Bones and All is a movie that sticks with you. It gets caught in your teeth and clings to your insides on the way down. Luca Guadagnino’s horrifying, beautiful, coming-of-age story takes us on the road with two young drifters in love, Lee and Maren. The pair just happens to be a couple of cannibals. Director Luca Guadagnino and star Taylor Russell joined us to talk about the progression of Bones and All from Camille DeAngelis’ novel, to Dave Kajganich’s script, to Guadagnino’s version on the screen, favorite cannibal movies, and the power of Sir Mark Rylance.
Guadagnino was not originally set to direct the film, “I’d been asked to read the script by my buddy, Dave Kajganich, who had written the script for Bones and All for Antonio Campos. Unfortunately, Antonio couldn’t do the movie, so David asked me to read his script based on this book by Camille DeAngelis. I read it and found, as always with David, beautiful writing, amazing characters, and a very profound sense of space and behavior that I was immediately captivated by.” This is one of those instances where it’s hard to imagine moving even one piece of the puzzle. The alchemy of it all comes together so specifically that moving any of these pieces would result in something else entirely.
One of those key pieces is star Taylor Russell who plays Maren. Russell was excited to work with Guadagnino, “Luca could have said to me, ‘Hi. Be in my movie, say no words, and be in the background,’ and I would have said, ‘Please have me.’ There was no pitch needed for me to be involved. I really would’ve done anything that Luca graciously asked of me. So the luck and the beauty is that it was this very complex human being that I got to inhabit in a beautifully written story with some of the best actors in the world and through Luca’s lens. I mean, that was the best part of it. But truthfully, I didn’t need a pitch. I would’ve done anything for him.”
Sir Mark Rylance has dominated the stage and screen, his portrayal of Sully in Bones And All is a softly chilling nuanced horror. His most disturbing moments played opposite Russel, who describes Rylance as a giving performer. “I felt very cared for by every single person on this movie. Mark is one of those people. He has been very gracious and loving, and generous with me. He is a very giving performer. I mean, I don’t think you can have a career like he has and not be that way. I admire him a lot. The scenes that come across as more chilling, I am very glad that they come across that way, but I didn’t feel scared by Mark at all, ever. Not to say that it was anything to do with the performance, but as human beings, we had a certain rapport that just felt very comfortable. I think the paradox between Sully and Maren is that there’s this undercurrent, but it’s not overt. And that’s the interesting thing about it.”
Like many of us, Guadagnino is an admirer of Rylance’s work, “He’s such a profound actor and so filled with the experience of life that brings on the screen through his performances that it has been a privilege.”
The performances in this are soft and nuanced, making the most horrific moments feel even more realistic. Much of that horror is delivered by Russell’s reactions, “Truthfully, I think a lot of my experience on this earth and a lot of my female friends’ experiences are that oftentimes even if you’re in a scary situation, you rarely see the fear play in your face. That always hits you after. Perhaps it takes years to hit you. So I think that’s the most truthful and most interesting way of dealing with fear.”
Make no mistake, there are big horror elements to this movie — blood and gnawing and stalking and gore. But that serves as the background for this coming-of-age love story between two misfits trying to find their place in the world. Guadagnino strikes a balance between terrifying, tender, and beautiful without feeling disjointed. “I think what I did was follow the characters through their journey and try to adhere to how these characters behaved. And in particular, having empathy for the journey of Maren and Lee, two kids trying to survive in a world that doesn’t think there is a place for them. And yet, they want a place for them. I think that was really my guiding light.”
When it comes to favorite cannibal movies, Guadagnino says, “I don’t think I have a cannibal movie that I prefer unless we put into the canon The Silence of the Lambs. But in a way, that’s also like Bones and All. It’s a love story.” The road trip element is equally present, and for his favorite road trip movie Guadagnino gives top honors to Nicholas Ray’s 1948 directorial debut, “I love, They Live by Night, very, very much.”
Russell opts for a ’70s tale of crime and love, “In terms of a road trip movie, the first that comes to my mind is Badlands.”
Bones and All is now playing in theaters.
