Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1464279
hicago-born screenwriter and author Graham Moore won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for writing the acclaimed drama The Imitation Game. The 2014 film tarred Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, and told the true story of analyst Alan Turing, who saved millions of lives by cracking Germany's so-called unbreakable code during WWII. Now Moore, who was also nominated for a BAFTA and Golden Globe for his screenplay, is making his feature direc- torial debut with the twisty new crime drama The Outfit. Released by Focus Features, the film, which Moo e also co- wrote with Jonathan McClain, features an all-star cast, including Academy Award- winner Mark Rylance, Dylan O'Brien, Zoey Deutch and Johnny Flynn, and tells the story of Leonard (Rylance), an English tailor who once crafted suits on London's world-famous Savile Row. But after a personal tragedy, he's ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: A family of vicious gangsters. Behind the scenes Moore assem- bled a team that included director of photography Dick Pope (The Illusionist, Mr. Turner), production designer Gemma Jackson (Game of Thrones), editor William Goldenberg (Argo, The Imitation Game) and Academy Award- winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water, The Grand Budapest Hotel). Here, in an exclusive interview with Post, I spoke with Moore about making his directorial debut and his love of post. What sort of film did you set out to make? "The goal from the very start was to craft a white-knuckle thriller, where the tension mounts and mounts like in one of those great Hitchcock films I g ew up loving. And because of the setting in Chicago and the way the story was constructed and shot, we also wanted to make it ele- gant, despite all the violence. It's a story about a tailor who's very precise, who makes these beautiful suits, and in a way we wanted the film o look and feel like one of his suits." How did you prepare for your directorial debut? Did you get any advice from other directors? "It was a very long process of preparation for this, and I was very lucky in having editor and good friend Billy Goldenberg get involved very early on. I'd worked with him on The Imitation Game and he was one of the fir t people I sent the script to, and when I told him I was thinking of directing it myself, he immediately said, 'Yes, do it, and I'm in. This'll be great and I'll help you do it, and talk and guide you through the whole process, and help with anything you don't know.' So Billy was this huge influen e and guide for me through the whole learning curve of taking this on, and I really trusted him and all his advice. And he's also edited many of my all-time favorite films, f om Heat to The Insider, Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, so he was real- ly like this mentor to me — although he'd just laugh to hear me use that word." What part of the whole process was the steepest learning curve for you? "Right from the beginning I was very aware that there was this whole technical language surrounding the filmmakin process that I simply didn't have access to. That was especially true of all the camera gear and lenses and so on. You could show me different photos of a set or whatever and I could tell you which one I liked best, but not what camera and lens I needed to get that look. That meant that Dick, the DP, and I spent a lot of time doing tests. I came to him with over 300 pages of storyboards and photographic notes, and I'd tell him how I wanted a shot or scene to look, and he'd say, 'Great, I know exactly how to achieve that technically, and I can help walk you through it all.' So Dick and Billy were my key collaborators through it all." How tough was the shoot? "It was very fast — just 24 days, and we shot it all on a stage outside London, which allowed us to have complete con- trol over set design, camera work, lighting and so on. We knew early on we'd confin it to just the tailor's shop and its immedi- ate surroundings. Leonard never leaves the space, so neither do we, and instead of it being like a gimmick, we found that emotionally, it allowed us to put the audi- ence closer to our protagonist and rack up the tension more and more." Tell us about post. Was it remote? Where did you do it? "Because of COVID, we couldn't rent offices and work the usual way, so all the main post happened in my editor's living room back here in LA. They covered all the doors and windows in black felt and he had his whole Avid system set up there. He wasn't on set with us in London, but every night after shooting, we'd talk on a video setup. He began the assembly and was usually about a day GRAHAM MOORE — THE OUTFIT THIS SUCCESSFUL SCREENWRITER MAKES HIS DIRECTORIAL DEBUT C DIRECTOR'S CHAIR www.postmagazine.com 12 POST MAR/APR 2022 BY IAIN BLAIR First-time director Graham Moore.