![]() “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” marks Kaufman’s first major solo directorial effort since his 2008 debut, “Synecdoche, New York,” an artful film but a box office misfire. It’s free of conditioning and normal expectations.” “I think that’s why his work is so exciting. ![]() “My favorite thing he said on set is something I concur with and often mumble myself: ‘There are no rules in life,’” she says. “He’s smart and he challenges you, but he’s also hilarious and encourages such vulnerability.”Ĭollette also appreciates Kaufman’s willingness to experiment. “He is the most humane inhuman,” she raves. The film was unlike anything Buckley had done before, but she adored the experience of working with Kaufman. This is what it’s really about!’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, that’s great!’” That makes total sense!’ Then I’d reread the script and go back and say, ‘I’m sorry - that was completely ridiculous. I understand exactly what this is about.’ I would tell him everything I was thinking, and he would respond, ‘Amazing. “I would read it two or three times a week and send Charlie an email saying, ‘Do not worry. “It’s terrifying to talk about this film!” laughs Buckley, who stepped into the role that Brie Larson was originally set to play. The film plays with time and memory and takes bold risks, incorporating everything from animated characters to a dream ballet lifted straight out of “Oklahoma!” As with most of Kaufman’s movies, trying to sum it all up is nearly impossible. There are long scenes set entirely in the car where the two characters are simply conversing that lend an unsettling mood to the proceedings, and a plot that veers from offbeat to downright strange. Still, Kaufman is prepared for the “MF” word to rear its head upon the release of “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.” The twisty thriller centers on a young woman (Jessie Buckley) who takes a road trip with her boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to meet his parents (David Thewlis and Toni Collette) at a remote farmhouse during a snowstorm. So if people want to call it a mindf- or say I’m weird, that’s their prerogative. ![]() “But I think the way to approach one’s work is to put it out in the world and let it do what it does. “I have heard that description of things I’ve done, but I don’t set out to do that,” he says. It’s usually meant as a compliment, a way of referring to something that defies easy categorization, but Kaufman isn’t totally sure it captures his style. Kaufman is also willing to talk about the term “mindf-,” a phrase that seems to come up again and again when discussing his work. When asked about Susan Orlean’s recent charmingly inebriated tweetstorm - the novelist’s “The Orchid Thief” was the jumping-off point for “Adaptation” - he laughs, “I’m not on social media, but I did hear about it.” He’s self-effacing and easygoing, happy to speak at length about pretty much everything. During his talk with Variety, he seems very different from the caricature of him. Over the years, Kaufman, now 61, says he has grown more comfortable with others and with himself. I kind of got mad at a guy once because he asked me, ‘Why don’t you do interviews?’ I was literally doing an interview with him at the time!” “There were all these articles about me saying I wouldn’t give interviews. “I think there’s this mythology around me because I was, and am, kind of camera-shy,” he admits during an hourlong phone interview from New York, where he had finished post-production on his latest film, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things,” based on the 2016 novel by Iain Reid that’s out on Netflix Sept. Perhaps it’s because he wrote himself into the 2002 film “Adaptation.” Nicolas Cage’s neurotic, perspiring performance as Charlie (and his more confident twin brother, Donald) are so seared into our minds that it can be difficult to distinguish between Kaufman’s on-screen alter ego and the real McCoy.ĭespite riding high off scripting 1999’s “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation,” and winning the Academy Award for original screenplay for 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” in his first years as a screenwriter Kaufman was an enigma. ![]() Maybe it comes from having such a wildly original, meta style, cooking up movies where people step into the mind of John Malkovich or figure out a way to erase a failed romance from their memory. Charlie Kaufman knows he has a reputation for being, well, a bit out there. ![]()
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