Few directors have ridden the ups and downs of Hollywood more dramatically than M. Night Shyamalan. With his mind-melting storylines, standout cinematic style, and signature twist endings — this Indian-born American filmmaker is truly one of a kind, responsible for giving us some of the best bits of storytelling entertainment has ever seen, including The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, as well as several films that are, well, significantly less-celebrated.
His latest feature film, Knock at the Cabin, looks to warp our perceptions of reality yet again, by the way. When you think about it though — that’s sort of his thing.
In an incredibly candid interview with The Hollywood Reporter, M. Night discusses his relationship with fame and the unrelenting creative trials of show business, which became clear while working on his less-acclaimed projects, such as Lady in the Water and The Happening.
“Lady in the Water and The Happening are so much a part of me. I love being wicked and getting a rise out of you, (but) being goofy is a part of who I am, as is being earnest. So Lady in the Water was very close to who I am as a person.”
Artistic expression is the ultimate goal of any true filmmaker — and in M. Night Shyamalan’s case, there are just certain types of movie making he can’t abide by. Remember The Last Airbender? We sure do, and so does Shyamalan. Critically panned, The Last Airbender was nonetheless one of M. Night Shyamalan’s greatest teachers.
“All of us go through moments in our lives where we want to be accepted. We get tired of the fight and having to defend who we are. And tacitly, or sometimes overtly, they’ll say, ‘You are wrong for doing it this way. You’re arrogant. If you just do this, this and this, it’ll all work out for you.’ And I went, ‘OK, maybe you’re right.’ So I made a genuine effort to join the system, but I learned that the special thing that makes me happy was hard to do within that system.”
If someone as well known as M. Night Shyamalan can mess up (and boy did he with Airbender), then everyone deserves a little forgiveness, because learning from our mistakes is ultimately the only way to move forward. Right? Let’s just hope M. Nigh sticks around for a long-long time, continuing to blow our minds and sometimes scare our socks off.