How did David and Nathan Zellner create their Bigfoot world?
Beyond the realistic makeup, which took its cue from infamous grainy 1967 footage of an alleged Bigfoot in what was dubbed the Patterson-Gimlin film (which the movie nods to in its opening sequence), the Zellners visited websites dedicated to Bigfoot lore.
“On YouTube, you’ll find people showing piles of branches that they believe are Sasquatch nests, or twisted sticks that they think are Sasquatch glyphs, and other people talking about burial rituals, so we just borrowed from all of that,” says David Zellner.
Lending further realism was the choice to set the month-long shoot in dense northern California forests, alleged home range of Sasquatch. “The location was perfect, but also tough,” he says. “We dealt with extreme weather, we shot with only natural light. There was nothing controlled about the environment, but hopefully that gives the film its ’70s nature-doc look.”
Why was production so freeing for Keough and Eisenberg?
In one of the movie’s most outrageous scenes, the Sasquatch brood gets upset and starts throwing its excrement. Standard ape behavior, but not so common for humans. And yet, enacting those scenes was wildly liberating, Keough says.
“I don’t find body humor funny normally, but when I read that scene on the page, it was just so funny,” she says. “I loved it all, it was the experience I’m always searching for when acting, total freedom in a character.”
Eisenberg echoes that. “This is something you’d do in an acting class, but never in a real movie, it’s just so experimental. There are scenes as hilarious as you’d find in any movie, and emotional ones, too,” he says.
When Eisenberg’s Bigfoot character is suddenly imperiled, the actor’s wife, Anna, could not contain herself at the premiere. “She was literally weeping,” says Eisenberg.
Did ‘Sasquatch Sunset’ sway the actors that Bigfoot is real?
So did making “Sasquatch Sunset” convince either actor that Bigfoot might exist? “I hope there’s at least one out there,” says Keough. Eisenberg is more philosophical: “I’m an angry skeptical person from downtown, but I love how the Sasquatch mythology represents a need to get back to nature.”
What did real apes think of ‘Sasquatch Sunset’?
The way the creatures are portrayed in this film evoked a strong reaction from a few apes who saw it when filmmakers consulted with primatologists.
“One of them in particular was watching, just really engaged, and then he casually lifted up his hand and smashed the (TV) screen as hard as he could,” says Eisenberg. “I’ll take that as one huge opposable thumbs up for us from that community.”