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Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Roundtable
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 I met Guillermo Arriaga last year when he was in a band … Do you go hunting with him? He's a very striking character! Do you go hunting with him or…?Alejandro González Iñárritu: No, I don't like hunting. I hate hunting! I always think it's the greatest kill…
Do you have discussions with him about this? Because he's such a passionate hunter!
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Yeah, yeah, a lot. A lot, yeah. I don't like that kind of Hemingway world, you know! I don't get it! I think there are beautiful animals ….extinction that he uses to justify that he's killing because he make good for the nature! Something I don't believe, actually. I don't like hunting at all.
Yeah. Talking about animals, one of my favourite scenes in the films is where they kill the chicken! And the reaction of the two American children is just…! I could just understand what was going through their heads! How did you shoot that? How did you coach these two kids? Did they know that that was going to happen?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Er, the first take, no. But it wasn't the one that ended up in the... No, they are really good. And Mike is really good. It was his first film. He is a natural, he's really - I think he will become something huge. He has discipline. I think he will. He's a very nice, very smart guy. Very smart guy. I had a really, really good time with him. Very talented.
What is good for that scene end? Is it to show that Americans have become too anaesthetized when it comes to life and death?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Yes. I mean, it's in the point of view of the kids, that they are exploring another culture, a new culture, which is, you know, close to death and is close to what, you know, here the kids will never be exposed to. They eat chicken every day, but they were never exposed to see them killed-which is a rejection of death, which is a rejection of the culture. In the Western culture we try to avoid that narrative, you don't see it, that we want to get surgery, Botox and all that thing. You know, it's like - and we don't accept that that's part of life, that's part of the process. And I think doing that, I think that societies are more unhappy, because it's unreal and there's something hidden there, do you know what I mean? So even when it's, you know, painful, but it's what it is. So that was a game of the kids, looking to see looking at all these things that aren't normally this kind of …… That's very common for people who live like that.
At least two chickens were killed in this movie?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: No, like seven! {laughter} No, that was mechanic! That was mechanic. You know, first it's normal and then it change to a mechanic one that make a thing like that. That was a very easy trick but it looks good.
You must have been laughing inside, considering all the flack you got over the dogfights! And what it fed on!
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Yeah, you're right, we were joking a lot about that. And I always wanted to be the chicken killer! The dog killer!
And how was working with Gael Garcia Bernal again? Because, well, in my experience, basically... people outside Mexico. And now he's back in...
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Yeah, it was good, you know. I think he has grown a lot, and we have good relations. It was fun. For him it was a relief, because he didn't have to carry all the film. So it was just there was more amount of time. He is having a good time. Because he was really - and I know how he drives, so - you know, that was a good lessons!
Is he a good driver!
Alejandro González Iñárritu: {laughs} He drives very well. Very well.
Does the scene with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, does that show in a more convincing way... who they were?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: No, that was fantastic, you know. Brad can work. Somebody who's robotic?
Because there's good hard work in Mexico.. He's too famous, so he wouldn't work there, and you'd need all extras. But he worked in Latin America for this film.
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Yeah! We were very in the south, so really that was easy. This town that we shot didn't have any electricity at all. And also the actors that I shoot, they are from that town. So it was people that has never seen a camera in their life. So it was really - it was good, you know. It was very challenging. It was very… I think as a director has never put on such a challenge.
The beginning was really …., very tense. Finding these people, each of them to act, and then there was only … burgers and nuts. And to do a very simple scene you can take like one or two days just to shoot sometimes before they understand and they don't laugh to camera. You know, like things were really, difficult, in the way that - yeah! So that combination was very hard-and not understanding nothing. It really was really...
That second story, where the kids are standing - he goes “Oh!” and they were not actors, you know what I mean. I rehearsed a lot with them. While I was shooting at night I have rehearsed a few. Start to begin to handle a lot better. But at the beginning I think Cate and Brad were really patient, I think.
 And they slept in tents over there? I mean, there were not... Brad and Cate were just sleeping in tents over there?Alejandro González Iñárritu: No, no, no, I think they get along really good. They can create … . For instance, with the immigrant…
I mean the accommodation over there. There was basic accommodation, I guess, but there was no sign of electricity over there?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: In that town. Then we went - every day we had to drive like forty miles-it's very hard for Americans-
A question actually that has nothing to do with this film, but I saw your name pop up on the credits of Brokeback Mountain. How did that happen?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: You're crazy, Brokeback Mountain?
Thanks to…!
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Oh yeah, yeah! I didn't know, but maybe I guess why: because Amelia asked me and called me, and asked if he can use the theme of 21 Grams, musical theme of the music. So in the music of Brokeback Mountain there is a theme, that it's from the film. It was written originally for the film. And I said to him, you know, I will start off by saying to him, “Why you do another one which sound like this one?” He was doing it - steal from your films!” “Well, can you do another film?” It was the ideal …twenty, that he wants this! I said, “Well…” So he showed me the film, and I called and said, “You can use it, of course.” Maybe that's why he gave me thanks. And because I have been a great spiritual influence! {laughter}
Of course, there was an irony when you're working with amateur actors and don't speak their language and the movie's called BABEL! Was there irony on set on a daily basis? Because it must have been a challenge!
Alejandro González Iñárritu: It was like the fucking UN without translators! It's just four of you! Because, you know, it wasn't a problem of language. The problem was the point of view. Even when the Morocconese understand you as you say, “Okay, go and put the… Go to the left and a little bit that.” The guy went to the right! So I mean, it was really, really amazing how the points of view were completely turned around. I mean, the points of view things-the Japanese see things so differently. So it's not language; it's perspectives. And it's the ways people see life is different. So it's difficult to begin to broke those kind of habits or whatever in the day, you know, to work together as a team. So that was the difficult part, I think. Not the language.
So what have you learnt yourself from the movie about cultural differences?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: I learned from this. I have said, I started learning from all the differences and I end up doing a film about what get us together. I was really close, very comfortable, I know exactly-I mean, the bottom line, the people, we are exactly the same; it's just we have been just fed the wrong idea that we are so different. It's not true. So I mean, the surface is true that, you know, the Bolivians and - many things. But we have the same spiritual span, you know what I mean?
There is something that it's so funny to see how apart, and here, in Japan - the same things. You know, once you get there, that territory of common understanding, it's the same, exactly the same. So I felt so comfortable. I learnt that. I learnt that the people is good. And before, I was very cynical and very pessimistic about the human condition. And really I think that the film affected me in a way that I understand that 90.9 of the people is good, you know what I mean, and just one percent is fucking destroying the world. And I'm talking about President Bush and I'm talking about the TV news and I'm talking about the radical polarised people that…
But rather than that, because I mean, the world is very nice, other people is nice. And the less they have, the most happy they are, you see. That's what really is striking. And that happened in my country, I mean in these humble villages. I mean, you can see in a society, in the Japanese society, getting and chopping everything, and they are like - maybe are right to these communities. And they are smiling, they have time for you. It's really shocking about them. It's really, really shocking.
You were more pessimistic before? After 21 Grams, I guess, or…?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Yeah, yeah. You know, I think the human condition is - I mean, it's apparently so fucked up everything now. And it's not true-according to my humble experience. And this community makes it grow, I suppose, as a dangerous territory…. Yeah, yeah, there's guys-the car that I was driving, one day later they put eight fucking guns in the car! You know, in the car of the secretary of the Governor., the …. The next day the guy that drive me, there were eight bullets!
So is there news? Yes. But twenty minutes from there, there's a community that is like the most amazing and, you know, peaceful, great, generous. So that's what I'm talking. So we judge things for that guy with guns, but we don't see the whole thing. … and see the little dot here. And I was very focusing that dot. But having somebody going round, I felt that, you know, it's a little bit unbalanced, my view of human beings.
Yeah. But didn't you have that experience from twenty years ago, when you were a DJ on the radio and you had a talk show? People called you. That was the show, right?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Yeah, I was a …. and I was doing the music that I want, and like creating little characters that I could use and… And it was very stimulating! Ideas of, you know, doing a very, very, very several things that were really fun. And yeah, people talk, and music… More like a… people!
Yeah. But was it Mexicans who called you and told their story and you talked to them, and that was the kind of show it was, wasn't it?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Not - it wasn't like a talk … like that! It was partly that people can talk, and then, you know, we can talk a little. But no, mostly it was music and it was more like the things that we produce as some characters. There were some characters and stories that we created that were really, really, you know, provocative. Very provocative. I was a 21-year-old. So I was like director of the stations, and I can do whatever I want! So it was the greatest learning of … people through … and words and stories and characters. So it was very good.
It was two years after you went to Morocco that you were director of the station?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: In sound. When I arrived it was cool. I started communication under one of the girls, who was very cute, by the way. She told me that her boyfriend was being casting for voices. And she asked me. And I arrived, and he liked my voice. He hired me. And two years later he went to the TV station of his father and he let me there. So it was great! It was fantastic.
Your films always have a great soundtrack, and they have an amazing feel for music. How did you set about compiling the soundtrack to this one? Because you had all these different cultures.
Alejandro González Iñárritu: It was fantastic, this... You know, this film give me a gift of having discovered a music that I haven't heard before, which is called Nawa, the Moroccan music. Which is in … there's a festival that's called Nawa, which is … a lot.. And it's on video. So we've used thousands of … with travel. We went to Marrakesh and we closed with with a very talented musician just to take different solos of different things from it, and that was fascinating. Then in Tikuana music, that the Montanian music was the only music, one of the few music that I didn't never get it. And this time, you know, researching and trying to really, you know, get it, because I need it!
It was a great discovery to find these bands and make cast and hear the letters and relate to their lives and why they write about that. I mean, it's only I discovered the value of what it's kind of, you know what I mean, about that particular music. And it was fantastic, all these characters, and it was fascinating. So at the end of it these bands…Down in … in the wedding. It was a great research of my own country music in some part of the country. And in Japan… I had been hearing like the chasm of the - it was like kind of my ….in Tokyo. And I end up pulling groups….to the soundtrack.
And to start with, you know, what was really amazing is that he end up with… One of my worries was whether we would be ending doing like a National Geographic thing with the music, like “Okay, now we are in Mexico-guitar! Now is the Morocco! Whooo!” Like this kind of pastiche. And you start with really…
You know, one of the things is he got the oud, which is a …..in the world, that is a very African / Mediterranean instrument. Then through that instrument he made all the music. He learnt how to … it very, very with heart that … played. And without the instrument that is kind of African, but that's how he writes for the Flamenco guitar and then to the Mexican guitar. And then he has a little bit of Coto to write, a Japanese Coto sound. So with that instrument really we cover like three continents that sounds naturally, and it's only one element. It's a very … area. And that was a beautiful discovery, because really it's very spiritual, simple but it fits well in the three cultures. You know, they are so different but there are some sounds that psychologically they are...
The world on a string! Like a world on one string.
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Yeah, like Esperanto! I will say that is what it's a little bit! But it was a great thing. It was a great thing that it didn't distract people from one country, that it even blend one country and fits perfectly in the culture without getting your attention that we can play it in Japan, we are sounding like what it means in Africa-all these different- you know? And it was like a, again, like a - in a sense like just like is there. You don't see it; you feel it. That was how it was …
What's it called, then?
Alejandro González Iñárritu: O U D. Oud. It's a fascinating instrument.
Speaking about music, I really liked seeing what that girl did…
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Ah yeah, yes! That's Erica Bunafaria, that voice! And you know, I did that with a DJ that is called Chinichio-sawa. That guy is hot. That guy is heaven. I couldn't… And so we mix in his studio on that thing, it was… I like to play, you know, sometimes some music that has some emotional memory of people … You know, like September. That is really where you have your memories, that song.
Thank you very much!
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