If you’ve seen “Eddington,” you know the scene. Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) is hosting a barbecue for his supporters at his New Mexico home when his nemesis and re-election opponent, Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), arrives to disrupt the event. Katy Perry’s 2010 hit “Firework” is blasting as Cross struts toward Garcia to demand he turn it down, leading to a stand-off.
On this week’s episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, writer/director Ari Aster broke down the scene that is sure to become one of his most memorable.
“The truth is, that wasn’t the first song we tried,” said Aster. “We tried to get ‘Empire State of Mind,’ the Jay-Z, Alicia Keys [track].”
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On the podcast, Aster discussed how, in casting Pascal, he wanted to play into and off of just how beloved “the internet’s daddy” had become to the audience. With Mayor Ted, Aster created a charming, but hypocritical progressive politician who campaigns on bringing the small western town into the economic and tech future, but is ultimately just selling it out to an Amazon-Google-like tech giant (the fictional solidgoldmagikarp corporation) that wants to build an enormous, energy-sucking data center in the Eddington desert. “Empire State of Mind” played perfectly for Aster’s dark humor.
“That was, for me, the funniest thing in the world, was this party, in this tiny town in New Mexico, and just this New York anthem playing. It just felt like what Pedro Pascal‘s character would absolutely have been playing at that party,” said Aster. “It was so funny to me, nothing made me laugh harder than that.”
In addition to the humor, Aster fell in love with the way the scene worked when set to the NYC anthem, but the “Eddington” team was never able to secure the rights.
“I think [Jay-Z] was distracted at the moment, and didn’t have a chance to actually watch the film,” said Aster. “ Then it became, ‘Okay, so what do we use?’ And we went through hundreds of songs.”
Prior to the scene, Cross had publicly accused Garcia of sexually assaulting his wife Louise (Emma Stone), and comes to the party ready to throw his weight around, but on his walk toward the confrontation, he sees an interview clip of Louise declaring him a liar.
Shot in a long, continuous camera following Phoenix, the rollercoaster of emotions his character experiences on his anger-fueled walk down the long outdoor porch to confront Garcia, and the humiliating retreat back to his truck – after getting slapped and the music being cranked even louder — is embodied in the use of the Perry track. Aster discussed how sound and score were used to capture Cross’s world unraveling in the second half of the film. While “Firework” could replace the cultural and humor aspects brought by “Empire State of Mind,” Aster discovered he could mix it into his film in a way that marked another sonic beat in his protagonist’s descent.
“I wanted a song that kind of represented the culture, and have the culture like pounding in your ear. There’s a great bass to [‘Firework’], and when you push the bass, it’s really queasy-making. It was very exciting to land on that,” said Aster.
A24’s “Eddington” is now in theaters.
To hear Ari Aster‘s full interview, subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.
