Lynne Ramsay’s approach to filmmaking involves quick thinking and fearless actors willing to trust one’s instincts – even when that means crawling through the grass like animals with just 10 minutes’ notice.
Speaking at a BFI London Film Festival Screen Talk on Saturday, the Scottish director revealed how she salvaged a crucial proposal scene in her latest film ‘Die My Love’ when the lights were dimming during filming. With no time to complete a conventional scene, Ramsay made a decision on the spot.
“I’m crawling towards him and I’m like, what are we going to do?” she remembers consulting cinematographer Seamus McGarvey. “We both look at each other and there we go…He puts himself on their level in this area, and that’s how he asked to marry her.”
Ramsay had to appear in front of stars Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence with this drastic change. “Can you just crawl like animals in the grass and roll around?” she asked them. “They were actually really cool about it. They were like, ‘Are you sure about this?’ But they trusted me.
The director also opened up about her intense working relationship with Joaquin Phoenix in 2017’s “You Were Never Really Here,” revealing that the Oscar winner had never handled guns before the thriller.
“He’s never played anything like that, not with guns or anything,” Ramsay said of Phoenix, whom she described as “totally terrifying” when they first met. Despite her nervousness, she remembers asking him stupid questions like “Are you left-handed?” » — the couple developed a remarkable creative partnership.
Phoenix’s commitment extended to unexpected moments of physical risk. While filming in upstate New York in a seedy location, Ramsay recalled spontaneously falling down the stairs while the cameras were rolling. “He just tried,” she said.
The collaboration proved so strong that on the last night of filming, Phoenix suggested continuing. “Should we just go ahead and do this with the same crew and make a different movie? he asked, according to Ramsay.
The director also shared the challenges of producing “You Were Never Really Here,” including a French financier who repeatedly told him the film would never make it to Cannes — until it did, forcing Ramsay to shoot the remaining scenes in just a week. The film went on to win Best Actor and Best Screenplay at the festival, but not before a last-minute controversy over the sound mixing when a projectionist said the audio was “crossing the line.”
Looking back on his 1999 debut film “Ratcatcher,” Ramsay revealed that the ambitious production involved building a real canal because the real one was polluted. “I don’t think I would do that” now, she admitted, while praising the “beauty” of youthful naivety and ambition. Ramsay also revealed she is working on a treatment for another film set in Glasgow, returning to the city that served as the setting for her acclaimed debut.
Throughout the conversation, Ramsay emphasized the importance of finding meaningful details to convey emotion, citing a scene from “Ratcatcher” where a mother mends pantyhose because she can’t afford new stockings as an example of showing economic love.
“I’m a dreamer,” Ramsay said of her approach to filmmaking. “You have to be tough to be a dreamer.”
