Director Morten Tyldum: From 'Imitation Game' to 'Passengers'

Morten Tyldum shot to directorial fame in 2014 with the immensely successful biopic, "The Imitation Game," which focused on the brilliant gay mathematician Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch). The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, winning best screenplay (Graham Moore) and becoming the highest grossing indie film of that year.

Prior to "Imitation Game," his first English-language film, Tyldum had worked in his home country of Norway where he picked up a slew of awards for early features and then made "Headhunters," which became the highest grossing title in Norwegian history.

For his follow up to the Turing pic, Tyldum has teamed up with two of the biggest film stars currently working, Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, for an edge-of-your-seat space adventure.

"Passengers" is a sci-fi, action thriller, rom-com--an ambitious blend-- about two strangers, Aurora (Lawrence) and Jim (Pratt) who have embarked on a 120-year odyssey to another planet. Both passengers are in hibernation, along with 5000 others, when a malfunction awakens Jim, 90 years too soon. Aurora also finds herself awake far too early, but for a very different reason. Jim is a practical working class dude while Aurora is a worldly writer from New York. Sparks fly. Of course, they're also the only two conscious people aboard the vessel. Soon our intrepid duo must do their best to fix a failing ship...or perish. The film was written by Jon Spaihts in 2007 and was on the "Black List" of the industry's best-unproduced screenplays, yet it languished in development limbo for nearly a decade, until Tyldum, Pratt and Lawrence rescued it. EDGE chatted with Tyldum about his new feature as well as an old, but still relevant, controversy involving "Imitation Game."

An intimate story

EDGE: When did you first read the script and what drew you to wanting to make 'Passengers?'

Morten Tyldum: I read it during the Oscar craziness of 'Imitation Game.' And I fell in love with it because it was such an intimate and character driven story and at the same time it had an epic scope and background. I love that it's a movie that you can't categorize into one genre. It's a sci-fi movie but it's also a romance. It has a lot of action but it's not really an action movie. It has humor but it's not a comedy. It's drama but not just drama. And I love that it transforms itself and it surprises. I hate movies where after five minutes you know everything that's going to go on. The script was surprising and engaging. I also love that it takes characters and puts them into extreme situations and they have to make incredible, difficult choices.

EDGE: Were the leads already attached to the project or were you involved in casting them?

Morten Tyldum: I was involved first. Then Chris and Jen wanted to be attached. And I met with both of them. They had never met. As a director, the biggest fear you have if you're going to do a relationship movie, is that the two leads are going to hate each other. Then you're in deep trouble... they met each other for the first time at a rehearsal at Jen's house where we read through the script and they just had this magical chemistry between them.

The hardest part, shooting the movie, were actually the scenes where they'd just met. Where they were going to be awkward strangers. I constantly had to remind them, you do not know this person. This is still a stranger. You have to be reserved and distant. Because they were so close, so immediately.

Keeping it spontaneous

EDGE: Did you have a rehearsal process?

Morten Tyldum: I had it planned but then I didn't want to rehearse because I wanted a lot of it to be spontaneous... And I think that really clicked with how they are as actors... It was an extreme rollercoaster for the characters. There was a lot of laughter and fun on the set between them, they're extremely funny. And I think they needed that outlet because every time they had to go in front of the camera there were all these extreme emotions. So I wanted a lot of it to feel fresh and be discovered on the day.

That's also why the spaceship was built. We had this enormous set because I wanted them to actually feel they were on a spaceship... I don't think you could put the actors in a green screen room and expect to have the same performances.

EDGE: You brought up the look of the film and speaking to that, the set and effects felt retro yet innovative. Was that deliberate and were you paying homage to any particular films?

Morten Tyldum: I'm glad you think that. When we were defining (the film) I wanted to look both forward and backward. We looked at a lot of modern architecture, modern design and technology. We had the design team for Sony in Tokyo help us design a lot of the gadgets and technical instruments that they interact with so it felt real, felt like something you'd use in the future.

But at the same time I wanted a look back -- at art history, art nouveau, art deco. There's a nod to a few Kubrick movies. I wanted it to be a spaceship that didn't belong to a certain time.

Chris's character Jim has a lost masculinity, a caring nurturing strong masculinity that's becoming obsolete. People no longer build things with their hands. If your iPad doesn't work anymore you just toss it away. If your car stops you have no idea what to do because it's all technology. This skill set is becoming obsolete. So I looked at old Marlon Brando movies and Steve McQueen movies as inspiration for that old masculinity that's drifting away. That's why he feels a little bit like an outsider. And that's all reflected in the spaceship-the bar looks like a bar from the 30s in many ways.

Also the big ocean liners, the big immigrant ships that took immigrants from Europe to the U.S. and Canada a century ago, they were also a big inspiration for this (ship). The Avalon is a big immigrant ship that sails in the night. It just moves through space.

Working with his actors

EDGE: You seem to work well with actors, what is your directorial technique and how has it evolved from 'Imitation Game?'

Morten Tyldum: The biggest thing for me as a director is to see your actor. Every actor is different. Every actor has different needs and different ways you should be directing them because no actor is the same. The thing to do is to give the actor their space and guide them through the process that fits them and not try to make them work as you would. There's a huge difference between how Chris and Jen work and how an actor like Benedict Cumberbatch works. They have different backgrounds, different training, different processes.

For example, Chris uses music. He has earplugs and plays music a lot when he performs. Jen is genius. She opens up. Sometimes when she has a really big dramatic scene breakdown, we talk about it, joking and laughing and then she says, give me five seconds. And everybody is quiet for five seconds and out comes this amazing performance -- this woman who is breaking down. That's how she is. She just opens the door and lets some demons out.

Everybody has their own process so as a director it's sometimes more important to listen than to talk and to actually find out, what is it that this actor needs in this moment. It's also important, as a director, to be prepared when you go into a scene, knowing what is important for the characters in this scene. You don't have to tell them how to act but you have to know what is going on on all levels with the character. That is most rewarding for me, to find it and communicate it to the actors.

EDGE: Did the film take shape in the editing room and was the ending always the same?

Morten Tyldum: The ending was the same. It's a little bit shorter because I didn't want to answer all questions. I want people to walk out and discuss the film.

Editing is extremely important. I feel blessed to have an amazing editor, Maryann Brandon, who just finished 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens.' So she came from one space movie to another. She's been incredible in shaping this film as we moved along... there are always discoveries you find during the editing, you always shape and change your story. And there will always be scenes left bleeding on the editing room (floor) that you had to cut out. But the structure of the film and story and ending has always been the same.

Beyond 'Imitation Game'

EDGE: Now that some time has passed since the 'Imitation Game' whirlwind, you're going from unknown filmmaker to Best Director Oscar nominee, what are your thoughts on the journey?

Morten Tyldum: I feel incredibly blessed and lucky to have been part of the journey and now being in a position where I'm allowed to tell these stories and to make these big movies. Or small movies. I don't know if my next movie is going to be a big studio movie or it is going to be a small independent movie. I have to fall in love with the story. I have to fall in love with the characters. There has to be something in there that's important for me as a filmmaker... The Alan Turing story really struck me and it was a really important story for me. And that so many people had been introduced to his life and to this amazing man who suffered such great injustice is really rewarding. I really feel I introduced him to a big part of the world that didn't know about him. It was shown in China and the Chinese never knew about him. I really feel like the movie made a difference and that is extremely rewarding as a filmmaker.

EDGE: It was an important film to the LGBT community as well. There was some controversy about the handling of Alan Turing's sexuality. Do you feel the film could have pushed that envelop a bit further?

Morten Tyldum: It was a very conscious choice. We never thought about this movie as a big commercial movie to begin with. So it was not done for any audience reasons -- the portrayal of sexuality in 'Imitation Game' -- somebody asked me, why was there was a sex scene in 'Passengers' but no sex scene in 'Imitation Game?' And it's because in 'Passengers,' it was part of the story. It's a relationship story. For Alan Turing, it's almost like (people thought) you needed a sex scene to prove he was gay, which felt awkward. If this was a story about a heterosexual character you wouldn't have a random sex scene, just to prove he was heterosexual. That would be doing an injustice to the gay community, saying because you're gay; the most important aspect of your character is that you're gay.

What's important is the injustice that happened to him, that he was convicted of gross indecency. As a character he is important because he is one of the big thinkers. He's a man who theorized the computer when he was 23 years old. That is what's important. At the press conference, Jen was asked if there were gay people -- if there was diversity in all the pods (aboard the ship in 'Passengers') and her answer was that hopefully in the future that is not even a question, that is not even something up for debate. That it's becoming so natural that no one would even think about a person's sexuality or ethnicity.

And looking back at 'Imitation Game' I felt that there was no need for it and I stand by that choice and I think it was the right decision.

(Note: I would have most definitely asked a follow up question about this -- specifically that no one was looking for a 'random sex scene' as much as what happens all the time in heterosexual stories, showing some real connection with another character, a same-sex character -- but I was told by the publicist that we had no more time.)

"Passengers" is in wide release.

Watch the trailer to "Passengers":