I KILL GIANTS Interview: Anders Walter, Director

Århus, Denmark native, Anders Walter won a Best Short Film, Live Action Oscar for his short film Helium in 2014. Though he has only directed four shorts, Walter has been in the film industry as a storyboard artist, having the chance to work with some of the great Danish directors of our time. Walter’s first feature, I Kill Giants, will be released on March 23, 2018. It is a giant, pardon the pun, leap in scope from the size of films he is used to working on, but he overwhelmingly exceeded expectations.

I Kill Giants is about a young girl named Barbara (Madison Wolfe), who creates a fantasy world in which she battles menacing giants in order to escape her harsh reality. The film also stars Zoe Saldana, Imogen Poots, Jennifer Ehle, and Sydney Wade. I had a chance to speak with Walter about the making of I Kill Giants, what draws him to the intersection of fantasy and death in storytelling, working with producer Chris Columbus, directing a phenomenal, female-led cast, and what he’s looking forward to in his career.

Alex Arabian of Film Inquiry: Congratulations on an amazing film.

Anders Walter: Thank you, sir.

I really enjoyed it. It was incredible. What drew you to this subject matter and this script, initially?

Anders Walter: I don’t know what it is with, with [laughter] me, because I have done a couple of short films before I did I Kill Giants, and thematically, they do feel very similar to I Kill Giants. And I’m just kind of very intrigued and curious about how children and young teenagers – how they handle certain painful, traumatic situations and how they kind of use imaginary worlds and fantasy as a pain relief of some kind, or at least to help them, for the world to feel less painful.

And there’s something about that subject matter that really interests me. I don’t know specifically why that’s such a big thing for me because, obviously you would then think that I’ve experienced something similar, but I haven’t. I was just a kid who would travel a lot in my own imaginary world, when I was kid, and I would be very much into my own kind of imaginary, parallel universes, creating my own stories and such things. So, there is definitely an understanding for how far you can go and how much you can use these worlds as a parallel life almost.

How much of this film was made with practical effects and how much CGI did you use? I noticed a lot of the film seemed so intimate because there wasn’t from, what I saw, too much use of CGI?

Anders Walter: I mean, I stayed away from using too much CGI on purpose. For me, this film was about characters. It was never going to be a big explosion of CGI and action. It is a very intimate film and patience – there’s a lot of talking between Barbara and the school counselor or Barbara and Sophia. And the film, for the first hour, this movie is living off the tension between the characters, and all you see when it comes to giants is barely things that are being suggested in the stories and behind the heaviness. Then, of course, in the end when you see the titan and it’s full on CGI.

But everything up until that moment is– you know, you do see the harbingers in the forest, and that was actually a physical build. I insisted on doing a build, like, old school [laughter]. And so we built these four creatures and had people walking around on stilts. The only thing we added on top of that practical build was a little bit of smoke. That was a CGI layer of smoke, but that’s it. And I think you do get a great kind of texture when you mix these things, when you mix practicals with CGI.

On purpose, I wanted to suggest for as long as time is possible, I wanted people to be guessing. I wanted to do what Steven Spielberg did with Jaws. I didn’t want to just reveal and show 100 big giants up in the first part of the film. It’s not about that. It’s about keeping that tension and letting people into Barbara’s world and letting people keep guessing about what the hell is going on. So, that was part of a concept of structure in the film, to a direction that I felt was right.

Yeah. I agree. I liked how, how reserved you were.

Anders Walter: You might have a lot of people be disappointed because, obviously, when you’re trying to do [laughing] marketing for a film like this, you do go over the adventure and you do go for the fact that Chris Columbus and his people produced this film and the whole Harry Potter element. But, when you see the film, it’s a different kind of film. The tone is a little bit different and you do get a good five, six minutes in the end of the big titans, but up until then, the film is, is asking people to really take part and not just sit back in the seat and experience CGI monsters.

Yeah. And engage more in, in the story.

Anders Walter: Yeah, yeah.

Speaking of, how much, if any, did Chris Columbus influence this project or have a say in it? Has he been an influence on your work in general as a filmmaker?

Anders Walter: I mean, he was a big influence when I grew up in the 80s. And I would be mesmerized by anything that came out of Hollywood during that period back from the Goonies, or Poltergeist, or Gremlins, or that whole kind of wave of movies that he was part of. So, yes, he was definitely someone who influenced me. But on this production we did, of course, talk about certain things. We would talk about casting, which makes sense because Chris obviously has a great track record for finding – I think he has probably found two – the two biggest stars when it comes to children over the last 50 years, both for Home Alone and then again for Harry Potter. So, he does have a great expertise in spotting that talent.

So, we would talk about – when it came down to 10 girls after we had been through six or seven hundred girls – then, we started to have conversations about the cons and pros. And again, he would write long emails when we were in the editing process, and let me know what he thought. But, of course, on a day-to-day basis, no, he wasn’t part of this. But at important times, he would speak up.

The set pieces and the backdrops are so gorgeous and beautifully shot in this. What were the filming locations in I Kill Giants?

Anders Walter: We actually ended up shooting this in Ireland. The movie fell apart. We had American set up. We were almost going to Vancouver and then everything fell apart and eventually a European financier came and picked it up at Cannes 2016. And so we had to shoot all the studio stuff on a studio lot it Belgium. But all the exterior we did outside Dublin. And then it had to kind of look like Long Island. And so we have the typical props like the yellow school buses and other things. But still there, there’s something about that world that doesn’t quite look like Long Island.

But I think that kind of worked out in our favor and made the film even more magical because it does feel very much like a seaport town somewhere up there in that area, but you can’t really – it’s not that specific. I think it adds something to the film itself. And then I shot this and insisted on doing this with my Danish VP (Rasmus Heise) I’ve worked with for 10 years. And we both really preferred to shoot with natural light, and so a lot of this stuff is shot with natural light.

And also, I would say we were pretty lucky with the weather we got. And shooting in October, you’re almost always gonna be having a sun that is setting or rising, and so there was just a lot of great things, doing it that way, that benefited the film and the tone of the film. And I think it looks gorgeous and beautiful because of that. And it looks real. It looks authentic.

Oh, absolutely. It was stunning. You spoke a little bit about working with Madison Wolfe, but how was your experience working overall with such a talented female driven cast?

Anders Walter: Listen, I didn’t start making movies before I was 33. So that’s seven years ago. I came from a background of illustrations for 20 years, and I was so afraid of directing because I was so afraid of dealing with actors. In specific, I was afraid of dealing with actresses [laughter]. And I was afraid that I couldn’t get from them what I wanted. And so, for me to come and work– I have only done four Danish short films – to all-of-the-sudden find myself in Ireland in a language that is not my first language and then directing Madison, and Zoe Saldana, and Imogen Poots, that was quite a mouthful. But only in my head because, of course, when we were all together and we started to do the film, all these girls were just so collaborative and so sweet and such professionals.

Not only for Zoe Saldana and Imogen Poots, but Madison. Oh my god. She turned up and showed everybody on the set what it means to be [laughter] a real pro and she was only 14. And she was very much showing everybody the level of engagement that went into this film, which was fantastic. She had such a specific idea about the arc of where she wanted to take Barbara. So, I could actually have an intelligent, adult kind of conversation with her about the character and how to portray Barbara, which, of course, helped me a lot.

So, yeah. I mean, it was just such a positive surprise. They were all so sweet and all so engaged in the project, and I think you have to be. You know, obviously Zoe Saldana doesn’t do I Kill Giants for the pay check. She does it because there’s a connection for her, and that’s what you get from doing these smaller things. You know that the people are gonna be there because they’re engaged, and they have a connection to the material, and they want to come and do their best work. And that makes it very easy for a director, also when he’s Danish [laughter].

Yeah, yeah. I can imagine. You won the Oscar for Helium, which was a fantastic short. As you mentioned, you had only directed shorts before I Kill Giants. Do making shorts, receiving accolades for them, honing on your craft, has it helped prepare your for a feature film of this scope?

Anders Walter: I think it has. I mean, besides from doing four short movies, I worked as a storyboard artist for many years with many great Danish directors. So I have been around the process of film making for many years. And so, I kind of knew how to make a film when it came to the visual part of it. For me, it was more, as I said before, the whole mental thing about being with other people and depending on their level of engagement. And how well that I could engage people. And there’s a funny thing, is I was, of course, very scared on the first day, for me to go on a set with 100 people on the set waiting for me to make my calls, of course that’s intimidating.

But then, half an hour in, you find yourself being engaged and trying to communicate all the ideas that you have been living with for the last two years, and then you forget about that. And, I know it sounds like a cliché, but you do forget about it and you just get into the niche, or into the world of filmmaking. And then it feels very much like doing a short film. You talk to your photographer. You talk to your actors. You talk to your production designer and your producers, and it’s very much the same process.

You have to figure out a way of getting a scene in the can and you have to motivate actors and you have to motivate people. And it’s no different than doing a short film. It’s the same thing, except that there’s just a lot of people standing around looking. And then, of course, some days you start to think, “oh my god, somebody paid 12, 13 million dollars for this movie, so you better – a lot of people are expecting a certain level [laughter] of filmmaking.

Right. Right.

Anders Walter: Which, of course, that pressure you don’t have when you do a short.

You mentioned that the subject matter that you’re interested in shares similar themes. Helium and I Kill Giants both have elements of magical realism incorporated into the story and have the theme of escaping a harsh reality to a fantasy world. Whereas Helium dealt with escaping reality to ease the pain of dying, I Kill Giants deals with escaping the living and denying oneself the joy of life. And I never thought that the most touching line would come from the mouth of a giant, of the titan, in the end [laughter]. When he talks about finding joy in life. It was so incredible.

Anders Walter: It’s favorite line as well. I’m glad that you that you feel the same [laughter].

Yeah! Congratulations, again. I Kill Giants is a really fantastic movie. I didn’t know what to expect coming into it, and I was blown away. Well done!

Anders Walter: I’m glad to hear.

Any exciting projects on the horizon for you?

Anders Walter: I badly wanted to do Akira. Akira is my favorite graphic novel. It’s very far from I Kill Giants and Helium, but now, [laughter] I think the job went to another director.

Oh, yeah [laughter].

Anders Walter: Actually, I think Taika Waititi is doing it.

Oh, right, right, Taika.

Anders Walter: Yeah. But there’s other great projects out there. So, I have a lot of things I’m developing, and hopefully I will be in production soon again.

 

Film Inquiry would like to thank Anders Walter for taking the time to share his insights on film and filmmaking.

RLJE Films will release I Kill Giants theatrically and on VOD on March 23, 2018. For more information about its release, click here.