Skip to main content

Hossein Amini talks filmmaking and 'The Two Faces of January'

Posted , updated 
Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac in The Two Faces of January
Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac in The Two Faces of January()
Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac in The Two Faces of January
Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac in The Two Faces of January()
British screenwriter Hossein Amini’s directorial debut 'The Two Faces of January' is based on a Patricia Highsmith thriller. He discusses the joys and challenges of making his first film at forty-something with Jason Di Rosso.
Loading

Jason Di Rosso: I read in the production notes that this was the first time you read a book you felt compelled to direct the film of. Could you explain why?

Hossein Amini: It was the characters. In a way they were so far away from me, they were these criminals, these con men from the ‘60s, Americans. Yet I recognised not particularly pleasant things in myself and people I knew, whether it was paranoia or jealousy or insecurity and the need to be something you’re not. I thought, 'I really get these people and understand them.' I felt that I could talk to actors about what I felt these characters were and who they were. That for me was what gave me the confidence, and even though it’s set in these big landscapes and different countries, it’s a very intimate story of these three people, so I felt it was manageable. I underestimated how hard shooting a period movie in different countries is.

I suddenly learned to appreciate the fluidity on set and the idea that actually it’s fine for actors to change lines and you can’t be too precious.

JDR: I notice there’s a thank you to two great filmmakers who are no longer with us—Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella—at the end of the film. Were they mentors in any way?

HA: By the time they came on, it had already taken 10, 15 years of me trying and failing to get it made or even taken seriously. Then Anthony very kindly said he’d produce it for me. I think he read one draft and I got this note saying ‘Anthony thinks there’s a film in there somewhere’—that was his first response to it. Then, very tragically, he died pretty much immediately afterwards. I never really had the privilege of working with him and [producing partner] Sydney, who I think would have been amazing father figures in a story which was about fathers and sons.

When they passed away it went almost right back again. It was then really that Viggo [Mortensen], even though he is only a little bit older than I am, was a sort of second father figure on it. He’d read the script without me even knowing. My agent had passed it to his agent and somehow it had got to him and he had liked it and was interested in meeting.  I went to Madrid and we talked about it. I was auditioning for him, although he never made it feel like that. At the end, he said, ‘I’m happy for you to make a first film,’ and after that he became a real partner and collaborator on the whole thing and has continued to be incredibly supportive.

Loading

JDR: Because it is really hard, isn’t it, for a screenwriter to make the move to an on-set role? How did you prepare yourself for it? Was it a case of surrounding yourself with great people?

HA: That’s really important. I’d also been really lucky in that Nicholas Winding Refn, who directed Drive, really included me more than anyone else had done in the shooting side of it. I wasn’t there on set that often, but I was living with him while he was meeting with the actors, I’d go on location scouts with him. I think he was so confident in himself as a director he didn’t feel threatened by a writer talking to actors, he controlled the whole process.

I suddenly learned to appreciate the fluidity on set and the idea that actually it’s fine for actors to change lines and you can’t be too precious. Before that experience I’d sit behind a monitor on the days that I would be invited [to set] and tear my hair out thinking, ‘Oh, they’ve changed that inflection or that line.’ But I suddenly realised that actually the accidents that happen on set, the day to day stuff and suggestions that are suddenly thrown in, that living breathing organism that is the filmmaking process is such an important thing. I borrowed a lot of that when I was filming.

This article contains content that is not available.

Even though I’d planned really meticulously, and that gave me a certain kind of confidence, I let those accidents happen and really listened to people. I felt at forty-something, directing for the first time, I wasn’t afraid to look stupid or ignorant and found that people were very helpful.  And like you said, being surrounded by Marcel Zyskind who’s a phenomenal cinematographer, Michael Carlin who’s an extraordinary Australian production designer—particularly with locations and finding them—and Steven Noble, who did the costumes, pretty much the whole cast and crew were just brilliant but also very supportive. They never made me feel like a first time director, which helps.

The Final Cut is your guide to films worth talking about, big and small—from Hollywood blockbusters to the outer reaches of world cinema.

WhitePaper

Posted , updated 
Arts, Culture and Entertainment, Film (Arts and Entertainment), Director