Companion with Drew Hancock and Rob Savage (Ep. 530)

The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Directors Guild of America

Tv & Film

4.6 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Director Drew Hancock discusses his new film, Companion, with fellow Director Rob Savage in a Q&A at the DGA theater in Los Angeles. In the conversation, he discusses taking inspiration from grounded dramas instead of modern science fiction, working with Actor Sophie Thatcher to establish the feel of the robot character, and his process of discovering shots with his Actors instead of storyboarding parts of the film. The film follows Iris and her boyfriend Josh as they go on a weekend getaway to a remote cabin with a group of friends. When it comes to light that Iris is a companion robot, the vacation unravels into chaos as she goes haywire and exacts revenge. See photos and a summary of this event below: https://dga.org/Events/2025/March2025/Companion_QnA_0225

Transcript

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0:00.0	She's so good at her job.
0:01.7	We shot the first scene of her walking.
0:03.2	And I'm like watching the monitor going, God, Sophie is weird at walking.
0:07.7	Like this is what's happening here?
0:10.1	And then it just, I'm embarrassed that it took like a stutter step to me like.
0:14.5	Oh, wait, that's intentional.
0:15.7	Yeah, that's great.
0:16.6	Yeah.
0:40.0	Hello and welcome back to the Director's Cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.
0:47.4	In this episode, a weekend vacation turns violent and director Drew Hancock's dark comedy thriller, companion.
0:56.0	The film follows Iris and her boyfriend Josh, as they go in a weekend getaway to a remote cabin with a group of friends. When it comes to light that Iris is a companion robot, the vacation unravels into chaos as she goes haywire and exacts revenge.
1:05.0	Companion is Hancock's feature directorial debut. His other credits include segments for Jimmy Kimmel Live and videos for the band Tenacious D.
1:15.4	Following a screening of the film at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles, Hancock spoke with
1:20.3	director Rob Savage about filming companion. Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation.
1:31.8	Thank you. Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation. Well, first of all, congratulations.
1:35.9	What a fucking great movie.
1:37.4	Thank you very much.
1:38.3	Am I right?
1:38.3	Thank you.
1:38.8	Thank you.
1:41.1	So you're in this very unique club of, like, people who know what it feels like to have a movie on wide release. This is your opening weekend. It's a very specific kind of like exposing nerve wracking feeling. How are you taking it? How are you? Thank you for asking. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's something
2:05.0	it's really hard to process, uh, because everyone's, you know, sending you text to me like,
	...

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