In Subservience, Megan Fox (Transformers) stars as Alice, a lifelike artificially intelligent android, who has the ability to take care of any family and home. Looking for help with the housework, a struggling father (Michele Morrone) purchases Alice after his wife becomes sick.
However, Alice suddenly becomes self-aware and wants everything her new family has to offer, starting with the affection of her owner...and she’ll kill to get it.
The movie, which borrows from the sci-fi and horror genres, is fantastic - you can read our review here - and sees filmmaker S.K. Dale reunite with Fox after they previously collaborated on Till Death. With A.I. also front and centre, Subservience is also a very timely movie that plays with deeper themes of temptation, lust, and sentience.
Last week, we sat down with Dale to learn more about how he approached this project. The director starts by talking in detail about casting Fox and the work they did to create Alice.
He then delves into some of the themes mentioned above, taking us through his approach to creating this world and what makes Subservience different from past movies that have explored similar ideas. It's a great conversation and one which will hopefully lead to you tracking this movie down when it arrives on Demand and Digital on September 13.
Check out our full interview with Dale about Subservience below.
I think Megan Fox is an underrated talent and I know you both worked together on Till Death, but why was she right to play Alice in your eyes when you were casting the movie?
You know, when we were developing the film, I didn't actually think about who was right for this role at that point. Then, as we started to cast, it was actually one of the producers who brought her up because it was the same team that had done Till Death. I thought about it and, having worked with her before, I thought about her strengths and what we could do here and how it was really completely different from that first movie we had done. I thought that was quite interesting and I think a big thing as well was the intimate scenes. We had built that trust from having that movie already and I think that was pretty vital for this and whoever we picked to come in here, having that trust. I thought, 'Well, we've already built it here so we can build bigger from there.' Having that trust I think really went a long way to creating an environment where we all felt comfortable and could try things and explore things in that way and come up with the scenes we did.
When it came to working with Megan on conveying Alice's emotions and mannerisms - and the sexuality of the character as well - what was that process like for you both?
It's interesting because I feel that, when we were on the page, there wasn't a multitude of ways she could perform this. Very early on I was having talks with her about how vital her performance will be because we want to create something that's robotic and that feels a little clunky and you distance yourself from the audience in that way. At the same time, we needed a certain amount of emotion there for those intimate scenes so they didn't fall apart or feel comical. To me, it was a very fine balance we had to find here and she actually came up with this idea of a ballerina and her movements being slow and precise and everything like that. Once we zoned in on that aspect of it, it was really just building from there.
I think the first scene we shot was her coming into that house and you can see where she's walking around, putting things down, and her posture is always perfect and everything like that. We built on from there and, then, as we got to that third act, we could play into the chaotic glitches and have a bit more fun there. That was definitely a little nerve-wracking for her to perform in that way, but I'd say, 'Just trust me. I think I know how we can make this work, even with just speed ramps in the editing but visual effects and sound design will also come together in that later sequence.' We did try a few different levels of chaotic glitching and a bit more calmer and seeing which one worked in the end. Ultimately, we went with those crazier glitches and I thought they came out really well.
I really liked how the film mashes up so many genres; there's horror and sci-fi, and you're also delving into that hot-button topic of A.I. How challenging was it to balance all those and make them work so well here?
Will and April, who were the writers of the script, really had embraced that early on and that's what excited me about the film. 'Oh, it kinda starts as this erotic thriller and then moves into this sci-fi/horror towards the end.' Those little phases it goes through, I get really excited about, because then I'm like, 'Okay, we can take the audience in this direction and then suddenly move in this direction and play with these aspects.' Sci-fi just in general as a filmmaker is the most exciting thing to be in because you can take this everywhere you want. For me, I had to really restrain myself and say, 'No, we're trying to keep this grounded' because A.I. is so prevalent in our society now and I wanted it to be a focus on how we are trying to transition with A.I. currently, especially in post-production. We had all those writer strikes and everything happening as we were fighting for our rights against A.I. It was kind of a scary time where we felt like we started feeling off making a sci-fi film and, as we got closer to finishing, it was like, 'Oh no, this is very present.'
The script really cleverly creates a mythology in terms of it being a very realised world we step into. What was the fun of that for you? I don't want to spoil anything, but there's that great scene with the surgery and how we see more and more A.I. in this world as the story continues.
What I loved about that, especially with the script entirely as well, is we kind of get glimpses. We're really seeing the world through the lens of this family and it's a much more intimate sci-fi film than a usual A.I. film that explores the world first and these life-or-death situations in terms of the world coming to an end. I really wanted it to feel as intimate as possible, so getting these little glimpses of the workforce or the hospital or stuff like that was so exciting every day we got to it. I'm glad you mentioned the surgery scene because I think as it was scripted, it was just a robotic arm that we've seen before in everything and we couldn't locate one that would fit within budgetary [Laughs] reasons. It was crazy how expensive it was to get one and then VFX we looked at or building something and it just didn't quite feel right. I actually came up with the idea of these sims that, no spoilers, look a little bit different to the other sims. Just having this movement coordinated where they're all connecting to each other on a different level...we actually got dancers in to perform that just to make sure their movements felt very choreographed and perfected.
I think "intimate" is a great word to describe this movie and you explore this really interesting idea of temptation as this beautiful synthetic enters Nick's life and, at the same time he's grieving the family and world he's lost. That must have been a really exciting concept to sink your teeth into as a director?
Yeah, definitely. I feel like family was such a prevalent theme throughout, especially when I first read the script as well. For me, I really fell in love with the script when Maggie comes in and returns to find her position having now been taken by a sim. That family dynamic to me, the way that she butts heads with this sim from then on was so much fun to play with and build from there. In fact, when I came on board, we developed the script from there to focus a little bit more. What I loved about Maggie was the fact she kinda sneaks into the film and slowly becomes the hero as well. So yeah, all these family dynamics were exciting to play with and, like you said, with Nick's character, him having that temptation and playing into that...I felt like we hadn't fully explored that in sci-fi films yet. There are a few out there which have played into that but I really love that element of the temptation and how it drips into Alice slowly taking this mother position of the family.
Subservience will be released on Demand and Digital on September 13.