The world lost a giant in January with the passing of David Lynch. How can you describe the career of a legend in only a few short sentences? For Grammy winner Flying Lotus, Lynch was the definition of a creative. “He was the most important artist to me,” Flying Lotus said of Lynch. Flying Lotus collaborated with Lynch on his song Fire Is Coming. Now, Flying Lotus channels his inner Lynch for his new directorial effort, Ash.
On a distant planet, astronaut Riya (Eiza González) wakes up and discovers that her entire crew has been slaughtered. When Brion (Aaron Paul) arrives at the space station after receiving a distress signal, Riya contemplates every possibility. How did this happen? Is she a killer? Is Brion lying? Whatever the answer, Riya must figure it out quickly. She doesn’t want to be around if the thing that slaughtered the crew returns.
In an interview with Digital Trends, Flying Lotus grapples with space exploration, explains his decision to act in the film, and reminisces about his artistic hero.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Digital Trends: I actually just spoke to Aaron and Eiza, and they specifically said, “Please let Flying Lotus know we love him.” That is their message to you.
Flying Lotus: Aw, they’re so sweet. I love them, too. They’re so good. They’re so good.
Eiza actually said something fascinating to me. She saw Ash and survival horrors in general as sports movies.
Oh, wow.
With how physical you have to be and the journey you go on from one point to another, I want to throw that line towards you.
That’s interesting. Yeah. I could see it. This movie was not easy on her. It took a toll — I could tell — having to go to psychological places as well as physical places. After a while, it was starting to really beat her up. But that’s what the movie is, right? When you sign up for it, you know you’re going to go home sticky. [Laughs] You know, it’s not gonna be a fun comedy ride. But man, it ain’t easy. Not at all.
I love one of the lines in the film when the team’s looking out at the planet. It’s in the flashback. “Being here is the start of something, not a reminder of what we’ve done. That really spoke to me about everything in life. I wanted to ask for your interpretation of that line.
I think there’s something so inspiring — I mean you get to explore a new planet. I think that it’s a cool concept, but not many people don’t really drink that. It’s like being alone out there. It’s giving up everything. That’s hard. It’s such a sacrifice. Even if you were leaving a really fucked-up world, you’re still leaving your world, so trying to get in the headspace of that.
Who’s the kind of person who would wanna do that? Try to think of that. This place that we’re at has to be worth leaving Earth for. Even though it’s a horror movie and it’s got this oppressive landscape, it also had to have some beauty, enough that you would want to leave for.
I’m definitely not that person who’s leaving.
Neither am I. I really learned that working on this movie. I was like, “I could not do this.” [Laughs] I could not do it.
I’m glad someone else goes.
Yeah. Doing the space thing sounded really attractive when I was a kid, but nah, I don’t wanna do that.
Well, something you did do for this movie was step in front of the camera and act. You had to be a little nervous the first time. Take me to that first day when you’re like, “OK. I’m up.”
You know what’s worse? It was literally the first day, so that made it way worse. It would’ve been fine if it was like a week into filming, but I had to shoot on day one with Eiza and all the actors. These people whom I’ve been watching in movies, I have to do scenes with them. I was like, “Ahh.” But it was a lot of fun, and I’m glad I did it because it was also an icebreaker for all of us to build together and create together.
I don’t recommend for directors to do it [acting], too. [Laughs] I do recommend directors try acting, even in a class, because you get to really feel what the actors are going through while they’re doing their scenes. You understand some of the mindset, confusion, frustration, and things that they [actors] may be feeling, so you can better adapt to that as a director.
Aaron talked about how you were playing music in between setups and sequences. Obviously, you have an illustrious musical background. Was that something that you wanted to do? Did you see another filmmaker do it and pick up on it?
It’s something that I’ve always done whenever I’ve had an opportunity to be on set. I think that stems from music videos, right? I’ve done so many music videos, and there’s always playback of music and stuff. I think between setups, we probably ended up playing music, so I think I just kept that going. I could tell there were a lot of the crew members who were people who would listen to my music. That’s why they joined and did this hard work for very little money.
It was a kind of morale boost in low times. It was also one of those things that we could set a mood and a tone for the actors as well. It was very effective on set. I think more people should use it. It probably wouldn’t be super helpful playing Berlin techno when you’re doing a Victorian drama or something, but give it a shot. Who knows?
We listen to music to do everything, like writing.
Yeah! I am sure people move a bit faster when I’ve kicked up that bpm.
I know we lost David Lynch a few months ago, and you’ve spoken about how he’s been your hero. What a true artist. You spent some time with him. Maybe you could share something surprising that you picked up from him.
I’m glad you asked because I’ve been feeling like I haven’t said anything about David Lynch this whole time, acting like he didn’t leave us. He was the most important artist to me. It was one of those things I felt was coming for a while. Knowing and feeling that, I was revisiting stuff the past year and rewatching everything. I felt like I saw him in an interview, and I was like, “Oh yeah. It’s coming soon.” I picked up on that.
As far as his influence, I just always felt a kinship to the artist’s way and the artist’s life. You’re just giving yourself for the work. You know that’s your purpose. You’re here to be a creative. Maybe you won’t have that regular life that everyone else gets to have, but you get to have this other life that’s very beautiful and get to do great things. You’re going to suffer in some areas, but it’s the way, and it’s what we’re here to do. That has been with me since the beginning.
Ash is now in theaters.