In the modern horror thriller A Quiet Place, a family of four must navigate their lives in silence after mysterious creatures that hunt by sound threatens their survival. If they hear you, they hunt you.
We sat down with co-writer/director and star John Krasinski to discuss bringing his vision to life.
The Knockturnal: So when re-writing the script, how much were you thinking about sound?
John Krasinski: Well, I’m glad you said re-writing because the original script certainly had these elements, for sure, but what I wanted to do was take it further. It was an early draft by these writers and I’m sure they would have taken it further too, but to me it was such an incredible sandbox to play in. I just wanted to stay in there longer. It’s such a good idea. It was one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard. But more importantly than that, it was something that I connected to about the family, and so all the sound stuff that I was thinking of, really I wanted to affect the family. So, the terror that you feel is because you fall in love with this group of people and you don’t want anything to happen to them. And that really makes the sound so much scarier. So you see them walking through sand, so that they don’t make sound. You see them having all these different ways to communicate whether it’s sign language or lights or things like that. So as much as sound was something that we were very aware of, it was the lack of sound that we were really interested in too, and, and it’s weird when you actually think about what it would be to live silently, it’s very difficult to do.
The Knockturnal: Speak about your collaborative process with Millie because she’s so wonderful to watch on screen.
JK: She’s unbelievable, isn’t she? I mean truly she’s one of the best actresses I’ve ever worked with. She’s also a very unique and specific actress. What she does is unlike anything anybody else does. And I told her that. I mean she’s amazing in Wonderstruck. But, I told her, I said this movie is going to really affect people. You’re very affecting and I think my process with her was as good as it gets. It was always non-negotiable for me to cast a deaf actress because certainly the performance I knew would be much more textured and honest because she actually lives through it. But, I also needed a guide to walk me through this experience. You know, what is it like to have a family with a deaf person and also what’s it like to be a deaf person with a hearing family? Do you ever feel frustrated? Do you ever feel empowered? And she was so honest and gracious and kind and walked me through the whole experience and also there’s no better opportunity to learn sign language than with someone like Millie. She’s so generous and kind and helped me through it.
The Knockturnal: What was the most difficult scene to direct?
JK: Most difficult scene for me to direct was … I can’t give it away, but there’s a scene where, the kids are in absolute peril and it has something to do with corn, and it doesn’t look like they have a chance to survive. And when you shoot a scene like that, it’s really exciting but there were stunts involved, and as a father, but also as a human being, I was highly aware of the fact that I was putting real children in peril in order to shoot a fake scene about kids in peril. So there was a lot going on in that and they were such troopers and they were so professional and the scene is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
The Knockturnal: Can you speak about your immersion into the world of audiology?
JK: I did a lot of research online and read a lot about it. I think the idea of it for me was sound was going to be a whole other character in this movie. If not, the big character. The key to this is it’s not a silent film. It’s a quiet film, but there’s a lot of sound. And I think that the power of where you use more sound and where you take it out that was another huge thing we were really excited about. When you see the movie, you’ll know what I mean, but you get to remove sound because you’re in the perspective of all the different characters. So I was constantly learning all the way up to the sound mix. When you have a sound mixer, our incredible sound mixer, Brandon, mixed Black Panther. Sound wise those are two very different movies. So it was really cool to see all the different things that he had learned on that and then the different bits of advice he’d had for me here. Sound is one of those very powerful things and you realize that having wall to wall sound, there’s an assault on your senses and having, actually hardly any sound is also an assault. There’s something very disconcerting about it.
#AQuietPlace hits theatres April 6.