‘Armageddon Time’: James Gray, Banks Repeta & Jaylin Webb Talk Childhood, Life Lessons & More [Interview]

Tell me how you guys see the movie now that you’ve seen it, lived with it, and read the initial script. What’s your takeaway?
Banks Repeta: How do we see the movie?

Well, let me make it easier; what did you feel when you read the script? What were your impressions of it?
Banks Repeta: Well, when I first read it, I was really just reading it, like I’d read any other script. I got more of a feel for it when I met James. So, I put it together and I thought about what it would be like. But when I read it, I now have more of a sense of it. I think of it as the movie pivots around Paul’s life and Paul’s relationship with his family, the world, and his friends and the world tries to tell him that his dreams and his passion is wrong. And Paul’s at a point in his life where he is not sure what’s right and wrong. And he has this— not a loss of innocence. I’ve heard that and it’s wrong, I don’t think that’s how it should describe the movie—but I think the thing that people should take away from it is that if you have a dream or a passion, don’t let the world tell you what to do.

Jaylin Webb: Yeah, Banks said it all, but I would also like to add, just another way that I see this movie is, you know, no matter what your background is you can still create a friendship that’s extremely beautiful.

How old are you guys, by the way?
Jaylin Webb: I’m 16.

Banks Repeta: 14.

OK, just trying to reach for a frame of reference, my eldest is nine. Can the two of you tell me what it was like working with James and working alongside some of these tremendous actors?
Jaylin Webb: It was just great because it was actually my first time in New York and in Jersey just filming the movies. So, everything was just amazing to me. I see all these buildings that I’ve seen only in pictures or maybe in like school textbooks and I’m like, “Wow, I’m really here.” But I experienced a lot of things for the first time in New York with Banks, being on the subway, going on top of the Empire State building, being in Times Square. And working with James was just an honor. I was able to get such a great sense of direction and I was able to play around with a lot of things that I’ve never done before. And we would adjust. We would adjust into his liking after. And just being with all these other actors was great. I learned a lot, and I created great relationships and memories.

Banks: It’s funny you said that you looked at textbook pictures of New York. When I came here, it was basically my first time too, but when I looked at the pictures of New York, it was like baby pictures of me with my grandparents. So, I don’t remember this at all, but I have been here before, but I was basically having new experiences with Jaylin.

James Gray: They had the ability to do that, also the space shared school space. I would walk in and you guys would be sitting there with the tutor off set, and it always seemed like a mysterious, wonderful world, but the other kids were there too, right?

Banks: Yeah, our biggest classroom was around eight or nine people.

James Gray: It was a very pleasant set, actually. Very far, the most pleasant I’ve ever had on a movie. It has to do with children in general, these guys specifically, and I almost hate calling them children. They were so easy for me. You know, these guys were very easy to direct. They would do it and they would add their own beautiful thing to it. And I didn’t really have to do much except remind them what the circumstance were. And that’s pretty much the way that I would work with most anybody. I mean, it’s less specific about blocking. But it’s not that different, the language.

What was it like working with this tremendous cast?
Banks Repeta: Well, with Anne [Hathaway], we took a walk in Central Park and she taught me about different acting styles and the poet Rumi, and we learned to TikTok dance together [laughs]. And with Anthony [Hopkins], I learned to salsa dance with him, and he taught me to speak clearly. And it matters, he said, because if you want to be heard, you need to speak clear clearly. With Jeremy, he gave me a letter and it said, “acting is like imagination. It’s what you make of it.” And all of these actors are so wise, and I learned so much from this project.

James Gray: Jaylen, unfortunately, didn’t get the chance to work with too many of these guys, he wasn’t in many scenes with them. I mean, he’ll have chances anyways, so goddamn talented. And Anthony was, was on set only for ten days of shooting, it was fast. To me though it seemed like I felt his presence through the whole shoot. But, you know, unfortunately, Jaylen didn’t get a chance to work with him. But I just found out today you avoided him.

Jaylin Webb: Yes, [laughs], I didn’t get the chance to work with all of them except for Jeremy, but I was still able to meet them and still learned a lot from them. But with Anthony, he was right there. And my mom and I were right there, but I got scared, I got freaked [laughs]. But with Annie and Jeremy, I learned a lot and have some pretty cool memories with them. Anne actually got me a notebook on her last day of filming with my initials engraved on it, just to write in. They both inspired me.

What about you James? You somehow had never worked with any of them before.
None of the three. I had been obviously a huge fan of Anthony for a long time, which puts me in the company of about six billion people [laughs]. He’s just really one of the all-time greats, that you could count on one hand maybe. I mean, it’s Anthony Hopkins. His presence is amazing. What is amazing, is he did capture, as legendary as he is, he did capture my grandfather’s essence to a big degree. I want to show you a picture [James takes out his iPhone and shows me a picture of his grandfather with him as a baby].

The depth of affection you have for that character, you can truly feel the care the movie has for him, his presence, his absence in scenes, the hole that’s left when he’s gone. I found all of that very moving.
Well, my grandfather was the person who told me I was wanted and loved This picture is from 1971, this is me at two. There he is. This is my grandfather.

Amazing.
Yeah. He was a very urbane guy. He was not, Hello, my name is Moisha, let me get the pickles! cliché idea of a grandfather from a Jewish household. Which is something that I always—I kind of  can’t stand because it’s a reductionist view. Anyway, I just figured I’d show you this picture. He was a fabulous guy.

[Speaking to Jaylin and Banks] I’m going to sound corny, guys, but cherish the time you have with your grandparents because when they’re gone— my grandfather passed away right at the time when I was starting to really appreciate him as a human being.
And it works that way, right? And in some ways, that’s the way it’s supposed to be evolutionary. You get more from him, his soul in retrospect. Yeah. And there’s nothing you can do about it. He got a lot from you because he loved you unconditionally as your grandfather. I’m sure.

Yes, that’s for me; much of the tenderness, affection and melancholy of the past that I really responded to.
Yeah. That was the goal.

I guess it was something of a homecoming for you too. Having gone off to the jungle and then to space, you kind of pick up where you left off in a way, right back to where you started.
There’s no doubt. I mean, I wanted to try to view it in a different way. Because you’re always changing, you’re not always growing by the way. It’s an unfortunate fact. There are very few filmmakers—I mean maybe Akira Kurosawa with “Ran”— there are very few filmmakers who head off into really old age and make their greatest work, ending the career on a true high note. But most don’t. Having said that, you’re a different person, sometimes in a very good way. And, I had avoided coming back to New York. I didn’t want to get stale. I didn’t want to become like a brand where I’m just making the same movie over and over again. I know people who love, “You Own The Night” or “Two Lovers” of “The Immigrant” and they’ll say, “why aren’t you doing that? Why don’t you do another one like ‘Two Lovers’ or do another cop movie. Well, I did that and I don’t want keep like doing the same thing. That feels kind of lame to me.

It’s not like six years in The Beatles were still singing “She Loves You.” So, some people say, “I like the early one. I like the later one.” Whatever. I’ve had everybody tell me one of my films is their favorite and each one is different every time. So the only thing I can do is you can’t worry about that. You just try to pursue what moves you. And New York had that pull for me because New York has changed a lot as well.  So, I had wanted to preserve, being 50 at the time, I wanted to preserve this slice of my life for posterity. And I feel tremendously lucky. There’s not a lot of directors that get to do that. I mean, we shot outside the public school that I went to. I was pointing to these guys to have that walk and talk where he’s holding the $Six Million Man lunchbox. I said, “that’s where I went to school. That’s my classroom. That’s the gym. 90 feet from my house.” We didn’t shoot at my house because the woman didn’t let us in. But we moved 90 feet down south and there was another woman who was nuts enough to let us shoot there. That’s a rare treat. I was very moved, being able to do it.

I wanted to mention: Jeremy Strong. He’s great, obviously, but what I loved is that he’s clearly doing your father’s voice, the voice you yourself affect when you’re pretending to be your father and telling a story.
Well, I’m gonna give myself some props [laughs], because it, he really is playing my dad, in an eerie way.

Did he meet him?
He didn’t meet him, but my daughter Georgia videotaped him doing a Q&A, the Proust questionnaire with my wife and me. And we sent that video to Jeremy. My father’s dead now. He died while I was editing.

Oh, I didn’t know, I’m so sorry to hear that.
Well, I was on very good terms with him. Not that I don’t care. It affected me greatly and still does. It’s a very powerful feeling, and it’s very sad. But, you know, my last conversations with him were great and he was quite old. What can you do, Covid? It’s a brutal time.

You know what Jeremy had me do? He had me do the Proust questionnaire as my dad before we shot my dad. He said, “I want to hear your answers about your father.”  So, I started answering, he asked me the Proust questionnaire, but as my dad. And then he asked the questions of my dad to see whether my answers matched for my father, and they matched a lot. And Jeremy was very excited about it because then he said to me, “That means that I can ask you what your father would’ve done and I can believe you.” But yes, my in imitation of my father, by the way was perfection. I got him down to the point where I could easily fool my brother into thinking it was him.

Well, it’s funny because I’ve heard you do that voice so many times, when Jeremy first speaks in the movie, I started laughing and people kinda looked at me weird, like, “that’s not funny, what are you laughing at?”
Oh, that’s too funny [laughs].

Alright, let’s change gears a bit before I run out of time. Jessica Chastain, love her. Tell me about the small but pivotal role in this cause it’s so thematically resonant.
I actually think she is incredible in that moment. It’s a very hard thing to do because you can’t make it a caricature, and you can’t make fun of the person. But at the same time, the actual speech was so preposterous. [laughs]. I’ve said this before, but the whole Anne Richards joke about George W. Bush where she said, “he was born on third base and thought he hit a triple”— that was the type of speech that she gave.

And I remember as a 12-year-old watching this speech and, even at that age, thinking it was like asinine beyond measure. Like, “what are you talking about, lady??” You’re worth $500 million! What are you talking about? How hard she had to work to make it? And Jessica, I’d wanted to work with her for a while. I had run into her at a birthday party for a mutual friend. And she said, “Oh, I would love to work with you.” And I had been trying to figure out something to do together. And there was one day of shooting, and I basically just sent a text to her and said, “Would you ever come consider doing this?” And she said, “Yes!” I couldn’t believe it. And she does it perfectly because it’s not in the realm of making fun of the Trumps. It’s not distancing herself from it. But it’s also not trying to make her noble; it’s just doing it.

It also had to be a little bit theatrical because that’s the way the speech would be delivered. And it’s absurd, what she’s saying is absurd for so, you know, she had to believe what she was saying. She’s an incredible actor.

I hope you guys get a chance to work together in a major way.
Oh, we plan on it. Well, we’ll find something to do. All these people are geniuses. I love them, and I want to work with all of them again.

I know you just birthed this one, but do you know what you’re going to do next? There’s probably something cycling around in your head somewhere, right?
You know what I would really love to do? I probably shouldn’t admit this publicly yet. Because there are a lot of things I’m interested in. There’s something about Norman Mailer I’m interested in. But that’s a very long process, this TV stuff. But I’m really interested in making a kind of sequel.

I’m really interested in making a kind of ‘[Armageddon Time’] sequel about what happened to my mother. The story goes in a very unexpected place because my father actually did achieve some financial success but wound up getting it all confiscated by the government when he got into legal trouble. At the same time, my mother found out she was dying. And so, it’s going to be, I think, something about that period.

Wow.
Banks Repeta: I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this, but she died of cancer, correct?

James Gray: Yeah, brain cancer.

Banks Repeta: Well, there’s a scene where she has a headache in the kitchen.

James Gray: Yes. That’s exactly why I put that in there. Yep. She’s going like this [acts like she has a physical pain in her head]. She has a headache, you’re quite right. So, hopefully we’ll get to do that and I’m going have to con the boys and coming back. The only person who can’t come back is Anthony Hopkins, but maybe in flashbacks.

“Armageddon Time” is in theaters in limited release now and expands nationally, this Friday, November 4.