Imagine you are David Cronenberg, a filmmaker but also a parent. You tell your kids that your job is making movies; naturally, they want to see one. So which do you show them? \u201cScanners,\u201d with its exploding heads? \u201cRabid,\u201d where porn-star Marilyn Chambers drinks human blood? Or maybe \u201cThe Fly,\u201d where Jeff Goldblum transmogrifies into a gnarly-looking insectoid creature? Maybe not.<\/p>\n
For director Brandon Cronenberg, it was \u201cFast Company,\u201d a forgotten director-for-hire B movie about car racing: \u201cI saw it when I was very young and watched it a lot of times on an old VHS tape, because it was just cars and fun. Going back to it now, it\u2019s hilarious. I\u2019ve seen most of (my father\u2019s movies) now, but I still haven\u2019t seen all of them, and I started watching in my teens. But it wasn\u2019t a big deal, I didn\u2019t obsess over them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many filmmakers talk about how, after having a few acclaimed films, they feel the pressure of expectations to live up to their previous work. That must be even worse when you come to a project with the name Cronenberg attached.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, people approach me with a lot of preconceptions,\u201d says the younger Cronenberg. \u201cBut that\u2019s been the case since even before I made films, I would get that when I was doing drawings; people would be like, \u2018Oh, this is very Cronenbergian!\u2019 (Laughs.) Part of that is from my upbringing, but partly it\u2019s because people are interested in pushing those connections. When I got into film I made a conscious decision not to worry about it. That was the only way I\u2019d be able to function.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what if a critic were to call \u201cAntiviral\u201d \u201cbody horror,\u201d the genre defined by Cronenberg senior, which it clearly resembles?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up for other people to make those connections,\u201d says the director. \u201cI\u2019ve come to terms with it, I just want to do what\u2019s interesting to me; people will say whatever they\u2019re gonna say regardless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, the surest way to avoid comparison would be to move in a different direction altogether, such as a romantic comedy perhaps. Cronenberg laughs: \u201cSee, I think this is a romantic comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is,\u201d chimes in his leading man, Austin-born actor (and musician) Caleb Landry Jones, who plays the sickly Syd. \u201cWe laughed our asses off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones is endearingly nervous, content to throw around one-liners but tongue-tied when it comes to explaining his craft. Just try asking which comes more easily to him, acting or music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very similar,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s this giant f-cking puzzle that you have to solve, and you can solve it in this way or that. Music is all about pacing and time, and I feel like acting is pretty much the same. Music is more comfortable because you\u2019re in the privacy of your own home, recording or writing, not being filmed. Yet they\u2019re both just as personal in a way. But music gives me an instant gratification that acting doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cronenberg praises Jones\u2019 ability as a \u201creally nuanced physical actor, with a lot of control over his body. We played around with the character on set; sometimes we\u2019d get (the take) and be like, OK, let\u2019s just try something. We had options with things to work with in editing \u2014 different Syds, really \u2014 because Caleb was generating this whole range of material.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones enjoyed the process, although he says that the scene where he eats the celebrity cell-steak was not a high point. \u201cIt tasted horrible; I spit it out against the wall.\u201d The \u201csteaks\u201d were made of gluten, and Cronenberg admits, \u201cThat was made by the props department, and I think it had been sitting in the truck for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAntiviral\u201d features several scenes of people receiving injections, and I take the opportunity to ask Cronenberg what is it with directors and skin-pop shots; it seems like no one can ever pass up a big wince-inducing closeup of needle into skin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I can\u2019t speak for other director\u2019s needle shots,\u201d says Cronenberg, \u201cbut in this one it was all about penetration. There\u2019s an eroticism to celebrity obsession, but it\u2019s one-sided, given the nature of the relationship. So these were definitely the sex scenes in the film.\u201d