The Metrograph Theater in New York City hosted the Red Carpet premiere of The Neon Demon, the latest film by controversial director Nicolas Winding Refn. We had the opportunity to speak with the director and cast about the film and its messages.
Nicolas Winding Refn’s Neon Demon is quite the oddity. On Wednesday night, the filmmaker himself walked the red carpet, alongside stars Elle Fanning and Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road). Each spoke about working on the film and the meaning of beauty in the stabbing, satirical world it created.
The Neon Demon shares a handful of similarities to 2011’s Drive, Refn’s breakout film. For one the setting. “LA is one of my favorite places in the world and since I did Drive there I wanted to return and do something different,” Refn told us. Another element the film shares with Drive is the score, both were done by Refn’s collaborator and close friend Cliff Martinez. “He’s very much part of the family,” the director said. “He’s worked with my wife now, and it’s pretty easy to communicate.”
During the conversation, Refn stressed the film’s overarching theme of beauty. He made a film about the fashion industry “by not making a movie about the fashion industry.” He elaborated saying “I wanted to make a movie about beauty but I set it in the fashion industry because it’s a glorious background.” When asked what real beauty was he responded, “real beauty is weakness. Everything else is superficial.” Refn later added “we are very much dominated by what we see.”
Elle Fanning starred as Jesse, a young model with huge dreams. “She’s born with the thing,” Refn responded when asked about her talent. “It’s a very unique gift that God gives you that is supernatural.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Fanning also had a fantastic time working with him. “I admire Nicolas so much. I’ve never worked so closely with a director before,” she told us. Fanning also gave us insight as to the filmmaking process. “We filmed in chronological order, so you are constantly going off instinct. I showed up to the set and he would say ‘what do you want to do today?’ I had this power to be free and creative.”
Abbey Lee, who played Sarah, a model in direct competition with Jesse, agreed with this sentiment. “It’s a collaborative experience,” she said. “It’s crazy how much the script and scenes can change within minutes if someone has a good idea. It’s a group experience. Everyone’s in it to make one body of work.”
When asked to compare herself to Jesse, Fanning responded by saying, “she falls into extreme narcissism. She goes to a dark place, which I don’t quite relate to but was very fun to play.” Yes, she had fun on set, but Fanning also related to Jesse on the certain specific level of being young in Hollywood. “I started acting when I was very young,” she said, “so I understand the feeling of being the youngest person in the room.”
The theme of the film is, of course, beauty, as Refn so elegantly elaborated on. Being from a younger generation, Fanning had a different perspective on the issue. She presented a less philosophical, closer to home answer on what The Neon Demon says about how we perceive beauty in the world.
“Beauty is a stock that never goes down,” Fanning said succinctly. “Beauty is always going to be in style. Which is a scary thing. My generation now is finding images that are fake and beautiful and that’s beauty. But those images are dead.” This juxtaposition of beauty and death is something seen explicitly in the film, and a point Fanning drove home. “We have a theme of death and beauty in our film. So when a person sees a living human that’s not beauty anymore. That’s Instagram.”
The Neon Demon will be released nationwide on June 24th.
