Jake Gyllenhaal Nocturnal Animals

Jake Gyllenhaal Nocturnal Animals

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Laura Linney, Isla Fisher, Michael Shannon, Armie Hammer
Director: Tom Ford
Genre: Drama, Thriller

Synopsis: From writer/director Tom Ford comes a haunting romantic thriller of shocking intimacy and gripping tension that explores the thin lines between love and cruelty, and revenge and redemption. Academy Award nominees Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal star as a divorced couple discovering dark truths about each other and themselves in Nocturnal Animals.

Susan Morrow (portrayed by Ms. Adams) lives an incredibly privileged yet unfulfilled life with her husband Hutton Morrow (Armie Hammer). One weekend, as Hutton departs on one of his too-frequent business trips, Susan receives an unsolicited package that has been left in her mailbox. It is a novel, Nocturnal Animals, written by her ex-husband Edward Sheffield (Mr. Gyllenhaal), with whom she has had no contact for years. Edward's note accompanying the manuscript encourages Susan to read the work and then to contact him during his visit to the city. Alone at night, in bed, Susan begins reading. The novel is dedicated to her…

…but its content is violent and devastating, as Edward tells the tale of Tony Hastings (also portrayed by Mr. Gyllenhaal). Driving across a lonely stretch of Texas one night, Tony and his family are harassed by a trio of joyriders, and forced off the road into a confrontation initiated by the gang's ringleader, the disturbingly insinuating Ray Marcus (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Tony is all but powerless to act as his family is kidnapped and he is left stranded. When day breaks, Tony manages to reach the police for help, and laconic Lieutenant Bobby Andes (Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon) takes on the case. Andes forges a strong connection with the distraught Tony, and dedicates himself to pursuing the suspects once Tony's worst fears are realised…

Moved by Edward's writing, Susan cannot help but reminisce over the most private moments from her own love story with the author. Trying to look within herself and beyond the glossy surface of the life and career that she has made, Susan increasingly interprets the book as a tale of revenge, a tale that forces her to re-evaluate the choices that she has made, and re-awakens a love that she feared was lost – as the story builds to a reckoning that will define both the novel's hero and her own.

A Focus Features presentation of a Fade To Black production. A Tom Ford Film. Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal. Nocturnal Animals. Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Karl Glusman, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Sheen. Casting by Francine Maisler, CSA. Costume Designer, Arianne Phillips. Music, Abel Korzeniowski. Film Editor, Joan Sobel, ACE. Production Designer, Shane Valentino. Director of Photography, Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC. Co-Producer, Diane L. Sabatini. Based upon the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright. Produced by Tom Ford, p.g.a., Robert Salerno, p.g.a. Screenplay by Tom Ford. Directed by Tom Ford. A Focus Features Release.

Nocturnal Animals
Release Date: November 10th, 2016

 

Director's Statement

Nocturnal Animals is a cautionary tale about coming to terms with the choices that we make as we move though life and of the consequences that our decisions may have. In an increasingly disposable culture where everything including our relationships can be so easily tossed away, this is a story of loyalty, dedication and of love. It is a story of the isolation that we all feel, and of the importance of valuing the personal connections in life that sustain us.
– Tom Ford

About The Production

Boldly exploring the psychological and emotional sea changes of men and women living – or trying to live –their own truths, Nocturnal Animals is the second film from writer/director Tom Ford, following the acclaimed and awardwinning A Single Man (2009).

Nocturnal Animals follows one woman caught between her past and her present, while she consumes and is consumed by a story in the here and now. For the filmmaker, in adapting Austin Wright's 1993 book Tony and Susan into a film, he found himself once again concentrating with equal intensity on both the written word and the moving image.

Tom Ford comments, 'Writing is one of the parts of filmmaking that I love the most. In the screenplay phase the process is entirely singular, and as the film at that point exists only in my mind it is in its most perfect form. When I write, I begin by collecting images that relate to the characters and their worlds. I look for images of interiors, locations, actual people who inhabit the different worlds of the characters that I am creating. I then start to write and often actually write into the screenplay the details that I have come across when doing photo research. The worlds our characters inhabit in Nocturnal Animals are two worlds that I am incredibly familiar with. Growing up in Texas and New Mexico, the part of the story that takes place in West Texas was easy for me to write, and the somewhat rarified world that Susan inhabits in Los Angeles is far too familiar to me as well.

'I visualise every sound and image and often write in an almost shot-by-shot fashion. By the time that we actually get to filming, I have usually worked out most of the details of what I want to capture. The beauty of working with a strong production team and strong actors, however, is that more often than not spontaneous things happen while shooting that I could not have imagined and these can make the end product all the more rich and nuanced. It is important to keep an open mind when filming and to try to look at things with a fresh eye. While often they will be different than what I had imagined when I sat at my desk writing, more often than not the surprise of the actual moment and performance adds a great deal to the complexity and layers of the film."

In seeking to tell this tale that is not only a story-within-a-story but also an exploration of human desire, ambition and indulgence, Tom Ford realised that he would be exercising both his directing and screenwriting skills to an even greater degree than with his first film. While A Single Man transpired in 1962 with flashbacks to the years prior, it was largely one man's world; by contrast, Nocturnal Animals bridges three characters' odysseys while also closing off avenues of contact among them.

In adapting Tony and Susan into the screenplay for Nocturnal Animals, the contemporary lifestyle scenes drew him to visualise extremes for how isolated and lost the lead character of Susan Morrow truly is. He notes, 'Style is not the ultimate goal for me when I make a film. Style without substance is hollow and empty. I do however pay great attention to style as it relates to the characters and the story. Sets and costumes can inform not only the audience but can help the actors inhabit the role fully. Consistency of tone is important to me, and the way that images are captured stylistically works with both the score and the sound design to create a cohesive world. I am of the mind that a picture does indeed speak a thousand words and that film is truly a visual medium. I think that a movie should play silently, and that words and language should be used only when necessary to move the narrative along.

'That having been said, I am told that I write very long scenes. It's something that never occurred to me but that I think comes from my desire to form connections between the characters. In life I love nothing more than great conversation and so I suspect that without thinking I tend to create scenes with a good deal of dialogue interspersed with scenes where the audience is simply watching someone do something telling without speaking."

The adaptation process took some time. Ultimately, his final screenplay diverges from the book. Ford explains, 'The book Tony and Susan is beautifully written. It is a great story. The concept of a moral allegory told through a piece of fiction – the book within the book – I thought was fresh and original. I loved it the moment I read it and felt that it would make a great film. It was however not the easiest book to adapt and it took me quite a while to decide how to approach it. A book and a film are vastly different things and a literal interpretation of a book often does not work on the screen. For me it is important to take the themes of a book that speak to me and then to exaggerate and explore them on screen. In that way, Nocturnal Animals is true to the book even though some of the story elements are original and the setting is actually completely different from that of the book.

'Tony and Susan is to a great extent an inner monologue that is taking place in Susan's head. I had to create scenes in her life to convey the feelings that she expresses in the book in her mind, but do so visually in order that we would understand what she was feeling without resorting to what would have essentially been a voiceover throughout the entire film. Also, the basic theme of Edward's novel is a bit vague in the book and I felt that it needed to be exaggerated in order to be clear on screen."

He adds, 'On a more practical note, the setting of the book has been relocated, in part because the book was written in the early -90s, before the use of cell phones was widespread. The method of the crime that the book centers on could not occur in today's world of cell phones and online communication if I had not relocated the story to a place in which there might not be cell phone service. I chose to locate the story in West Texas –the original story takes place in the Northeast – as there are still places there where one could imagine that there would be no cell service. It is also a part of the world that I know well, and I subscribe to the old adage: write about what you know.

'In the book Tony and Susan, the character of Edward Sheffield comments that -no one ever really writes about anything but themselves,' and I chose to keep this in the film as I believe completely in this statement. We all see things through the filter that is our being. When Edward Sheffield writes his fictional novel Nocturnal Animals, it is literally made up of details and emotions from his past with Susan. Most of these were of my invention, but I wanted to emphasise that Edward Sheffield was writing a personal story that was clearly about his life with Susan and an explanation to her of what he felt that she did to him. For example, in one of the flashbacks we see Susan reading one of Edward Sheffield's short stories and she is bored by it and he is devastated. In that scene she is lying on a red sofa. This clearly is imprinted in Edward Sheffield's mind, as when he chooses to kill the character who represents Susan in the novel he places her body on a red velvet sofa. The killer in the novel drives a green Pontiac GTO from the -70s, and this same car appears in a flashback scene when Susan leaves Edward. Details from their lives together are scattered throughout Edward Sheffield's fictional story and have clearly cemented themselves in Edward Sheffeild's consciousness. In the same manner, many things from my own life have worked their way into the screenplay for the film."

Ford confides, 'One of the themes of the film that hit home personally for me was the exploration of masculinity in our culture. Our hero(s) Tony and Edward do not possess the stereotypical traits of masculinity that our culture often expects yet in the end they both triumph. As a boy growing up in Texas, I was anything but what was considered classically masculine, and I suffered for it. I empathize with the characters of Tony and Edward, and their perseverance speaks to me."

The forward momentum of the narrative – the story-within-the story- is a literal page-turner. In retrospect it seems to have been destined to be replicated in an immersive moviegoing experience. What drives the movie is the characters' respective needs for closure. Some have put into motion their efforts before we even meet them; others grasp at it seemingly out of sudden necessity.

Conveying the full impact of three main characters' epiphanies and decisive actions was something that Tom Ford undertook in A Single Man. With Nocturnal Animals, the call for portraying the three main characters went out for two lead actors who had established both a rapport with moviegoers as well as a proven performance ability to access a spectrum of emotions.

Tom Ford was drawn to Academy Award nominee Amy Adams 'because of her spectacular ability to telegraph emotion without dialogue but with just her face and soulful eyes. Amy Adams is truly a great actress. There is something in her eyes that feels raw, and truthful. I wanted the character of Susan to be sympathetic. It would be very easy to hate Susan because, as she says in the film, she -has everything' and yet she is unhappy. She has chosen a path in life that is opposite to her true nature. She is in a sense a victim of her upbringing and of what is often expected of women in our culture.

'For much of the film the character of Susan is reading and reacting silently to what she has read. This is where Amy Adams's incredible ability as an actress stands out for me. She is so honest in her performance and was able to access Susan's pain in a way that makes us empathize with, rather than hate, Susan. Her portrayal of Susan is subtle and nuanced, and was in many ways the most difficult role in the film as she could not rely on grand gestures or even language to convey the pain that the character feels."

As evidenced in her portrayals in such films as The Master and American Hustle, Adams' facility with steering her characters into shades of gray while still retaining audience identification meant that 'the character of Susan could possess many layers of complex feelings while on the surface seeming to remain calm and composed," says Tom Ford.

Although they had not acted opposite each other prior, Tom Ford felt that another Academy Award nominee, Jake Gyllenhaal, would match up well with Amy Adams. He observes, 'On a practical note, it was hard to find two established and strong actors who could be believable playing characters in both their 20s and early 40s. Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams have that ability, and their subtle changes in mannerisms and speech patterns between their young selves and their more mature selves were masterful. They both managed to carry this off beautifully."

The filmmaker was equally confident that Jake Gyllenhaal could put himself out there for the wrenching scenes in the story-within-the-story. Tom Ford states, 'I was drawn to Jake Gyllenhaal for the part of Edward/Tony because I admire the risks that Jake Gyellenhaal takes in his performances. This was a tough and emotionally demanding role. I felt that Jake would do a brilliant job and I was certainly not let down."

The crucial supporting roles of Lt. Bobby Andes and Ray Marcus, who would seem to represent different extremes of the law, were filled by, respectively, Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon and British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Both actors were sought by Ford because of their versatility, a quality which has allowed each to disappear into characters from different eras and nationalities – so much so that filmgoers might not be able to remember where they have seen these actors before.

As Tom Ford explains it, that quality was vital 'to get at these men in full; the characters may only exist in the manuscript that Susan is reading, but the portrayals had to capture her imagination and rivet the audience's attention." Rounding out the cast is a host of accomplished performers. While some of these actors were only on-set for a day or two, Tom Ford appreciated the opportunity to work with them to hone their cameos into sharp relief.

He reveals, 'I was incredibly lucky to have such a strong supporting cast. I think that Armie Hammer did a brilliant job and captured the character of Hutton Morrow precisely. Both Andrea Riseborough and Michael Sheen portrayed the very modern couple of Alessia and Carlos exactly as I had imagined them when I was writing. In relatively short scenes, they manage to convey to us exactly who these two people are and to create an intimacy with Amy's character Susan that was key in helping us understand the context of Susan's world and her personal life.

'Laura Linney's performance was in my opinion brilliant, and watching Amy Adams and Laura play the scene in the restaurant together was incredible. Isla Fisher delivered a striking dramatic performance that I think will surprise audiences, as we more often than not see her in comedic roles and she is actually a very strong dramatic actress. Karl Glusman as Lou delivered a nuanced and creepy performance. His own character and personality could not be farther from the role, which for me is often the mark of a strong actor. Ellie Bamber is not only a great young beauty but a strong actress in the making, and portrayed India with a sense of reality that I found gripping. Her innocence makes the crime all the more visceral. Rob Aramayo is also a young actor who I think gives a terrific performance, in the role of Turk."

With his screenplay having situated the characters in very specific locales both constrained and unbound by their private struggles, location scouting took on additional importance. The milieus had to enhance, and sometimes comment on, the characters' life choices. The Texas sequences were filmed in and around Mojave, California. Los Angeles locales included Bel Air, Holmby Hills, Malibu, Pasadena, and Beverly Hills; the poignant wintry New York street scenes for Susan and Edward in the past were recreated convincingly, and surprisingly, on Wilshire Boulevard.

In the contemporary Los Angeles sequences, interiors define much of Susan's world. Tom Ford worked with production designer Shane Valentino to develop these. Valentino, who vividly explored divergent life-and-work spaces in Beginners and Straight Outta Compton, was tapped by Tom Ford to take on these and other challenges because the two share similar cultural and visual references. Tom Ford notes, 'The way that Shane and I connected is quite funny I think. I had a list of production designers from several agencies and I was going down the list looking online at their web pages. I came across a page that featured several of my advertising images and even a photograph that I had taken myself. I noticed that the type on the page was almost identical to the type that I use in my advertising for the Tom Ford brand and I immediately thought, -Who is this guy? I need to meet him.'

'I picked up the phone and called Shane, and set up an appointment to see him in my L.A. office. We instantly connected and were able to speak in almost shorthand as we literally shared all of the same references. I felt as though he was an old friend and could not believe that somehow our paths had not crossed sooner in our lives. He did an incredible job on the film and I look forward to working with him again soon."

Dynamically capturing all of the physical and psychological twists and turns is Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey. No stranger to movies both epic and personal, the director of photography mapped out shots with Ford, who felt that Seamus McGarvey would sense when to go big or go more intimate for a shot. Tom Ford comments, 'Seamus McGarvey is obviously incredibly talented. His eye is refined and quick. I have admired his work for years, and I think that he is truly one of the greatest cinematographers working today. We have mutual friends but had never met, and we sat down in my office in London and talked for several hours in such an easy manner that I knew that we had to work together.

'In addition to being a great talent, Seamus McGarvey is so calm and kind on set, and so respectful of everyone, that he instantly won over the entire crew and gained the trust of all of the performers. I feel honoured to have had him as the cinematographer on Nocturnal Animals."

Other key members of the crew followed up on their work together with Ford on A Single Man: costume designer Arianne Phillips, composer Abel Korzeniowski, and editor Joan Sobel all cleared their schedules to reunite for Nocturnal Animals. Tom Ford states, 'The film is about taking great care to hold on to the people around you whom you trust, and I live by that rule. When you work with wonderful and talented people that make it a joy to come to work every day, why would you not want to work with them again and again? I hope to make many more films with Joan, Arianne, and Abel, for each are brilliant at what they do and all lovely people as well."

Of Arianne Phillips, who received a BAFTA Award nomination for A Single Man, Tom Ford reports that her 'eye is flawless. I often find myself asking Arianne Phillips questions on set about performance, shot angles, and many other things as she is not only a talented costume designer – and to my mind one of the best – but she has great judgment and taste. Her opinion is always invaluable to me."

Abel Korzeniowski was a Golden Globe Award nominee for A Single Man and was the composer on all three seasons of the baroque television series Penny Dreadful. Tom Ford explains, 'Abel Korzeniowski and I share a love for lush, classic music scores in the manner of Bernard Herrmann, and also share a love for the minimalist work of Philip Glass. Our music tastes are perfectly aligned, and Abel Kprzeniowski creates bold and dramatic works that capture and summon emotion like no other film composer working today. The importance of music in film cannot be overlooked as it can raise the tension or emotion of a scene in a way that can be transformative. Abel is for me a genius composer."

Having acknowledged, on A Single Man, that his 'biggest surprise was in the editing process," Ford came to Nocturnal Animals with an idea of how to shape the film with Joan Sobel. He states, 'Joan Sobel is my greatest collaborator and I subscribe to the old adage that -a film is made in the cutting room.' For seven months we sat side by side in a dark room in my London offices editing the film. Joan Sobel is a master.
'We share the same love of film and film references, and often diverged from the editing process into conversations about films that we both loved and were passionate about. Joan was instrumental in helping me bring Nocturnal Animals to life on the screen, and I cannot wait to get back into a dark room for another seven months with her on the next film."

The filmmaker is satisfied with the enveloping quality of Nocturnal Animals as not only a compelling and suspenseful journey but also an inward-looking one. His expectation is that the viewer will be 'open to identifying with more than one of the characters."

Nocturnal Animals
Release Date: November 10th, 2016