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DIRECTOR'S CHAIR www.postmagazine.com 14 POST APRIL 2017 ith a name like Marc Webb, the director was probably predes- tined to helm the two recent The Amazing Spider-Man blockbusters, the fourth and fifth films in the multi-bil- lion-dollar-grossing franchise. Now Webb, whose 2009 debut feature film was the low-budget, indie rom-com (500) Days of Summer, has returned to his indie, small-scale filmmaking roots with the new drama, Gifted, which tells the story of Frank Adler (Captain America's Chris Evans), a single man raising his spirited young niece Mary (newcomer Mckenna Grace) in a coastal town in Florida. But Mary is a brilliant child prodigy and Frank's intention that she lead a normal life is thwarted when the seven-year-old's command of mathematics comes to the attention of his formidable mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) — a wealthy Bostonian, whose plans for her grand- daughter threaten to separate Mary and Frank. As family tensions and discon- nections flare, uncle and niece find sup- port in Roberta (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer), their protective landlady and best friend, and Mary's teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate), a young woman whose concern for her student soon develops into a relationship with her uncle as well. Collaborating with Webb behind the scenes was director of photography Stuart Dryburgh (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Alice Through the Looking Glass), production designer Laura Fox ((500) Days of Summer) and editor Bill Pankow (Carlito's Way). Here, in an exclusive Post interview, the director talks about making the film, his longtime love of post, and why he's in no hurry to do another superhero movie. Your last two movies were such huge, complex productions. Was that part of the appeal of making a small film again? "Yes, and when I read the script I felt it was refreshingly simple and hinged not so much on this huge pre-existing awareness and rabid fan base of a su- perhero audience, but on a simple story and these characters and performanc- es. I felt it'd be a fun thing to do and engage in. I just loved the way the script made me feel, and that it'd be nourish- ing with a very positive message. And I wanted to spend some time in a warm place — both physically and emotionally, so it was great to shoot this on location in Georgia, at a beautiful time of year. I was so exhausted after doing the two Spider-Man movies back-to-back. They were very rewarding in so many ways, but they were very difficult as well, so it was nice to step back and be off the radar for a change." The old Hollywood cliché is, 'Never work with kids or animals,' but you did both — as apart from Mary, there's various scenes at schools full of little kids, and a starring role for Fred, the one-eyed cat. Are you crazy? (Laughs hard) "I know, and I saw it as a challenge, working with both in the same film, but we really lucked out when we cast Mckenna. That was crucial, and she has a wonderful and sophisticated sense of humor that she brought to the role, and she's a brave and responsive actor, and she can improvise — which was important, and we had a lot of fun with that. She'd think and talk about Mary as a charac- ter, and she also had this intellectual sophistication that is quite rare at that age. She wasn't aping something, and occasionally she'd say stuff like, 'I don't feel that Mary would apologize here,' so she had this real understanding of her character and motives — more than some adult actors might have. She's a very smart kid, and very special. And then we did have quite a lot of scenes with Mary in school with other kids, and Jenny as the teacher, and the kids were all non-actors. So we'd shoot for 15-20 minutes at a time, from the back of a classroom, as if we were making a documentary, and that way we'd get the kids behaving in a way that felt natural — as they wouldn't know when the cameras were rolling and when they weren't. And as it was a natural envi- ronment for them, they just thought they were in school. But it took a lot of work and rehearsing and then editing all that down and getting the moments we really needed was very hard." MARC WEBB: GIFTED BY IAIN BLAIR W ON RETURNING TO HIS INDIE, SMALL-SCALE FILMMAKING ROOTS Webb and Evans on-set.