of achievement and it’s a bad thing to teach in our culture. Put me at a dinner table with half scientists and half artists in the room and it will be the most thrilling and nourishing. As an actor Michael is incredibly badass. I think of him as that equivalent of a rock star. For Michael, the work he portrays matters. I’m curious if one day science has the ability to fathom the unexplainable of today, if what we consider ‘spiritual’ can be deciphered into facts of atoms, would it still be astonishing for you?
I would just be like, “Alright”. That’s my expectation, I would not be surprised. Imagine if we could genetically modify every human to have an alternate sense, that would give us a total new insight to the world. It really comes down to discovering a dimension that we don’t have access to. Meeting scientists when you worked for National Geographic in the early days inspired your inquisitiveness in the cosmos and science.
Michael Pitt and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey in I Origins
Though you didn’t actually go to film school, do you feel your work in fact benefits from the removal of institutional construct? I wasn’t pursuing filmmaking in my studies formally, but I probably have read more books on filmmaking than what was taught in film school. I think when you’re in a film school environment, everybody is trying to distinguish themselves as the nail that sticks out while all other nails are hammered in. In a way I think that’s counterproductive for finding your own voice. If you don’t need to compare, you’re really doing an inward explanation to find a voice truthful to
70 ROOMS T he Beginning Of A Beaut if ul Fr iendship
you and what you care about. We all are capable of uttering profound truths, it’s within us. You don’t have to go outward to find it. Every single person, 7 billions of us, can tell something insightful about the human experience, you just have to get deeply quiet to uncover something. You and Brit Marling (star and co-writer of Another Earth and star of I Origins) have been working together over a decade now, has the way you collaborate evolved over time?
The best part about the years is that we have the deep trust and mutual admiration for each other as an artist. In this film her character Karen is the flip side of the same coin of Sofi; she’s a romantic yet a scientist; she’s the second choice but really the first choice. She prioritizes and suppresses, not allowing the vulnerability to rule her. I wanted to write a character that’s very difficult to life, and because we have such a long standing creative collaboration, I trust her. You’d want to find those people in life and work with them forever. Michael Pitt now is someone like that for me.