A royal marriage comes to an end in Director Pablo Larraín’s biographical drama, Spencer.
Set years following their fairytale wedding, after the bliss has grown cold and rumors of affairs abound, Larraín’s film picks up the true story of Princess Diana and Prince Charles on one Christmas holiday as she wrestles with the pivotal decision of whether or not to leave.
On November 3, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Larraín discussed the making of Spencer during a Q&A moderated by Director Rebecca Miller (Maggie's Plan). He also spoke about the film during a conversation moderated by Director Damien Chazelle (Babylon) following the Los Angeles screening on November 15.
During the New York conversation, Larraín revealed his directorial process for working with his lead actor, Kristen Stewart. “I think one trap that all directors can fall into is thinking that you always need to be saying something to the actors and they require a constant guidance. I think when there's an actor that is so into it and they can capture the character so well, there's a point in production where my best thing to do is silence and just to create confidence that, ‘this is fine.’”
He also spoke about how he finds the pacing of a film. “Sometimes I mute the volume just to see that when I study a film that I really care about and I think, ‘This is the a reason why it's called motion pictures.’ There's something in the motion that I believe is very relevant and that will usually help me to understand if the camera needs to be moved or not.”
Larraín’s other directorial credits include the feature films Ema, Jackie, Neruda, The Club, No, Post Mortem, Tony Manero and Fuga; episodes of the mini-series, Lisey’s Story; and episodes of the American television series, Homemade, and the Chilean television series, Prófugos.
Larraín has been a DGA member since 2017.
You can listen to Larraín’s Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.