More than a decade later, Green room Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier expresses his gratitude to Patrick Stewart who helped make the film.
At a screening of the 2015 film on Friday, a day after Stewart’s death at the age of 86, Saulnier paid tribute to the late three-time Golden Globe nominee and explained how he “saved the day” when the A24 film almost shut down.
“Who is really sad that we lost Patrick Stewart yesterday? Me,” Saulnier prefaced his introduction to the film. “I came here to shamelessly promote killing groundbut instead, I’m just going to celebrate Patrick Stewart. He didn’t have to make this film. Otherwise, he had plenty of opportunities.
Saulnier recalled that the production was “at the point of no return” with no one cast to play skinhead leader Darcy Banker. “We’re screwed and we were about to close,” he said.
“And Patrick Stewart, out of the blue, kind of expressed interest in the project,” Saulnier said. “And in a whirlwind about a week later, I was on the phone with him. I walked off stage thinking, ‘Maybe we’ll have to take down the sets and stop the whole movie.’
“Instead, this guy came out of nowhere, from way above our sort of zone, and just dove in, dove into our dirty ass movie and saved us, and said yes. And the movie was instantly greenlit, we moved forward. And I thank him for taking that leap and making Green Room a thing,” he added.
Saulnier credited Stewart as “the reason I can still make movies”, calling him “a fucking sweetheart, a real gentleman, a kind leader to our entire cast.”
The author also recalls that Stewart once told him on set that he “wanted to add a little something to the scene”, which seemed “nightmarish” to me.
“I was like, ‘What’s the matter, Patrick?’ He says, “Well, during that part of the scene, when the camera passes by, I’d like to say, ‘Fuck! » And I said to myself: “And? “Fuck. “Permission granted, sir,” Saulnier said. “And I just knew that he was completely aligned with the film, its aesthetic, its intentions and with me as a filmmaker, and it was just this beautiful, beautiful thing.”
Saulnier encouraged the audience to “please party really hard” when they hear the F-bomb in question. “But as Patrick would make sure I make it clear here: ‘Whatever you do, don’t support the Nazis,'” he said, drawing applause from the crowd.
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