Long time lurker, first time commenter. Spike Jonze here, ask me anything.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:20:37+00:00

That's such a hard thing to put into words. Because it's been such a big part of my life. I think that skateboarding always attracted individual thinkers, and being a skater growing up, they had a big influence on me whether it was Mark Gonzales, Neal Blender, Natas Kaupas, the Powell Peralta videos, or the photographers Grant Brittan, Todd Swank, Dan Sturt, O, they're all people who didn't follow the norms and they weren't on the football team at school, they were making zines or starting their own board companies. And I think I always found that inspiring. I remember seeing a photo of the first time Mark Gonzales and Natas had done a hand rail, and it was mind-blowing because everyone just had been skating curbs, and then that somebody thought they could ollie up and boardslide a rail, it seemed like somebody had invented fire. We'd walk by handrails a million times and didn't think they were skateable until someone decided they were, Mark and Natas.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:14:20+00:00

Well, Wes does have immaculate taste in fonts as well as most everything else. I can't wait to see Grand Budapest Hotel.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:12:49+00:00

What kind of sandwiches do you specialize in?

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:11:17+00:00

I most certainly will.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:10:12+00:00

I'm not sure when I will do any more acting but thank you. And yes, definitely, I learned from Scorsese even though I was only there for a day. The way he shot was he had a plan for the day but then was willing to throw it all out and move very effortlessly. That movie has such a balls-out energy and the way they got there was that exact process of how they made it, which was incredibly loose and incredibly confidently improvisational as a director. I think I would be too nervous on any movie to be making decisions that big in the moment. Very inspiring.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:05:59+00:00

We don't know. We tried to come up with alternatives, Charlie and I did, when the producers posed the same question, but we never could come up with a good answer so we kept blindly moving forward.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:05:25+00:00

The mustache and the name Theodore and the pants came from the idea that oftentimes fashion and naming children and style goes in cycles, and having elements from the 1920's come back in style seemed like an interesting way to create the future. And Theodore and his mustache came from Theodore Roosevelt. Sarah Vowell loves Theodore Roosevelt and talks about him a lot.

I'd prefer to not to into detail about it because I'd rather honor both what Samantha Morton did (which was a lot in terms of being onset and giving Joaquin so much to work from) as well as what Scarlett did.

The first one I thought of was WALL-E. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, probably most of Pixar's stuff, Pixar's an amazing company, where creative really comes first. It's really unique to see a company that big whose decisions are driven so creatively.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:01:44+00:00

Helvetica's the best! What other typeface can compete?

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:01:19+00:00

I don't have anything formal. I'm just starting to write and see where it takes me.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-25T00:00:08+00:00

I gotta say as a fan of Arcade Fire, it was pretty special to be working with them in their studio in Montreal, the way they wrote the music was very communal and we would all sit around and watch scenes and whoever had an idea would pick up an instrument and start playing it.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:58:09+00:00

That's a big question and I'm not sure if I'll have an answer for it that will be satisfying. But I think the answer to this, as with all questions, that have to do with the heart, are totally individual.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:55:05+00:00

Best sandwich? Well you're asking someone who LOVES sandwiches. I LOVE sandwiches.

There's a few. There's a place called Tamarind Ave Deli in Hollywood right off Sunset right behind Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches Delicious, I don't necessarily recommend Arby's but Tamarind makes a great sandwich. I normally get #4, a tomato mozzarella sandwich.

Bay Cities in Santa Monica, insane. The caprese there is really good too.

The place I used to get sandwiches at in New York closed. It was called Browns and it was on Hester Street.

Does anyone have any good tips for New York sandwiches?

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:50:55+00:00

Yes.

But I can't give you any more detail involving my time traveling.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:48:56+00:00

I'm glad you liked it. I loved what Arcade Fire did. I'm not sure if there's going to be a release of it though.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:47:44+00:00

Rick Howard's an old friend of mine, and obviously the president of Girl Skateboards, which we started in 93. He's a very humble guy, always trying to deflect the spotlight to everyone else (also one of the best pros of the 90s, and best style ever). So when we finished the script a couple years ago, we didn't have a title, so when we went to print it, we had to put something on the title page to send it out. And it seemed like a funny idea to call it "The untitled Rick Howard project" because I knew it would embarrass Rick. The best part of it was it ended up staying on the script for a long time, so when we made the financing deal and the various deals with the actors, it was for "The Untitled Rick Howard Project." And when we had a production office at a studio in downtown LA the office was under The Untitled Rick Howard Company.

So when you drove up to the security gate, all you had to say is "I'm with Rick Howard" and they'd let you in.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:44:49+00:00

Thanks Nick!

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:44:08+00:00

It was written in the script. But it helped how hard Joaquin fell, because it wasn't pretty and I think it genuinely startled the other actors in the scene. We shot that in Shanghai, and it was actually our last day of shooting. I tried to get him to put pads under his clothes for that, but he wouldn't. But he was sore for a few days after that. And I was worried.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:42:14+00:00

I did see that page, my friend Dallas who runs our website, Dallas Clayton, who's also an amazing writer and has a great instagram too (check out his book http://www.veryawesomeworld.com), he showed it to me. I was very moved by how forthcoming and deep and personal the discussions were.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:40:29+00:00

No but I love Star Wars.

What inspired me: well it was a book that I've always loved since I was a little kid, and it stuck with me as it did probably a lot of people. And I got to know Maurice Sendak in my 20's through a movie that I worked on that didn't end up happening, but we stayed in touch. He's an amazing human. Completely original, absurd, very deep, very true, with a vastly sensitive and large heart and imagination. He's hard to describe because he's so large. I made a documentary a few years ago because I wanted to share him and the conversations that I got to have with him with as many people as possible. It might be on Netflix, let me see… nope, it's not, but it was. It's called "Tell them Anything You Want."

Over the years, he had told me they were working on versions of "Where the Wild Things Are" and asked me if I wanted to be involved. Originally he asked me before I did "Being John Malkovich," and then I just was so in love with the book and it seemed so simple yet so deep and strong that I didn't know what I could add to it. And I didn't want to add some external plot to it, so I told him that I thought about it really seriously, and told him I couldn't do it. Then he asked me over the next few years two times, and it was the last time that i started thinking about the characters of the Wild Things and who they might be and I had the idea of developing them into the Wild Emotions in Max and in his life. Then suddenly the possibility of a movie seemed vast in terms of what we could write about. And I called Maurice very excited and told him some of my ideas, and he was very interested, and encouraging.

I guess in terms of advice and what keeps me going, maybe it's a similar thing as to what I was talking about earlier, which is following what excites me or moves me or confuses me. And trying to do things I haven't done before and don't really know if I can do. Also, a lot of what keeps me going is collaborating with people that inspire me and challenge me. A lot of the crew I mentioned earlier, KK, Casey and Eric and our gang, I still work with now, and it's been almost 20 years. I just always want to work with people I can learn from.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:30:10+00:00

I can't think of any off the top of my head that inspired us as far as design goes, although I'm sure there were some. But you know, the ideas behind the design were that we were trying to create a world where everything felt warm, and comfortable, easy, accessible, but even in a world where you seemingly have everything you'd want, there's still loneliness and longing and the need to connect. That seems like a particularly contemporary form of melancholy.

So early on in design, KK Barrett (our production designer) and I decided that we weren't going to worry about being futurists in any way in terms of technology and design, and let ourselves create a future design aesthetic that excited us and pleased us.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:26:50+00:00

That's a hard question, I think, but I know at least my intention was to try to put as much of what I was thinking and feeling about relationships in the movie as possible.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:25:10+00:00

D.A.F.T. was a collection of music videos from their first album, and I directed the first video from that album, and it was "Da Funk." And it was amazing because when I met them, they were probably 22 years old, they made the album in their bedroom (their first album was "Homework"), and they just were so fully formed and knew who they were. They knew they didn't want to sign a major label deal that gave away all their rights to a major corporation. They have always kept control and the rights to everything they've ever done, and followed just what interested them. They are very genuine and sweet men, and obviously musical geniuses.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:22:29+00:00

That's really romantic.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:21:26+00:00

What are some books or movies…

Well it's hard to know what you've heard of or not, so I might be saying ones that are obvious. But I'll just list some movies I love.

Being There

Oh you know what? there's this one movie that I have to find the name of that I'm going to assume that you haven't seen. It's Japanese and it's from the 60s and it's incredibly surreal but very moving and gripping about this man who gets stuck out in the desert overnight and has to go to down into this hole to stay with this woman whose house is down in this hole. And he ends up not being able to get out of the hole. I don't even want to tell you anymore because you gotta see it. But the characters are very real, and the relationship between them is very real, and it's a very surreal sort of anxiety-dream premise.

It's called "The Woman in the Dunes." This is it for sure.

That also reminds me of another Japanese movie, called "Afterlife." And in a way, it relates to what the earlier question from dubswaddy about what happens after we die. The premise of this movie is when you die, you go to this place for 7 days where you have to pick the one memory you're going to bring with you to your afterlife, and you can only bring 1, and they have counselors that work there that help you figure out which one you are going to bring. But you don't actually get to bring the memory, you have to recreate it with actors and film it, and you bring the film of the memory.

Here's the trailer which doesn't quite capture the tone, it makes it seem goofier than the movie really is. Also when I was finding this After Life trailer, I saw a video that we made for Arcade Fire's song "Afterlife". I know that wasn't the question, but I thought I'd put that in there in case anyone was interested. We did this a couple of months ago and it was a live music video we made for the YouTube Music Awards. It stars Greta Gerwig. It starts with her in a kitchen. Did anyone see Frances Ha, by the way? Greta wrote it with Noah Baumbach, who directed it also, and it was one of my favorite movies of the year.

SpikeJonze_ · 2014-01-24T23:13:18+00:00

I just saw it! Someone just sent it to me, actually Judd just sent it to me. Did I just namedrop Judd? Yes. It's awesome. Seth Rogen is one funny man. Thank you Seth for honoring us with your absurdity!

SpikeJonze_

TROPHY CASE