Written Interview: Jeff Nichols (“Take Shelter,” “Mud)

Interview in Interview with screenwriter-director Jeff Nichols whose films are Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter and Mud:

BROWN: I heard that you had wanted to make Mud before Take Shelter, but weren’t able to. Is that true?

NICHOLS: No, I had both. I wrote Mud and Take Shelter in the same summer.

BROWN: Oh, really? Very productive.

NICHOLS: Yeah, it was a good year. And it was interesting, because I was really indulging two sides of my personality. Certainly, Take Shelter represented the very serious, very anxious side of me. Mud was a depository for a little more nostalgia and just a different kind of feeling, a different kind of mood. Something that’s not so dark. Something that does actually have a happy ending and is a little more hopeful. I had both scripts and I remember sending them both to Mike Shannon to read, just as a friend, after Shotgun Stories. I said, “I’m gonna make Take Shelter next, because Mud is too big.” He was like, “What? That doesn’t make any sense. Take Shelter has got floating furniture and birds and stuff.” And I was like, “Yeah, that’s easier to do production-wise than a boat in a tree or having boys out on a river.” Even if you hold the two movies up next to each other, Take Shelter, we were able to make for less money. Mud — we physically had to go to these places, we physically had to put a boat in the tree. We needed to be on an island in the middle of the Mississippi River. But also, more than that, I really wanted Mud to feel bigger. I didn’t want to have to slice the budget to under a million bucks and have to shoot it in three weeks and be running around just hoping and praying that it worked out. I really wanted time to craft this movie a little bit more. I never had access to a Steadicam before. I didn’t want one for my earlier films; it didn’t suit the earlier films. But I was ready to explore that movement as a director. I knew I needed more resources for that, and I didn’t have enough juice coming off Shotgun Stories to go right in to making Mud.

BROWN: Did you think Take Shelter would help?

NICHOLS: I did. I’m surprised at how much it did help, and I’m surprised at how Mud is competing against Take Shelter in a way — especially coming out of Cannes. I think a lot of people were coming in wanting Take Shelter: Part 2 — “What’s this movie?”

For the rest of the interview, go here.