A guided tour ofSuccessions descent into birthday hell with director Lorene Scafaria.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Im not sure if it was then that I found out it was going to be the birthday episode.
They told me they wanted me for a particularly cinematic episode.
When I finally read the first draft of the script for this episode, I felt so spoiled!
After that, it was about diving into this bottle episode that takes place in Manhattan.
You realize going into it that youll never see these characters in this space again.
How would you describe the visual language of this show?
And whats the relationship to your own style?
My perception of your movies is that they dont feel as volatile and loose asSuccession.
The show is this ever-evolving thing.
Lines are constantly being cut and added, things are changed on the fly.Yeah, it is like that.
Of course, the snap-zooms that part of the visual language was established early on.
Its all really loose.
On this show, youre also working with brilliant actors and incredible writing.
It becomes a lot like directing theater.
As a film director, Im used to following my own personal vision.
In this case, you want to bend to the show.
You want to be true to what Jesse and Mark created in the first place.
Its challenging but really fulfilling.
Isnt the show shot on 35mm film?Yeah.
Really large magazines; really long takes.
How is shooting on film different than shooting digitally?The image is different.
But film changes the approach to everything.
When youre shooting digitally, youre often not precious enough about what youre capturing.
Everyone needs to be able to pivot and move within the scene and feel free.
Logans office, especially, was that for me.
There were two scenes in which everyone was up and then everyone was down.
You came to filmmaking through theater, right?
Blocking was definitely something I had to understand early on.
Then I went and made some short films.
Its a lot like directing a play in that youre giving every character their own intention.
That was an important thing I learned from theater.
How could we find that together?
For other actors, its much more of an emotional journey theyre taking.
Its almost like the characters themselves get to try on new roles when the locations change.
Who arethe Roys when theyre in Italy?
Who are these people when theyre at a gigantic birthday party?
Im interested in the figurative or symbolic aspects of the party.
When we were setting it all up, we got to ask questions like,Whats Kendalls taste like?
What vibe is he trying to get from the crowd here?
What seeds has he planted?
What tiny little traps has he tried to set that maybe no one will see?
Thats the soundtrack Kendalls curated for everyone.
There is, there is.The event is for the benefit of the siblings, really.
Kendall wants them to see him in his element.
And how is he curating his element?
How is he trying to realize his best self and also create something he can show off to them?
Those are some of the questions we had to keep in mind.
Theres also something innocent and childlike about Kendall in this episode, especially at that moment.
Thats why the tree house is so meaningful to Kendall.
Thats why he wants to bar the others from entering it.
You want to give him a hug and then a shove after.
You see his attitudes resonating within them.
Those nuances do so much.
Were sitting here choosing the right shade of pink.
I wasnt sure we were going to actually reach the finish line on this one.
Tell me about the art installation in Kendalls office with windows and TV screens full of flames.Amazing.
Waystar Royco on fire.
We talked a lot about what that could look like.
I wasnt sure if it was going to be some kind of old theater trick with cellophane fire.
We ended up having these rear-projected flames that did the trick better than any cellophane.
It was also fun that we got to do two scenes there.
Kendall with this card, having a quiet moment in hell with himself.
And then Greg and Comfry go in there.
Right, and the two of them are oblivious to Kendalls distress.Yes, exactly.
But Greg also is aware that the heat is coming for him.
Kieran and Alex had such instant, hilarious chemistry.
Alex was excited to play, and he had a great tennis partner in Kieran.
They were all good!
How many takes did you do of Culkin throwing the phone into the urinal?
Was it a real phone?
Did Skarsgard provide the stream?That was a real phone.
I think it had to be a certain phone for just that scene.
Im not sure if everyone will let you desecrate their devices in that way!
Kieran nailed the throw every time.
I mean, every time, he tossed it right in there.
We worked hard on the color of the urine.
That was a conversation.
How clean is this man?
How hydrated is he?
Thats the nitty-gritty of my job.
Was the actor only good for one take with his own piss?
That stream is movie magic.
Weve got to put a stop to this.[Laughs.]
How much more of this can we allow?
I guess I should ask you about the scene where Kendall goes searching for the present from his children.
That, to me, is a classicSuccessionscene.
You read it and immediately felt like, We have to get this right.
How did you get it right?Jeremy and I had a great connection.
We bonded over that.
We shared songs with each other and kept that party going on set together.
The lights from the main room were bouncing off the glass and into our room.
It was just right.
Jeremy is so truthful and honest.
I felt like this was an opportunity to create a space for him where he could be truly vulnerable.
We thought about every decision in relation to that.
One big thing was we decided we didnt want to have a bunch of empty boxes.
I love the props department!
This kind of thing is all about creating a space.
How did it feel while you were finally shooting the scene?I cried on set.
And then I thought, God, Im crying over Kendall?
But I couldnt help it.
This kind of scene is what Jeremy is all about: bringing the soul, the truthfulness.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
They were actually created by production designer Stephen Carter (from scratch and with love according to Scafaria).
