Emma Stone describes the experience of shooting in sequences for Birdman. She says it was exhilarating and frightening
How do you think Alejandro was able to accurately tap into the world of BroadwayIJ
I think Alejandro and the other writers have an understanding of the nature of celebrity and have been around people who are famous. I don’t even think it’s in traditional Broadway experience because there’s not really that community sense in their theatre. It’s very much a star vehicle for Riggan, so it is set in the bowels of a theatre but I think it’s a very different kind of big actor Broadway experience.
You filmed Birdman in a sequence. Have you ever shot like that beforeIJ
It’s so rare because I think Alejandro is so brilliant about the chronological nature of it. His authenticity meter will not allow him to shoot out of sequence because he needs to know what happened in the last scene. It is rare because locations are expensive and you want to shoot in that same location for days because you don’t have the space for that long. That’s a testament to him. He really pushes for that chronological order.
When did Alejandro describe how he intended to shoot the film as one continuous shotIJ
I read the script first and I think he had mentioned that it will be shot in this kind of specific way. We went into rehearsals somewhere in lA and we had the room constructed where Riggan walks in, and Sam’s just smoked pot, and there’s the sort of monologue. We were blocking everything and rehearsing it pretty extensively. It felt like theatre with more terror, in the sense that you need to move so that the camera can come in; like there’s a third animal in the room with you that you need to let in so he can find the shot.
You don’t know what’s happening; you know you just have to move otherwise you’ve ruined the shot. It was this funny combination of everything at once — theatre and film. It was almost like doing stunts. I’ve never done anything like that.
Was that exhilarating or frighteningIJ
It really was both because you would rehearse so much and you would get it into your head so much, that eventually it became second nature to move in these meticulous ways and you could actually let go and be free. You could stop thinking, ‘God, I have to lean back on this line in the middle and then I have to turn at this one point and then move.’ That scene in the bowels of the theatre where I bring Ed’s character and he gets naked, that whole shot was eight minutes long and we did it over and over again. You’re just praying to not be the person that screws the whole thing up. Then, when you get past that point and it’s all actually in a groove, it’s the most exhilarating thing in the world because it’s like Cirque du Soleil; it’s this perfectly choreographed machine that’s actually alive and breathing because of the kind of attention that was paid.
Alejandro said he wanted the actors to feel like they were performing in a live band. Is that how it feltIJ
Yeah, it felt like that and in order to play well live, you have to have that rehearsal. You have to know the song and then you have to know the song so well that you can be free and that’s sort of what it felt like — that’s where the exhilaration came in. It was fantastic, awful, brutal and terrifying.