‘Never Let Go’ Director Alexandre Aja Talks Halle Berry, ‘Crawl 2’ and Tarantino’s Love of ‘Crawl’
Since 2019, French filmmaker Alexandre Aja has received the best reviews of his career for a trio of genre films that include Crawl, Oxygen and his latest release, Never Let Go. Led by Halle Berry, the survival horror-thriller chronicles Berry’s single mother, “Momma,” as she looks after her fraternal twin boys in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world. The family resides in a remote cabin, and if they want to venture outside to find food and sustenance, they have to be tethered by rope so that an evil force can’t possess them in order to kill them off.
As expected, the Oscar-winning Berry gives yet another compelling performance, but arguably her most valuable contribution came as a producer. Knowing that the movie’s success hinged on whether they could find the right young actors to surround Momma, Berry insisted that the Never Let Go team leave no stone unturned en route to hiring Percy Daggs IV as Nolan and Anthony B. Jenkins’ as Samuel, both of whom are revelations. (Casting director Rich Delia deserves a tip of the cap, as well.)
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“[Berry] knew that they would be as important as her to the movie. They’re pretty spectacular, and I have to say that some of the credit goes to Halle, because she really pushed us during the casting process to keep looking until we actually found these amazing young actors,” Aja tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Between its critical acclaim and $91 million box office gross, 2019’s Crawl is Aja’s most well-received film, and the alligator-centric horror pic even garnered him one of the greatest compliments of his career courtesy of Quentin Tarantino. In November 2019, he was quoted as saying that Crawl was his favorite film of the year, something Aja’s mutual friend Eli Roth had already relayed to him privately.
“It was such a nice surprise. My friend Eli Roth called me to say, ‘Hey, Quentin watched [Crawl] and really loved it.’ And then I saw the announcement online, so the fact that he really enjoyed the movie was the nicest thing ever,” Aja recalls. “Sometimes, you do movies and you never know [how they’re going to be received]. But when you find an audience that also includes the critics and your peers that you admire the most, that’s why you keep trying to tell stories.”
This turn of events has now led to a sequel that Aja hopes to make in 2025. Producers Sam Raimi and Craig Flores are returning, and while it’s expected to shoot in Europe, the story is reportedly going to be set in New York City with a new cast.
“I would say that I never really stopped working on Crawl. After a few troubled years with Covid and everything, I feel like we are now in a position that, hopefully next year, it might happen,” Aja says. “So I’m excited. I’m ready to go. I’ve been lining up so many scenes and stuff, so it’s there. We just have to do it now and get back in the water.”
Below, during a recent chat with THR, Aja also explores Never Let Go’s many different interpretations and what themes struck him the most.
Your last three movies all involve characters being trapped in confined spaces with death surrounding them. Do you think there’s a deeper reason why you’re drawn to this scenario?
Somehow, without really looking for it, I always end up in that situation, and I love that scenario. It gives me an opportunity to create a world with limited space. But going even further back to High Tension or The Hills Have Eyes, I love this type of universe that creates claustrophobia in one location. And here, to be with this mom and her two kids in a world that has been destroyed — and for them to be tied to their house by rope — it was definitely an opportunity to keep pushing that idea of cabin fever. These extreme situations are always a great reveal for the nature of characters. So this is my type of story, and I love these stories.
When you read the aforementioned premise of a family that can’t leave their house unless they’re tethered to rope, what was your first impression of that high concept?
I thought it was a really interesting concept that also brings so many meaningful allegories to it. When reading the script, it reminded me of a classic fairy tale. It’s one that’s beyond entertainment and more of a psychological tool to face our own monster or darkness. And the rope concept was definitely something that felt like a fairy tale, but it was still connected to our world. We are not literally on a rope, but we are on the rope all the time. When we grow up and become parents, we often overprotect our children by giving them the same fears that we grew up with, and we need to be able to cut that type of repetition, that rope. We need to be able to not repeat the darkness of our parents, our elders, and just be free, so that was really what interested me in the story.
You mentioned the fairy tale of it all, and the movie does have some similarities to Hansel and Gretel. Momma (Halle Berry) even reads a passage from it to her sons at a certain point. Was that latter scene something you added to the script?
Yeah, that was not in the original script. This world has so many rules. You have to do the blessing of the house, the blessing of the rope, and you have to stay on the rope or else “the Evil” can touch you and manipulate you. There’s all this danger that exists in this world, and I felt that a logical thing for Halle Berry’s Momma character to do is to read her twin sons a lot of fairy tales. Fairy tales also present very specific rules that you need to follow. So, to accept the rules of this new world, it felt very logical for these kids to actually grow up with fairy tales as a means of education.
Halle Berry is certainly the star of this movie, but the two young boys who play her sons, Percy Daggs IV and Anthony B. Jenkins, also receive the spotlight for a great deal of time throughout the movie. Were you impressed that Halle was willing to put the story above screen time?
I think that we all responded to that balance, and she knew that they would be as important as her to the movie. So the biggest challenge was to find the right actors who could rise to the task and be able to challenge her and actually create this very tense situation where the family is about to explode at some point. So it took us a lot of time to find the right kids and to get them to that place, and we are both very grateful and blessed to have met Percy and Anthony, who played Nolan and Samuel. They’re pretty spectacular, and I have to say that some of the credit goes to Halle, because she really pushed us during the casting process to keep looking until we actually found these amazing young actors.
I explained Never Let Go’s premise to an actor the other day, and she then asked me if it was set in space, which isn’t that crazy of a question upon further thought.
(Laughs.)
This family is confined to a small space where they have to ration food and work as a team, and if they want to venture outside, they have to be tethered like astronauts or else they’ll die. Did anyone else ever make that comparison to an outer space movie?
Yes, the rope being the lifeline is definitely something that ties into the space world. Space is also the most inappropriate world for any human to live in that it becomes the most obvious survival setup. So, with the Evil being this force that lurks outside in the forest, you create that same type of survival surrounding. So, yeah, we definitely talked about space.
One of the boys’ boots are so big that they kind of look like astronaut boots.
Yeah, they have to wear anything that was left behind, so they wear shoes that will be too big for them for at least another ten years. Both boys are also wearing adult clothes. So I was very interested in creating a world with the production designer and the whole crew where nothing was too convenient. Everything had to be a struggle. Surviving any season has to be a challenging thing, especially when you’re limited to a space that’s a hundred yards around your house.
Did you film with a standard rope throughout the movie? Did you have to do anything to it to help sell that struggle even more?
You didn’t need to add weight because the ropes were already so heavy on their own. To carry a hundred yards of rope over your shoulder is a task. (Laughs.) But the actors had to train so hard to learn how to handle the rope and make it look like they’ve been doing it their whole lives. Working with the rope in a forest and having to run and jump in between all the trees, you have to always be aware of the rope behind you to not get stuck. So there were a lot of reflexes that I wanted them to develop, and it took a lot of work.
[The next question alludes to a spoiler, though the marketing has set the overall expectation.]
There’s a famous photograph/internet meme of a young girl giving a devilish smirk in the foreground as a house burns down behind her. It’s known as “Disaster Girl,” and it’s 20 years old. Was this the inspiration for a similar photo in the movie?
No, it wasn’t. To tell you the truth, being French, I didn’t know about it. So I’m going to check for “Disaster Girl” right away, but I was not aware of it.
And who was the blonde woman in that other Polaroid photo? It certainly didn’t look like Halle Berry.
(Laughs.) It’s her!
No way.
Yeah, she’s wearing a blonde wig. The character was a different person back then, but it’s definitely her. It was one of the first things we shot before we actually started principal.
I was ecstatic when I heard that you’re making a sequel to Crawl. It was among my favorites of 2019. What can you say at this point?
I would say that I never really stopped working on Crawl. (Laughs.) After we were done, I kept thinking about all the other great setups that we could create, and it was really an exciting movie to make. So I wanted to really be involved in doing a sequel, and after a few troubled years with Covid and everything, I feel like we are now in a position that, hopefully next year, it might happen. So I’m excited. I’m ready to go. I’ve been lining up so many scenes and stuff, so it’s there. We just have to do it now and get back in the water.
It was also one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite films of 2019. Were you quite flattered when you heard that?
It was such a nice surprise. I was really, really excited. I’ve met with Quentin a few times, and one of the times, we had dinner together in Paris right before I was going to make Piranha 3D. So I was pitching him all the scenes, and he was pitching me other things that he was thinking about, so I knew how much he loved these types of movies. My friend Eli Roth called me to say, “Hey, Quentin watched [Crawl] and really loved it.” And then I saw the announcement online, so the fact that he really enjoyed the movie was the nicest thing ever. Sometimes, you do movies and you never know [how they’re going to be received]. But when you find an audience that also includes the critics and your peers that you admire the most, that’s why you keep trying to tell stories.
Lionsgate is releasing Never Let Go, and they helped launch your career in the States two decades ago when they put out High Tension. Are you sentimental about these kinds of things?
Yeah, it was really interesting because we started doing Never Let Go exactly 20 years after they bought High Tension for the U.S. So it felt like a really nice loop, and some of the people that bought High Tension back then are still working at Lionsgate. So it’s a really nice feeling of family and continuity, somehow, and it was really nice to work with them again.
Finally, I think your last three films are also your best three films. Do you feel like you’ve unlocked a new confidence as a filmmaker?
I am very happy to hear you say that, and I hope it’s true. I hope I’m getting better. I feel that I’m learning from every movie, and every movie is a different story. Every movie is a different adventure where you meet new people. I’m starting to enjoy working with actors a little bit more on the storytelling and the way to create story. I’m also more aware of what I like and what I want to say. I still very much follow my instinct as a moviegoer before that of a filmmaker. I try not to think about what people want to see, but what I would love to see as an audience member. And if I’m lucky enough, some other people will want to see the same thing. (Laughs.) Every time you make a new movie, you try to do something different. You try to not return to the same place, and you try to reinvent yourself to where it somehow feels like your first movie again.
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Never Let Go is now playing in movie theaters.
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