- Title: Andrea Arnold found poverty in US upsetting to see
- Date: 15th May 2016
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 15, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR, ANDREA ARNOLD, SAYING: ''I have this strange thing when I am making a film I don't want to watch other films I want to find my own way so I actually deliberately do not look at other films and I take a lot of my inspiration, most of my inspiration for each film based on the world that I am exploring so I will go into the world - I sort of do a lot of, sort of, research sort of immersing myself in the places and with the people that I am going to be making a film about and that's where I get all, that's really what I, that's where, that's absolutely where I get my inspiration from, I find real life and real people really inspiring so that's absolutely where I go to.''
- Embargoed: 30th May 2016 17:11
- Keywords: Andrea Arnold American Honey Shia LaBeouf
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- City: CANNES, FRANCE / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: France
- Topics: Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0074HX3LFX
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: CONTAIN FOOTAGE THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
For her fourth feature film British director Andrea Arnold has turned her attention to the U.S, with a gritty drama that follows a group of teenagers travelling across the country trying to make money selling magazine subscriptions.
As the 'mag crew' go door-to-door trying to convince anyone they come across to sign-up and give them money 'American Honey' at times shows the contrast between their lives and the lives of the often wealthy people they try to sell to.
Acclaimed filmmaker Arnold, known for her gritty depiction of life in the UK with films such as 'Fish Tank' and 'Red Road' spent time travelling across America to prepare for her latest project.
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday (May 15) where the film is competing for the Palme d'Or, Arnold explained she discovered a different America to the one she grew up seeing in Hollywood films: ''I got to see an awful lot when as I was travelling and I got quite upset about some of the towns I went to, some of the poverty I saw. It seemed really different to me than in the UK because when people don't have money they can't get healthcare and they can't do things like go to the dentist and stuff like that and those kind of things really shocked me.''
Amongst the mostly unknown cast is Shia LaBeouf, the 'Indiana Jones' and 'Transformers' star said he has first hand experience of growing up in a poor town: ''This is not new information to me, so it's not like I discovered that - in Bakersfield where my father lived for a stint the only thing there is a prison you know so everybody works at the prison, yeah that's not new information I am part of that under class.''
LaBeouf who plays Jake, one of the mag crew's top sellers, took time to understand how a mag crew operates. "I saw the hierarchies of the group of how the money comes in, how the money goes out who handles what - what a pitch sounds like - how long they need to be just the technicalities of doing this gig, what the manager does, what's for sale- all that.''
Arnold, who said she is 'inspired by real life' found her film's star - newcomer Sasha Lane - on a beach, during Springbreak: ''She just came up to me, I was chilling on the beach,'' Lane explained.
''She just seemed really nice, she was talking about a movie and I was like yeah whatever.''
An important part of the film is the soundtrack. The music was cleared before filming began as often the cast dance to the tracks. When Lane's character Star meets Jake (LeBeouf) for the first time Calvin Harris and Rihanna's 2011 hit 'We Found Love' is playing.
Arnold joked she enjoyed writing to Rihanna to get clearance for the track - while LaBeouf said he found having to dance to it 'awkward.'
''Everybody was alpha male-ing around the set and she's (Arnold) like hey I need you to body role to Rihanna right not in front of everybody - it was a little awkward.''
'American Honey' is one of the 21 films in the running for the top prize in Cannes. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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