Mark Anthony Green began writing for GQ when he was 19 years old. After graduating from Morehouse College, he started working for the publication full time as a style columnist, interviewing some of the biggest names and celebrities around.
It’s fitting, then, that Green’s feature film debut, “Opus,” centers around a young journalist, Ariel (Ayo Edebiri) who gets thrown into the deep end when she’s invited to the remote compound of a pop star (John Malkovich) who mysteriously disappeared decades earlier – think David Bowie or Madonna, but if they were also a cult leader.
“Opus” digs into themes of tribalism and celebrity worship and features two stellar performances from Edebiri and Malkovich at its center. Movies about pop stardom tend to make me a bit nervous. They usually have a “music problem” – maybe the movie works, but the songs almost never do. But Green was able to get two of the best producers to ever do it on his side. Nile Rogers and The-Dream – who have produced for the likes of Diana Ross and Beyoncé respectively – avoid the “music problem” altogether, crafting songs that feel like they could have been true hits.
Ahead of the release of “Opus” this weekend, I spoke with Green about making the film, the movie that made him want to be a filmmaker, and what makes John Malkovich such a special actor. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You worked for GQ for a number of years. Watching this movie, going beyond the subject matter itself, I wondered how you think having that job and writing in that space for so long affected your writing style, or your taste in terms of what you’re looking to write about?
Mark Anthony Green: The analogy I’ve used is, it’s like “He Got Game” – the movie’s not about basketball, but they play basketball. So I think in this film, because Ariel is a journalist, I’m able to make that dynamic – all the nuances of being a journalist, as you know – to make those things feel authentic. In a more macro sense, like a filmmaker-from-magazine-writer [trajectory], there’s not a ton of overlap. They are very different things. I mean, any professional writer, you learn that you have to do it every day. You learn all the tips and tricks. Writing is the most difficult thing, as you know – it’s the worst. If you do it professionally, it’s even worse, and if you love it, it’s even worse.
I think that being at GQ really taught me what my tastes are, what my voice is. I graduated from Morehouse College, and that taught me a lot about who I am. It’s interesting. In these things, there’s been a lot of self reflection.
I was watching an interview with you, and you mentioned that “The Fifth Element” was sort of the film that made you want to do this.
Green: Not sort of. That’s the one.
That’s such an interesting pick. I don’t think I’ve seen it since I was a kid. What about that movie piqued your interest?
Green: It’s 100 percent an experience thing. I don’t watch that movie now at 36 and look at it and think, “This is the peak of cinema.” But it will always make me feel like, “This is the peak of cinema.” Because the first time I watched it as a kid, I didn’t know you could do that. I didn’t know you could put a full-figured blue alien lady [in a movie], and have her sing opera with hip-hop behind it. I didn’t know you could put Chris Tucker in a unitard. I had seen so little films, and that was the one that made me really want to make movies. It just blew my brain.
It makes sense. I remember seeing “Independence Day” for the first time and being like, well – that’s the best movie that’s ever been made.
Green: It’s the best movie ever! It’s the best movie of all time, right? I love that. Have you seen “The Fifth Element?”
Not since I was a kid. Those images stick out, though.
Green: It’s worth a rewatch. It’s an incredible movie. I stand by that.
I’ll have to check it out again. I read a really great short essay you wrote for Filmmaker Magazine, where you were talking about a moment on set – I think it had to do with shooting a scene that was really difficult, and you were feeling like you had let the crew down. It had a nice ending, because everyone came back the next day and was like, “I think we can figure this out.” But I loved how honest you were about that feeling of, “Have I messed this up?” Could you talk about the responsibility you felt stepping onto set and taking control on your first feature film?
Green: I love how you phrased that. I think that your brain turns responsibility into pressure, which is very real. But responsibility, to me, is like an honor, and so many people have to trust your vision and you as a human to go and make a movie with you. There could be almost 1,000 people that are trusting your vision to make a movie, and all of these resources and people’s talents, and moments of their careers – human beings are not spending time with their families, they’re missing birthdays, missing funerals, all of these things go into that. So I do think there’s an immense amount of responsibility when you direct a film and are the captain of a ship.
With “Opus,” I’m so fortunate that I worked with such an amazing crew, such an amazing cast. They put a lot of that responsibility on their shoulders too, you know? It wasn’t just this is what it is, but we all wanted to make the best film we could make.
I wanted to talk about that cast a little bit. Obviously, you’ve got Ayo Edebiri, and she’s kind of popping. I know you wanted her six years ago when you started doing this, if I’m not mistaken?
Green: No, I worked on this six years ago, I wanted her ever since … I watched the first season of “The Bear” early. I had never really seen her. I joke about, there was a four-day period where I knew what the world was going to immediately know – but I knew it four days early. In those four days, I had something, and then after that it was like, everyone agreed. This is a star. She’s incredible. It’s her world, we’re just living in it.
I thought the casting of John Malkovich in particular is interesting, just because – and maybe this is my own lack of creative thought – when I think pop star, I don’t necessarily think John Malkovich. Could you talk a little bit about where you found that draw?
Green: There are certain types of pop stars that you don’t run to John for, but I think John Malkovich is one of those actors – and there have only been a few in history – where the harder the job gets, the weirder the job gets, the more specific the job gets, you have to call somebody in that zone to do this. There’s a fearlessness that had to come with it, and there just aren’t a ton of fearless actors. The pop star-ness, can they sing, can they dance – all of that felt like we could find it. The really rare thing is finding somebody that will go out there and bring it the way that John brings it in this film. They’re like MI6 agents, or “Mission Impossible” – when everyone else would fail, he’s the one you run to.
He’s the one you call.
Green: Yeah. So it’s great. He’s so good in this film. He’s so good in everything he does, and he’s always interesting. He’s always making some choice that is, like, f*cking fascinating.
To get into the music a little bit, when you have Nile Rogers and The-Dream, we’re primed to think of certain pop stars when we hear those two people, right? But in the press notes, John Malkovich pulled a comparison to Leonarch Cohen, which I thought was really apt and something I didn’t think about. I guess that’s why you cast him, because he’s thinking about that kind of stuff.
Green: That, and also – I needed to convince the studio that John could sing. There’s a video of John on YouTube singing “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, and it’s incredible. It’s the only thing that I could produce of him singing. I showed it to Dream and Nile, and we were like – oh yeah.
He can do it.
Green: He exceeded our expectations. But we knew there was a base level. I’m a terrible singer – there’s no one on earth that could get me to sing well … it doesn’t matter. So there’s a baseline that you need to just be able to get it to the point. But John, he exceeded my expectations.
Speaking to the music in particular, I think a problem with a lot of movies about pop stardom is that even if the movie itself is good, the music is never quite there. I thought this music was very good. These two guys are from different generations, and I wondered if you were thinking of sort of melding that old and new when you asked them to do it.
Green: When I talked with them, I used that Michael Jackson album “Invincible” as a marker, because I think there are three good songs on that album, and I needed three songs. But the songs that don’t work on that album, you can tell it’s an incredible musician that is out of his prime trying to make something that sounded [like] now. But the songs that do work, they sound like him, but they’re very now and relevant. That’s a really, really, really hard thing to do. Niles’ guitar chunking is a timeless throughline. It’s why “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk works, sounds anachronistic, but still jams, and feels futuristic, even. I knew we needed that, and I knew that Dream understands how to make a hit.
Maybe more so than any producer ever – you could argue that those two are the best producers in the history of music, if you just look at stats, impact, all the things, right? So to work with those two, not only was it just an immense honor and a ton of fun, but to your point of responsibility – okay, sh*t. We got these guys. John, now you really gotta bring it. Now we have these amazing songs, I go to my [director of photography] and I’m like, okay we really gotta shoot this moment, because look how great the songs are. Every time, it’s like the goal posts in the film move – it’s not even on wheels, it’s on like, a Ferrari.
There’s a lot of thematic stuff going on in the film – celebrity worship, cult of personality, I’ve heard you talk a lot about tribalism. The things I took away most from it were about the press and celebrity relationship, which makes sense given the position I’m in, but also how we define ourselves by the things we like. You started to write this all those years ago, and I think usually when that happens, the movie’s themes tend to become obsolete because of the way culture moves. But in this case, I think so many of these things are still relevant, if not more so. Within those years working on this movie, from when you started up until now, have your thoughts evolved on those topics?
Green: There’s more heartbreak, because the thing is getting worse. The divide is bigger – this pandemic has become more global, the tribalism thing. I think that my relationship with it has grown way more emotionally than intellectually. I can wrap my head around the dangers of it, the violence that can come from it, and varying degrees of violence that can come from it. But I am just genuinely disheartened and bummed about where we are right now.
Bummed is a good way to put it.
Green: Bummed is a good way to put it, right? My hope for this film – my first hope is that you have a great time. It is very, very important to me that there be way more honey than medicine. Like, an embarrassing amount. That’s why it’s pop music, and it’s songs, and the big performances.
But my hope is that people watch this film and then they go and have a conversation amongst their friends, smart people like yourself, journalists with actual answers. There’s a dialogue that starts from this, after having an enjoyable experience, so that it doesn’t feel divisive, but like we all shared a laugh together. We all jumped at the site of a gory thing. We shared this ride together, and maybe we talk, and ask, does this thing still serve us?
Starting a conversation from a place of fun.
Green: Yeah. For me, the artist’s place is not to have the answers. The artist’s place is to make people want to question, have a conversation. And then it’s up to the people, and up to thought leaders, to have those answers.