How do you plan for the unknown? You surround yourself with people you trust. McKay assembles his A-Team, and they create a COVID-safe bubble in Boston. Filming begins, and 603 cast and crew tell a story about one crisis while living through another.
How do you plan for the unknown? You surround yourself with people you trust. McKay assembles his A-Team, and they create a COVID-safe bubble in Boston. Filming begins, and 603 cast and crew tell a story about one crisis while living through another.
Adam McKay:
There's a term in survivalist circles they call, bending the map. A lot of times people can get lost even with a map in their hands. And what they'll do is they'll start like bending the reality around them to fit the map. So they'll be like, oh, the map says there's a lake here, but there's not a lake here. Oh, it probably dried up. Looks like there's a little bit of dried mud over there. It probably dried up. Well, the map says there should be a boulder here, but there's not. Well, maybe it rolled. And you start bending the map, and then the person realizes they're really lost.
Narrator:
Adam McKay is talking about lakes and boulders. What he's picturing, however, is not the wilderness. It's a crowded cityscape where approximately 600 people will soon embark on a five month journey. They will encounter the usual perils of filmmaking, plus new and dangerous pitfalls, particular to the autumn of 2020. A pandemic, social unrest, a tumultuous presidential election, major anxiety, and major eyeballs on him, the director, the person who's inspired the journey, the one holding the map.
Adam McKay:
Am I diluting myself because I want to make this movie? Am I being clear eyed about this? Am I bending the map?
Narrator:
Adam wrote the script for Don't Look Up before the threat of a pandemic shut down the globe. It's a satire about what happens when a massive comet threatens life as we know it. And the human race is too divided to prevent its own extinction. Now that a major disaster has struck, it's become more vital than ever for Adam to tell this story, even though it's become harder for him to actually film it. So right now he's assembling everything and everyone he will need to pull this off.
Adam McKay:
I was just straight up terrified that we had put together this project and that there was a chance it was going to be dangerous.
Narrator:
In a way, Adam's life was simpler six months ago, when COVID shut down all film and TV shoots, including his, just weeks before the start of production. A mass decision was made for him, nothing personal. But now that he's decided to brave the dangers and start filming again, it is personal.
Adam McKay:
I had one worry and only one worry because we know how to make a movie, but it was just, is this safe?
Narrator:
Adam had spent months going over Don't Look Up safety protocols, and it'll be months before any vaccines get approved.
Adam McKay:
At that point, we didn't know as much about the virus. Even among the scientific community, back then, there were just a lot of debates. Like we still thought you could get it from surfaces as a common way of transmission. Like that was the extra stress. The extra stress was, are we being crazy? Is this crazy? What are we doing?
Narrator:
Here's the thing about being a director, you're responsible for everything, but you can't obsess about everything. There simply isn't time. And a director who tries will have a meltdown. So that means a director has to trust the crew to handle their piece of the mission. Still, Adam knows that he alone will shoulder the public fallout if it fails.
Adam McKay:
I write the script, I'm directing it, I feel a pretty decent weight of responsibility for the safety of the crew and cast. Even with COVID, I just feel like everyone's there because of this movie that wrote, and so I do feel very responsible. Even if that's legally not exactly true, it's hard emotionally not to feel that.
Narrator:
To pull this off, Adam McKay will need his A team. People who not only know how to make a movie, but know how to keep him sane while doing it. This is The Last Movie Ever Made. Mission, hopefully possible. It's late October, 2020. The Don't Look Up crew has arrived in Boston. Let's meet some of the of key members. Consider them Adam's heist crew. We'll start with Kevin.
Adam McKay:
If I'm going to get a project going, the first person you put the project into their hands is Kevin Messick.
Narrator:
Kevin Messick has produced every Adam McKay film and TV project for a decade.
Kevin Messick:
My working relationship with Adam is really simple. He's a genius. He writes great things, which make it really easy as a producer to go cast and make happen. That's the honest truth.
Adam McKay:
You talk to him and he seems so officious and focused. And at the same time, he's also a sweetheart. Like he's a single dad who just goes to the the mat for his kids.
Narrator:
For today, we'll give Kevin his heist nickname, the secret weapon.
Kevin Messick:
I'm not into nicknames.
Narrator:
Too late, Kevin. One of the secret weapon's skills is working with talent. In the case of Don't Look Up, a lot of that had to do with COVID.
Kevin Messick:
In a pie chart of where your mind goes as a producer making a film during the pandemic, I'd say at least 60% COVID safety, because it was always more than half your day was dealing with COVID issues, versus the production issues.
Narrator:
The cast member who knew the most about the subject going into production was Tyler Perry.
Tyler Perry:
Initially, I can honestly tell you my answer was no, I'm doing a movie. I just like, I don't know how I can feel safe or comfortable inside someone else's work and bubble, if everybody's not locked down in one place, fenced in.
Narrator:
During the summer of 2020, Tyler Perry turned his 330 acre studio in Atlanta into a totally controlled lockdown environment. He nicknamed, camp quarantine. He shot multiple projects without a COVID outbreak because everyone involved lived on the lot and didn't leave. That would not be possible for Don't Look Up, which would be shot on location in and around Boston. Understandably, Tyler had some questions.
Kevin Messick:
He told me straight up, made him very, very nervous. And we had calls with both him and the people that ran the labs that ran the testing for him in Atlanta to really walk through exactly how we were doing it and how strict we were, the types of tests that we had. So it was an interesting call that I've never had with an actor before, in terms of walking through that much medical information. Those calls were successful. He came to Boston and he was very, very happy with how buttoned up and how we did what we said we did.
Narrator:
Next up is Staci. Hey Staci.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
Hi there.
Adam McKay:
Staci, ostensibly, when we started to working together was my assistant, but very quickly I realized that job title was not going to contain Staci. So she became my associate producer just because she, honest to God, can do everything.
Narrator:
Eventually Staci will get bumped up to co-producer. And not only that...
Adam McKay:
She's a producer on this podcast, she acts in the movie, she did all the producing and arranging as far as our living situations, she was my go between for all the safety and security we had to do. By the way, I think I'm still forgetting like three things that she did.
Narrator:
Because of the film's COVID lockdown bubble, much of what we will hear on the podcast was recorded on Staci's phone, which can go places inside the bubble that would otherwise be forbidden. Due to her many jobs, let's call Staci a Swiss army knife.
Adam McKay:
To call Staci a Swiss army knife is downplaying her role.
Narrator:
But it sounds cool. So we're going to keep using it. Let's move on to Susan.
Adam McKay:
Susan Matheson. She is a creative force of nature. Her personality is just the greatest personality ever. She walks into a room and immediately the room is 27% more fabulous just from her very presence.
Narrator:
Susan, as you might remember from episode one, is Adam's costume designer and has been ever since Talladega Nights.
Adam McKay:
She did the NASCAR suits on Talladega Nights. And those suits were incredible. The people from NASCAR would look at them and say like, where did you get these? And they're like hand stitched and they look incredible. I love people that, it's not like just a gig. It's not like, oh, I have a job. For Susan, everything is personal. Everything is above and beyond.
Susan Matheson:
I'm responsible as a costume designer for every person that crosses the frame in the film. And I see them as part of a painting, which all together goes along with Adam McKay's vision for the movie. We have a complete portrait, a piece of art.
Narrator:
Susan is the one who convinced Adam that Will Ferrell should UN ironically wear a light pink concert t-shirt featuring the face of the country singer Crystal Gayle, an offbeat choice, but he agreed to it. So in honor of that shirt and of the sparkle Susan brings to set, we'll call her glitter. And that brings us to Adam's fourth and final essential member of his heist crew. Cate.
Adam McKay:
It's baked into the way we put a production together that we want to be laughing and joking around and never taking ourselves too, too seriously. And the center of that is Cate Hardman, the Texas tornado.
Narrator:
Ooh, Texas tornado Cate has a nice rank to it. Let's go with that. So the Texas tornado is a script supervisor, an unsung and important role. In short, Cate ensures that Adam has filmed every shot he needs to assemble the full movie.
Adam McKay:
She's in charge of continuities. She's in charge of the script. She's the connection with the editor. And she sits next to me all day long. So for this movie in particular, I knew she was retired, but I was like, we can't do this. We need her special juju on set. And she did not want to do it.
Narrator:
I mean, what would a heist be without the veteran pulled back in for one last job? After dropping out of high school in the 1960s and being thrown out by her parents, Cate got her first film job as an assistant artist at the age of 16. She then tried her hand at animation, then editing, then finally, an unforeseen event on one film, landed her in the job of script supervisor.
Cate Hardman:
The director was having an affair with the script supervisor. Somehow his wife found out he was having an affair, so she was flying out and the script supervisor had to leave. And so they said, do you want to do the last three weeks of the film? You know all the footage, you know what we're doing here. And I was like, yes. [crosstalk] Yes, yes, I will. Yes, I'll do that. So I go over to her hotel room and she teaches me how to be a script supervisor while she's madly packing her bag to get on a plane to leave town.
Narrator:
Cate continued working as a script supervisor for the next 40 years. Until 2018 when, after completing Adam's movie Vice, she told him that she was done. And in 2020, she was feeling at peace. Retired, tending to her garden. But just when she thought she was out.
Adam McKay:
I talked her into coming. And in typical Texas tornado fashion, she came, she came a spiting. She came a spiting and a fussing. Well, Adam, I don't know about this.
Narrator:
This is just the kind of sarcastic voice Adam needs in his ear to cut through his anxiety.
Cate Hardman:
Gee, I really wanted to do something during the COVID being 68 years old. I wanted to chuckle at catastrophe.
Narrator:
Secret weapon, Swiss army knife, glitter, and yes, Texas tornado, will join Adam and the rest of the crew as they go into the Don't Look Up bubble. This is Adam's way of isolating a crew of about 600 hundred people from a city of over 600,000.
Susan Matheson:
When you go into the bubble, you are committing to on the weekends, not being around other people, not going to supermarkets, not going to the post office, not going anywhere. You're staying home.
Narrator:
Home has not been soothing for cut awesome designer Susan Matheson, AKA glitter, who just weeks ago was terrified to walk to her own garbage cans. But now she's moved into her adopted Boston home, a furnished apartment where every night she will return alone. There will be no after work drinks, no late night French fries and gossip, no off hours community. Once lockdown officially begins, the set will turn everyone into Jack Nicholson in the shining. All work and no play. Total isolation. This does not go well for Jack, but Susan is oddly exhilarated by the security of the closed bubble.
Susan Matheson:
It's exciting, scary. And it's like a count down. The clock is counting down to lockdown. I feel like there needs to be some kind of dramatic music. We need violins and we need like a launch.
Speaker 29:
Three, two, one.
Narrator:
A movie set is like a village made up of different camps, like hair and makeup, construction, lighting, and craft services. But life in a pandemic meant the need for a whole new section of this village. The COVID department. They'd be responsible for masks, face shields and air filters, and also tasks like maintaining social distance and cleaning locations. Initially, they estimated the COVID department needed 10 people and they were very wrong about that.
Ally Wolf:
My name is Ally Wolf. I'm in the COVID department and I coordinate testing for our cast. I'll arrive 45 minutes to an hour before the first actor gets there.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
How many are in your actual department though, the COVID department?
Ally Wolf:
Oh my God. I honestly don't even know all of them. That's how many there are.
Narrator:
The answer is 78, and that's not counting secret weapon, Kevin, who also found himself reluctantly playing a role.
Kevin Messick:
I was the fucking cop for people's activities on the weekends. It was a drag. Not only did all of our lead cast have to quarantine for eight days before they showed up on camera. Anybody that was in the film, even down to the smallest part, had to do an eight day quarantine before they showed up. So if you're walking through the white house hallway and somebody has one line, that person, even if they're living in Boston, has to be put into a hotel quarantine for eight days, tested three times with negative results over that time for them to show up on stage or on a location or in a scene. So it was a big puzzle. Movies are puzzles. This was, it went from a thousand piece puzzle to a million piece puzzle.
Narrator:
While we're on the topic of all that testing here's Staci, AKA Swiss army knife, and other members of the casting crew as they give us a tour of the set's COVID testing site, which has taken over a huge parking lot.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
I'm just pulling up to drive through testing. It's all set up in a big loop.
Danielle Waxman:
This is like a drive through it's like McDonald's except you don't get French fries. And I hit over three cones already.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
Oh wow. These people have like hazmat suits on. I mean, I get it.
Michael Tow:
You got to stick this thing up your nose. You know, I got sensitive like things and I hated it.
Rob Morgan:
It's a trip, man. I mean, my nose has gotten more action than me in the past. Definitely. My nose gets so much action. It's crazy.
Michael Tow:
I love going because this is the only time I could go outside. I'm like, yes, COVID testing tomorrow. Yeah. I can't wait to stick some stuff up my nose.
Rob Morgan:
It's intense. We're sometimes tested two and three times a day. It's sort of like another job.
Danielle Waxman:
Woo. That wasn't bad.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
And there you have it. That right nostril, I think you really got up into my upper brain. Woo.
Narrator:
Danielle Waxman is also in the bubble gathering tape for this podcast. In this moment, she's grateful that the COVID tester is attempting to bring some levity to her nasal probe.
Danielle Waxman:
As I'm getting tested, the guys' doing weird things with his eyes, he's like trying to make his eyes big. And he looks at me as he's doing the test and goes I'm smizing. I learned that from America's Next Top Model, I'm doing that. So everyone has a more pleasant experience during their testing.
Narrator:
Unfortunately, someone during this pre-production time tests positive.
Adam McKay:
Today is November 11th, 2020. And we just had our first positive test. This was bound to happen. The safety protocols are really good. It was caught very early. We're contact tracing, but it's insane to see how it ricochets through something as ridiculous as a movie.
Narrator:
Ally in the COVID department springs into action to contain that person so the mission stays on track. She also contact traces and quarantines anyone who might be at risk. Thankfully in this case, no one else inside the Don't Look Up bubble was affected. And the person who tested positive, made a full recovery and eventually was able to return to work.
Ally Wolf:
If someone who you cannot make this movie without get COVID, the movie shuts down. But it's not just that because everyone interacts with everyone else. You're you're going to have to come within six feet of someone in your day of work. So it's kind of this like united feeling of we have to do this together.
Narrator:
The 25 weeks of production will be an experiment in coming together for the common good to get the job done. After the break, Adam finally gets to call action.
Speaker 8:
Are you feeling stressed? Me too. There's a comet headed towards earth and we're all going to die. But as my Grammy Clara used to say, when the end is near, get your mind clear. So I'm doing that. Like many, I've had trouble finding a therapist who doesn't spend the whole session, acting like a complete know-it-all Butt-in-ski. How can you really open up when they're constantly giving me such specific actions and boring strategies that will most definitely mess up my whole vibe? That's why I started using Go Mental.
Speaker 8:
Go Mental prides itself on therapists that listen, care, and most importantly, aren't actually therapists. That's right. Not a single one of Go Mental's counselors have a degree in psychology. Instead, we have concerned independent contractors that actually care. Personally, I was helped by Brett. No matter what I talked to him about, he kept typing, just do it. I think he thought he was my trainer. He kept talking about volleyball. And I liked that. He gave me support, even when he said I didn't deserve it. So what are you waiting for? The world is ending. The path of enlightenment is probably too long. So Go Mental will keep you comfortably in the same place you've been emotionally since you took your first steps, fell down and never got back up. Go Mental.
Speaker 11:
Here we go. Rehearsing and background action.
Narrator:
It's November 16th, 2020. The cast and crew have all quarantined. They've been tested. They've watched their Netflix safety videos. And they finally arrived at day one on set. Don't Look Up will be shot largely in chronological order. The film begins with astronomer Kate Dibiasky peering through her telescope erected on the summit of Mount Akea, a dormant volcano on the big island of Hawaii. This is where she first discovers the comet.
Adam McKay:
Adam McKay here on set. We're about to roll film on our first shot. Jennifer Lawrence ascending to the control computer for the telescope, where everyone's wearing masks, face shields. Everyone's in pretty good spirits, considering.
Narrator:
Kate Dibiasky is naturally played by Jennifer Lawrence. Due to the pandemic, Hawaii's played most unnaturally by a warehouse in Boston.
Adam McKay:
All right, let's do this shit.
Speaker 11:
Masks are off, shields are off. Ready and let's roll, please. Rolling. [inaudible]
Narrator:
Don't worry, masks and shields off only for the actors like Leonardo DiCaprio.
Leonardo DiCaprio:
It kind of felt like we were walking onto the set of Outbreak every single day. Everyone seemed to be in full hazmat suits, triple layered.
Narrator:
The first day on a film set is always awkward. It's even harder when these people are the first large group of humans anyone on set has interacted with in months. Thus, the common fears. Those insecurities from the middle school cafeteria that in many people, even movie stars, never heal. Fears such as who will eat lunch with me, will I have friends, are now magnified. Can anyone eat lunch with me? Can I have friends? Luckily Jennifer and Leo are already friendly.
Jennifer Lawrence:
And so it's always like a huge relief when it's like, oh, okay, you're nice, you're professional, this is going to work out fine. And then you just kind of fall into it and it's great. And yeah, it's because we can't be in constant communications with Adam because he has to stand far away and everything's on the microphone. We kind of look at each other and give each other tiny little notes, too.
Narrator:
Adam has to stand very far away from his actors, farther than you're imagining right now, because COVID protocols. But he has an idea to get them into the mindset they need for these early scenes.
Adam McKay:
If you really look at the structure of the movie, Leo and Jen's characters, Cate and Randall really kind of start at the highest pinnacle of humanity. They're at a telescope. It's logic, it's knowledge, it's science. They're looking into the heavens from a place of humility and supplication and observation. They're then going to go down from the mountain into the insane world that we live in, this kind of ass backwards, just crazed world that we all know so well. So I asked Nick to write this piece that would reflect that feeling in the beginning of the movie.
Narrator:
The Nick Adam is referring to is composer Nicholas Britell, who also scored The Big Short and Vice. And the idea was that this music would help Adam convey the kind of tone he was going for in the film. Let's cue Nick's overture as we hear him explain.
Nicholas Britell:
Adam actually they asked me at one point for a piece of music that he could play on set and could play for the actors. And that was something new. We haven't really done that before.
Narrator:
Nick and Adam May not have done this, but a hundred years ago, at a time when the film industry was dealing with their own pandemic, this is exactly how silent movies were made. Some silent film directors hired a string quartet to play for their performers. These violins say, you're happy. This cello says you're sad. It's an old technique made new again, by necessity.
Nicholas Britell:
And it was in November, it was right in November that I wrote this kind of overture to the movie, which I called The Overture. The Overture to Logic and Knowledge.
Adam McKay:
It's just utterly beautiful. I mean, it is stunning. You want to listen to the piece of music and just lay on a green lawn for three hours.
Nicholas Britell:
That was the piece that I wrote because the idea was in the film, if we don't respect logic and rationality and science and knowledge, what happens? So, it's always a fascinating question when you're sort of taking these abstract ideas and you're trying to turn them into a sonic landscape.
Adam McKay:
So while we were making the movie and you would hear all this craziness going on, I would sometimes put on Nick's piece and it would just be like a warm shower washing away the insanity.
Adam McKay:
And Cut. That was great. [inaudible]
Jeff Waxman:
Mr. McKay from the voice of God from inside the heated tent.
Narrator:
The voice of God. Let me explain. Adam McKay's on set. Technically however, no one can see him. Adam is sequestered in a plastic tent, surrounded by monitors that he watches while speaking to his actors through a microphone. He always directs this way. It allows him to call out lines or encourage improv without taking a break in the action to give direction.
Leonardo DiCaprio:
It was a situation where he had a microphone and you'd just hear this sort of voice emanating from the room. Try this, say this line, do this. It kept you on your toes, but it was great to have that sort of voice of comedic genius sort of hovering over you for all the actors.
Narrator:
Adam sits in a blue arm chair with a red sticker on the back that reads Supreme. Supreme as in the streetwear brand, but also Supreme as in the deity, the unseen. Yes, voice of God. Someone stuck the sticker on to his chair as a joke.
Adam McKay:
Good work, everyone. Reset.
Narrator:
Adam hates this tent and it won't last. Soon, it'll be replaced by movable Plexiglas walls as though he is an action figure in a toy box. The walls are the work of the COVID team. The chair is for a different reason. Adam has a movement disorder called essential tremor, which causes him to shake. And if people stare at him or ask him about it, the shaking gets worse.
Adam McKay:
Essential tremor, it's a weird disorder. I mean, it's totally harmless. I always tell people when they want to know what it is, I was like, do you remember Katherine Hepburn? They're like, yes. And I was like that. She had essential tremor. I don't really care, but if it throws the actor off or if it becomes distracting, I'd be like, ah, shit. It kind of would get in the way. So I started saying like hey, are there any high back chairs? Like, why not?
Narrator:
Hence, that blue arm chair.
Adam McKay:
I don't have to worry about sitting in a chair and getting shaky and having to cover up for it or feeling self-conscious. If it happens, I just lean into my high back chair and it's comfortable.
Narrator:
It grounds him and makes some of the shaking go away.
Adam McKay:
In my early twenties. I had a couple times where I noticed I would get a little shaky in my hands, but you know, the tricky thing is, everyone gets shaky sometimes. Like if you don't eat, if you're nervous, like everyone gets shaky, sometimes. I was doing Second City and I had a couple times on stage where I kind of got like a little extra shaky. And then I went to a neurologist and he's like, you have an essential tremor. And he was very blaze about it. He was just like, ah, it's no big deal. It's harmless. But then when I was at Saturday Night Live, I started really struggling with it because it's the thing that the doctor doesn't tell you is it's kind of embarrassing. And it also connects with it creates kind of a panic attack response where you get self-conscious about it and you try and cover it up. Which of course makes it worse.
Adam McKay:
I mean, when it really started like kind of taking my legs out from under me was like in my early thirties where I started becoming too conscious of it. I started avoiding situations, really kind of changing my life around it. The thing I learned, the big change for me was after those moments, I used to walk away and go, God damn, you're fucked up. What's wrong? What are you going to do about this? You got to fix this. And now I walk away and I just have a whole conversation where it's like, it's okay. It's a big world out there, you're cool with yourself. I love you no matter what, think of all the things you're great about. I think of all the lucky things you have in your life. And I just put it in perspective. Nothing has been better or more powerful than when I put myself into situations where I get shaky and I just go, that's fine.
Narrator:
So far, you've been picturing Adam seated alone in a giant Plexiglas box. However, he's not alone. One person is allowed in Adam's box. Cate Hardman, the Texas tornado. To better picture Cate, I will tell you that she has short gray hair and glasses and wears fashionable scarves, mostly earth tones. Many of which she knit herself. Cate, as I trust you remember, is Adam's script supervisor. During a shoot, Cate and Adam are together at least 12 hours a day. Naturally, the two are close. They've created their own bubble within the bubble.
Cate Hardman:
The first time I did LSD, I liked it.
Adam McKay:
And what was the first time you did LSD?
Cate Hardman:
When I was babysitting the baby next door. I was 15.
Adam McKay:
Jesus Chri... You were 15?
Narrator:
Despite what you just heard, Cate does keep Adam on track. Like the day on the set of Don't Look Up when Adam decided to blow off some steam by blasting the heavy metal band Anthrax. [inaudible] With many more pages to shoot, this was not the time for Adam to rock out. So the Texas tornado picked up the oversized speaker and...
Danielle Waxman:
She walked out with the speaker. She's literally rolling it down the stairs.
Cate Hardman:
I took care of that.
Narrator:
That is the sort of power move that can only happen when the set is truly a team.
Adam McKay:
I want people that are independent minded. I want people who think differently than I do. That's the whole fun of it.
Narrator:
Which is why over in the costume department, Susan Matheson, AKA glitter, has been empowered to make her own decisions as she helps the actors get into character.
Susan Matheson:
I'm really interested in how they feel as the character in the costume. I really want to get the quick, no bullshit answer. I always say I'm an Aries.
Narrator:
Aries. Born between March 21st and April 19th, are a fire sign. They're confident, determined, and short tempered. And they're dislikes include inactivity, delays and work that does not use one's talents. Or as Susan will put it...
Susan Matheson:
A lot of times, I'll say to an actor in a fitting, listen, just tell me to my fucking face, I fucking hate it.
Narrator:
The costume department is Susan's domain. Here, she has a ritual that she repeats on every Adam McKay set.
Susan Matheson:
The first thing that happens on any movie is that I take John Wayne and the Wolf and ship them to wherever we're going on location. So the first thing to arrive on any location is John Wayne and the Wolf.
Narrator:
John Wayne and the Wolf are talismans, dating back to 2005. The year Susan and Adam were on location in North Carolina. When Susan decided to go thrift store shopping.
Susan Matheson:
That's where I found the Crystal Gayle t-shirt that I used on Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights. I looked up on the wall and I saw two velvet paintings. And one was a gigantic picture of John Wayne, and the other one was a smaller picture of a Wolf. Looking up at a moon.
Narrator:
You can picture these works of art. You've seen versions of them in ironic dive bars. Perhaps you once went on a date with someone who had art like this on their bedroom wall. Perhaps you then immediately left. These particular paintings, however, have become sacred objects.
Susan Matheson:
And I was like, I need these as totems to protect me on every movie in costume fittings. So from that moment on, on Talladega Nights, moving forward, I would put the John Wayne picture in the entrance hall of every movie I did. And I would have the Wolf in the fitting room. And in every fitting I noticed that people were looking at the camera when I was taking fitting pictures and they were looking really uptight. And so I'd say, look at the Wolf. It was incredible. How many actors said, how did you know the Wolf is me?
Narrator:
Now, it's the third week in November, 2020. The casting crew of Don't Look Up are settling into their routine. They go to work, they go home, they stay within the lines. Teamwork is happening.
Adam McKay:
You stay home every single night and all weekend. You can go for a walk. I work out a little bit, but essentially, I'm just inside. And there's some weird sports on with no audiences in the crowd and I'll do work and I'll write and I'll do my laundry. And just last week I was like, I think I'm going a little insane. I think this is like living on a submarine.
Narrator:
Anyone on set who looked at John Wayne and the Wolf, and didn't immediately identify with the lonesome cowboy or the solitary animal is now beginning to understand they're isolated from their pack.
Kevin Messick:
It was the biggest challenge that I've ever had in terms of making films when you have to go away from home. Without the ability, because of COVID, to travel back and forth, I missed my daughter's 16th birthday, I missed Thanksgiving, I missed Christmas, and my son's 18th birthday. It was a lot to miss. Isolation sucks, no matter what, but there's six more layers to it as a parent with kids that struggle more while you're away than when you're present. But the bubble that we had to create, and again, this was pre-vaccine was super, super strict in order for this whole endeavor to be pulled off successfully.
Narrator:
Many asked to bring partners and family members into the bubble. The answer was always, no. The team has to stick to the plan. And yet the team is also physically unable to bond. When each day is wrapped, each person goes back to their empty apartment alone. Including Jennifer Lawrence.
Jennifer Lawrence:
Being alone and not being able to see my husband or my friends on the weekend, and I'm so close to New York. I'm so close to home in that kind of isolation and even just the isolation at work, I can't make any friends because every time I run towards somebody, they run away.
Hettienne Park:
I'm Hettienne Park and I'm playing Dr. Calder on Don't Look Up. Usually, when you're working in an environment like this, the best part of it for me is getting to hang out with your coworkers and getting to know people and talking shit and stuff and having fun. So a lot of that's been removed. So it's really kind of disorienting.
Jennifer Lawrence:
You can't see anybody's faces. And it's just very... I was nervous about that aspect because that's one of the best parts about filming is making friends with the crew and you know. I come up to people and they scream. So everybody's like stand back, make a hole.
Hettienne Park:
God, this was depressing. Going to go order some alcohol now.
Narrator:
This level of isolation and lives put on pause, translated into a keener focus on the only thing present, the movie. Again, here's Leonardo DiCaprio.
Leonardo DiCaprio:
All the actors just mainly stayed home and went to set and talked about the movie. So it was certainly a unique proc... None of us have ever made a movie in those conditions, but I think it gave us a tremendous amount of focus on what we were trying to accomplish in the film.
Narrator:
Every morning, Adam wakes up and goes through his daily protocols. Temperature check, mask, shield, hand sanitizer, COVID test, all while giving over as much of his brain as he can to being creative, to thinking about the actual storytelling work of that day. This strange new way of making a movie without any real face to face interaction is leaving Adam feeling disconnected. And if he's feeling that way, then he's sure others are too. His idea to play nick Britell's score worked out well. So what if he went bigger?
Adam McKay:
I also did something I've never really done. I created a big giant playlist of music and just played it on set all the time to try and make up for the lack of connection by having some sort of common music. And I asked everyone in the crew to send me songs they wanted on it. So the list became huge. three, 400 song, maybe 400 songs by the end.
Narrator:
Then Adam thinks about the physical limitations of uniting these 600 plus people. He decides as the leader, it's his job to try to speak to all parts of the filmmaking village.
Adam McKay:
And then the final idea I had was, I've never done this before, but I did a weekly kind of update from the director. And we would send them to everyone, from the security guard by parking to number one on the call sheet for the actors. So for me to get to write these updates, it felt like it was connecting me to everyone. I was like alone in my apartment every single night.
Narrator:
Meanwhile, outside of the Don't Look Up bubble, across the country COVID cases are climbing to the highest point of the pandemic to date. As the production heads into the holiday season. Everyone's forced to accept that this year will not be a time for reunion with loved ones. They cannot go back for a weekend. They cannot go home. Hair department head Patti Dehaney and costume supervisor Sara Walbridge record diaries of their solo celebrations.
Patti Dehaney:
Good morning, Boston, happy Thanksgiving, 2220. I'm going to do a little cooking today. I'm making some brine right now for my little Turkey breast. I'm going to bake a pie and I plan on sharing whatever I make with my crew that are staying in this building with me.
Sara Walbridge:
Thanksgiving is just totally different than it ever was before, but I'm grateful to be amongst friends today. And let me rephrase that, I'm not actually with anyone. I just mean we're all in the same building together. You know, watching the Thanksgiving parade on TV and texting back and forth about Dolly Parton's beautiful costumes.
News clip:
Well, now at five, the Corona virus pandemic leading to big changes for the iconic Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. No more lining up along the streets to see the floats pass by. This year, it will be a television only event.
News clip:
On this day of giving thanks, we give a special thanks to the-
Adam McKay:
It's some of the Thanksgiving day parade that's airing right now. Super weird, man. Streets are completely empty around it. Like to see New York city, just weird to see at this empty.
Narrator:
Swiss army knife, Staci calls home to celebrate virtually with her daughter, Frieda.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
Hey Fri bear. Hi, you doing okay, sweetie bear?
Frieda:
Mom.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
Hi sweetie bear. Do you want me to read you a book? Would that make you feel better? I could read one about Thanksgiving. Do you want me to read a Turkey story?
Frieda:
I want you to come home.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
Oh, to come home. I know sweetie bear. I know sweetie. I'll tell you what I'm going to come home for good in a little bit. We got to wait a little bit longer after all the holidays and then I'm going to come back for good. And then we'll just be back to normal, to the good times. How about I read you a Turkey story, sweetie? I got one about this plump and perky Turkey. How funny is that? Do you want to hear it? Okay. Look at that. A plump and perky Turkey.
Narrator:
After that call Staci begins to write a song.
Staci Roberts-Steele:
(singing)
Narrator:
So far, Adam and this team of hundreds are on track. Despite the isolation and fear and anxiety. Adam has not yet bent the map. He's not lost himself in delusions that this is easy. To make this movie takes vigilance. It'll be several long and hard months before they leave Boston with a completed film and a crucial member of the team hasn't even arrived yet. Adam might be the commander in chief on the set, but someone else holds that title in his movie. Soon, the Meryl Streep will enter the bubble. Everyone's excited, but Jennifer Lawrence is both excited and terrified.
Jennifer Lawrence:
When we first met on Zoom, this was like on my phone, like waiting, you know like, oh, everybody will get on. And I was going... And then I heard like, hello. And I looked up and was like, and it was Meryl.
Narrator:
And that was just over a Zoom rehearsal. Just wait till Meryl takes command of the oval office.
Meryl Streep:
I was insane. I will say that. On this film, I was completely nuts.
Narrator:
More on that next time on The Last Movie Ever Made.
Credits Narrator:
The Last Movie Ever Made is a production of Netflix Film, Hyperobject Industries and Pineapple Street Studios. It's produced by Emmanuel Hapsis, Gabrielle Lewis, Staci Roberts-Steele, Danielle Waxman, Sophie Bridges and Alexis Moore. Our editor is Darby Maloney. The show's narrated by Emmanuel Hapsis. Our theme song is by Nicholas Britell. Mixing, sound design, and original music by Hannis Brown, with additional music from Epidemic Sound. The show is written by R. Roosevelt. Fact checking by Charlotte Goddu. Executive producers at Hyperobject industries are Adam McKay, Harry Nelson and Claire Slaughter. Executive producers at Pineapple Street Studios are Bari Finkel, Jenna Weiss-Berman and Max Linsky. Don't Look Up is streaming now on Netflix. Follow @Netflixfilm on Instagram and Twitter.