Cary Fukunaga probably doesn’t want to talk about True Detective, and his role directing the electrifying first season of the gothic crime fandango. But it’s by far the highest-profile thing the 37-year-old has been yet involved with and also... TRUE DETECTIVE DUDE. How could you NOT ask him about it?
You will recall that, as the initially obscure HBO show hit its stride last year, it pulled us – you, me, the entire user base of Reddit – into a wormhole of obsession. Who was the Yellow King? (A creepy flower arrangement in the serial killer’s man cave, it turned out.) What was the deal with Matthew McConaughey’s At the Mountains of Madness monologues? Would a dude married to a character played by Michelle Monaghan really cheat at the first opportunity? (No, Woody Harrelson, they would not.)
As it happens, Fukunaga was just about the only person who didn’t come down with True Detective fever. For one thing, the director didn’t see himself as an auteur shaping the tone and sensibility of the series. That position went to show-runner Nic Pizzolatto. For Fukunaga it was a one– and–done deal: he directed the opening season and then it was off to the next thing – specifically, an adaptation of Uzodinma Iweala’s account of African child soldiers, Beasts Of No Nation.
Also, he had no sense that the weird little drama he’d helped make in the backwoods of Louisiana would become, overnight, the most buzzed about thing in entertainment. Seriously – he never, ever saw it coming. Not even after filming that stunning fourth episode, with its incredible single-shot closing scene of Rust Cohle (McConaughey) fleeing a cadre of drug dealers, the camera lingering over his shoulder for seven minutes that seem to stretch towards eternity.
“I have a cynical side when it comes to publicity,” says the soft-spoken Asian-American. “I’m always of the opinion that the only people who get talked about are those with publicists. For True Detective I didn’t do much publicity – I almost didn’t do any interviews.
“With the first four episodes, people were talking about the show but not about me, which was fine. They were talking about Nic Pizzolatto, and Matthew McConaughey and Woody and Michelle and that was great.
“It wasn’t important that it become a vehicle for me. Then, when the episode four chatter started, it was right as I was about to head off and start working on Beasts. And I was caught off guard. When we cut the whole [single take] together, it wasn’t as if HBO or anyone was saying, 'Oh that’s such great sequence.' It was just one part of the whole thing. Nobody made a big deal about it.”
Fukunaga was at the time en route to Ghana, where he was to work with Idris Elba on Beasts, a brutal chronicling of the experiences of child soldiers in central Africa’s seemingly unending internecine conflict (the war raging across the greater Congo region is estimated to have claimed six million lives in the past decade, children accounting for a chillingly high percentage of the dead).
The movie, now airing on Netflix, has been perceived in some quarters as the passion project Fukunaga was permitted to make as payback for True Detective (the leaden second season of which suffered for his absence). In fact, the film was locked in before TD even aired. Had things worked out a little differently, he might even have shot Beasts first.
“I had Idris Elba lined up. I had the financing lined up. They wanted me to do it before True Detective. Knowing how difficult it was going to be psychologically, emotionally and logistically, I wanted more time to prepare.”
It would probably be an exaggeration to compare the making of Beasts Of No Nation on location in Ghana to Francis Ford Coppola’s troubled Apocalypse Now shoot.
But it has to be said... the making of Beasts of No Nation on location on Ghana sounds an awful lot like Francis Ford Coppola’s troubled Apocalypse Now shoot.
First, Fukunaga contracted malaria several days before the principal photographer was to begin. Several crew members came down with dysentery. Elba, an actual big name movie star, nearly fell off a cliff. Fukunaga began to wonder if he was being made to atone for some awful crime he had committed in a past life. Did he ever think it was all going to come crashing down on his head?
“Internally, every single day. Externally, I would never, ever say that to anyone. You had to keep a strong disposition. Otherwise it would bring you down.”
Even before True Detective, Fukunaga was a name to watch. He’d directed Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska in Jane Eyre and drawn acclaim for his 2009 debut Sin Nombre. Nonetheless, raising the $6 million budget for Beasts Of No Name was a chore – even with the charismatic and bankable Elba “attached”.
“It was never a demand that we cast somebody like that for the role. I wanted Idris because I knew he would have a strong toolbox for the part. He was the first guy I went to. Once we got him, the producers said, 'Well that will help with foreign sales.' But it didn’t really move the needle.”
Though Beasts is full of horrors, it is also stunningly beautiful. With Sin Nombre, Fukunaga was accused of glamourising the plight of migrants journeying from Honduras to the United States. It is possible the same charge will be levelled at Beasts Of No Nation.
“There were people who accused me of creating poverty porn,” he says. “It really hurt my feelings. Well, maybe 'hurt' is too sensitive. They weren’t seeing what I was trying to do. I don’t purposefully try to make a pretty film. I’m shooting the way I see it. I don’t think imagery should ever trump storytelling – it should be a tool to express the emotional journey of the characters.”
He seems a modest sort. But True Detective – the disastrous second season of which he has, tellingly, not seen – has elevated Fukunaga’s stock. He is perhaps the first director in history to become famous off a TV series. It’s a curious position – one he tries not to reflect on too deeply, lest it drive him mad.
“When you’re making movies or art, there is a public side to it, where people are going to discuss what you do. The hard part is maintaining your individuality and.. I don’t want to say your isolation. But not being corrupted by what people think about what you’re doing. If you start measuring yourself based on what people think... there’s a risk you’ll lose touch with what makes you who you are.”
Beasts Of No Nation is on Netflix