After premiering at SXSW in March 2023 (where we gave the film a glowing review), Julio Torres’s feature debut, Problemista, is finally coming out in theaters after delays due to the WGA and SAG strikes.
Written, directed by, and starring the former SNL writer and Los Espookys creator, the A24 comedy follows an immigrant struggling to get by in New York City with dreams of becoming a toymaker as he takes a job as an assistant to an eccentric widow of an artist (played incredibly by Tilda Swinton).
In advance of Problemista‘s release, we at FandomWire got the opportunity to speak with Torres about his movie. Check out the interview here:
Julio Torres Problemista interview
In the film, your character Alejandro’s ideas represent things about his life. Is there a real-life toy you think encapsulates your life, and if so, what would it be?
You know, for a little bit, when we were looking for titles for the movie, one that I tossed around was “Snakes and Ladders.” I no longer feel like I’m in that chapter, but for a while, it did feel that way. Like, oh, things are going great. And now I have no money, and I’m back down. Now, I think it would have to be some kind of memory game. Like those games where you press different things and you have to remember the sequence of them. I feel like there’s constantly something I forgot about and yet somehow I make it through the day.
Were there any of these toy ideas that didn’t make the final cut of the film?
I know the answer is yes. The answer must be yes, but I can’t remember which specifically. Once I get going with those, I can go on forever. I think we used all the ones we shot, so if any weren’t, it was in the script.
Problemista is your feature debut. Did you find jumping from comedy and half-hour television to feature film difficult or exciting?
It was very exciting. I am very lucky that I did not really feel daunted because all those things you mentioned have given me access to being on so many sets, being by so many monitors, and almost like interning as a director for the longest time. I got to see how all those pieces move.
Then I came to understand which parts of it I liked, which parts I didn’t like, what were my strengths and what weren’t. So I felt very grateful about that and very prepared. And a huge part of it was having my friend Dave McCary, who directed so many of the sketches I wrote in SNL, be a producer on this movie. I just felt so supported and in really good hands.
Also Read: Problemista SXSW Review: A Visionary Directorial Debut by Julio Torres
So everyone is talking about you working with Tilda Swinton, and she’s fantastic, but I want to talk about RZA. That is one of the most unique and inspired casting choices I’ve seen. Where did you get this brilliant idea to have RZA play this role against his type?
Well, it is, and it isn’t. It is against type because RZA is a very successful artist, but I think that his soul connected a lot with the character. Casting that character was a little tricky because I was looking for a Bobby who was charming, a Bobby who was likable, but a Bobby who was a bit of a baby and got in his own way and was a bit stubborn, but ultimately — and most of all — a Bobby who felt like an outsider. A Bobby who felt like, regardless of his merit, he was going to have a hard time making it in the art scene.
And I thought it was a very tricky part because he doesn’t have a lot of scenes. He doesn’t have as many scenes as obviously Alejandro or Elizabeth has, so he needed to communicate all of that very briefly. And there was something about having RZA, having a musician specifically, that really made it make sense because he was able to fill in a lot of the blanks of that character. He was able to do something touching but funny, and RZA is both.
One of my favorite things about Tilda Swinton’s character is how quickly things will escalate. She’ll be talking normally, and then suddenly, she’ll be shouting something like “SERVE ME!” Was this more a writing element? A performance element? A bit of both?
It was both. The sort of machine gun-like delivery was always in the writing. That was like the genesis of creating her: her very particular way of speaking, her very explicit way of crafting sentences. And with Tilda, she said from the beginning that she was trying to wrap her mind around how to perform it because she speaks in a way that’s very precise, that’s very deliberate and very controlled. But it wasn’t until she found that beautiful, insane but also horrible accent that she uses that she really felt like she had the reins of the character. And when she found her equivalent of what Elizabeth was, we really got somewhere special.
One of my favorite moments in Problemista, and it’s stuck with me since seeing the film almost a year ago, was the “I stand with Bank of America” scene. Where did the inspiration for this bit come from?
It came from over-drafting and ended up with a negative $407 balance years ago. It’s just one of those terrifying, horrible moments in your life that’s very hard to shake. And that is what it felt like; that is what having that conversation felt like. It got to a point where all I wanted to do was to touch someone’s humanity.
I just wanted to hear them say, “This is stupid, this sucks, and I’m sorry.” I felt like I got so close to that. But then she was like, “No,” and that is exactly what it felt like. And my friend River Ramirez, who plays that small part, is just such a master at being believably human and then that turn of being something greater than.
Problemista is a very unorthodox film about the “American Dream.” It’s honest but still very hopeful. How did you strike this balance?
“I think that’s who I am. I don’t want anyone to see the movie and feel like I am saying that they have to be hopeful or that they have to do XYZ because I’m not prescriptive. I’m just showing what I feel and maybe some people relate to it. Some people don’t, but I feel like I’m a person who’s quite honest and doesn’t shy away from pointing out problems but also doesn’t think that there are no solutions. It was always going to be that way because that’s who I am.” – Julio Torres
Problemista is now playing in theaters.
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
