Director Grant Singer discusses the making of Netflix's Reptile, working with Benicio del Toro, the original ending, fan theories, and tons more.
The Big Picture For three straight weeks, the Benicio del Toro-led thriller Reptile staked claim of Netflix’s #1 spot in the top ten. It’s a visually stylish murder mystery with a top-tier cast, including Alicia Silverstone, Justin Timberlake, Michael Pitt, and more, that’s sparked online conversations about fan theories down to the colors of the clothes characters are wearing.
Release Date September 29, 2023 Director Grant Singer Cast Benicio Del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Thad Luckinbill, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Pitt, Owen Teague Rating R Runtime 134 minutes Main Genre Drama Read Our Reptile Review SINGER: So someone had sent me these Twitter threads of people reading into every little thing, and some of them I actually was like, “Okay, they're actually catching on to things that we were doing with the film,” which I was really pleased with. I'm like, “Oh, these people are very thoughtful and considerate in their experience of the movie,” and then other things, I was like, “Wow, I didn't even think about that.
That was also surprising: actors reaching out to me how much they enjoyed the movie and wanted to talk. I was with an actor yesterday who I really loved. The actor meetings are really special because, at the end of the day, I think the actor-director relationship is probably the most sacred relationship when making a movie.
PERRI: It's a solid choice. I've grown a little obsessed with “Red Hearse” over the years, so I feel like I would veer towards that one. That and “Half Love.” You gotta watch both. SINGER: I actually think that, unfortunately, you have to start from scratch. Certainly, you get your foot in the door, like, “Okay, listen, I can direct, meaning I can direct something visual.” But I think, unfortunately, there's a negative perception with music video directors, like, “Oh, you're just like a music video director,” like, “It's not serious.” For some reason.
SINGER: Benicio is so thoughtful about every little detail. I don't approach them as an actor; I approach it from a more objective perspective, being behind the camera. As an actor, you have to inhabit these characters, and he's had decades and decades of doing incredible movies, inhabiting brilliant, very varied characters, so he thinks about stories from within a story, from within the character, really from a very complex three dimensional way, in a holistic way.
PERRI: It makes me happy. So, one thing I love doing is highlighting the different variety of approaches to acting that there are out there, so I'll loop Justin in for this, too. Can you maybe specify something unique about the way that Justin, Alicia, and Benicio all approach their work where it calls for something different from you as their actor's director?
There's actually a shot halfway through the film—spoiler—where something happens with Benicio's character and he's being taken away in a police car, and there's a shot of the farm field, and there's a fence in the center of the frame. Before you fade to black, we see the cars, it's very far away from the camera, just drive from the right side of the screen to the left side of the screen, and we fade to black. You see these cows on either side.
But one movie I saw last night, and I have to just shoutout, it was so inspiring, was The Killer. Again, no spoilers, that movie is not out yet. I thought, when you said, “Do you wanna give a shout out to someone,” I thought you're gonna say, was there a performance, and there's a performance of an actor in that movie that is so great.
SINGER: Well, can we at least get him an Oscar? Because last night at the screening, they announced all of his collaborators, and it was like, “Oscar-winner, Oscar-winner, Oscar-winner…and then greatest director on the planet, David Fincher.” That's what Elvis Mitchell said. We all clap, and I'm thinking, “How does he not have an Oscar? How does he not have an Oscar by now?” It doesn't make sense.
SINGER: 2007, Zodiac. I know that was a crowded year with There Will Be Blood, No Country , Michael Clayton, I believe was 2007. 2007 was also that Noah Baumbach movie, Margot at the Wedding…2007 was a huge year for movies. The point is that I understand, but Zodiac, to me, is certainly worthy of that. But, listen, this isn’t the how-come-David-Fincher-hasn't-won-an-Oscar? episode. Although it should be. Listen, I certainly felt like Mink was deserving of that.
When you work on a movie—again, I can't speak for everyone, but just speaking from me—it's a process where your understanding of the material changes the more you look at it and the more you think about it, right? You sort of think about, you know, this isn't a cerebral work, it's not a literary work, it's a work that an audience is gonna be sitting with these characters, and they're gonna get invested in them, and you're gonna wanna know certain things or else...
SINGER: Who orchestrated his girlfriend's death, yeah. That was always the same. The tent poles of the story never changed. We approached scenes, certainly, from different ways, but the general story was always the same. SINGER: Oh, by the way, now that you say that, I do remember Amanda and I having conversations about the color for specific characters. So I think, yeah, that was something that
PERRI: I did want to ask about the touchless faucet and choosing that as your final image, not even just choosing that as your final image, but figuring out precisely how long that shot should be.
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