Filmmaker Ari Aster is known for his brand of horror films such as Hereditary and Midsommar. The filmmaker’s unique style has garnered him a loyal fanbase from only three films in his filmography. He has worked with renowned actors such as Toni Collette, Florence Pugh, Joaquin Phoenix, Gabriel Byrne, and more.
Aster will be helming his next film Eddington which sees him reunite with Phoenix and also stars Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, and Austin Butler. Yellowstone star Luke Grimes, who also featured in the film mentioned the difference between the sets of Taylor Sheridan’s neo-Western and Aster’s black comedy.
Luke Grimes Talks About Ari Aster’s Working Style On Eddington
Ari Aster broke into the scene with the horror drama Hereditary. The A24 film starred Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, and Gabriel Byrne in lead roles and followed the story of a family who deals with the death of their child. While they grieve, they begin to be haunted by a cult that Collette’s late mother used to be a part of. The film was a critical and commercial success.
Aster followed it up with Midsommar, which saw Florence Pugh accompany her boyfriend to Sweden to celebrate the midsummer festival. The film was a success, earning over $48 million against a $9 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). Aster’s films are known for their dark imagery, the presence of cults and rituals, as well as psychological metaphors.
According to star Luke Grimes, who will be seen in his next Western black comedy Eddington, Aster’s sets granted a lot of freedom for the actors. Grimes, who stars in Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone, compared the two sets and contrasted Sheridan’s rigidity to Aster’s freedom. He said in an interview with The Independent,
With a Taylor script, that’s what it’s gonna be. Whereas with the Ari movie, his projects are such a living organism. Clearly, he’s got the whole movie edited shot by shot in his head, but within the scenes he allows the actors to find things for themselves and I think that’s why his movies are so interesting. They’re like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
Sheridan reportedly has an ironclad rule on his set to stick to the dialogues. The showrunner has written most of the episodes of the series, which is untraditional for the TV industry.
Luke Grimes Comments On The Taylor Sheridan-Kevin Costner Feud
Luke Grimes had his breakthrough with the Clint Eastwood directorial American Sniper. However, he was propelled to stardom when he starred as Kayce Dutton in the Paramount+ show Yellowstone. The Taylor Sheridan-created Western sees Grimes play the youngest son of Kevin Costner’s John Dutton, the patriarch of the Yellowstone ranch in the show.
The series will be ending its run with the second part of Season 5 set to air in November of this year. The show seems to be going out on an ugly note as Costner and Sheridan feud over making time for the neo-Western. While Costner is accused of prioritizing his film Horizon: An American Saga and giving only a few days for the show, the Dances with Wolves star said otherwise (via THR).
Grimes, who is still part of Yellowstone spoke about the unfortunate circumstances of the exit and said that he understood the actor’s priorities. He said to The Independent,
Whatever happened there is unfortunate if it’s changed anything about how the show was going to unfold. I know, [Costner] got busy with his movies that were like passion projects. At a certain point, you gotta do what you gotta do, man; you gotta do what you love.
The show was delayed due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike and finally picked back up after it ended.
Yellowstone is streaming on Paramount+.
