J.J. Abrams shared his history, lens flare philosophy, and current feelings on Star Wars with Stephen Colbert at last night’s Celebrity Nerd-Off.
The conversation, held to benefit the Montclair Film Festival, spanned Abrams’ entire surprising career as filmmaker. But with less than a month to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there was no question that the galaxy far, far away was a pressing undercurrent of the evening.
John Williams’ classic score played over the speakers, drawing appreciative applause from the packed house at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. A model of the adorable droid BB-8 sat on the stage, and Abrams and Colbert sipped from mugs shaped like stormtrooper helmets.
“The taste of the Dark Side!” Colbert quipped.
But even though Abrams had flown to New Jersey directly from his work on The Force Awakens — “I finished the mix of the movie at 2:30 a.m. last night,” he admitted — Colbert took his time in approaching the subject.
The conversation focused on Abrams’ early love for filmmaking, which he says began at five years old, when his grandfather took him to the Universal Studios tour. From there, Abrams progressed to making “horrible” movies on his super eight camera, produced with the help of “anyone who was more of a loser than I was,” he laughed.
Colbert also raised the subject of “the mystery box,” an idea which Abrams has used to describe his films in the past. As a child, Abrams purchased a “mystery box” of magic tricks. Blank except for a question mark, Abrams took the box home, and never opened it.
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“Something about not opening it felt more important than opening it,” he said. The potential represented by the box, the “what ifs?” held within its mystery is, Abrams said, “as powerful as anything for me in storytelling.”
But in spite of his love of mystery, Colbert’s tour through Abrams’ career proved that his success is anything but mysterious.
He sold his first screenplay to Disney while a senior in college, which later became the film Taking Care of Business. Colbert revealed that he had auditioned for the film in Chicago — and not been hired.
“I am so sorry,” Abrams deadpanned.
From television work on Felicity, Alias, and LOST, Abrams shifted back to directing film, eventually helming the Star Trek reboot in 2009. Colbert inquired if Abrams had been a fan of the Star Trek TV series, and Abrams admitted he was not.
“Oh my God, it’s a space adventure!” he recalled ironically, when asked to direct the reboot. “When am I ever going to have the chance to do that again?”
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But Abrams qualified that while working on the script and re-developing the classic characters of Star Trek, “I started to see the things that made my friends fall in love with this… [it] made me feel like an idiot that I hadn’t loved it before.”
One thing Abrams found to love in Star Trek was the ample opportunity to include lens flares — a visual trope for which he has become infamous. Colbert teasingly noted that according to “the internet,” there are no less than 721 flares in the first film.
Abrams defended the choice for Star Trek – “[I loved] this idea that the future that they were in was so bright that it couldn’t be contained,” he said — but agreed the flare went overboard in Star Trek: Into Darkness. (Or rather, his wife put her foot down on the matter when Alice Eve was completely swallowed by a flare in a particular scene.)
In Star Wars, Abrams promised, he has “allowed lens flares to take a backseat.” The film “looks photorealistic,” and any flares will fit into an appropriate context.
“These are not the lens flares you’re looking for,” he joked.
That philosophy of realism carried through the whole of production on The Force Awakens. Abrams noted that, while many scenes would be impossible to achieve without computerized effects, he “was nervous about CG being the master we were serving.” Physical sets were used wherever possible, and the inspiration for simply-shaped sets and droids were drawn from designs by Ralph McQuarrie, the original designer on Star Wars.
“The whole movie requited a sort of acknowledgement of what came before,” he said. “It was what I wanted to do, and it was part of the history of these [characters].”
Several questions about Star Wars came to Abrams from the audience, but he seemed most engaged when asked how he currently feels about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Easily the most anticipated film of his career, the release is finally mere weeks away.
“It’s been living with the greatest kid in history for too long,” Abrams said. “He needs his own place. I can’t wait him to get out in the world.” And Abrams admitted to certain mixed emotions when it comes to the film’s release and reception.
“Star Wars is bigger than any of us,” he said. “To get to be involved in this in any way… [I am] thrilled beyond words, and more terrified than I can say.”
But perhaps Abrams will take comfort in the Force, which he and Colbert agreed asserted a tremendous power on them as children.
“As an 11 year old, it made sense,” he said, recalling the sense of spiritual unity and potential of the idea. And that theme, Abrams promised, will be present in The Force Awakens.
“It was very important to us in this film to bring that back, and have it be a little bit of magic,” he said. “Something you can believe in.”