From our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Steven soderbergh is one of our great directors. Movies like sex, lies, and have earned him a reputation for balancing mainstream appeal with creative ambition. He worked together with the screenwriter script scott burns. Nhey bring their collaboratio to the theater. Called the library written by scott burns and directed by steven soderbergh. Lets begin at the beginning. How this began. There was an effort in hollywood to make a movie out of columbine. Read a book and the know that stephen was reading it at the same time. Even though nobody was interested to make it as a film, it was one part of the story i had not been aware of until i read thes book read daves book. I thought it could make a great play. You suggested that to steven soderbergh. I started writing it. Deter we finished sixe effects, i asked if he had an interest in a play. You directed a couple before. This is the third thing i have done. I wanted to do this one because it was tied into conversation ourt and i had had about primal need for stories. How we make sense of everything. Think said to scott was, of what your life consists of. Something happens to you, you tell somebody about it. Theyhing happens to them, tell you about it. That is most of your life. Danger ofbout the putting the story replacing the story, giving it a priority over the truth in an effort to heal or transcend or whatever. Everybody has their own motivator. We are all trying to figure out reasons to get up in the morning and keep going. That is fine. In this situation, these competing narratives create destructive debate within a community. I said yes because i thought, we for been preparing for this a long time. The larger point is what is truth . What is truth and what happens when people get trapped in their own narrative. What can we do to get outside of that . The empathy that requires. Do we ever move closer to understanding . This is not related but at the same time, has the idea Bob Woodwards technique for writing books he gets one person in the room and they tell him what they saw and heard. He uses that to get another person to say what he saw or they areause he thinks ready military story. You come up with a mosaic of the meeting. The question becomes everybody has a different motivation and agenda. Some of the people may be driven by a certain ideology. At what point, if you are bob woodward, you are going on instinct about who will get primacy. That is tricky stuff. If you are off compass three degrees, you are way off. There are things in law school. I went to lusk will. They will have somebody come in and explode the classroom and run out. This is a common technique. Every buddy has to describe what happened. It is vastly different. People tell Different Things. Was a redshirt or brown shirt . Black slacks or can slacks . Tan slacks . Imagine a situation where your life is threatened and somebody is trying to get what you saw or heard. You are talking about a 16yearold. Who has other issues in her life besides that. The shooting takes place in a high school library. There is a shooter who comes in. He has a motivation for doing that. Becomes veryn subjective for all the people who are affected. We dont learn for quite a while was driving the shooter. More importantly, there is an incident that happens i dont want to give away the play an incident that happened in the library and a girl who is wounded and survives. It is her journey afterwards. How does one get their truth told and listened to . When there are other people who were claiming rates amount great amounts of pain and suffering. I dont want to give away either. There is someone who is killed. Several people. In different places. They have parents. Their parents are invested in their child. That is their prism. Absolutely. In order to deal with an unspeakable tragedy, you have a parent who constructs a narrative that somehow makes this livable. Narrativem is there the only way it softens the impact of the tragedy. The parent did not just show up. Now how does this event integrate into that . Everybody is affected by the way their life was before. Police play a role, too. The media plays a role. Live in a world with unfiltered content. Put this in the context of media today. What do you believe . In manyu have seen, outlets, youd rather be first then right. This is the situation in which this is happening in a big way. The effect it has on the lead character is intense. What drove you to this . To want to do this theme . Out of these conversations that scott and i would have about why we cant seem to solve more problems in the world. We see them differently. Because of these competing narratives. I have thought is as important for negotiators. People like Henry Kissinger have said this. You have to begin by expressing what you want. You have to begin by communicating that to understand where they are coming from. They are getting a hearing within you as the world they see. I think that is absolutely true. Very much with the play is about. Heart of the conversation that scott and i were having. You are talking about empathy. The one ability to understand why somebody is asking for what they are asking for. That is why when he brought the play to my attention, the idea that he was going to do it it seems these are things that run throughout the three films we have made together. It seemed in alignment with those. The detective tells caitlin we chloe grace the difference between what people said and which they said tends to grow. I think so. Especially in a situation like this where there is trauma. It is interesting to bring another engine into this it is said that president reagan would talk about the war in such graphic terms, but it was based on what he had done in los angeles. And that somehow what had actually happened and what he would describe had become fused. That doesnt surprise me. I know that seeing the Television Movie the day after was one of the reasons he idea of speaking with the soviets about disarmament. He was so affected by the movie, he said, we have to do something about this. He was an interesting guy. Before those conversations with gorbachev, they would make movies about soviet history for him. Morewas the way he learned than reading a lot of books. Wish i couldve made those. We both read the Nicholson Baker book. Big had he been a influence. It was about all the stories that i was unaware about the second world war. An alternative history we were not taught. There is a narrative drift that occurs after an event that exists mainly because it suits somebodys agenda. More morph. O creating a theater piece. How you used music the darkness of the space. Speaking to place. Direct address. Was to try and make this as visual as possible. Bring whatever tools i could from the other job into the theater. Editing thate of you dont typically see in a theater piece. How do you edit a theater piece . I think you will someday get a look at that. Because i wanted it to be to ss and i wanted it as we talked about, the biggest difference between the job we did before the job we are doing now in terms of movies versus plays. How do you created closeup . With the movie, you just go there. Onstage, you have to direct everybodys attention to that read how do you do that . Of compositionn and lighting. Staging. What i knew i didnt want to do was make a piece that was representational. Going into a medium in which would be boring to me. That couch look like a real couch. I do that when i make a movie. The number of scenes within the play required me to be able to be able to change location to in an instant. The only way to do that is to create an abstract space in which light and composition are your way of transporting people. Apparently i did. He was on the show. I was going strictly on talking about stories i had never seen his exhibits. But i heard people describe them. I was going off what people had described to me. But i have no idea if it is like that or not. Have you found out . Now i am like, im definitely not seen one of his exhibits. This camelear that out of your imagination. What i am appropriating from him and what we both believe is that light is an emotional thing. We have an emotional response to light. The quality of light, the intensity. When you use two different colors. It is a very efficient way to affect people. Do you use like to accentuate the sound of gunfire . Yes. You use dark a lot. Is a moody piece. There have been complaints. I think it is kind of we are up to something different. You said to me, it will be a different play by the time it opens. This is a big difference between film. Always steven has included me on the post process. The post process gets advanced into the preview process in a play. Theres no post process. Youediting and the sound, have the opportunity to look at it and say, that line did not work. We are getting a laugh and we dont want a lap. Laugh. Normally you can cut it in the editing room. We have to cut it out in previews and see the next night if it worked. It is hard. Is thed said it difference between skiing and surfing. When you ski, the mountain does not move. With surfing, the mountain moves. Everything moves. It is a more fluid process. To write is different for theater . I hope i have an answer by the time i am done. I think, again, a lot of it goes to not having a camera. There are opportunities in a screenplay where somebody does not need to Say Something because you know you can push in on them and capture their a motion. Ane there is a opportunity for people to verbalize things that they could normally express or the camera could help them express. Or editorial could help them express. Even though you have done this before . Do you come away with a different sense of the power of theater . Absolutely. Think forgetting about the fact that people cannot steal it whenich i really like you talk about empathy, there is a connectivity between the performers and the audience in a live situation that is unique. Very electric. Very satisfying. Parks and can change from night to night. It really does. Ourre pieces about story piece is about storytelling. Their life is different based on what happened on the way to work that day. The audience is a huge part of it. There is a feeling before the play even starts that is palpable. The difference of between a matinee audience on a sunday and a friday night audience. They have started a process before the play is going on. I dont think we are ruining anything by saying, there is someone on stage when they walk into the door. That immediately begins a sort of interaction that is interesting to witness. No curtain. No. You walk in and their somebody on stage there is somebody on stage. You have gone through, on this program, a conversation about your life. I was stunned because you talked about leaving filmmaking. How did that work . To my mind, ast, normal evolutionary process. It only became public when a friend of mine who shall remain nameless but whose initials are matt damon gave an interview that got some traction. Start just time for me to doing other things. They can about other things. Things. Ing about other i would never say never. It just became clear to me, i have to go off and try other stuff. I thought katie was one was oneity painting possibility. I started, but the next then i started doing a 10 hour tv show. Is it ais it called drama . For the most part. Mayhem. Medicine in 1900. Interesting stuff. Have you seen this evolution in him . I have seen him through the course of doing the movies and the play. Ven try to findcv new ways to do things. It is not only dealing with the agents and producers. Corrosivehave a effect on your enthusiasm for the endeavor. It is that part coupled with how many times can you come up with a new way to shoot an over the shoulder. And at what point do you want to try to do other things . Which i think is great. What is your quiver and of that . What is your equivalent of that . Writing a play or a book. Each asks Something Else of you. Allows you to find Different Things about yourself. What i found about the play was it was a representation of the ongoing dialogue we had had about how people take turns telling each other stories. Of large things like war. Smaller things like relationships. I wanted to write something that was much or personal. More personal. A lot of the research was with a survivor of columbine. It was interesting to hear how the echoes of that experience effected your and her and all sorts of ways. Im adapting a book by the Washington Post reporter colby the burglary. Lled suppose somebody comes to see you today and says, i have a brilliant idea for theater. You agree. You say, lets do it. Imebody comes in and says, have a fabulous actor who wants to make a movie. Would you write the screenplay . Which would you choose . I feel stories choose me. To me, is almost involuntary. Whether the story itself you can connect to it in a visceral way. Or i can imagine a structure i havent tried. Ultimately, narrative starts to wear on you if it is always linear. You are trying to find a new way to tell a story. That can be by structure or by changing the form from a Movie Theater to a plate. Play. Do have a sense of the power of theater the capacity to change theater . Find mye to of course way through it. Im not trained as a theater director. I understand directing and storytelling. I understand actors and composition. That will get you a long way. It would be stupid for me to go and do a revival of a shakespeare play. To do a straight piece of theater would be stupid. That is not my background. Butnt to do other pieces, they have to be things i feel like what i bring to them is going to make them im going to make them better. I dont know what that is. The other reason is to look at it with a fresh eye. You havent done that. Your skills have been mostly employed in a different place. You may see your with a fresh ye, that givesrs ie you the possibility to use it in an interesting way. If i can be the idiot savant, that would be awesome. Thank you. Is runningary through april 27. Tilde swinton is here. Swintons any tilda is here. She stars in a new movie about vampires. Here is the trailer. Inclusive isng only going to make people more interested in your music. What a drag. Hello. What is it . You look tired. Tell your wife what your problem is. Is the way they treat the world. How they have succeeded in contaminating their own blood. Vote negative negatviivo. Is very possibility of a night flight to detroit . I love what you have done with the place. Remember when you i had a dream. Shouldnt she be sleeping in a coffin somewhere . I am really, really hungry. Could use millivolt away from l. A. . All the you smell it way from l. A. . I am pretty lucky in love. If i may say so. Man. W, that certainly was visual. What is that . O negative. Ildailde swinton t tnton can also be seen in he grand budapest hotel. Vampires in love. Lovers and love who happen to be vampires. It is about mortality. It is about mortality and immortality, which tend to go together. Rebooting your interest when you get fatigued. I believe in that idea. If you reboot yourself, you have to rather refresh yourself to make sure you have the energy to move forward. I would suggest you dont have to be much older then 26 maybe 16. Tell me whoeve, she is. She is 3000 years old. She has perspective. Adam is young. Musician in detroit. A genius. A proper, bona fide genius. Eve is living with Christopher Marlowe in tangiers. He put out all of shakespeares plays under the name of an actor. [laughter] life. E a long part of that life is having real conversations. Wewill conversations, wanted that. We wanted to show that. Even if you dont like somebody, if you like them and find them interesting, you can find love them. Filme first grain of the was a book, a wonderful book, marks diaries of adam and eve. This was a book that jim was inspired by. He passed it to me. That was the first thing that sparked the interest in the couple. The curmudgeonly, grumpy adam. Stomping around the garden, saying i have to name all the animals. She is a space cadet. And are completely unalike, yet they are a pair. You have had those kinds of relationships three i am lucky. I really have. What about the vampire aspect . That is about to give the centuries of relationships . You are suggesting naming out really be vampires . Im not suggesting anything. I want to see why jim wanted to make a movie with vampires. You will have to ask him. There isuggest something about vampires being outsiders, they are loners. They are outside. Does that resonate with you . Occasionally, when i am not sitting at this table. [laughter] but i am in very good company. I can tell you that. You do see yourself as a kind of outside the mainstream. Posit there is more than one mainstream. One mans mainstream is anothers dirty little brook. [laughter] this is the third collaboration between you and jim. What is about it that is attractive to you . He is a friend of mine. That is a great help. I love his mind. I love the weight in which he makes a real cinema that is unique. Thatirst jim jarmusch film i saw, stranger than paradise you love it. First american independent film made by an alien. Dont you consider yourself something of an alien . Who doesnt. All humans are aliens. This is the this is a lovely story i read about you. Somebody called you and said, we want you to give a lecture about cinema. You said, no thank you i am busy. Says, as i remember, how did people do before there was cinema . This was a few years ago when my son was 8. 5 years old. The San Francisco film festival. They ask someone to give the state of cinema address. When they ask me, i assumed they wanted somebody to talk about the industry or fiscal reports. No interest i certainly cant give that lecture. I was on the verge of saying, impossible. Then i said good night to my son. How old was he . About eight and a half. He asked me this question. What were dreams like before cinema was made . This kind of exploded my brain. I went downstairs. People,ore i wrote the i wrote this lecture or rather this piece of writing which was a letter to my son, talking about a state called the state of cinema. A place we all go to. Jim jarmusch lives there. He is a master filmmaker who milks makes a corner. Jim jarmusch land. You can go there. It is nice to be there. Foundationnd a half was created by you. In order to make films about individuals to make film fans. I,colleague mark cousins and we inaugurated this foundation to create a new birthday for children. Eight and a half to read when they become film fans. 8. 5 . Ite in the half why son when hee of my asked that question. Also the name of a fleeing the film. Film. Lini children have taken part. Into National Films from the last hundred years. We now have 100 years of cinema to draw on. They write to us. They will work on one or 8. 5 1 2th birthday is. It will be something from iran or china. It will almost surely