MANIAC
Director Cary Fukunaga explains the weirdest show of the season
THIS TEN-PART comedydrama stars Emma Stone and Jonah Hill as troubled souls brought together when they volunteer for a drug trial which sends them on dream journeys to myriad fantastical settings. Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) directed the whole bewildering series, and talked us through its genesis.
THE CHALLENGE
“My manager brought up the idea of adapting this show [from the Norwegian original] three years ago… the key was that I could play with any genre I wanted and any actors. At this point in my career all the different genres I’ve tried so far have been studies, and I haven’t necessarily found my voice. This felt like an opportunity to stretch the range that I’d previously worked in.”
THE CONCEPT
“We wanted to explore the idea of people trying to fix themselves, which is now a huge, billion-dollar industry, but for [writer] Patrick [Somerville] and I, the only way to do that was with a bit of humour. We didn’t want to take it too seriously.”
THE TONE
“A good friend of mine once said, ‘Tone wasn’t built in a day.’ Finding the right tone for the show was something that was still going on through the writing and directing period. One of my main jobs as a director is to get all the actors performing like they’re in the same show. That was an exercise in controlled anxiety.”
THE CAST
“The chance to work with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill was a huge part of the appeal. Emma doesn’t do fantasy, she doesn’t understand why people get excited about it. So this is the only chance we’ll get to see her doing something in any way fantastical. Jonah comes at things without training, so he has to experience what his character is going through; he had to be depressed for this role. His character is a very gentle soul, looking for a connection.”
THE CINEMATIC AMBITION
“We honed the aesthetics of the show — we worked on mood boards, with examples of a lot of photography and architectural studies to create colour and tonal palettes. It may feel like there’s randomness to the aesthetic but there is a reason for it all.”