WGTC: So you have a tremendous reputation for bringing actors back over and over again – how do you get people to continually return for your movies?
Joe Swanberg:Â I don’t know, in the case of Anna Kendrick I’m just a gigantic fan, I keep asking her back because she’s such a good actress. Why does she keep coming back? I don’t know. [Laughs] Maybe she won’t know.
No, the relationships are important to me. My feeling is that I if I can keep collaborating with Anna [Kendrick], Jake [Johnson], and Olivia [Wilde], we’ll just keep making better and better work. That’s the hope – we can get deeper into certain issues while getting to know each other better, getting to the meat of the issue quicker. I don’t know, there’s a hope that there’s a family aspect to filmmaking that carries over, and that we can challenge each other in different kinds of ways. With Anna, for instance, doing Drinking Buddies with her led to Happy Christmas, because I thought what if we flipped this really mature, responsible character and made her the polar opposite? To me that’s a fun direction to be pushing in, and I believe she’s doing the same thing to me as a director. We do a scene one way, then come up with a new challenge. The perfect healthy artistic relationship involves a lot of pushing and pulling.
WGTC: I think my favorite relationship in Happy Christmas is the chemistry you have with your son, then I noticed the name Swanberg again during the end credits – was that your actual son in the film? He’s quite the actor!
Joe Swanberg:Â Yup, that’s him! We spent a lot of time early on having him hang out with the actors and the crew, getting used to the camera – my sound guy Jesse was letting him wear the big headphones and play around with the sound knobs. He was really curious about all of it. He had just turned 2 in November then we shot in December, so it was really a fun time to capture him because he was so curious about the world, he was so nonjudgmental. He’s 3 and a half now and he’s really different, he’s a lot more particular. Certain walls have gone up that weren’t there before.
But yeah! There is that sense that he’s performing. He has a sense of humor and can react when he knows things are funny.
WGTC: You can really tell when he’s doing a specific scene with Anna Kendrick where he keeps going to feed her a grape then denying her, and he really knows how to play towards actual comedic timing. It’s all very impressive. Is he going to be an actor when he grows up?
Joe Swanberg:Â That I don’t know – it’s all up to him. My wife and I are both filmmakers, so he’ll grow up with film being the family business, so he’ll have a lot of exposure to it. Right now he says he likes it, and he talks about Happy Christmas. He says, “Remember when we made that movie Happy Christmas?” and it’s like, “Yes! I definitely remember.” He’s aware it exists. I have the same concerns every parent would about having a child actor, though. It’s tricky. I don’t want to discourage him if he likes it, but my big fear is to end up in a situation where he feels manipulated or pushed into something.
WGTC: Happy Christmas has another cool homage to alcohol with the tiki bar – quality beers to be exact – but these kinds of references always seem to pop up in your movies. Are you a big beer guy?
Joe Swanberg:Â I’m definitely a big beer guy – actually, I’m only a big beer guy. I haven’t developed my sense of whiskey or some other spirits yet, though I’m definitely interested in whiskey. Beer happened to be the one thing I had access to, it was happening in Chicago in such a big way 5-6 years ago, so it was fun to get into beer, and it remains exciting because new breweries are opening all the time now. It’s definitely going to be in all my movies.
WGTC: So at this moment, what’s your go-to beer of choice?
Joe Swanberg: I’m really spoiled in Chicago, so it’d be Three Floyds Zombie Dust. Half Acre Daisy Cutter? Revolution, where we shot Drinking Buddies, their Double Fist Double Pale Ale is really good. I’m into hoppier beers right now. Mostly IPAs. I’m really excited by – well, OK, here are the two things going on that I’m really into. Session IPAs are really exciting, like 4.5% ABV but still really bold, that’s a great development, and then also lagers. As a lot of these craft breweries expand and have the tank space, they have the time to develop lager beers. Three Floyds has Jinx Proof, Revolution has Mother Of Exiles, and Half Acre has Pony Pilsner. These beers are incredible, AND they’ll knock you on your ass.
What’s going on here in New York? What are you into right now?
