):
camera relates with the actor. Youcan see it coming and it's like hair
stands on the back of your AndI've noticed that. I've noticed that all
the way back to uh I SeeDead People. I mean all all the
way back to that that film whichI was in to you, of course,
six sixth Cents was actually it's stillone of my top five favorite films
(10:05):
of all time, that how doyou use something like a lens to build
tension? Well, first of all, thank you for that in articulating that
it is. It is the primarything of cinema that's important to me.
The process you're talking about is thecinematic integrity of each shot. And there's
two philosophies. There's kind of likethat I don't want to get We could
(10:26):
go on and on about this,but like a hunters and gatherers philosophy in
my mind, you know, Andthe gatherers philosophy is, hey, I'm
going to shoot all of you anddifferent 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 akind 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 highlydangerous, which is I'm not shooting you.
(10:48):
I'm not shooting you. I'm goingto do your shot like this,
and it's going to move over toher line over here, because that's when
you get distracted by her, andthen then it's going to move over here.
And that's all we're doing, andwe'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 inthat that way for me as a viewer
in every frame and so you know, I'm going up against you know,
(11:11):
Deadpool and and Inside Out, youknow seven and all these movies, and
all I got is this, That'sall I have. 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 stonesextreme, and then out of nowhere,
(11:33):
his lip has one little nervous twitch. Yeah, And I was like,
and when his little lip twitch yousaw the trailer, right, I was
like, holy yeah, something's goingon here. It was definitely a hair
raising moment. Yeah. Again,he's so incapable of inauthenticity. So that's
at a particular moment where he feelshe has no moves left and he's going
(11:54):
to be caught. And in theintensity of the this thriller happening in a
pop concert is that it's becoming liketoo much. What was funny is now
becoming you know, at a funhousemirror aberration. And so he's feeling all
this in that moment, and allwe talk about is where you are and
you're you're out of moves brilliant.So obviously he's done some bad stuff.
(12:16):
Clearly when you are working with yourdad on something like this. Obviously,
he's made sixteen movies and you're nowstarting 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 thatangle. Take it out. Oh
that's not an option conversation. Idon't even know what's going on over there.
(12:41):
There's talking about that wide angle distortsyour body. I'd be like,
Dad, don't you dare? Itwas like, when I saw the movie,
I had to process a little bitmy insecurities of just seeing myself on
screen because I'm just not used tothat, and you know, you notice
all of the flaws that you hateabout yourself. So that was a process.
But during the shoot, it's notsomething that I was thinking about a
supposed to think about, And Iwould never dare tell him to do anything
(13:03):
has to do. Only mom doesthat. So as you set up for
a release, for instance, Trapin two weeks, what's that anticipation journey
like for you? I mean you'restill two weeks out, Yeah, So
what happens between now and the dayit releases? Like, where do your
emotions go? I mean I'm justexcited. I mean we haven't two weeks
(13:26):
of getting to kind of travel theworld and talk about the movie and talk
about this amazing experience that for mewas 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'scoming out with the movie, and so
I'm excited for that music to beout and extremely nervous and you know,
all of the things. But it'sall very positive and I'm very proud of
the movie and I can't wait towatch it again. Oh that's so cool.
(13:50):
Yeah, I love that. Congratulations. This must be just exhilarating for
you. It's very exciting. I'mlike freaked out and excited all the time.
You deserve to be freaked out.If before you get out of here
now, I can talk about thealbum, which is coming out in two
weeks. Right now, If someonesays, hey, night, what's this
movie about? It's such a stupidquestion, but it's it's a very very
(14:13):
pure question. What's the movie about? What journey are people going to go
on when they sit down to watchthis? You know, For me,
if I feel like I have theright idea, that's half of it,
and then I have to find theright angle on the idea. Then that's
the other half of it. HowI'm telling you the story, you know,
so you know in this case,it's a story of a man who
(14:37):
realizes he goes to a concert withhis daughter and realizes that the FBI and
the police have set a trap fora serial killer at this concert. And
then you realize that he's the serialkiller. And so that's the angle.
So I'm putting you in his shoes, and you're gonna love him. There,
you go love him. We're gonnalove the serial killer. And so
(14:58):
what does that make you feel whenyou're you're with him? Like I made
you, I've made you him andnow you're in a trap. So now
what? And at the same time, you know, all this dark stuff's
happening, but there's still a popconcert going on, tailor swip concerts still
going on. There's a lot ofcomedy. There's a lot of comedy.
There's a lot of comedy. There'sa knife butchery people, something for the
(15:22):
whole family. You know. Itcame from this thing that I'd heard about
when I was a kid. Ithappened 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 awaySuper Bowl tickets to all these people and
they all showed up and you hadto sign your name and they'd verified and
they came and was watching to seecame this thing and there's cheerleaders and mascots
and music and parade and everything,and they everybody checks in and comes in
(15:46):
and you know, and then theygo into this this this ballroom and they're
all there and there's like, howevermany, like five hundred, one thousand
of them, and then they shutthe doors and said they were all criminals
that they were trying to catch.You're all under arrest. I remember this
all place was under wrest. Everyone, every cheerleader, every mascot was a
police officer. Everyone there was apolice officer. And they trapped the whole
(16:07):
thing and literally you can look thisup and it's absolute mania. They're like
dancing with them when they come in. Yeah, all these criminals are so
pumped aboat. It was called OperationFlagship, so really yeah, and uh
yeah, so you feel like thatwas this This is that this feeling like
of being that this is absurdist.You know that it's happening at this kind
(16:27):
of event. This is where I'mgonna get caught, you know, streams
of Humanity in one place in twoweeks. The album's out, so let's
talk about it. Yes, howmany? How many songs? Fourteen fourteen
trucks and you're performing all of them? Yes, yeah, and they all
feature they're all featured in the filmas well, different amounts, some little
bit and some more more featured.But yes, excited, I'm very excited.
(16:52):
I have a question about this.Yes, So you don't ever a
fiddle with his process when it comesto directing and shooting a movie. Did
he have anything to say about processwhen it came to writing the songs for
the movie? Writing, not necessarily, but I think in terms of finding
the right sound for the moments andplacing the songs in the right scenes.
It was very collaborative because it's hisvision and what he's imagining, and every
song was very specific. It wasn'tlike, oh, just write a bunch
(17:15):
of songs and we'll put in thebackground. It was like, in this
scene, this is happening, andthere's a song playing from this moment to
this moment, and then it transitionsto this song. So it was very
very prescribed and very curated in termsof what does the song sound like production
wise, what is the arc ofproduction through the beginning to the end of
the movie and the end of theconcert. And it does escalate and it
has to kind of follow Josh Hartnell'scharacters kind of feelings and anxieties and ups
(17:40):
and downs, and so I kindof tried to ride with him, even
though it's being played by this othercharacter. So it has to kind of
work down with things cause it's veryspecific process. And we talked through every
single song and then once we hadthe right songs that we wanted, we
talked through different positions and then youknow, 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
(18:02):
collaborative, but the writing, hereally let me kind of be free with
that and and just take inspiration from, you know, the characters in the
script, which is like my favoritething in the world to do. Yeah,
there was songs that were Selika andsongs 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. Soare you going to get a writing or
producing credit on this album? Ohno, I didn't do anything. I
(18:26):
love that. Yeah, it's beenit's been beautiful. And even when you
know, she when when Columbia Recordscan't you know, started hearing her stuff.
And I do think it helps sometimesto think of yourself as a character,
you know, rather than yourself.You can you know, you're actually
more honest in some ways and andfreer, so just by writing as another
character. And so I think whenColumbia heard it and felt this kind of
(18:49):
you know, the beauty of theintentions and things like that, it would
kind of all just went click foreverybody. So you still have to finish
college? Was she finished? Finish? You're all good? Now, you're
all good. Now. Two weeksfrom today, an album drops and a
movie drops. Film drops, ofcourse we're talking about trap. Uh night,
(19:10):
Selika, Thank you guys so muchfor coming in you congratulations, thank
you. I play a song,of course. The answer is yes,
uh save me? Why are weplaying save me? I would say it's
one of the earlier songs you hearin the movie. And in kind of
the world of Lady Raven, weimagine this as like a single that came
out before. But of course inwriting, you know the lyrics are thematically
(19:32):
relevant, but I won't say toomuch. So if you play save Me,
do we say this is Selika ordo we say this is Lady Raven.
It's Sela. We'll tell Lady Ravenwe 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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