Tony Gilroy Almost Walked Away from “Behemoth!” Then He Met Pedro Pascal
- Share via
Tony Gilroy, writer and director, found the idea for “Behemoth!” on a scoring stage on the Sony lot, the same room where every MGM musical was scored. He was there recording the “Rogue One” score with Michael Giacchino and a massive orchestra, and he left every night sure there was a movie in that room. It took until the end of “Andor” for him to find the hook.
Gilroy and production designer Jade Healy talked about the film with Los Angeles Times Envelope editor-in-chief Matt Brennan at a screening presented by the Newport Beach Film Festival.
Sen. Alex Padilla’s forcible removal from a Dept. of Homeland Security news conference is among the real-world events the ‘Andor’ showrunner likens to his ‘Star Wars’ prequel.
Gilroy spent six months interviewing musicians like a journalist, with the bonus that nothing was on the record. Healy cornered players at an “Avatar” scoring session and asked them to send photos of their apartments and practice rooms.
The Pedro Pascal Factor
Pedro Pascal plays a symphonic cellist from a famous family who comes back to Los Angeles with an agenda. Gilroy wanted a playful, almost fairy-tale version of the story, but when another actor dropped out and the production had to push, he was ready to scrap the movie. He and “Andor” producer Sanne Wohlenberg met Pascal as a last-ditch effort and knew within 10 minutes.
“Pascal just gave me permission to use that exclamation point [in the title “Behemoth!”], which was there to remind me to have some silliness and craziness. He has all those things; he has this incredible effervescence and charm and fluidity, but he also has incredible sadness about him. He just let me do all the things I wanted to do.”
— Tony Gilroy, Writer and Director of Behemoth!
Why Segerstrom Beat Disney Hall
Parts of the film were shot at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, which stands in for a concert hall in Chicago. Healy ruled out Walt Disney Concert Hall early on because it’s too recognizable, and Gilroy told the audience its seats are ugly.
“Finding the right location is half the job, because if I find the perfect location, like Segerstrom, I’m not doing much,” said Jade Healy.
Pedro Pascal surprised fans with an undercover appearance as “The Mandalorian” at Disneyland on Saturday.
Nine Composers, One Go-between
Gilroy invented four fictional films for the movie, which called for nine sources of music. Instead of having one composer jump between styles, he cast nine like actors, including James Newton Howard and Brandon Roberts, and the music had to be finished before filming, so Pascal only learned pieces that would end up on screen.
When asked what he learned about session musicians, Gilroy retold a speech Giacchino gave to a crowd in London about the players behind nearly every score we hear.
“They do it every single day of their lives, and they do it 19 times a day, and you have no idea what you’ve been feeding on, where it comes from,” said Gilroy, recounting Giacchino.
Healy pointed out that many of the musicians on screen are real session players Gilroy cast himself.
“Behemoth!” opens in limited theatrical release on December 4.
