Movies
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You had this in development for many years. Why did it take so long to get made?
"Well, I'd been asking myself that question all the time! The idea is so obvious. It's so present, but I don't think bio-engineering was in the popular consciousness twelve years ago when I started work on it... There was a bit of serendipity. Guillermo del Toro got a hold of the script and wanted to help, but mostly it got made because I finally found a French producer. I think the sexual component of the film was frightening to a lot of American distributors."
There have been big-budget films on genetic engineering. What else, besides the sexual component, sets this apart?
"I always saw Splice as very much a relationship movie. A relationship movie spliced with a creature movie. I think in that way it distinguishes itself from those other movies where, invariably, halfway through the movie, the creature escapes into the real world and wreaks havoc. I very consciously decided that is not what I wanted to do with this movie. I really wanted it to be about the emotional connection between the creature and its creators. With the sexual component; I don't think it's something that's been tackled before, at least not in a mature way. It's really a psychosexual drama that just happens to have a creature in it!"
Is the science in the film comparable to what is going on in real-life laboratories?
"That was the amazing thing. I wrote the script with the consultation of a real geneticist and I made the film with a geneticist and technical consultant, and every step of the way, when I suggested an idea - thinking that it was very far-fetched, or impossible - they would invariably say, 'Actually, yes. You could do that.' The realms of what is possible is actually much broader than I had anticipated. In fact when I started shooting in the UK, it was legalised; the creation of animal-human hybrids for medical research. What you see in the film could happen. I caution, however, that the film is very much a film! It's a fairytale. A fable."
Did the casting of Delphine Chanéac influence the design of the hybrid Dren?
"It was a slow process, like everything with this movie! It involved a number of very talented designers and visual effects artists working together for over a year, but the basic concept of Dren, for me, was basically what you see in the film. I think of her as a genetically engineered angel... I think though, the really defining element of Dren at the adult stage is the actress Delphine Chanéac."
Did you use Delphine to influence the younger model of Dren?
"When we cast her we made a point of trying to reverse-engineer elements of her into the early stages of Dren. So, whenever you see Dren it's always with Delphine's eyes. And, you know, I don't believe in fate generally, but Delphine was the first person to walk into the audition room and I felt like she had just walked out of my head."
Dren's creators make some very bad, impulsive decisions. Did you have heated discussion with Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley about those scenes?
"Hah! You know, what's funny is, actually no. They certainly do make some bad decisions though! I had a wonderful experience with all of my actors and I think all of them understood on a very intuitive level what this movie should be and they never questioned it. In fact I think that everything that is dangerous about the movie is what attracted them to it."
What about some of the later scenes with Adrien's character and Dren?
"With the more controversial scenes I didn't really need to talk to Adrien that much. It's obviously a very sensitive scene he has with Delphine and I mapped it out for them so they would be very clear about what I would be showing on screen, but in terms of the motivation and the intent, they just got it. It just came very naturally..."
Splice opens in UK cinemas on Friday.
