Ari Aster is back with another mind-bending journey in Beau is Afraid. The latest from the mind behind Hereditary and Midsommar centers on the chronically paranoid Beau as he learns his mother has died in a horrific fashion and attempts to venture to her funeral, resulting in a surreal journey in which he confronts the demons of his past.
Joaquin Phoenix leads the ensemble cast of Beau is Afraid alongside Patti LuPone, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Kylie Rogers, Parker Posey, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Hayley Squires, Michael Gandolfini, Zoe Lister-Jones, and Richard Kind. Holding nothing back in exploring the increasingly deranged mind of its central character and led by a committed performance from the Joker actor, Aster’s latest effort is a divisive one that still sticks with the viewer in the same vein as his prior works.
Screen Rant recently caught up exclusively with VFX Supervisor Alexander Lafortune to discuss Beau is Afraid, and the hefty workload he and the artists at Folks undertook for the project, including crafting an effects-heavy short film situated in the middle of the movie.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Alexander Lafortune on Beau is Afraid
Screen Rant: Beau is Afraid is just a wild film from start to finish, as is almost anything by Ari Aster, and the visuals that go into this movie are a big part of that. When did Ari and his team first approach you to be part of the project?
Alexandre Lafortune: Yeah, of course, he didn’t approach me, personally, for that project, but Louis Morin, who handles the client VFX side of things, brought this project to FOLKS. I’ve known Louis for around 20 years, so it was a no-brainer for me to be involved in this project.
Can you explain to me some of what you and your team did on this film?
Alexandre Lafortune: Yeah, after reading the script, I knew this project was going to be crazy in a good way, and we were quite involved throughout the movie. We had so many different types of effects to create. Sometimes you get a sequence, and you develop a routine that you implement into the sequences, but for this film, we had to develop new routines. The team and I worked on the blood splatter and enhancing the wounds, and we also made a guy explode, so there was a fix involved there. We worked on water simulations, plus merging a few plates together to complete that sequence. Our greatest involvement was for the sub-project in the film, which we call “Hero Beau,” which is an eight-minute short in the film.
Ari’s vision is always mind-boggling to watch onscreen, and it’s obviously supported by VFX artists such as yourself. What is that collaborative process like with him, where he is pitching you ideas?
Alexandre Lafortune: At the end of the project, I had the chance to really be one-on-one with Ari for the final few weeks, and we met up twice a week to discuss the sequences. We worked on nailing his visions, as he has a pretty good sense of visual storytelling points, and also, timing-wise, he was really into the timing of the shots. Some shots went through a lot of iterations to perfect, and in others, not as much. It really depends per shot, basically. Personally, this kind of work drives me. I love being involved every step of the way.
What would you say was one of the most challenging shots to put together for this film?
Alexandre Lafortune: The 8-minute long short was the most challenging. It was a huge collaborative project, from Louis Morin for the show, Jorge Cañada, Cristóbal León, Joaquín Cociña and us. The sequence has a lot of animations, stop-motion animation, and cel-animation paint over. Cristóbal León, and Joaquín Cociña, were involved in some look development with Jorge and Ari at the beginning, really to try to find ideas about the look. They were doing maquette paintings and showing them to Ari and then evolved from that.
At some point, we were involved with Jorge to create some previs, because there was a five-day shoot just for that sequence with Joaquin Phoenix himself. We spent a month just creating the previsualization for each sequence in the short, starting from the storyboard, then knowing the studio dimensions. It was kind of technical, so you had to know where to place the camera, and we were able to tell the crew to build some sets [to certain] dimensions, and then, on the day of the shoot, [tell] the camera [operators] to get what we’ve done in previs.
But, of course, you can play around with that or [help direct] the motion and position the camera should go through the sequence. There were two studios, and we were switching from one to the other. The prep was done on the other while [work was done on one], so a lot of management. Once this was shot, it was on FOLKS to really put it all together, so we were receiving, as days passed by, photographs of maquettes to create that look, and received animations from Joaquín and Cristóbal, and we were putting all this together.
Most of the shots ended up being either just a 2D comp with the plate or 2.5D with some projection, and sometimes it’s printed into the image. One shot was really almost full CG. But yeah, we ended up putting all this together. It took almost a year because we shot that in September, not this year, last year, and then we finished the movie in November, so a bit more than a year.
That’s incredible. What is that like when you see the final product on the big screen?
Alexandre Lafortune: I had the chance to see the [movie] at the Montreal premiere with Ari and the whole crew. So, I’d seen the movie there and even went by myself two weeks later. I’m really glad I had a chance to work on this; it’s just something completely different, which I loved.
You’ve worked on both large-scale and smaller-scale projects. Since Beau is Afraid falls right in that middle ground between the two, which do you prefer?
Alexandre Lafortune: I did so many different types of effects and shows, so I always find a way to have fun while working on a project. You have to do that anyway, so whether it’s a big project or a small project, there’s always a sequence, a shot, or a type of effect that you can be more involved in. I always like the project I’m working on because otherwise, it’s joyless. There won’t be another project like Beau is Afraid for me, I think, and specifically that “Hero Beau” sequence; that’s something that’s out of this world in my mind. I was reminding everyone that this is something special. Being in this business for 25 years, I know a project like Beau is Afraid doesn’t come that often. This is what really drives me about that project, having the possibility to work on that type of effect or world
About Beau is Afraid
A paranoid man embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother in this bold and ingeniously depraved new film from writer/director Ari Aster.
Check out our previous Beau is Afraid interviews with:
- Nathan Lane & Amy Ryan
- Parker Posey
Beau is Afraid is now available on VOD and digital platforms and hits shelves on Blu-ray and DVD on July 11.
