“Malcolm & Marie” is far from your typical film. Not only is it an incredibly intimate black and white drama with a cast list of only two actors and a setting inside a beautiful mansion, “Malcolm & Marie” is one of the first films that entered production during the pandemic last year. And this week, on The Playlist Podcast, we speak to Sam Levinson, the writer-director of “Malcolm & Marie,” as well as the creator of HBO’s award-winning “Euphoria,” about his new film, his hit show, and his legendary father, Barry Levinson.
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When talking about the genesis of “Malcolm & Marie,” Levinson explained that the feature was borne from just sitting at home during the lockdown last spring and wanting to work on a small film that could be easily made and funded. And with the idea of a filmmaker fighting with his significant other after a speech at a premiere as the basis for the plot, the ball started rolling on the script pretty quickly.
“I just sat down and started writing,” explained Levinson. “I didn’t care about act structure. I didn’t care about what it was about…themes…anything. I just wrote.”
He continued, “It was almost like a Socratic dialogue to get to understand these characters. So, I just started writing what he’s saying. She either agrees with it, disagrees, thinks he’s full of shit. She starts to dig deeper. And it just unfolds from there. And in many ways, this movie was simply an exercise in the sense that we were wondering if we could do something safely due to the restrictions of COVID, tell a story that didn’t feel like it had the limitations of COVID imposed on it. And also, get our crew back to work.”
One thing that is clear from the opening moments of “Malcolm & Marie” is just how fast-paced and quick the arguments between stars Zendaya and John David Washington’s characters occur. And according to Levinson, that was all part of making sure audiences stayed engaged.
“With ‘Euphoria,’ for instance, which is not a dialogue-heavy show, I wanted to create something that felt like it was so fast-moving, that if you looked away for four seconds, we’d leave you in the dust,” he explained. “And we try to do that in a visual way.”
Levinson added, “The idea with [‘Malcolm & Marie’] was — Can I do the same thing with dialogue? Can I take these characters’ dialogue and make it so rapid and their arguments so extensive and sprawling, that if you looked away for any period of time, you’d go, ‘Wait, where are we? What’s happening?’”
Levinson also explained that they ended up throwing out two whole days’ worth of production after trying to figure out the best way to shoot this dialogue-heavy, all in a house film. And when it came down to it, the decision to throw out the work came after the filmmaker realized he wasn’t happy with the direction it was going in.
“I’m a big believer that if you ever feel confident on set, you’re fucking doing something wrong, and it’s going to be a disaster,” he said.
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As for “Euphoria,” which has seen its Season 2 delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the filmmaker teases that the show will begin production soon, with a late-2021 release date planned, right now.
“We’re aiming for a March start date,” said Levinson about “Euphoria” Season 2. “No, I actually think ‘Euphoria’ is going to be possible in 2021 and [into] 2022. That’s the plan, as of now.”
He added, “This may seem a little odd, but I’m grateful we didn’t shoot Season 2 when we were going to shoot it, just in the sense that I felt like I didn’t necessarily have enough distance from Season 1, in a way…I like to shield myself from people’s reactions to things because I get in my own head about it. And there’s also the shit that I’m super self-critical about…so I feel like I was too close to it in a way.”
“Malcolm & Marie” is on Netflix on February 5. You can hear the entire interview below:
As always, The Playlist Podcast is part of The Playlist Podcast Network—which includes Be Reel, The Discourse, The Fourth Wall, and more—and can be heard on iTunes, AnchorFM, Soundcloud, Stitcher, and now on Spotify. You can stream the podcast via the AnchorFM embed below or up top to listen on this page. Follow us on iTunes, and you’ll get this podcast as well as our other shows regularly. Be sure to subscribe, and drop us a comment or a rating, as we do appreciate it. Thank you for listening.
