The relationship between a Director and his girlfriend is tested in Director Sam Levinson’s romantic drama, Malcolm & Marie.
Levinson’s film takes place following a celebratory movie premiere as Malcolm (John David Washington) returns home with his girlfriend Marie (Zendaya). Their evening suddenly takes a turn as revelations about their relationships begin to surface, testing the strength of their love.
On February 5, Levinson discussed the making of Malcolm & Marie in a DGA Virtual Q&A moderated by Director Derek Cianfrance (The Light Between Oceans).
Levinson spoke about the challenges filming a story that was taking place in one night in a single location and in almost real time and what it took to find what he needed. “We tried to figure out what works best for the kind of the emotion then kind of refine it, like for instance the whole review scene where Malcolm's outside screaming at the trees. We blocked it and then shot it for I would say six hours of one night. Towards the end of the night, I just I felt like we were too close on him and we couldn't understand the absurdity of him getting this great review and losing his mind. So, I was like, ‘Oh we need to be wider in this.’ Knowing that, we came back and re blocked everything the next day and were able to knock it off really quickly because we had found the rhythm of the performance. We just needed to be further back from it so we could we could see how small he is in this world raging about the greatest review ever.”
Levinson’s other directorial credits include the feature films Assassination Nation and Another Happy Day; and episodes of the series Euphoria.
Levinson has been a DGA member since 2015.
You can listen to Levinson's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.
About the DGA Virtual Q&A Program
Mirroring the ever-popular DGA Membership Screening Q&A program in the virtual space, DGA Members can now learn more about films directly from the filmmakers in this series of livestreamed conversations.