Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is a strange and unique cinematic experience in many ways, but one of the true standouts is that original screenings involved a special live-action component. During these screenings, the theater lights would come on in the middle of the movie and an actor would seemingly host an impromptu Q&A session with Adam Driver’s Caesar Catalina (on the screen). It was a wild thing that I personally got to witness when I saw the film this past fall prior to its theatrical release, and it was something that Driver himself really loved when he first got to experience the completed work.
As captured in the video above, I had the chance to interview Adam Driver during Megalopolis’ pre-release junket in Toronto in September, and in addition to discussing the way he watches his own work and his collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola, we also specifically talked about the movie’s live-action component. He explained that it was part of the presentation when the feature premiered in the summer at the Cannes Film Festival, and he told me that the original idea was for that part to be even “bigger.” Said Driver,
Well, when I first saw it… I didn’t see it until Cannes, actually. I’d seen the movie a bunch of times before then because he brought me into the editing room and showed it to me early stages. But I hadn’t seen it with all the proper sound mix and everything. I knew when we were shooting it, his idea for it was bigger. And then it got paired down for lots of different reasons, but it was kind of in and out, that scene.
It’s a much different way of breaking the fourth wall than audiences are used to seeing (a la Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool talking to the screen), and Adam Driver sees the special Megalopolis scene as a reflection of the writer/director’s background in theater. The actor additionally saw the moment as a representation of how Francis Ford Coppola works behind the scenes, and he was emotionally taken aback witnessing it, even though he was watching himself on screen:
Just knowing that Francis came from theater and directs his movies like that, where it feels like experimental theater, to be there at Canes with him and his history with that festival, to have someone come out and interact with the screen for me was like a really beautiful moving, moving moment. I just hadn’t seen the film with all of the elements kind of playing as they should. The way it was lit was really great. I mean, I personally loved it, even though I was in the scene. So that’s like kinda laughing at your own joke in some way.
Obviously having an actor at Megalopolis screenings was a unique aspect of the film’s theatrical release, but if you’re curious about watching the movie sans-in-person Q&A, the movie is currently available for digital rental.