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Spoilers ahead for theSharp Objectsfinale.
Gillian Flynns world is something so dark, and yet something beautiful about the humanity behind this.
These women trying to love, and they dont know how.
They just have such a bad history of abuse, and its sad.
Its heartbreaking to see how much they try, but theyre sick.
Apparently, I do have all that and lots of good help, but Im dead now.
I want to start at the very end because it was insane.
It didnt make sense to cut to these flashes from Ammas perspective, suddenly, as were with Camille.
The whole series was designed through Camilles perspective.
So shes the one discovering the teeth and the floor made out of teeth.
Maybe we just finish on Dont tell mama.
Which is what I did.
We have the official answer to our questions.
Theres no time for any images there.
Are you nervous that people might not watch that whole sequence?Not at all.
What did you tell Eliza Scanlen in that moment when Amma says, Dont tell mama?
We discussed the sense of the guilt.
You just got caught doing something naughty, like a teenager being caught by his parents doing something stupid.
But that something stupid is more than stupid.
But I said, Dont go evil.
Just go like youre a stupid teenager.
You capture and you say cut and thank you.
No marks, no rehearsals, no shot list.
How do you get actors who have never worked with you to be comfortable working in that fluid style?
Especially with someone as young as Eliza.Well, its not just the young actors.
We dont do this.
When they arrive on set, they see it will be different.
And its about doing the scene over and over.
I like to just keep rolling and doing another take.
Even between shots, were moving handheld.
They bring something new.
They try something less.
They try something more.
They can move a little bit more.
We dont change lens, also.
Its not because we changed lenses that we go tighter on an actor.
Its because they walk close to camera or because we walk close to them.
The nature of their job is to play and act.
And they said, No, so enjoy it.
Since wedont wait for the technique, we just explore the storytelling and the acting.
This is what I love as a director, to tell stories with great actors.
This is the priority.
Thats how were moved.
Were the first audience.
Im there as the director and Im moved.
Which is rock vintage.
Theres something about Led Zeppelin that suits this character.
Camille doesnt use a loud voice, but she is so different.
She is so rock.
There are only four Led Zeppelin songs that we use.
We keep using them over and over.
She likes to listen to them over and over.
She uses music to escape from within, from inside, like Alice taught her.
And so, that is what Camille is doing learning to deal by using music.
We use music in our lives not necessarily to define ourselves, but it does.
We use music to live, to love, to feel happy, to work sometimes.
I always like to find characters in a project that will do that.
Its great to design scenes and tell stories with this music element.
Yourmusic supervisor Sue Jacobstold us that Led Zeppelin was important to you growing up.
How so?Im 55.
I was born in 1963.
So the 70s were my teenage years.
But I loved also American rock and roll.
CCR, Jimmie Hendrix, The Doors, Patty Smith and Bob Dylan.
Rock was my thing.
And then I do research.
Ammas listening to these tracks, mainly.
At one point, she plays Dear Mama from Tupac.
That was just something we tried on set.
But the ultimate is the end of episode eight when we use again In the Evening.
This track was chosen because of its nature.
We can hear what [Camille] hears in her head with her ear buds in her ears.
She just knew how to make the sale there.
She likes to say that she reunites music lovers and artists that have similar visions.
Using Led Zeppelin as one of the most important sounds of the series was a blessing.
Its not classical music, but its classic music in a way.
This rock and roll will never die, you know?
Even today, when you revisit Led Zeppelins library, there are so many tracks.
Theres a track called Tea For One, that I rediscovered recently.
And I went,Oh my god, this is so amazing.
What were you thinking about in terms of his musical tastes?Classical music.
When you hear a solo piano, theres a solitude about just one instrument playing.
It can be beautiful, it can be sad.
Hes into crooners Engelbert Humperdinck, Perry Como, Robert Goulet, old-school Hollywood.
He likes to listen to French music, romantic songs.
Hes a man whos not satisfied with his personal life and his relationship with his wife.
Hes using music to dream and to be romantic in his head.
I realized I used a lot of my fathers songs with Alan.
I work with what Ive been listening to through the years and in my life in different projects.
Music is a subjective thing in every story.
I love to offer a playlist to the world, almost like being a deejay.
One aspect of the book that had to be tricky to figure out was Camilles obsession with words.
So we had to be selective in the shots that we were using to add these words.
It had to be shots from Camilles perspective only, and not like Adoras POV on Camille.
Of course, we werent gonna put a word in there, in reality.
Its just her imagining these words as theyre burning her body.
Her obsession with words was so great in the book.
To read her talk about it was amazing in the book.
But you get it pretty soon that its just from her perspective.
There were an extraordinary number of fans in the series.
Same as the barbershop.
The barbershop wasnt in the book or in the scripts.
The fans are everywhere because its the South.
We said,Well, thats probably the first time she cut.
And then, this fan thing is becoming an obsession also in her head.
Its a dangerous element.
Its a sharp object, these blades.
Since were talking about the things you added, what about the roller skating?
I just love the sound of those roller skates on the pavement.
So it was a great tool to create moments and visuals and sounds.
When we were in Georgia, we passed through Barnesville.
I think theres something there.
And it became Wind Gap.
Last question: Would you do another season if HBO asked?Uh-oh.
I was asked the same thing onBLLand my answer was no.
ThenBLLtwo is coming out.
I would have loved to do it, but at the same time I couldnt.
Im gladAndrea Arnold took over.
Would I do season two?
No, I wont.
Id love to work with all these people again.
Every one of them.
But lets do something else.
