When it comes to getting indie films made, Richard Linklater lives by the golden rule of “fake it until you make it.”
The 5x Oscar nominee recently opened up about the struggles of financing as an indie filmmaker, explaining that they have to “be a cheap hustler” and “have some charm” in order to convince financiers to invest in their work.
“If no one wants to support you, that just means you are not ready yet,” said Linklater at IndieWire‘s Future of Filmmaking Summit at Cannes. “Maybe you don’t have the confidence or something’s not exuding from you that needs to be for people to believe in you, and that’s usually you believing in yourself. You can’t fake that. You have to earn that through your own experience, your own confidence, your own hard work and dedication.”
Linklater’s comments come after his latest indie outing Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) premiered last Saturday at Cannes Film Festival, earning an 11-minute ovation and attracting multiple US buyers.
In Nouvelle Vague, Guillaume Marbeck portrays French-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard as he directs his first feature, 1960’s Breathless, in Paris.
Featuring the same warm black-and-white ’60s film aesthetic of the seminal source film, Nouvelle Vague is “told in the style and spirit in which Godard made Breathless,” directed by Linklater from a script by Vince Palmo, Michèle Halberstadt, Laetitia Masson and Holly Gent.
Along with Marbeck as Godard, the cast includes Zoey Deutch as American actress Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as her French co-star Jean Paul-Belmondo.
The post Richard Linklater Explains “Cheap Hustler” Approach To Indie Film Financing: “You Can’t Fake That” appeared first on Deadline.