Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Colin West, darren aronofsky, exclusive, interview, jim gaffigan, Linoleum, Rhea Seehorn, Tony Shalhoub

Linoleum: Colin West on His Evolution as Director, Aronofsky & More

Colin West talks to Bleeding Cool about Linoleum, the Jim Gaffigan-starred drama for Shout! Studios, directing, Darren Aronofsky & more.

Linoleum is writer Colin West's second feature following his debut in 2021's Double Walker. The Shout! Studios film follows Cameron (Jim Gaffigan), host of a failing children's science show tries to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut by building a rocket ship in his garage; a series of bizarre events occur that cause him to question his reality. The film has the comedian in a dual role in the dramatic film. West spoke to Bleeding Cool about how he's grown as a director since his debut in his first short in 2012's So It Was with Us, how his growing passion for cinema led to an exchange with director Darren Aronofsky (The Whale), and his most challenging sequence of the film.

Linoleum: Colin West's Journey into Filmmaking

How would you break down your evolution as a filmmaker since 'Linoleum' is your second feature from the time you started directing shorts?
West: I love allowing the themes and the thought processes to bleed from one film into the next. I have a lot of history in fine arts, and my undergrad is actually in painting, sculpture, conceptual art, and performance. That was a great base to see. I worked for this incredible installation artist Ann Hamilton as her assistant for a few years. It's funny how she approached Fine Arts with these sculptural works. She's like, "The work is never done. You wrap it up and put a bow on it every once in a while."
The thought processes are always going. I learned a lot from the sort of watching her process as an artist and taking that into filmmaking. A lot of the things that I get excited about are these themes and less plot, genre, or things like that. I usually focus a little bit more on existential and scientifically tinged ideas that are about my neuroses in a lot of ways. I go with the flow, but I don't try to overthink it. If you overthink what your style is or what you should be doing, you miss out or lose yourself. It's not easy to do, but I always try to come back to that.

What were the influential artists or projects that made you want to become a filmmaker?
That's a great question. I got into film when I was 15. I didn't make the high school soccer team, but all of my friends did. My mom said, "You should go to the library and get some books." I went to the library, but instead of getting books, I watched many movies. I remember the summer of that year; I devoured films, and some of the big standouts for me were some pretty strange ones. I remember watching 'Koyaanisqatsi' (1982) and a big one for me was 'Pi' (1998), which was Darren Aronofsky's first movie, the black and white [film with a] $60,000 budget, very strange. I loved seeing that kind of authorial hand and realized at that moment some people have voices who make these movies.

Even in the big-budget films, I started to see signatures with these different filmmakers. I started watching their back catalogs and remember watching all [Alfred] Hitchcock's movies. I got on a Coen brothers kick and all this stuff. I started to see that all these people had something to say and used film to say it. I was excited about that and recalled watching 'Pi' and it was before 'Requiem for a Dream' (2000) came out. I ended up doing a Yahoo! search of Darren Aronofsky, and I got on his website and found his email address.

This was before Darren Aronofsky hit it big, and I emailed him writing, "Hey, I'm 16, and I'm in high school, and I want to know how to make movies" He wrote back with some pointers about writing; and I ended up writing my first script right there, and it was a total rip off of 'Pi.' That motivation from a respected filmmaker was a huge part of what kicked things off for me. My influences come from a lot of different places, but I'm usually a "the more bizarre, the better" kind of guy.

What was the most difficult sequence to film?
It's tough. There are scenes logistically hard to film. Others are psychologically and mentally hard to film. As far as "technically hard," there was that ending montage where there are all of these different magical things happening, and there's a rocket ship in the cul de sac, there's an ambulance, a guy is floating through a high school party, and all this is happening at once. It was a lot to keep track of for everybody. We were shooting overnights in this residential cul de sac, which was cold. There were many things we had to work through with that, but I respect the people on the team because they held it together and focused on the movie's emotional core. Coming back to that again through these hard times was helpful.

Linoleum, which also stars Rhea Seehorn, Katelyn Nacon, Gabriel Rush, Amy Hargreaves, Roger Hendricks Simon, Elisabeth Henry, West Duchovny, Michael Ian Black, and Tony Shalhoub is currently in theaters.

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