David Cronenberg Explains What ‘Crimes of the Future’ Is Really About

variety.com:

Antonio Ferme editorDavid Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” has a heady premise: As a disease called “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome” causes unusual organs to grow inside the body of Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), his partner (Léa Seydoux) surgically removes them in front of a live audience.

Needless to say, the world-building is a bit complicated! Luckily, the director and some of his cast shed light on the dark secrets of “Crimes” during a preview night Q&A in Manhattan.Much like the audience, Cronenberg’s depiction of bodily autonomy wasn’t always clear to the lead actors.“I have to admit that I didn’t quite understand everything when I read the script at first,” Seydoux said at the Thursday night event. “I jumped in the pool, and I think that’s what David wants.

He’s an observer of his own work.” She continued, “To me, it was also a metaphor about what it is to be an artist, and this is how I related to the film.

As artists, we just give everything — our body and our soul.”Cronenberg said he “really didn’t care” if Seydoux or any of his actors understood the meaning behind his story as he wanted to elicit a raw performance.“You cast brilliant actors who are just right for the role, and it doesn’t matter if they think they don’t know what they’re doing,” Cronenberg said. “I’ve had many actors say, ‘I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.’ And I say, ‘yeah, you just keep doing that.’ I really want to see what the actors’ intuition is and what the actor brings.”He continued, “We don’t have discussions, we don’t rehearse, we don’t intellectualize.