Monica Barbaro Says Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Artificial’ Is Both A “Madcap Comedy” & “A Horror Story”: “It’s All Of It”

What makes Luca Guadagnino‘s “Artificial” one of this year’s most anticipated films? Let us count the ways. For one, there’s the awful optics of Amazon MGM Studios dropping the movie about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman after making a $50 billion deal with the AI company. Then there’s the fact that “Artificial” is about AI, the trendiest of topics in this zeitgeist. But then there’s Guadagnino, a filmmaker’s filmmaker, whose knack for bravura camera work brings a singular flair to every movie he directs.

READ MORE: ‘Artificial’: Andrew Garfield “Was And Wasn’t” Surprised About Amazon MGM Dropping Luca Guadagnino’s Movie About OpenAI

That begs the question: just what kind of movie is Guadagnino making with “Artificial”? One of the film’s cast members, Monica Barbaro, has an answer there. Speaking on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the actress divulged what kind of tone Guadagnino is going for in his latest, and the answer may surprise even fans of the director. “One day, we would show up, and Luca would be like, ‘This is a—what was the word he used? A zany comedy?’ No. ‘Madcap.’ He would basically be like, ‘This is a madcap comedy.’ Then the next day, he’d be like, ‘It’s a horror story,'” said Barbaro. That’s quite the veer between two extreme tonalities, but maybe that shouldn’t surprise fans of Guadagnino too much.

But Barbaro assured “Happy Sad Confused” host Josh Horowitz that Guadagnino’s tonal choices don’t hinder the film at all. “Having seen it, I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s all of it. It’s all of it.’ But, to be clear, I don’t think it suffers at all from a lack of tone or confusion of tone. I think, in reality, it kind of is all of that,” she continued. One wonders, however, if the tone Guadagnino went for in “Artificial” is one of the reasons Amazon MGM let the film go. A blend of madcap comedy and horror doesn’t sound like it paints Altman and OpenAI in the best light.

Barbaro had an answer to that query too earlier in her interview with Horowitz. “We were dealing with really challenging material in terms of what we’re saying about people who are alive,” the actress said about the film and Simon Rich‘s script. “I feel like this had a particular kind of flavor to it, as far as his films are concerned, because it’s based on real events. I think it’s probably different from the way he might usually work, or our task was so heavily research-based.”

Barbaro also praised Guadagnino’s directing style. “He’s incredible. Similarly, he wants actors to really follow their impulses and expand in the space, and I think that’s really wonderful,” she said of Luca’s choices. “His approach—he does such interesting camera work, too. He was bringing a lot of himself, of course, and then our job was to stay deep with—sorry, it’s always the first time I talk about it. I haven’t done two days of junket about it yet. I don’t have the sentences.”

That begs yet another question about “Artificial”: how will Guadagnino and new distributor Neon campaign for the film before its theatrical release? Even Barbaro doesn’t know. Said the actress on Luca’s approach to the film, “I’m interested to see how that will go as we promote the film.” Neon no doubt expects “Artificial” to make a splash this awards season, but remember, Guadagnino has never won an Oscar or a Golden Globe. Will the upcoming film continue the trend of Guadagnino’s films being a little too stylistically out there for some awards wins? We’ll see

Still, Barbaro’s talk about “Artificial” brings further intrigue to the film. Guadagnino fans will have to wait for the movie’s first trailer to see if Barbaro’s description of its tone is indeed on point. Expect a teaser of some kind, as well as an official theatrical release date, as Fall approaches.