Brian Petsos’ Big Gold Brick is out now in theaters and on digital and on demand. The film has a star-studded cast that includes Andy Garcia, Emory Cohen, Oscar Isaac, and Megan Fox.
“Big Gold Brick recounts the story of fledgling writer Samuel Liston and his experiences with Floyd Deveraux, the enigmatic middle-aged father of two who enlists Samuel to write his biography,” says the synopsis. “But the circumstances that lead up to this arrangement in the first place are quite astonishing—and efforts to write the biography are quickly stymied by ensuing chaos in this darkly comedic, genre-bending film.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Big Gold Brick director Brian Pestos about the film, his collaborations with Oscar Isaac, and more.
Tyler Treese: Big Gold Brick goes in so many different directions and I was really entertained throughout. So I was curious to hear about your writing philosophy and how you worked on the script.
Brian Petsos: For sure. Well, it’s funny. The way I sort of work is I kind of passively build up a world for a while and then by the time I’ve got a really good idea of the characters and of the beginning, middle, and end, I start to kind of really hammer it out. Then eventually the last process is getting to the script. So with this one, my initial kind of kernel kind of came to me and people have asked this, someone pretty close to me suffered a pretty serious head injury [laughs], but pretty traumatic. Actually, I’m chuckling as I say this, because I went and wrote a dark comedy that was inspired by it. But, yeah, the process of him kind of getting back to relative normalcy was insane. Me watching that, I was like, “This is literally every possible direction narratively could happen.” So of course then I find a way to project a bunch of my own personal stuff into that. But that was the jumping-off point.
The whole character of Floyd is so interesting. Andy Garcia plays him so well to where you kind of know something’s up from the very get-go. Can you just talk about the mystery of Floyd and kind of teasing that out throughout the film?
[laughs] You’re making me chuckle, just thinking about it. One of the things that I’m really fascinated by is shades of gray in a character. And I knew that I wanted Floyd to be a person that some people might find reprehensible, if not initially, at some point down the line. And he almost kind of can’t get out of his own way, but he is such a smoothie. So, yeah, you’re right. I do sort of drop little crumbs kind of early on. By the time the film starts really heading towards a climax. You realize that it’s time for Floyd to now kind of surrender, and he really needs a friend. But I think I kind of plant that pretty early. That’s what he really sort of seeking, but yeah, it takes a lot for him to kind of break down all his own barriers.
I also love the imagery of him wearing this super nice suit and then going to like the hotel’s complimentary lunch there where he was acting like a big shot.
[laughs] How about those eggrolls, man? They look delicious.
You’ve got such an amazing cast here. Can you talk about Oscar Isaac’s involvement? I know he served as a producer as well.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, Oscar has been like my longest closest collaborator. I count him as a very good friend and we had done two short films together prior to this. Initially, we did Ticky Tacky and then after that, we did Lightningface, and around the time that Lightningface was coming out, we started putting this film together. So Oscar was the first cast attachment. He’s been such a huge supporter. He’s such a talent and I’m very thankful that he’s involved and, yeah, I hope to continue to work with him. He’s a special, special man.
Isaac was clearly having a blast with this role. He has the weird glasses and everything going on. How was it just filming those scenes with him?
Oh, it’s incredible. I mean, we have such a shorthand at this point. I tend to write pretty heavy-handedly in terms of my description and my action, so all those details are kind of in the script. Like literally everything that you’re seeing in his lair is sort of written into the script. So, Oscar kind of goes away and does his thing, shows up on set, and the level of trust I have with him. It’s like, exactly, what’s in my mind. I think that’s sort of the shorthand that we have. He’s an incredible technical performer. I’ll write a stammer into the script and the dialogue, and he’ll hit it like on the millimeter. He’s a true marvel.
Emory Cohen as the lead, Samuel, is fantastic. Just some of the freakout moments are really memorable him. Yelling at the Santa Claus doll. The film just has this wonderful weirdness to it. Can you speak to just Emory really just embracing this role because I thought he just nailed it?
Absolutely man. And I appreciate that and I appreciate it on Emory’s behalf as well, because he’s so invested in this film and was invested from day one. Emory is one of these actors. I had known his work prior to Brooklyn, but when I saw Brooklyn, I just fell in love with him. And I was like, “I need to work with this guy at some point.” And that point was this movie [laughs], and it’s funny because I think people who maybe have seen him without seeing Brooklyn have a perception of what Emory might be. And he’s not that like, I think he really brought a lot of himself into this role of Samuel and he’s another truly talented technical performer. The way I worked with Emory on this is, I ran through drills with him on takes. I mean, we really went there. There’s stuff that’s on the cutting room floor that’s way crazier than what you see in the movie [laughs]. I didn’t want to hold back at all, and neither did he. I mean, he really threw it all out on the0 line and, yeah, it’s funny. I said to him at one point, I was like, “Man, you’re giving me like a combination of Brando and Belushi, and I love it and please keep doing it.”
When you’re doing those bigger freakout scenes, is that something that like takes a while to nail? I just can’t imagine somebody being all chill off set and then just immediately going into that. Do you have to ramp up? How did that go?
I think another good example is right at the beginning, destroying his apartment, that took a lot out of him because that was hours and hours of that. I remember at one point, we had to go outside to get cooled off, and it was like he was playing a football game or something. I mean, you’re right, it’s almost athletic what he was doing at points and it takes a lot and doing that convincingly and being authentic and believable, it’s not an easy job. So my hat is off to Emory because he really brought it.
Obviously, you had a really strong script for this film. Just the amount of great cast members you got for this, were you a bit surprised at just all the great names that you were able to round up for this?
I am absolutely. I mean, I am totally overwhelmed by it. I mean, you write something and of course you have the highest of hopes for the cast and stuff. But then, one day you get a call, and it’s Andy Garcia and he wants to talk about the part and it’s surreal. I mean, I’ve obviously worked with Oscar before. I’ve been around movie sets and I used to act as well. But yeah, helming my first feature and having Andy Garcia is…I am thankful. I’m very thankful. It’s not lost on me.
You mentioned your acting career. How do you feel like that helps aid you as a director?
I think it helps quite a bit. I think, and I’ve read this before, and I’m not the first person to say it obviously, but I think every director should at least try to act. And, I think being able to ascertain specific needs of each individual performer and work with them eye-to-eye on sort of those terms and be a comfort to actors, I think is a crucial thing. I tend to try to keep a very light set, a lot of joking, a lot of, I call it kind of hippy-dippy, just really positive, which my life isn’t always like that [laughs], but I like that on set. I think fostering that sort of warmth, especially with the actors I find is conducive to really good results. I think it’s really important. Some of that I think is probably me thinking if I was this actor, how would I want the director to behave and sort of be there to support me and us kind of crafting this part.
