The Night Agent icon Gabriel Basso breaks down his directorial debut along with Noah Centineo and Rain Spencer at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Gabriel Basso made his directorial debut at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9th, at the premiere of Iconoclast. The film was written by Basso, and he stars alongside Rain Spencer , Courtney Eaton and Noah Centineo .
It centers around a loner’s obsession with a live-streamer that shapes his entire personality, actions, and psychology. This thriller follows the choices made and the repercussions of a one-sided online relationship. In an exclusive interview with Collider, Basso, Spencer, and Centineo talk about the origin of the script, finding characters, and the themes of the story.
Spencer and Centineo also explain how Basso runs a set, the reciprocal respect he has with the crew, and the collaboration process with the first-time director. Gabriel Basso Gets Buy-In From Rain Spencer and Noah Centineo “It's so exciting when somebody has a real voice as a writer and has a point of view and is unapologetic…” I know you got the idea from observing society, seeing the loneliness and isolation, but how long did it take to actually flesh out the entire story?
GABRIEL BASSO: I write pretty quick. The process for me, I wrote it last October 2024, and then I think went right into The Night Agent and then filmed, started prep in August or September the next year. So not long. The scripting process was quick, I think less than a week.
I locked picture three days after we wrapped. Like once I have it in my head that that's what it's going to be, I don't second guess myself or anything. I could be wrong, you know? But it's just like, okay, that was the decision and I enjoy the finality of it.
How did Gabe approach you? What was his pitch? RAIN SPENCER: I thought about that moment of we were FaceTiming and speaking about the project and the character. And I was so intrigued by the whole world and everything you were saying.
And he was in the back of a trunk. You were in the trunk of a car. BASSO: I was in the rental car. The steering wheel was too close for me to hold the phone over FaceTime.
And I popped the trunk and set up my phone on the opposite side of the trunk of the rental car. SPENCER: We had a great conversation, spoke for a while. It was our first meeting and you were like, “I want you to do this. I haven’t told anyone else, but I want you to do this.
” And I was like, “All right, I'm down. ” BASSO: That's the audition process to me. Because who Rain is at her core, I won't have to direct because I can always default on she knows how to be this person. So at the end of the day, if I'm not getting the performance I want, everything else is additive.
All the character stuff is superfluous to me, to what am I filming at its essence? And she understood she is Morgan. She did get it. And so why audition her and have her read over zoom or something when the performance is going to be different?
“Can you memorize” is what an audition is for me. And she's already acting, so I trust that she can memorize things. So who are you at your core? How did Gabe approach you about Iconoclast?
NOAH CENTINEO: We were doing the press tour for… He was doing season two of The Night Agent. I was doing season two of The Recruit, and they paired us together to do some interviews, even though we had never met before. And we got to talking during the interviews and outside of the interviews and really jived. I told him about Arkhum and what I was doing, and he told me he was writing and looking to direct.
And he sent me Iconoclast, and me and my producing partner Enzo Marc read it and loved it, and thought it's so exciting when somebody has a real voice as a writer and has a point of view and is unapologetic in that point of view, and we responded to the brutality in the way that Gabe wrote. Noah Centineo Compares Gabriel Basso's Directing Style to Denis Villeneuve “I think in an artistic art medium, like a movie, you need to rely on people who have souls.
” What kind of set does Gabe run? If I were to talk on set, what am I seeing? What am I hearing? SPENCER: There's so much laughter.
It felt very relaxed. Gabe would say things like “It's already happened. It's already done. I know what it is.
We just have to film it, like it's already there. It already exists. ” You knew exactly what he wanted, which was really freeing. I so appreciated you let me look at the clothing rack.
Because I come in as an actor with all these ideas and then I have to create a story with the article of clothing that's given to me. But he was sort of like, “What do you think? What are your ideas? ” I could see it all sort of come together in a way that was awesome and collaborative, but also structured and specific.
BASSO: I think in an artistic art medium, like a movie, you need to rely on people who have souls. And then within that you have to give them some level of dignity and respect.
And I think like being able to go on set and tell Burke , the prop master, to do his job and not micromanage him and like, have Bill Newell, the gaffer and Lula and all these guys like, follow their gut but give them the structure. But then be like, “I need you to care about this. ” She can now say “I created Morgan.
” I had my version in my head that I wrote, which was just me in a room with my laptop, but the minute I took it to Rain, it's no longer mine, and it feels like you would be undermining your own judgment to then micromanage her. What kind of set does Gabe run? CENTINEO: He runs an efficient ship. He knows exactly the shots.
He sees the film in his mind first and draws out the shots of the film. Very similar to Denis , you know, before he writes a draft. Everyone respects him because he respects everyone. He’s a commander, dude.
He's like a commanding officer. He's awesome. I look up to him. Gabe, did your experience as an actor help you as a first-time director?
And Rain, was it a unique experience acting across the director in something? SPENCER: It was so unique. It was inspiring to watch him. You know, it's a completely different part of your brain.
He just did it effortlessly because I was like, “Okay, I can see like Connor's come back, or Gabe is having a thought”. For you to just so effortlessly go back and forth and do it so well, and also be there to direct me and watch… You're doing a scene with me and then you have an insane, beautiful note, but you were there with me, you know? It's so cool. BASSO: Well, it's funny you say that.
There was one take of yours very early on… Because she was the first week, she was up first… And we shot very consecutively, and I hadn't sort of found my footing yet. And there was one scene specifically that I remember, exiting the scene. It sounds weird to say that, but I was watching her as a director, and I was like, “Well, this isn't fair, because now I'm limiting her performance because she's alone in the scene.
” So I had to learn throughout the process how to exit the scene, set everything up as a director, trust your camera operator, department heads and everything, and then just compartmentalize that thought, go act, and then be like, “What was that like? Are we good technically? ” ‘Iconoclast’ Is A Message That Will Scare Every Generation “I think these older generations are living in delusion and in the name of convenience.
” Rain, I know Gabe let you take Morgan and make it your own as well, but was there a piece of direction that he gave you that helped you find that character at all? SPENCER: I just had a memory of one of the last days of us filming. And I remember having conversations about the character and how both of our characters are actually really similar.
They just took whatever pain they were in and went in different directions. You know how they say, “If you have two kids, one kid goes one way and then the other kid learns that didn't work and that didn't get the amount of love that he needed. And so they'd go the opposite way. ” It felt like the core was the same but they just went in complete opposite directions.
And I remember looking at you and one of the… I can't remember what it was… I just had a trippy moment where it was like, our face is like, kind of did this . And it's as a result of the conversations about what your ideas were and how it all sort of just came together. It just felt magical and really cool. What kind of direction did Gabe give you to find your character?
CENTINEO: The two nights that we shot, we did a lot of speaking beforehand. We would get dinner, we'd sit in his hotel room, he would show me dailies. He'd show me certain scenes. I think the qualities of the character… This guy is young, rich, all bravado.
Completely wasted out of his mind and unconcerned with his own safety. Feels untouchable. But there's a lot that went into the film. And so, yeah, we just sat in hotel rooms and at dinners and over the phone before I got to Utah, where we shot it.
And he just really explained it to me. And by the time we were on set, I think we were just firing and being curious. I think by the time we were on set, we both knew he was very clear about what he wanted the character to be. To know your characters well, you find truth in them to understand them.
What do you hope the audience sees in each of your characters, based on the performance that you were trying to give? BASSO: I feel like we're living in the name of convenience. I think these older generations are living in delusion and in the name of convenience. They've sort of sacrificed young people and they've neglected their job to guard the gates of society.
And we've now inherited all these decisions. We're looking around like, where was the help? Like why or why do we feel so isolated? And what was this done in the name of?
And there's no answer. So now we're being punished for an environment that we were baptized into. And I think my goal is that older generations watch this and see Connor and Morgan and these young characters, and they go, “We might have dropped the ball. ” And then also young people watch it… And like you were saying, you just want to go like, “Oh shit, that is me.
I gotta stop this because the end goal is not good. ” SPENCER: What I think about as far as Morgan goes, and she is stunted. I think she really got stunted at like age three. And so she's operating in this way of like really just like big emotions.
And I don't know why I'm feeling this thing, but I'm going to feel it to its fullest extent. And I think that's one of the most human parts of the movie. BASSO: She’s the soul of the movie. SPENCER: If you're raised with an iPad, how do you fully feel some of these like early emotions?
And is it possible that you are getting stunted if you don't know how to fully move through those big emotions or, you're not really taught?
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