Let’s talk about Old Night. What was your inspiration behind such an unorthodox character?
Batmanglij: We just spent two years with him, so it feels normal. Again, Brit came into my bedroom, just us talking to each other, and she was talking about the intelligence of octopuses.
Marling: Their brain network is in all of their arms. So, the way we operate is we think a thought, I’m like, “Hmm, I’m thirsty. I want this glass of water,” and then my brain tells me, and then I move and I get it. For them, that separation doesn’t exist. They’re just think-moving. And when you read about that, you’re awed by this very old form of intelligence, long before we entered the picture, operating in a mesmerizing, beautiful way. And, for us, Nina’s mediumship became a way to try to represent an interspecies dialogue. And that, in the realm of how we’re doing it, ultimately becomes a metaphor for just the idea of us as human beings starting to take other forms of intelligence more seriously, rather than this idea that, “We’re here to domesticate and make use of everything.’
Batmanglij: And then we put it in the narrative, which is that we imagine that Nina followed her dreams and the dream about octopuses. And then, because she’s a billionaire, we’re imagining, “What if these like billionaires did something a little bit more interesting with their money?” And that she has this underground Russian nightclub run by one of her father’s cronies. And they bring in this octopus, and she does this show where she communes with the octopus. Now, OA has entered this body, and has the bruises from the octopus, but doesn’t know what it is.
And then, she encounters Karim, and they’re following the clues of the game, and you can that imagine that Michelle had gone through this nightclub to find that door. And so, her and Karim are coming to this nightclub to find that door. And she has to submit to Nina’s life in order to move closer to [the door].
Marling: And her body is the passport. If Michelle walks into the nightclub, Michelle has a completely different experience. But Nina walks in, and because it’s just a consciousness occupying this body, this body gives her access to all these spaces within her self.
Batmanglij: We just had fun with the idea that you get strapped into this chair, and then, all-the-sudden [laughter], poor OA is encountering this creature, this wonderful creature. What’s interesting to me is that I imagine that he’s been sitting there in this tank and doing this mediumship with Nina, waiting for the consciousness OA to finally come so he can show her the thing that he’s trying to show her, which is to give her an NDE to show her a little bit of the future, which is that plane. That’s for your spoiler section [laughter].
Marling: Major spoiler [laughter].
“The OA: Part II” is streaming on Netflix now.Â
