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One of the many films to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival was writer-director Michael Almereyda’s Marjorie Prime. Based on Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play of the same name, the film stars Jon Hamm, Lois Smith, Geena Davis, and Tim Robbins, it's a complex and subtle examination of technology that results in a drama somewhere between an episode of Charlie Brooker's dark tech-series Black Mirror and the intense, Academy Award nominee Fences. The film takes place primarily in one location, and is set in a near future where people can interact with deceased loved ones via holographic projections. Marjorie Prime won the Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance this year. The award jury said of the film: "Imaginative and nuanced depiction of the evolving relationship between humans and technology, and its moving dramatization of how intelligent machines can challenge our notions of identity, memory and mortality.”

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Image via Sundance

Here’s how Sundance describes the film:

Eighty-six-year-old Marjorie spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband. With the intent to recount their life together, Marjorie’s “Prime” relies on the information from her and her kin to develop a more complex understanding of his history. As their interactions deepen, the family begins to develop ever diverging recounts of their lives, drawn into the chance to reconstruct the often painful past.

The day after the world premiere I got to sit down with Jon Hamm, Lois Smith and Director Michael Almereyda for an exclusive video interview. They talked about how the project came together, how Lois Smith portrayed the role on both the stage and screen, memorable moments from filming, how the sci-fi portrayed in the film isn’t far-fetched, what made them want to be in the entertainment industry, and what Lois Smith remembers about making East of Eden with James Dean.

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Image via Sundance

Check out what they had to say in the video above and below is exactly what we talked about. Finally, a huge thank you to everyone at Plexus, The Future Party and editor Jonathan Mathew for helping to make these interviews happen. Jon Hamm, Lois Smith and Michael Almereyda:

  • They talk about what the film is about.
  • Lois Smith talks about portraying this role on both the stage and screen.
  • Jon Hamm on how familiar he was with the material and why did he want to be part of the project?
  • How long was the production schedule?
  • Were they ready to shoot anything at any time due to the condensed shooting schedule?
  • How does his first cut of the film compare to the finished version?
  • Memorable moments from filming.
  • How the sci-fi portrayed in the film isn’t far-fetched.
  • How the film portrays the passing of time.
  • I ask Lois Smith to talk about making East of Eden and what she remembers about the film and James Dean.
  • What made them want to be in the entertainment industry?
  • When did they know they had gotten into Sundance?
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Image via Sundance