Write On: 'Hurry Up Tomorrow' Director/Co-Writer Trey Edward Shults

“It was a lot of empathizing. I would do long phone calls with
Abel (Tesfaye, aka the Weeknd) after we had met, just basically
talking to him and finding out more of his history, where he was
at in different phases of his life, where he’s at today, and
using those to create a character. And part of creating that
character is I’ll find my own personal stuff to attach to it…
Portions of his life I can relate to very much. And past all of
that, I think this is the deepest I’ve gone with my therapy
background and my mom and stepdad being therapists. I tried to
make the movie work to where if you just want to watch the movie
at surface value and go on a ride with it and experience it and
not think about it again, hopefully it works on that level. But
also if you want to look at it and interpret it on a whole
deeper, hopefully richer level, there’s a lot going on,” says
Trey Edward Shults, director and co-writer of the new film Hurry
Up Tomorrow on how he took Able “the Weeknd” Tesfaye’s story and
made it personal to him. 


On today’s episode, we sit down with writer/director Trey Edward
Shults to discuss his new film Hurry Up Tomorrow that stars the
Weeknd, Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan, about a rock star who
goes on an existential odyssey after losing his voice on
stage. 


Shults shares his journey to becoming a filmmaker, working with
visionary director Terrence Malick, making the highly
biographical film Krisha (2014), and the shockingly ominous
horror film It Comes at Night (2017). 


He also shares this advice for writing your first film:


“It has to be something you are so hungry to tell. And it has to
be something you would die to make. You know what I mean? At
least to me, my approach was I like to make stuff personal and
they always say like, write what you know, write the personal
thing. But I just think it needs to be something you’re crazy
hungry to do no matter what,” says Shults.


 


To hear more, listen to the podcast.