writing never stops editorial, I maintain is the final
draft. It's just as simple as that. I'm
baz moment, I'm the writer, director, producer
of Elvis, my name is Jonathan Redmond and one
of the others in the movie. How do you
begin Exactly, exactly. How do you begin when
we first cutting? I mean we're cutting like five
years earlier, 2018 1st started putting together kind of
reels just using existing materials. It's amazing how much
you can create a vibe for necessary, what the
movie is gonna look like, what it's gonna feel
like we're able to kind of start that process before
we shot a frame of the actual movie, the
musical numbers could never be. Now let's stop for
a concert. It had to advance drama and that's
just editorial labor. Remember signing the contract, He
really did scribble the contract down on the table cloth
. We just didn't want to cut away to another
white and not Austin. We shot those cutaways about
five different times. It was a tricky thing to
go right suspicious, It's just relentless labor mind numbing
. There's so much that we had to leave behind
, but we were serving a larger arc. We're
not trying to hide the fact Elvis is Elvis in
Austin is Austin, this is not an impersonation but
a true spiritual interpretation of Elvis. He humanized him
. His biggest job is to humanize him and he
just actually blended his soul and Elvis is he showed
us moments that simply don't exist on film. Some
people wanted to put me in jail, even kill
me because the way I was moving. So they
cut my hair, they put me in uniform and
they sent me away. Like you're my mother.
I have since then I've been lost. And when
you lost people take advantage. The research is an
opportunity to get lost in a world. I wear
the clothes, go and live in the environment.
Look for people in the case of Elvis who actually
knew him. One of them was really obscure.
The chap called Sam Bell, this man of about
70. So beautiful of spirit. And I spend
these full days with him talking about the time when
they go to the Duke joint and then they go
to Pentecostal tent, the little boy. And he
told me that sequence when it comes to the research
. That's what it's all about for me, the
colonel that the and he basically said, look give
me$2 million. You have all my stuff amongst
that stuff was a tape recorder. That was a
treasure trove. One of them so brilliant because you
can actually hear a rare moment. There's country music
and then you hear this mind deafening screaming and it's
Elvis has obviously come on the stage, you realize
how punky is. That's where I got the inspiration
that the records are charming but live. It was
back in the day was so much more confronting and
just a punk and that brings us to the ending
. As you know, there's the trope at the
end of a movie, usually in credits, you
see the real character and I feel like we do
need to visit Elvis how you like it so far
. We found this material online. This performs of
Unchained Melody. It was so heartbreaking to watch.
You can hardly talk. This is a song that
I just recorded and it's an old song called Unchained
Melody. I have to play the piano so it'll
take just a second and then he sits down and
sings and he sounds like a God. one of
the most extraordinary performances I've ever heard my daughter.
Your touch was pushed back on using that footage.
He's clearly suffering with drugs. Said yes, but
he sings the best he ever sings. And it's
the last time he seen. All right, giving
Elvis the last word. Just felt right, Jonah
was cutting and I came and I sat down and
he went, have a look at this and the
moment it went from Austin to Elvis for me,
there was a gut punch. And I've been working
on it five years. There was a gut punch
of oh my God, it's all real. He's
a real person. It all really happened. You
just knew that there was no other possible ending to
the movie. It had to be that