Director Paul Feig Talks Netflix’s ‘The School for Good and Evil’
Moviefone speaks with Paul Feig about ‘The School for Good and Evil.’ “I'm always looking for good, three dimensional roles for women," the director said.
Currently available on Netflix is the fantasy comedy ‘The School for Good and Evil,’ which is based on the popular novels of the same name by Soman Chainani and was directed by Paul Feig.
The film stars Sophia Anne Caruso as Sophie, a young girl from the village of Gavaldon who wants to be a princess. Sophie’s dreams come true when she and her best friend the cynical Agatha (Sofia Wylie) are selected for The School for Good and Evil, but Sophie’s dream becomes a nightmare when she is admitted to the School of Evil and Agatha is delivered to the School for Good.
Upon arrival, they meet the Dean of the School for Good, Prof. Clarissa Dovey (Kerry Washington), and the Dean of the School for Evil, Lady Leonora Lesso (Charlize Theron), as well as the mysterious School Master (Laurence Fishburne).
Believing a mistake has been made, Sophie and Agatha must now find Sophie’s true love and receive her true love’s kiss in order for her to be accepted at the School for Good, and so Agatha can return to Gavaldon.
In addition, the cast also includes Michelle Yeoh as Prof. Emma Anemone, Jamie Flatters as Tedros, Kit Young as Rafal and Rhian, and Cate Blanchett as the voice of the Storian.
Paul Feig may have begun his career as an actor on ‘Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,’ but he has transitioned into an acclaimed writer and director, and one of the most successful filmmakers working today.
Feig has directed such beloved television shows as ‘Freaks and Geeks,’ ‘Arrested Development,’ ‘The Office,’ ’30 Rock,’ and ‘Mad Men.’
But he is probably best known for his work as a film director on such popular movies as ‘Bridesmaids,’ ‘The Heat,’ ‘Spy,’ ‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘A Simple Favor,’ and ‘Last Christmas.’
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Feig about his work on ‘The School for Good and Evil,’ adapting the source material, his casting process, working with Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington, using practical vs. visual effects, his next project, and the possibility of making more ‘Good and Evil’ movies.
Paul Feig attends the World Premiere Of Netflix's 'The School For Good And Evil' at Regency Village Theatre on October 18, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix.
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview with Paul Feig about 'The School for Good and Evil.'
Moviefone: To begin with, how did you get involved with this project and what excited you about the characters and mythology established in the source material?
Paul Feig: I got sent this from Netflix almost three years ago, and fantasy's never been top of my list of genres to do. But when I read it, I just so fell in love with this friendship between these two leading characters. I'm always looking for good, three dimensional roles for women. It just really spoke to me and I realized that the fantasy genre was such a great way to explore it, and to challenge it, and to have it ultimately come out on top. So, I was in the minute I read it, I should say.
MF: The film deals with themes such as finding your power and your place in the world, nature versus nurture, and the thin line between good and evil. What were some of the themes of the novel that you really wanted to explore with this movie?
PF: Well, those are all part and parcel with it. I'm very fascinated with the idea of good and evil, and how I think it's such a simplistic dynamic that we rely on that causes most of our problems. The fact that we're so divided right now, and it is because we're going like, “Your side is evil, and our side is good.” I thought this was a really non-preachy, interesting way to deconstruct that so that the message is there, but we're not hanging a hat on it.
So that really, I do love. Then as far as finding out who you are, that's a theme I feel like I explored my entire career and will continue to do that. Because I think so many of us just don't know our place in the world, or don't feel like we know what our place in the world is and truly who we are. It takes a big event to focus you on that and to be challenged, and then have that challenge make you have a little more clarity. I mean, do we ever fully have clarity? No, probably not. But I think life is a constant movement towards trying to figure that out.
(L to R) Kerry Washington as Professor Dovey, and Charlize Theron as Lady Lesso in 'The School for Good and Evil.' Photo: Helen Sloan / Netflix © 2022.
MF: Can you talk about your casting process in general and specifically in terms of this movie?
PF: Yeah, I cast like a fan. I don't have people in mind, especially when I'm writing something. I tend not to write for anybody because I just explore the characters. But when something comes to me that I haven't written the first draft of, you start to get ideas and you start to see archetypes in your head of who could play things. Then I just really spend a lot of time being thoughtful, like "Who would be great in these roles?"
It's been said before, one of the biggest things a director does is cast the movie. Because once you've got the right cast, then it makes my job easier in that regard because I know those people are then going to make it great. It's just up to me to make sure I record them correctly and I give them the right direction to steer them into different places with it. But I also want their creativity from it.
So, it's really just who's going to bring the most to these roles? Not just show up and read the lines, but who's going to add their personality into it? Who's going to add their creativity to it? So, it's my favorite part of the process and we work very hard on it when we're putting it together. The casting is a really long process, but at the same time I always walk out of it going like, "Oh man, I think we got a great cast."
MF: Can you talk about the friendship between Sophie and Agatha and also casting Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie in those roles?
PF: Yeah, I always amass people in my travels and watching stuff. A friend of mine was an investor in ‘Beetlejuice’ on Broadway. So, I went to see that and saw Sophia Anne Caruso in the lead. This was before I even knew ‘The School for Good and Evil’ existed. I was just like, "Who is that young woman? She's amazing." So, I kind of wrote her name down, and said “Okay, remember her, we got to put her in something.”
Then when we started casting though, I didn't know Sophia Wiley, I hadn't seen ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ or anything. But she was just somebody who had sent an audition tape. So, I was watching that and just going, "Who is this young woman? She's so good."
But there was a few candidates and I was kind of like, "How do I decide?" I was like, "You know what, let's have them record the big death scene at the end." And even my casting director was like, "That's really a hard thing for somebody to do on their phone." I was like, "I know, but let's just see what happens." Literally, this is every actor's nightmare.
I was out for a walk, my morning walk, with my phone and my earbuds in and just was like, "Oh, let me watch that audition." Which is terrible. It's a really, really terrible way to do it. But she was so good, and I was literally crying as I'm walking. If you can make a director impressed when they're watching on their phone walking through their neighborhood, that was it. But then what we had to do is, you always kind of end the process of casting a duo by having them do a chemistry read.
Normally what you'll do is you'll fly them in or have them come into the office and sit together and do the scene, and you kind of watch how they play off each other. But we were in COVID, so we couldn't do that. So, we had to do it on Zoom. I had to do a chemistry read between our two leading actors on Zoom. Their chemistry was so strong through the computer, that I was like, "Okay, if they can kill it on Zoom, then when they get together on the movie set, it's going to be magic." And it was.
(L to R) Sofia Wylie as Agatha and Sophia Anne Caruso as Sophie in 'The School For Good And Evil.' Photo: Helen Sloan/Netflix © 2022
MF: What was it working with iconic actors like Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Michelle Yeoh, and Laurence Fishburne?
PF: I'd worked with Charlize back in 2005 on ‘Arrested Development’ and we'd had a ton of fun together. So, we always stayed in contact of "What do we do together? We got to find something to do." So, when I read Lady Lesso, I was like, "Okay, this is Charlize, she will just absolutely destroy this role."
Kerry is somebody who I've been dying to work with. I became friendly with her because one of my best friends is Betsy Beers, who's Shonda Rhimes' producing partner. So, I was always like, "You got to introduce me to Kerry." We met and hit it off. Again, same situation, "What do we do together? We got to find something." It was when I saw her on ‘Saturday Night Live’ when she hosted that time, I was like, "Oh my God, Kerry's really funny." So, I was just like, there's no other Professor Dovey that I want than Kerry Washington.
Then Michelle Yeoh and I had worked together on ‘Last Christmas,’ and she's one of my closest friends. I was just like, "Would you come in and do this? It's not a giant part, but it's a really fun part." She's like, "Of course." She came in and quarantined for 10 days in Belfast. I was like, oh my God, that's a real friend that will come in and do that, especially when you're about to win an Oscar, which I'm sure she's going to, if there's any justice in the world.
Then Laurence Fishburne I'd never worked with before, but I was always a fan and he's just delightful. Absolutely a delightful person. So, that was great. Then Cate Blanchett, who I've kind of had the same thing with. We had lunched a few years ago and we're always trying to figure out something to do, and when we had this, I was like, "Oh Cate, would you want to play the voice of a pen?" And she's like, "Sure." I said, "Okay, cool."
MF: Obviously you’ve used visual effects before in movies like ‘Ghostbusters,’ but can you talk about using VFX versus practical effects in a fantasy film like this?
PF: Well, I love it. It's really fun, but my goal is always to make sure we do as much as we can in camera, practical. Even if it's something that then we're going to augment with CG. But I just never want my cast acting against tennis balls in front of a green screen. So, it's really important to me to build these sets. Those sets are all real. I mean we built those giant sets, all the interiors of the school, that's ours.
We did a little bit of green screen on some of the outdoor work, but even when they're in the forest, the blue forest, that looks like CG, but that is a real place. I'm telling you. We added some of the blue smoke, but otherwise it's this place called Big Dog Forest, which is outside of Belfast. It's about two hours outside and is one of the hardest locations to get into. It's just in the middle of nowhere. I've never seen something that looked like this in a movie. So, we slept out there and worked in the rain for several days.
But our wolf guards are real, those are guys in animatronic suits. Even when we're doing things that are full CG, like Hester's demon that comes out of her tattoo, we built these big green screen puppets and we had this puppeteer named Mikey who would then put on a green suit and he would fly around, run around and actually act out the thing with the actors. So, the actors are interacting with it. Then we just replace it with CG. But again, it's not a tennis ball, they're actually getting to act and I'm getting to see how I'm going to shoot it because I know what's in the frame.
(L to R) Michelle Yeoh as Professor Anemone in 'The School For Good And Evil.' Photo: Helen Sloan / Netflix © 2022.
MF: Finally, you have both a sequel to 'A Simple Favor' and 'Spy' recently announced, which movie do you think will be your next project?
PF: Well, we're figuring that out right now, to be honest. There’re about three different projects that are kind of in contention to go next. I'm just trying to figure out which one I want to do. Scheduling wise, Hollywood is a rough business. Just trying to get everybody's schedules together is literally impossible.
So, one of those, but then hopefully another one of these, if we continue doing as well as we are on the platform so far, we'd love to make more. I mean, there's six plus books in the series, so there's a lot more to explore in ‘The School for Good and Evil.’
MF: Do you have a dream project? A movie that you are dying to get made?
PF: Well yeah, I've got a few. I don't know if they'll ever get made. I got my monster movie over at Universal, ‘Dark Army’ that I love. Whether it'll get made, I don't know. But that, and I'm dying to do a musical. I don't even know what it is. We've been trying to develop an original musical for a while, we still aren't happy with what we have, but at the same time, that would be fun.
I just want to work my way through all the genres. I think that'd be really fun. One of my heroes is Howard Hawks, who went from screwball comedies to a gangster movie, to a Western, just so effortlessly. That's fun, I want to live in that world.
(L to R) Jeff Kirschenbaum, Soman Chainani, Kit Young, Charlize Theron, Jamie Flatters, Laurence Fishburne, Patti LuPone, Sofia Wylie, Paul Feig, Sophia Anne Caruso, Kerry Washington, Michelle Yeoh, Laura Fischer, Kane Lee, and Jane Startz attend the World Premiere Of Netflix's 'The School For Good And Evil' at Regency Village Theatre on October 18, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix.
