Benjamin Millepied on reinventing Carmen using movement and dance
Millepied speaks with Q’s Tom Power about his directorial debut
Superstar dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied has turned to a classic story for his feature film directorial debut.
Inspired by Georges Bizet's opera of the same name, Millepied's Carmen reimagines the story of Don José, a naïve soldier who's seduced by a young woman named Carmen, ultimately resulting in their demise.
In Millepied's version, Paul Mescal plays an ex-Marine named Aidan (the film's Don José) who finds a new purpose when he unexpectedly crosses paths with Carmen, played by Melissa Barrera.
"Compared to the opera, I wanted this woman to be free and fearless, and not just to be this fantasy of what men think women should be and this thing that they want to possess, which is what happens in the original version," Millepied told Q's Tom Power in an interview.
"It's also a woman who doesn't really love in the original … so I wanted the opposite. I wanted to feel all of that magical larger-than-life quality, but also give her an experience of love that was something positive."
Neither of the film's stars, Barrera or Mescal, are classically trained dancers, but for Millepied, this was more of an advantage than a challenge.
"I wanted a man to play a Marine, who didn't have the ability to suddenly break into dance moves," he said. "I wanted it to be realistic and I wanted [him] to dance like a Marine."
WATCH | Official trailer for Carmen:
Though he's never directed before, Millepied has had experience transforming actors into credible dancers on screen.
In 2010, he made his first big leap into film with Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, which he choreographed and performed in alongside Natalie Portman, who is now his wife.
"My role was to get Natalie to be credible on screen as a ballerina in Swan Lake, which was really reaching for the impossible," he said. "I didn't have to tell Darren that he needed to put the camera close to Natalie and let the camera move. He intuitively knew that the way to make this work was to move with her and to move handheld."
The full interview with Benjamin Millepied is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Benjamin Millepied produced by Jennifer Warren.