Interview: Strange Darling’s JT Mollner & Giovanni Ribisi Break Down Its Use of Color
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Strange Darling director JT Mollner and cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi about the new serial killer movie starring Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. The duo discussed filming the thriller, working with two talented stars, its unique color palette, and more. The movie is now playing in theaters via Magenta Light Studios.
“In Strange Darling, nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree,” says the film’s logline.
Tyler Treese: JT, I love the energy in Strange Darling. There were tense scenes, there was wild action, there was gore, and I felt kind of like a sicko, but I had like such a smile on my face the whole time. How was it kind of coming up with that tone? Because I loved it and I don’t know if I should feel that way.
JT Mollner: That’s a great observation because that was the goal in this one. Sometimes you’re making a movie with disturbing subject matter that’s just meant to disturb all the way through. We wanted this to be a ride and we wanted it to be fun in the way. A terrifying rollercoaster is also fun, right? It’s a challenging thing to do. It has a little bit to do with comedy and absurdity. It’s in the movie. We always thought that would make it fun.
It’s in the fabric of the story, and then there is just the idea of going for a ride with these characters because you’re dropped right into the action with them. Then you’re taken back in time and shown how they got there, and to be in the pressure cooker with those characters in a… masochistically fun is what I like to call it. Like, it’s one of those things where it’s for some reason it should be enjoyable. If you’re like you and if you’re like me, and probably Giovanni over here too, it’s just a certain type of person enjoys that sort of ride. That’s who we made the movie for.
Giovanni, the colors really pop in this film. Red is everywhere, from the blood to the red car, the red lingerie, and the wig. How was it establishing that color palette in Strange Darling?
Giovanni Ribisi: Well, the color palette was really based on discussions for four and five months that we had leading up to making the movie. It was really in the fabric. We wanted to have primary colors and stay away from tertiary colors, pastels, and what you see, it’s so common in streaming and other digital content. But that was the idea. It was just sort of bold choices, just sort of raw and simple.
Mollner: Very evocative colors, you know? It’s kind of like with music, I feel like. I wrote a movie a few years ago that we didn’t make. It was a blue movie from the very beginning. I could just feel that and this movie, although we built and developed an entire palette of primary colors during the development process, it definitely felt like a red movie from the very beginning. I remember, I think, in the first draft of the script, there was the old title that I won’t mention; it was written in red on the script, just the title. Yeah, it was just to give an idea of the tone. Then we talked about how everything was tertiary colors, everything was pastels in so many modern films, and everything was dark and dreary and everything, like each choice we made, developing the palette and all that was a small act of defiance against convention or at least current convention.
So we really wanted to use color, and that had a lot to do with so much to do with cinematography and film stocks and what Giovanni chose to capture that color and exploit the saturation. But also our production designer, like what you put in the frame, we worked with Priscilla Elliott, who was recommended by Richard Kelly, a mutual friend. Anybody Richard recommends, I’m a huge fan of his. Anybody he recommends, I’m gonna look at very closely. And so we convinced Priscilla to do the film, and she came on and was able to bring the very specific vision to life and keep us disciplined in making sure that colors that weren’t meant to be in the frame never ended up in the frame.
Ribisi: Yeah. She was incredible. She was so instrumental in everything. We were [thrown] so many curve balls and just never complained and just made things happen. I truly hope to work with her again, from both of us.
Mollner: Yeah. She was amazing. Then, of course, it bleeds into costume design. Rudy Rojas came in to do the costumes, and Priscilla would work closely with him. Everybody was on board. All the department heads were on board with keeping strict and stringent to what Priscilla liked to call color control.
I remember we went to watch Lost Highway. It was the first thing I did in Oregon when I arrived and met Priscilla to see it at the Hollywood Theater. They were doing a revival screening there. We left and talked about how you just felt steeped in something special. Like you were dipped in something and soaked in it. In that movie, there’s no escaping the overall feeling it gives you and how specific it is. She said that’s because they were dedicated and committed to color control. She’s like, it’s hard to keep directors disciplined enough to stick to it. She really helped us do that and executed it in just a beautiful way. I’m so happy with her work as well.
JT, you mentioned the structure. Strange Darling is shown in chapters, it’s going back and forth. Was that always in the script to where it’d be jumping so wildly back and forth? Because I love how that just kind of plays with expectations as a viewer and has a lot of fun with that.
Mollner: Yeah. The script came to me, or the story came to me, in that order. So it was always out of sequence, and it needed to be because that’s what made it exciting. I feel like in sequence, the story is somewhat conventional. It’s interesting because I think the characters are interesting. But the story itself plays in a somewhat straightforward way as a linear story. So the reason it excited me that wanted to write this is because when it came to me in this order, it offered a different pathway into the sub-genre of serial killer movies in order to offer a different pathway in a different paradigm. Instead of trying to do something completely different, we were able to show something or a story that is familiar from a different perspective and show more nuance and different angles. That’s what I thought was exciting. In essence, we were able to subvert expectations and surprise people in the course during the course of watching the film.
Ribisi: Yeah, I was gonna say, it’s, it’s interesting because it, as you know, it is non-linear, but what is so unique and specific about this is that that structure, that plot really comes from character and what these characters are going through, and it is a necessity to that degree. I think that what we’re seeing and hearing is that when people view the movie a second time, it’s playing even better. So it’s not necessarily something that just rests on a big turn or revelation, but it really is about these characters, and specifically, the actors and the performances in the movie are phenomenal. They really showed up and everybody was just inspired to do this.
Giovanni, Kyle Gallner is so great with his intensity, but the camera just loves Willa in Strange Darling. She’s so expressive with her face, and she’s able to give so much no matter what the scene. How much easier is it just shooting somebody like that when they are just so photogenic?
Ribisi: She’s definitively photogenic. Beautiful. But I think that the approach was really about who these characters are, what they’re going through, and the story. And I think that the conversations that we had leading up to production were all about creating this world that felt like a fairytale. Our mission statement was blood on the flowerbed, so that was part of it. But yeah, she is luminous in this.
Thanks to JT Mollner and Giovanni Ribisi for discussing discussing the movie.
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