The currently in theaters “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” would be a weird enough concept – Michael Keaton plays a former superhero movie star given one last chance to revive his most famous role, mirroring real life – without one of the most ambitious conceits in movie history: director Alejandro González Iñárritu filmed the whole thing in one take.
Or at least, the 119 minute movie which co-stars Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton and more looks like it was filmed in one take due to some judicious camera cuts. Still, even with the faux-one-shot, Iñárritu still would film the long tracking shots in four minute chunks or more, something virtually unheard of in today’s quick-cut world.
And because of that? Emma Stone kept screwing up the movie. A lot.
“It was hard. It was definitely hard,” Stone told MTV News about Iñárritu’s unique technique. “And I screwed it up, quite a few times. And I was just so sick to my stomach, waiting for them to do the scene, hearing how good this take was going to be and then coming in, and going around the corner too fast and ruining it.”
Given the ambition of the film, you’d imagine that perhaps the cast and crew would coddle a big movie star like Stone, understanding that’s it’s difficult to keep your motivation and character for minutes at a time, let alone nail your blocking without fail.
Nope.
“Well, Alejandro goes, ‘You’re ruining the movie!’ and then you go, ‘Oh, my god,’ ” Stone said laughing. “You know, he doesn’t mince words, and so I was ruining the movie… And then I wasn’t anymore when I slowed down around the corner.”
Stone wasn’t the only actor bowled over by the once-in-a-lifetime experience. To find out what Galifianakis, Keaton, Norton and co-star Andrea Riseborough thought about filming the movie, watch above.
“Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” is in theaters now.
Alex Zalben
Writer/Editor at MTV News. You can follow him on Twitter, but not in real life because that would be weird.
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