Filmmaker David Fincher is known for his actors taking shots one at a time, sometimes with a hundred different takes of the same setting, to get the best performance out of them. Some actors have struggled with Fincher’s obsession with reruns, particularly Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of Zodiac. Gary Oldman, who starred in Fincher’s latest film Deficiency, understands the reason for so much repetition, as veteran actor IndieWire explained in a recent interview.
“As an actor, you’re under contract. You work as a clerk. You have a 12-hour workday, you come in, and if the director wants to shoot 10 to 60 to 250 times, I’m there to serve.” the character, the story, and the director, and until I shut down, if that’s what someone wants to do, I’m glad to be there. But [David is] careful. He’s looking for perfection, and that means the performance might be especially good, but you didn’t move your head far enough and the button light didn’t hit you, “he said Gary Goldman.
According to Oldman, it doesn’t make sense to spend months in preproduction creating the most elaborate sets and costumes and only finishing one scene on the day of filming in two or three takes. The actor explained this motivation David Fincher Behind countless repetitions, it’s not just that the actor performed well, but also that the elements that surround the performance fit together perfectly.
“He wants all of the elements to work, so he has it in a master, in a medium close-up, and he has it close by. There is freedom to try different things. Once the performance is there for David and he has a thumb.” Then he comes in and takes notes between shots, looking for anything that works. “We’re going again because this or that was great, but we need this to work now.” He looks at the whole thing Thing on. “
Fincher’s habit of recording each scene in turn has been criticized not only by actors but also by studios, as the filmmaker often goes over time and budget because the reruns devour all of the film’s resources. For Oldman, Fincher’s meticulousness is well worth the effort, and it is because of those efforts that the actor described Deficiency as one of the most “transportable” films of his long and prestigious career.
“It’s one of the few pictures I’ve taken that are so portable. It’s a luxurious thing to look at while I’m there. I can get lost, it puts you in a trance when you look at them. I am amazed.”
Directed by David Fincher, Deficiency The stars are Gary Oldman, Tom Burke, Amanda Seyfried, Lily Collins, Tuppence Middleton, Arliss Howard and Charles Dance. The film is currently being streamed on Netflix. Read the entire interview on IndieWire.