Ari Aster opens up about his polarizing 'nightmare comedy' Beau Is Afraid
The director sits down with Q’s Tom Power to talk about his brilliant and bewildering new film
Ari Aster's latest project, Beau Is Afraid, has been called alienating, unhinged and the most bizarre film of the year, leaving both audiences and critics divided. Fortunately, after the success of his first two films, Hereditary and Midsommar, the director told Q's Tom Power he had earned just enough goodwill from A24 that he "didn't really have to pitch it."
"I would usually just describe it as a nightmare comedy," Aster said about the film. "I didn't really have to sell it to [the studio]. I think they all kind of understood very early on that it was, you know, a risk."
Beau Is Afraid is a three-hour head trip that stars Joaquin Phoenix as Beau Wassermann, a mild-mannered but paranoia-ridden man who embarks on a surreal odyssey to return home to his mother. His journey unfolds through a series of strange events, random encounters and near-psychedelic experiences.
"The way to watch [the film] is just to open yourself up to whatever because it changes a lot," said Aster. "I think those pivots could either be frustrating, or, I hope, exciting and invigorating. But it's one or the other. If you fasten yourself to any given point in the film, you're not going to stay there."
Aster said he's been thinking about this story his entire career, having written the first iteration of the script about 11 years ago. In his interview with Power, he was reticent about revealing too many of his personal thoughts on the film.
I was thinking about a lot of stuff. I mean, I already regret even just saying that.- Ari Aster
"It's about guilt and anxiety — and ambivalence more than almost anything," he said. "I think ambivalence is a very particular kind of hell. And I wanted to make something that was very seriously about that. And, you know, it's about an unlived life. It's about somebody who's really trapped in that hell.
"I was thinking about a lot of things. I was thinking about pharmaceuticals. I was thinking about parents and children and, like, inheriting a world that's awful…. I don't know, I was thinking about a lot of stuff. I mean, I already regret even just saying that because I don't want to, like, saddle it with any of my talking points."
Joaquin Phoenix taught him a whole new way to make movies
Immediately after Aster finished the script, he asked Phoenix if he would consider taking on the titular role.
"We fell into this courtship phase," he said. "[Joaquin is] somebody who does not take any role lightly, like, he doesn't take on any role without really asking himself whether he wants to give all of himself to it — because that's what he does. He's a very committed artist. I think he was wrestling with it for a while and then finally jumped on and from there, it became a really close, joyful and intense collaboration."
Before shooting started in Montreal, Phoenix joined Aster on location nearly a month early to read over the script and ask questions. The collaboration changed Aster's entire approach to filmmaking.
"To be honest, the process of working with him kind of taught me how I wanted to work from now on," Aster told Power.
"Just in the way that he approached any given scene…. You see him bump on something. He'll stop short. And it usually means there's something false there … and his body will stop him from doing something if it doesn't feel true. I learned kind of early on to recognize that and then see that as an opportunity to [be] like, 'OK, well, let's take three steps back and let's talk through this and go back to the lab.' And every time that he bumped on something, he was right."
WATCH | Ari Aster's interview with Tom Power:
Landing an iconic Mariah Carey jam for the soundtrack
One surprising inclusion in the film's soundtrack is Mariah Carey's 1995 hit Always Be My Baby, which factors into a pivotal scene in the climax.
To secure her blessing, Aster wrote Carey a letter with his plan for the song. "We got approval pretty early on…. I just figured once we got the approval that she must be really busy and she was not able to watch the scene," he said with a laugh.
Carey did see the scene and told Aster she appreciated his letter when they recently met at the April 10 after-party for the premiere of Beau Is Afraid.
"I am really happy that that song is there," Aster told Power. "It was in the script and I was challenged in post to consider another song because, you know, it had a price tag attached to it. And I couldn't. We tried something like 300 other songs and there were some songs that worked in one way or another, but nothing came close to what that song kind of did to that scene."
The full interview with Ari Aster is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Ari Aster produced by Mitch Pollock.
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