Be aware there are spoilers for The Wave below.
WithThe Wavenow available to watch on Digital, here’s what they had to say.
So how did you guys come together on this?
GILLE KLABIN: So Carl, the writer-producer…
He had this idea.
And we wanted to get across those ideas and tread water in very murky waters around ethics.
Image via Epic Pictures
And then Justin clicked with it.
JUSTIN LONG: Yeah, for similar reasons, I want him to be part of telling that story.
I really believed in the message, although I’m not nearly as noble as Gille.
Image via Epic Pictures
I don’t set out to only make movies that have messages I believe in.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever done that.
This was the first time.
Image via Epic Pictures
So how did you guys work together on both of your sides of that?
KLABIN: I went the practical route… from a young age.
And Justin’s much more well behaved and a decent–
LONG: Not much more.
KLABIN: But to a degree.
KLABIN: THC is a psychedelic and he has one particularly bad overdose on edibles.
LONG: Oh yeah.
It happened after we shot the movie.
It was terrifying at the time.
Seems like a potentially exhausting space to occupy.
LONG: Yeah, I was.
Just physically it was really tiring.
Coffee really helped, anything to stay as boring as possible.
That is a very natural motive.
LONG: Yeah, exactly.
And you would remind me, the intention of the scene is that.
You don’t play the drugs.
it’s possible for you to’t play – It’s the same with being drunk.
you’re free to’t play the drunk, or else it’s going to look phony.
You have to, if anything, work against the drunk.
That’s why the best thing to do…
Chris Pratt had a great trick.
Drunk people make a run at sound sober, if you listen to them.
So they over-enunciate to make the point that they’re not drunk.
And it’s similar to being on drugs.
You don’t want people to know you’re on drugs.
So it made it easier.
Donald was great, everybody made it a lot easier.
I want to verify I’m not the one bringing down the shit.
KLABIN: So the idea, fundamentally, for us is, the drug isn’t real.
There is no drug.
What The Wave is, is Frank learning why that’s okay.
So the reaction to certain substances was – it didn’t even matter anymore.
He did all those drugs on the table.
He’s not going to get high on cocaine.
It’s like he ate a bunch of heroin and now he’s on heroin.
He’s left this realm.
This is why what is happening to you is beautiful.
This is the most beautiful and purposeful way you could enjoy life.
Not that he ends his own life, he just dies.
It just happens to be a hit by the right person.
At what point did you arrive on that being the ending?
Was that the Genesis of the story for you?
This idea of death by good intentions?
Do you know what I mean?
Like Frank is not, again, some mustache curly villain in a blimp.
He’s a guy doing his job very well, actually.
Signed, the universe."
Which was, basically karma coming back with a vengeance.
Which was the biggest impetus for casting Justin because what a just offensively likable person.
When’s he going to switch.
LONG: We’re waiting for the closing party.
We faced a similar problem…
But testament to his character and who he is as a person, he totally listened and took it.
There was nothing, there was no glimmer of humanity.
KLABIN: That’s why I find it remarkable in our film.
LONG: That’s a very relatable moment.
KLABIN: Intensely relatable.
And you pulled me in by flinching the side of your mouth.
LONG: I do the mouth flinch.
You would just be there sitting and be like, come on now, this is stupid.
All of that is sold with just a tiny little bit of humanity.
LONG: It’s just about getting out of your own way.
LONG: No, but I mean that.
And fucking Tommy Flanagan, it’s hard to look at that guy and not feel something.
And I really learned, all crew makes fun of actors.
Of course we do.
It’s so admirable.
LONG: Yeah, that’s true.
So there wasn’t as much that I had to do.
It wasn’t like I was jumping through time.
So it was more about understanding the changing time world around me, if that makes sense.
But aside from that, we are with him.
