It's sort of like being a football coach. In a way it's good practice for a director because often times you over-intellectualize what you're giving to an actor but you have to talk very simply and you have to speak very emotionally [to a 6-year-old]. It wasn't like she just walked onto set, we worked on the character for 3 months... she really did understand what she was doing but the way that we would get to that place, as opposed to talking out the psychology of the character, I'd tell her, this is a scene where you're really angry, and she'd say "Am I yellow angry, red angry, or purple angry?" and I'd say, "well what's the highest anger?" and she'd say "well, purple is the highest." And I'd say, "ok, I want purple." And she'd say "No. You don't want purple. You don't even wanna see purple. I'll give you red but no purple." -- Benh Zeitlin on directing Quvenzháne Wallis
The New York Times collaborated with the city of Madrid in bringing speakers from the disciplines of film, theater, and music and hosting conversations at their TimesTalk Madrid series. This past Sunday, September 23rd, they presented an incredible conversation with Benh Zeitlin and New York Times media columnist David Carr, following Beasts of the Southern Wild's Madrid debut.