And the Oscar goes to…”The Shape of Water!” Guillermo Del Toro and J. Miles Dale, producers.
In this way Warren Beatty has announced the 90th Academy Award for Best Picture, crowning the great work behind “The Shape of Water.” A great and hard work that Academy Award nominee for Best Costume Design, Luis Sequeira, and J. Miles Dale told us all about. J. Miles Dale is the one who has supported the Del Toro’s vision, realizing together the perfect project.
Brave producer, he believed in many projects out of the usual box, but always hitting the target, on the big screen (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World“) and on TV (“The Strain“.)
His energy inspires us, and we thank him for having given us an all new meaning of passion and we hope it will be the same for you!
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When did you realize that “The Shape of Water” was going to be something so “big”?
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We knew it was going to be special when the cast started coming together, not only Sally but Richard, Michael and Octavia; and as we were making it, we saw it was special. The moment for me was when we screened it at the Venice Film Festival, the ten minutes standing ovation was incredible, and up until that time the audience had never seen the movie, we had only screened it once for a few people. So that was really the moment we knew we had something special, and it had the chance to be something big.
On the night of the premiere in Venice, Guillermo came to me and he said, “for the first time in a year I can breath”, and I thought it was an interesting moment.
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What was for you the main thing that made you say, “Yes, this is a movie I want to produce”?
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Well, for starters, anything that Guillermo wants to do, I would want to do, no matter what. Because he has a great taste, and he always puts something special on it. But, I think it was just reading it, and realizing that it had a lot of special elements in terms of what it was saying about love and the state of the world and what it is to be in love, and all those things. So I think it was just the originality of the material and the way it speaks to your heart.
“Anything that Guillermo wants to do, I would want to do, no matter what.”
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More in general for you, as a producer, what should never be missing in a film for you to produce it?
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The important thing for me is that there is some level of originality, and maybe something that I haven’t seen before. For me, if I read a script, and I’m still thinking about it the next day, that’s a good thing. And, if the moment I read I’ve already kind of forgotten about it, that tells me that I probably shouldn’t be doing it. So, I just use those sort of guidelines, when I read something and I think “oh, wow” and this is something that makes think, or it’s another level, it’s not just what is on the page, but it’s also what’s going on metaphorically. So it’s all of those things, it’s impossible to say it’s one thing, and sometimes it’s even difficult to describe.
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I think it’s the same thing for the audience: if the movie sticks with us on the following days, it means that the film has done its job.
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That’s right. And also with our movie especially, you don’t really know what it is, what it’s going to be, like it’s hard to tell from the trailer, so you go and think “is this a monster movie? Is this a thriller? Is this a horror movie because it’s Guillermo?” “No, no and no.” And then you see it, and it’s “oh, wow, ok, that’s what it is, it’s a love story, it’s all those other things, it’s a story about helpings friends…” So, I think that was a big part of it, the film kind of snuck up on people and they were like, “ok, I love that, because I wasn’t expecting it.”
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How was working with Guillermo Del Toro?
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He’s great. He’s very smart, he’s very funny, and he’s very detailed about what he wants. so, in a way you just need to keep up with him; with some directors, you may have to talk them up about an idea here and there or they need more help and support, but with Guillermo, you just need to listen to what he wants and then do it. And that’s a fun thing, I’m mean, he’s very demanding in a good way, and you know where you are, where you stand, it’s lovely to have such a sort of visionary who articulates what he wants down to the last detail.
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On set, what was the most beautiful while filming “The Shape Of Water”?
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Oh, well, there were a lot of beautiful things: the development of the creature, in particular, was a big thing; watching the actors work was a beautiful thing because they are so good, and they really are actors at the top of their craft. The sets and the costumes were beautiful; everything was just lovely, even the painting of the set, Guillermo was very particular about the color. So, just watching the nuances of detail in the work was very inspiring.
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What’s your favorite genre?
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I don’t really think about it, it’s more the specific movie, a lot of the movies that I’ve been involved with, weren’t really genre-related. For instance, “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”, you can really put it into a particular genre. This movie (“The Shape Of Water”) I don’t think you can put into a genre. Oddly, my favorite genre is one that I haven’t really done yet, which is black-comedy or like Cohen Brothers movies, that’s really my favorite genre.
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What’s for you the main difference between producing a film and a TV series?
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With TV series, you have to go a little bit faster. And I like it because it keeps you sharp. You still have to work with high quality, but you just have to be a little be quicker, take your decisions quicker, execute quicker. That’s the main difference.
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What’s your next project?
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Two films with Guillermo, and a TV Show that we are doing soon; and I have another feature of my own, and it’s all gonna start next week after the Academy Awards.
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As a producer, what’s your dream project?
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My dream project is usually the next project because we live in a world where we have to pour ourselves into it, and that’s what excites me. So, yes there is all kind of things, as I said I would like to make a black comedy. But, frankly, for this moment my dream project is “The Shape Of Water” because I feel like we got it perfect, and you don’t always get it perfect, and it has really connected with the audience, so I’m living in the middle of my dream project right now.
Credit Images: J. Miles Dale
