Ari Aster’s dad told him he “shouldn’t write” movies after ‘Beau Is Afraid’
Following the lukewarm reaction to Beau Is Afraid, director Ari Aster claims his father had advised him to leave scriptwriting behind for his next movie.
The movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix, tells the disturbing story of a man riddled with anxiety who confronts his darkest fears and embarks on an epic odyssey following the death of his mother.
At the box office, Beau Is Afraid only recouped $12 million from a $50 million budget and failed to pick up any nominations at the Academy Awards.
Now, during an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Aster revealed: “When Beau Is Afraid flopped, my dad did tell me, ‘Uh, maybe you shouldn’t write the next one’.” The director then self-deprecatingly added, “He might’ve been right.”
He also addressed the backlash to Beau Is Afraid, admitting, “I was pretty sad that it was, like, so maligned. There are a lot of people who reached out to tell me that they loved it…that helped, but yeah, no, it was a bummer because it was a huge, you know, it lost money, and critically, I wouldn’t say it was, like, reviled, but it was definitely, like, there was no consensus whatsoever.”
Nevertheless, Aster feels that the experience has benefited him in the long run as a filmmaker, stating, “You kind of learn something… No matter what the response.”
However, rather than take his father’s advice, Aster did pick up the pen again to write Eddington, which arrives in UK cinemas on August 22nd, and is already out in the United States. It stars Phoenix, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler, as well as Micheal Ward, who was recently charged with two counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault by the Metropolitan Police.
In a three-and-a-half-star review, Far Out wrote of Eddington: “While it isn’t without its flaws, the urgency of the central message redeems any of its imperfections, with the director reiterating our need to re-engage with each other and convene within our collective truth.”
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