Director Bertrand Bonello Explains the Shocking, Incel Inspiration for ‘The Beast,’ Starring Lea Seydoux, George MacKay (EXCLUSIVE)
03.09.2023 - 16:17
/ variety.com
Ben Croll Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi drama “The Beast,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday, follows a star-crossed duo, trying — and failing — to make love work across three timelines. Moving between 1910, 2014 and 2044, the film mixes period drama, speculative sci-fi and bouts of genuinely chilling horror — particularly in a middle section set in contemporary Los Angeles. There, aspiring actress Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) catches the attention of Louis (George MacKay), a self-described incel with a violent hatred for women.
Bonello based the character on Elliot Rodger, a 2014 mass killer who uploaded a misogynist manifesto to YouTube before claiming seven lives. The filmmaker also re-created scenes from Rodger’s infamous video verbatim in the film. Why did you choose to cite Elliot Rodger? When I learned of the story back in 2014, I was shocked by the atrocious attack, of course, but I was also shocked by his words, so much so that I had to put them down in a notebook.
They are horrifying for their normality, their banality, and their calm. That’s what terrified me and that’s what I transcribed in my writing. When I started this script, I went back to that notebook.
Did you feel any qualms about dramatizing such a figure? I wondered, I wondered. However, unlike the real Elliot Rodger, the character in the film is not a mass killer. And I was more interested more in the repression of desire.
I would never have been able to express that with such strong dialogue, with nothing as shocking as those selfie videos. They are so frontal and so directly address the viewer. Obviously you take a risk when taking inspiration from something real, but at the same time, it’s part of the world.