Ep. 290: Steven Soderbergh on Presence, shooting in the first-person, and recent viewing

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Steven Soderbergh’s first-person ghost thriller Presence opens today in theaters—almost exactly one year after its premiere screening at Sundance, where I first saw it. I sat down with Soderbergh and asked him about directing and shooting the film, which entailed essentially embodying the character of the haunting presence as we move through a house of family and view their goings-on from a supernatural POV. He also shared his mother’s crucial influence on the film; how he built up both suspense and a grounded family drama; and an early change during filming that affected how he would film the presence. Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, and Callina Liang co-star; Soderbergh re-teams with screenwriter David Koepp.

Finally, we talk about some of his recent viewing—which the director famously chronicles on his website. Here he explains, among other things, why he’s watching so much Star Wars, and also pays tribute to the dearly departed David Lynch.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass