{"id":114424,"date":"2020-08-07T15:01:07","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T14:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=114424"},"modified":"2020-11-30T17:57:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T17:57:02","slug":"brine-me-to-life-an-interview-with-brandon-trost-and-simon-rich-on-an-american-pickle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/cinema\/brine-me-to-life-an-interview-with-brandon-trost-and-simon-rich-on-an-american-pickle\/","title":{"rendered":"Brine me to life! An interview with Brandon Trost and Simon Rich on An American Pickle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Herschel Greenbaum (Seth Rogan) has led a tough life. Hailing from the Eastern European shtetl of Schlupsk in 1919, he emigrates to America after the Cossacks launch an attack on his wedding day. He soon finds a job in a pickle factory but, after an unfortunate incident while clubbing rats, he falls in a giant vat of pickles and finds himself brined for 100 years\u2026 as you do. When he wakes up he hasn\u2019t aged a day but everyone he knew is gone. However he\u2019s soon introduced to his great-grandson Ben Greenbaum (also Seth Rogan) and the two have to navigate being a family while coming from very different lives.<\/p>\n

An American Pickle<\/em><\/strong> sure has a unique premise, but one that\u2019s very personal to its writer Simon Rich: \u201cI come from a long line of Eastern European immigrant Jews and they had such difficult lives filled with such hard work and grit. My life, by contrast, has been extremely coddled and easy and I always wondered what they would think of me if they could see me in present day. My perception was always that they would hate my guts and want to beat me up!\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, once the time-travel novelty wears off, the vast differences in Ben and Herschel\u2019s early lives lead to difficulties in their relationship. Herschel is ashamed that Ben seems to have lost his Jewish faith, while Herschel\u2019s interfering leads to Ben\u2019s life being turned upside down.<\/p>\n

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Ben and Herschel’s relationship is tested…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s thrilling to imagine that I would have anything in common with my ancestors because I know on so many levels that we would disagree about everything,\u201d laughs Rich. \u201cBut the fantasy of the story and the film is that despite our many many ideological and clothing differences we\u2019d still find some overlap, even if it\u2019s just a couple of prayers and our love of pickles!\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on Rich\u2019s own short story, Sell Out<\/strong><\/em>, which was published in The New Yorker<\/a>, the heartfelt themes seemed perfect to be adapted to the big screen. So Rich approached the man who he felt would be perfect to play both Greenbaums: Seth Rogan. \u201cI wondered if I could convince Seth Rogan to do it. I knew him a little bit because I had written his first monologue for Saturday Night Live<\/em><\/strong>, back in 2007. Then about five or six years later I went to his office and pitched it to him and his partner Evan [Goldberg]. I was thrilled that they thought that it was interesting enough to take a chance on!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rich wanted the characters of Herschel and Ben to be played by the same actor and believed that Rogan would be \u201cexcellent to play both parts\u201d, but moreover than that, the choice to have one actor play the two parts was very personal to Rich. \u201cLooking at photographs of my own ancestors [I was] shocked at the extent to which they look like me,\u201d he says. “There\u2019s something so viscerally intriguing about seeing a version of yourself from a different time. When they look like you it\u2019s easier to imagine what it would be like to step into their clothes and live their lives. I have a framed photograph in my house of my great grandfather and it\u2019s amazing how (obviously I never met him) we look remarkably alike. And yet you can tell from his expression that his life experience could not be more different than my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Rogan agreeing to play both Herschel and Ben in the movie, first time feature director Brandon Trost found himself faced with a challenge: \u201cThe technical challenge of trying to get the two of those characters in the same frame together, it really was monumentally difficult,\u201d he tells us. \u201cI tried to make it feel effortless and simple. I tried to make it so you don\u2019t really notice the gimmick so much and you are just watching the two characters interact and just be together in an easy way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It may look easy on screen, but shooting scenes with the two characters was anything but! \u201cJust a simple shot of them on a couch together flipping through a photo album means storyboarding and dozens of meetings and hours of preparations for something that is normally just a very easy shot to do. I feel like it comes across fairly invisibly throughout the movie. Which I\u2019m happy for. But I feel like sometimes it\u2019s so invisible that people don\u2019t realise that we have about as many VFX shots in this movie as a Marvel film! They\u2019re just smaller and more hidden, it\u2019s crazy!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Scenes with the characters of Ben and Herschel were tough…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though this is Trost\u2019s first feature film as a director, he\u2019s an incredibly experienced cinematographer, and has worked with Rogan and Goldberg on numerous films, including another genre comedy: This Is The End<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. \u201cThey hired me to shoot This Is The End<\/em><\/strong> and I\u2019ve shot most of their movies, with them directing, with them producing. It\u2019s been almost a familial experience working with them because we work together so often,\u201d Trost says.<\/p>\n

Rogan and Goldberg were clearly impressed with Trost\u2019s shooting abilities on their previous movies because once they agreed with Rich to adapt the story, they approached Trost with directing it. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve always wanted to do and want to continue doing. But I never really promoted that with them, they just came to me and thought that I would be a good fit for the movie,\u201d he says. \u201cI think just based first and foremost off my technical experience. Because trying to achieve the movie where Seth plays two characters is not necessarily an easy feat to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two characters being played by one actor is a test for those both behind and in front of the camera. \u201cIt\u2019s a testament to Seth\u2019s performance,\u201d Trost enthuses. \u201cI feel like he carved out that performance so distinctly that you can still tell which character is which. And it\u2019s hard for that too because we shot it out of sequence. Normally you shoot both characters at the same time but because had that full beard that he grew, we wanted to preserve it. We didn\u2019t want to use a fake beard so we shot Herschel first and then we returned to every single shot after the fact. Basically we shot the movie twice!\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, though filming the movie was a challenge, Trost relished the experience of being in the director\u2019s chair for the first time: \u201cYou know, it was definitely stressful but in a good way. Fortunately I have a lot of experience working with different directors and I\u2019ve been fortunate to also work with a lot of first-time directors. It was really helpful to shepherd a lot of directors into the director\u2019s chair and be a filmmaking partner there. I think that experience really helped the transition feel more like a lateral move for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a lot more work to consider. When you shoot a movie you just have to make the movie look good and then your job is done. That\u2019s it, you walk away and no one blames you if the movie doesn\u2019t work! So I have to wrap my head around that too, but fortunately people are liking the movie so far so I don\u2019t have to worry about that too much!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Herschel is not overly impressed with modern life…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To say that Herschel is confused with our modern living is an understatement. But rather than being a \u2018fish out of water\u2019 story, An American Pickle<\/strong><\/em> instead focusses on the central relationship between Ben and Herschel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted to focus on the two characters,\u201d explains Trost. \u201cWhen I first read the script it surprised me because it was so unique. You\u2019ve definitely seen the fish out of water movie before but this just felt like such a unique take on that. It really inspired me. I feel like these days, I\u2019m lucky to get involved in anything that isn\u2019t a superhero movie or a sequel. So it\u2019s also just fun to do something original.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in odd couple relationship movies,\u201d Rich adds. \u201cI used to work at Pixar and that\u2019s been their template from the beginning – pretty much to take two characters that have very little in common and subject them to an epic quest. So I\u2019ve always enjoyed stories like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In An American Pickle<\/strong><\/em>, Ben is dealing with the loss of his parents and the subsequent loss of his faith. However, in the original short story, the character of Ben (or \u2018Simon Rich\u2019 as he\u2019s known in Sell Out<\/strong><\/em>), was not quite as sympathetic a character as we find him in the film. \u201cThe character of Simon Rich is just unbelievably hateful and despicable in every conceivable way and is unrelentingly horrible,\u201d Rich explains. \u201cI could get away with it in the short story because he doesn\u2019t have a lot of presence on the page as it\u2019s a first person narrative told entirely from Herschel\u2019s perspective. With the film, though, you do unfortunately have to make the film the third person. Or it would be very visually weird. And it\u2019s important for all of the main characters to have some redeeming qualities and not be despicable. Otherwise, you would have to turn it off because it would be too horrible. So it was important that the Ben character be less of a nightmare than the Simon Rich character.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are numerous changes in the film from the short story but Rich is experienced in adapting his own work and had a good idea on what would work for the big screen. \u201cI adapt my stories and novels a lot for the screen. I had a show called Man Seeking Woman<\/strong><\/em> which was based on a book I wrote called The Last Girlfriend On Earth<\/strong><\/em>. What I\u2019ve learned over the years is to pretend that you never read the original story, much less wrote it! Because every medium is different and something that works on a page won\u2019t necessarily work on screen and you have to try your absolute hardest to not feel any obligation to the original text.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that helps with that is the fact that it takes years and years for a story to make its way through the machinery of Hollywood. So typically by the time I\u2019m adapting a story for the screen, its been several years since I wrote it. So it feels way less precious to me. I think it would be hard to take the short story that\u2019s currently on my desktop and turn it into a movie next week and not feel upset by the changes. But in five years I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll be able to slash and burn it and I don\u2019t care about it any more!\u201d<\/p>\n

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The story begins in 1919…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Further to the changes from the original short story, the script itself also went through numerous iterations before Brandon and Rich found themselves at a good balance for the movie. \u201cWe kept distilling the story down to its core, just trying to get the script right before we shot,\u201d says Trost. \u201cEvery time we went through it and we had extra characters or extra themes trying to run through it felt like it was diluting the real allegorical family aspect of this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a heartfelt family genre comedy does require a careful balancing act between themes\u2026 \u201cIt\u2019s a challenging movie, just from the trying to manage the tonal challenges,\u201d Trost tells us. \u201cThe movie was all over the place by design; we kind of flanked the emotional highs and lows and the zaniness with a grounded-ness of the movie. For me I was almost trying sculpt the movie as if it was a living animated film. Because we really wanted this fairytale fable tone. Trying to balance that with the technical aspect of it was just a unique challenge that I\u2019d never been a part of, even as a shooter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily the team behind Pickle<\/em><\/strong> have dealt with balancing tones before. \u201cWorking with [Rogan and Goldberg], we\u2019re all confident with our comedy chops but we wanted to make sure this movie worked first as a drama,\u201d Trost enthuses. \u201cAnd then we\u2019re going to add in the jokes and really bring the humour forward so we could really make sure the story worked. It was an interesting process. I like it because if you can connect with the characters in any movie it\u2019s always going to be more worthwhile. Whether it\u2019s funny or not. I think if you\u2019re just more invested it\u2019s a better experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

An American Pickle<\/strong><\/em> may be a time-travelling movie about a man who becomes brined in a vat of pickles, but what shines through while speaking to the filmmakers is it\u2019s weirdly relatable: \u201cI\u2019ve always wondered what it would be like to meet [my great grandfather]. I don\u2019t know how much English he spoke but I wonder what would we talk about, if we would get along and if he would be ashamed of me or satisfied by how I turned out on any level,\u201d Rich says. \u201cThat question is really what drove me to write this story and hopefully it resonates with some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like there\u2019s a certain sensitivity in the script that I really related to. In terms of family values and just dealing with legacy and grief. It\u2019s multi-layered but I really responded to its overall sweetness,\u201d Trost adds. \u201cI think we could really use an endearing movie especially at a time like this, right now. I\u2019m happy to be involved in something that can put a little bit of positivity into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An American Pickle<\/strong><\/em> firmly focusses on family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, with the world such a strange place right now due to the global pandemic, it\u2019s significant that a positive and heartfelt film like this has been released to audiences. It\u2019s also significantly a very different<\/em> cinematic release due to the pandemic as it will be available in cinemas in the UK (where theatres have largely re-opened) but will be available via video on demand in the US via HBO Max due to not all US cinemas being ready to open just yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say that I would rather we weren\u2019t in a global pandemic right now, obviously,\u201d says Trost. “It\u2019s definitely bitter sweet. I\u2019d rather it come out normal and everything, but at the same time this release – at least through the steaming platform – we have a really wide audience and for that I think it\u2019s great. And HBO Max has been really wonderful for us, for the movie. Because we\u2019re all in the same spot globally, it\u2019s nice to put something into peoples\u2019 homes and into theatres that hopefully distract and make people feel good about themselves at least for a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I\u2019ve landed with this whole thing. I\u2019m not really interested in going to the theatre to see something that\u2019s going to make me feel bad at the moment, we\u2019ve got enough of that going on with everything else right now. But I\u2019m happy it\u2019s getting out there, getting released – I hope people can see it safely and responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n

An American Pickle is out now on digital.<\/strong><\/em>
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