The filmmakers and Vanessa Kirby explain how the 24-minute shot came together.
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But Sean cant find the phone.
Every single time, it was like, Shia, remember where the phone is.
But Mundruczo relished the fruitful mistake.
This is someone who is better than me, is better than us.
She and Mundruczo, who are married, produced it for the stage in Poland.
It has the same mood.
It almost has the same dialogue.
Originally, Mundruczo wanted to go into the bathroom, like, three times, says Loeb.
But the doorway was only 21 inches wide.
It dwells on her like an act of reverence.
If you do a long shot, you have two enemies, says the director.
If you are very choreographed, then the whole shot can be really cold and calculated.
The walk-through ran to 38 minutes, more than ten minutes past the allotted time.
So for their first take, the actors knew they needed to speed everything up.
(The terrible joke Sean tells Martha to loosen her up Whats broccolis favorite kind of music?
came courtesy of LaBeouf, as did the follow-up: Where does broccoli go to get a drink?
At the salad bar!)
But there were literally no marks to hit.
We said we want the perspective of the baby somehow … Weber explains, a really floaty presence.
I started out with two minutes on, a minute break, two minutes on, a minute break.
(By the third week, he had to see a physical therapist for his locked glutes.
We had a path says Loeb.
We needed to stick to the path in terms of timing.
The Labor
Mundruczo and Weber settled on the fourth of their six takes in the crowded apartment.
Marthas labor is abbreviated here, sixteen hours crammed down into 24 minutes.
But just as real contractions do, the scene crescendoes and collapses.
There are no sanitized blue hospital drapes or feet stuck in stirrups.
She had noticed how frequently women in labor would try [to] share the pain.
I just tried to imagine that was happening to me, she says.
The Shift
Martha insists shes too weak to walk.
A small trickle of blood ribbons through the tub water.
And then the babys heart rate drops.
The weight of responsibility shifts silently from person to person.
Eva is the medical expert, but Sean is the father.
Eva pauses, swallows, her eyes dart around: Yeah, were good.
[Actress] Molly was amazing with this, Weber says.
For a brief moment, the new little family huddles together; Sean pulls out a camera.
The baby was quickly whisked into the room while the camera focused on Martha and Sean.
The only CGI was for the umbilical cord.
Kirby says having a real baby in her arms was crucial.
The baby being there and her looking at me was just …
I couldnt have acted the rest of the movie without her.
Mundruczo says, As an ethical question, I felt that I just cannot do it.
I just cannot do more.
Im not able to show a baby dying onscreen.
The effect is more, rather than less, emotional.
In the other, the camera stayed with Martha.
Weber says it wasnt her goal to write a tragic birth scene.
When the scene ended, Mundruczo says, Kirby began to cry.
And we hugged each other, like …
I mean, maybe I expand time, but long.
More than 15 minutes, really hugging each other.
