Song to Song – SXSW

By: Christina Moore

The Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas housed the SXSW premiere of the long awaited Terrence Malick film Song to Song featuring Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara and Natalie Portman.

Due to schedule issues, Gosling, Fassbender, Mara and Berenice Marlohe did a small question and answer session before the film began in order for some of the cast to make their perspective flights out of town. The SXSW conference director of film, Janet Pierson, moderated the session beginning with the feature’s producers Kenneth Kao, Nicolas Gonda and Sarah Green.

“Let’s get South by Southwest started, huh?” Kao asked to a round of applause before thanking Pierson for her hospitality and Allie Malick, the muse behind the film. Koa then continued, “This film, as you will soon see, is a love story that was filmed in Austin.”

Sarah Green made a statement on an absent Natalie Portman’s behalf, “She wishes she could be in Austin with you all tonight. She just had her baby and just cannot get on a plane yet, but she’s very, very happy. She so enjoyed getting to work on another project with Terry (Malick) and to share scenes with the incredibly talented Mr. Fassbender in this amazing city.”

Pierson asked of the cast, “What is it like working with Terrence Malick?” Michael Fassbender was the first to answer, “It’s like working with no one else. It’s intense, it’s challenging, it’s rewarding, it’s fun, it’s scary… Essentially, he never stops writing so it’s not that there’s not a script there, it’s just very hard to learn the dialogue in such a short time. So, he allows you to read it, absorb what you can from it and then improvise, really. The whole experience was really an advanced improvisation class with him at the helm. He’s an absolute original. A great poet. So, for me, it was an absolute dream. It was almost like going back to school in a way and re-learning a lot of things.”

After a short pause, Gosling chimed in, “I mean…That’s exactly right,” to a chuckle from the audience. “That’s exactly what I was going to say,’ Gosling laughed. “We all wanted to have this experience of working with Terrence Malick. It’s like nothing else. He’s one of the few filmmakers where you can watch a few seconds of his movies and you know that he made. That’s very rare and working with him is a completely different way of working and he’s always looking for something and you’re happy to help if you can. Every day was different and it was such an interesting… Like, suddenly Patti Smith is there and she’s with you for a few days and you get to hang out with her and watch her work… I think this (The Paramount Theater) is the only location in Austin that we didn’t shoot in. It’s a completely unique experience and you leave everything you thought you knew behind and you just go on this experience and it was really great.”

Pierson then asked Fassbender what it was like watching the film. He answered, “For me it was just really the doing of it. In general, for me I find this job is – the really educational part and the really fulfilling part is in the doing. There’s also something special about that generation of filmmaker that just has this burning energy. Terry’s energy is like a teenager. You get a half hour for lunch and then it’s go, go, go and it’s one film magazine after another and he’s got an incredible energy and driving crew.”

Mara joked, “It’s been so long ago now, it’s hard to remember what it felt like filming this. It was really challenging and painful at times but also really fun. I just remember the whole time being really aware that it was special to be making something this way because its so different than the way anyone else is making movies out there. So, I remember being really aware of how special it was on the days where it was… rough.”

Marlohe finished the Q&A by saying, “I just enjoyed the freedom part of it. Just to be able to just do things and try things and just be alive.”

Song to Song opens March 17th, 2017.