Opening tomorrow in NYC, L.A., and other selected cities is director Sebastian Silva’s drug fueled comedy Crystal Fairy.  The film stars Michael Cera as an American expat who, while on a trip in Chile, sets out in search of the prized San Pedro cactus along with three Chilean brothers in order to reap its hallucinatory benefits.  The pic is one of two Michael Cera-led indies that Silva shot in Chile, with the other being the psychological horror pic Magic Magic.  Both premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.  Crystal Fairy also stars Gaby Hoffman, Juan Andres Silva, Jose Miguel Silva, and Agustin Silva.

During the recent L.A. press day, I landed an exclusive interview with Cera and Silva.  They talked about how they started working together, filming a realistic portrayal of a drug trip, the shooting process, how much was improvised, did they make any changes since premiering at Sundance, Gaby Hoffman's amazing performance, Magic Magic, future projects, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch and definitely check out Crystal Fairy.

Michael Cera and Director Sebastián Silva:

  • :55 Talk about improvising the entire film
  • 2:30 Talk about how the project came about almost by accident when the funding for Magic Magic was in doubt
  • 3:10 How different was the end product from the initial idea for the film?
  • 4:32 The realistic portrayal of a drug trip in the movie
  • 5:45 How did Cera and Silva first get together?
  • 6:43 Cera’s reaction to working with Silva’s brothers in the film
  • 7:39 The shooting process. They used the only Red EPIC camera in Chile
  • 8:16 Shooting chronologically
  • 8:39 How long was the first cut?
  • 8:50 Silva says they didn’t make any changes to the film after its Sundance screening. Talks about changes to Magic Magic
  • 11:02 What was it like to premiere two films at Sundance?
  • 12:12 Working with Gaby Hoffman and how she got involved
  • 14:00 Talk about Magic Magic and Sony deciding not to give it a theatrical release
  • 14:52 Are they going to collaborate again?
  • 15:36 Talk about filming the reaction to the drug
  • 16:37 Future projects. Silva plans to film Nasty Baby this summer. Cera is hoping to land Morgan Freeman for a short film of his.

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