JULIO TORRES:
SPACE PRINCE RISING

The inimitable writer, actor, and director sits down with Buds Digest’s BEN TOUSLEY to discuss the inspiration behind his stunning film. Problemista, released nationwide this week via A24, is a dazzling odyssey that follows aspiring toy designer Alejandro through the maze of the U.S. immigration system and features a riveting performance from co-star and collaborator TILDA SWINTON.

Emphasizing the importance of nurturing a creative community, TORRES tells us about his penchant for empathy, whimsy, and striving for originality in our consumer age.

“I think a lot of it stems from seeing success as commercial success. And then commercial success is only achieved via mass production,” TORRES explains. “That's when something starts wilting. And then we end up with very unspecific ideas about very unspecific people.”

Read on below for the BUDS DIGEST interview with JULIO TORRES.

BEN TOUSLEY: Hi Julio. I know that Problemista was supposed to come out a while ago. How does it feel now that it’s out in the world?

JULIO TORRES: It's sort of hard to tell from where I'm standing but it feels like people are connecting with it and it feels like it's resonating with people and I'm very happy about that. It's an odd experience to be working on something for so long and then have it be out there and then being like, “Oh, yeah, I guess now it's sort of no longer mine.”  But I think it's hitting with people.

BT: For sure. It's a very beautiful film; very moving and funny at the same time. 

New Yorkers have their fair share of dealing with horrible bosses. What's so amazing about the film and the writing of Tilda Swinton’s character Elizabeth is it’s full of empathy. You really can fall for her while being horrified and amused. What's it like to write a character like that? Were there life experiences that you drew from?

JT: A little bit. She's an amalgamation of various things. I really enjoy writing characters that people may want to not see. I really like the idea of someone who's sort of on the fringes or is the other. And I do think that she is one of them. The empathy part, I feel that from the beginning, and then I have to put it in a way that brings it out in people to allow them to see someone the way that I see them.

BT: Would you say that’s innate in your life experience? Do you have a lot of those people in your life currently and you're trying to help them?

JT: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I'm very seduced by difficult people.

BT: That's sweet. Even when they're being the worst boss or whatever, especially in New York, everybody's coming from their backgrounds and there's a story behind it.

JT: People aren't heroes or villains of your story. People are their own stories. There are whole worlds that you won't get to see if you're not curious.

BT: I love to hear that. It was a big takeaway for me from the film. Fans of your work often talk also about “whimsy” and the magical elements of your world-building. Is that something else that you feel is innate in your daily life?

JT: Yeah. I truly don't know how to do anything else. It's just what comes out. It's definitely not the easiest thing to do in terms of production, but it feels like the most emotionally honest thing to do. It's just an understanding of who I am and it just comes out that way for some reason and it's the way that I am most capable of portraying feeling and emotion.

BT: Would you say you view things through a whimsical lens to navigate or process your own experiences?

JT: Yeah, I think so. It's just the way that I interpret things around me. I'm very comfortable in metaphor. And I'm more prone to that than writing impassioned speeches where people over-explain their psyche. This is sort of how I'm able to communicate.

BT: Something that allows you to read in between the lines a little bit… I can think of some of your SNL sketches that feel so surreal yet they're also screaming at you emotionally. 

JT: Yeah. Everyone, even if they're absurd, they’re very real to me.

BT: Visuals are also a huge element for you, as well. It seems you are a very aesthetic-minded person. How important are the visuals to you when writing or conceiving a piece early on?

JT: I sort of grew up around it. My mom is an architect and she used to be a fashion designer. My dad always had these art books, like monographs, around the house and was always very encouraging of creativity. And I’ve always been a very visual person. 

When I got it in my head that I wanted to be a writer for film and TV, I thought I was letting go of that part of me, and then now, I’ve sort of come full circle and I get to do both. It's very, very important to me the way that things look. Which has allowed me to learn so much about directing even when I wasn't directing, as a staff writer or as a showrunner or whatever—being on top of wardrobe and props and shots and just composing a world.

BT: Sometimes it seems like a scene may have been a visual idea first because it's so striking. I'm thinking of the immigration hourglasses, the maze… I loved all the little vignettes showing us how Tilda’s character was feeling—glowing eyes, a shadowy creature, or even just focusing on her hands. Of course, we could spend this whole time talking about hand acting…

JT: Yeah.

BT: Are there any particularly big influences or references from your life that you drew from?

JT: For this movie specifically, in terms of shaping Tilda’s character, a lot of Leonora Carrington paintings. And it's funny, even in shooting, I didn't know that there was a painting of hers called “The Guardian of The Egg.” 

BT: What! That is incredible.

JT: Yeah. So that was really fun. A lot of German expressionism molded the way that I was interested in portraying the city. Some anime and the visual language of fairy tales sort of made sense emotionally.

BT: I’ve always thought our generation has a particular preoccupation with aesthetics, perhaps thanks to us growing up with the internet and accessible tools to build our own worlds. When you released My Favorite Shapes, it felt revolutionary to me as it was the first time that I had seen somebody cut into that generational infatuation and dissect it, making fun of it a little bit. 

Do you find that aesthetic preoccupation of our time to be a thing or am I off the mark with that?

JT: I hadn't thought about it in terms of a generational thing. But I do feel like there's definitely a push and pull in that there are so many ideas that have been recycled over and over and over again. So then it sort of behooves us to introduce new ones and not allow those to be the mandate, but just to keep encouraging other people to come up with their own things. 

Everything is so quickly commodified and it's like once an idea pierces through, then that idea is repeated over and over and over and over and over again. So often I follow an artist I like on Instagram and then suddenly I get targeted ads for the mass-produced version of that artist. And so I feel like we're in this constant search for authenticity because everything gets so commodified so quickly.

BT: Indeed. And now with the “gig culture” and people seeking out their own spaces within this weird web of social media, it's like a race.

JT: It is completely. And, you know, I started doing comedy before putting it online was sort of the mandate and now it’s like god, I can't imagine starting in a landscape where something fun you can come up with becomes a Tik Tok trend and then suddenly everyone owns it and then it just becomes soulless. 

Anything to encourage people to chip in their own ideas, I think is more exciting, especially because, yeah, generationally we've been, for years now, so bombarded with what feels like the same four franchises. And you think you're done with one character, they introduced the high school version of that character and it's like Jesus...

BT: I know. It can be discouraging to think how long that cycle has gone on, even as it feels like a recent trend being sped up.

With that aesthetic obsession, everybody has these screens in front of us all the time, navigating interfaces. So we're more susceptible to or sensitive to aesthetics because culture and commerce are in your face; it's in your pocket. So in response, we see this wash of companies starting to look the same and act the same more than ever.

JT: Oh yeah. Everything in pastels and everything became very soft.

BT: Exactly. So now individuals are encouraged to outfit their own personal “product” that way; their own lives. Cropping pictures, all the tools at our disposal.

JT: Mmm, sure. It’s the illusion of choice also, right? It's like, Oh, this shoe is customizable. Well, is it customizable or do you get to pick from three different colors?

BT: I sense some similar frustration with it. What do you hope for that? Do you feel like there are ways that we can get out of that as a society? 

JT: I think a lot of it stems from seeing success as commercial success. And then commercial success is only achieved via mass production. So it's like: Oh, that's a good idea. OK. What if we make it so that it sells to the most amount of people?

And then that's when something starts wilting. And then we end up with very unspecific ideas about very unspecific people.

BT: I know building community has been important to you and there are many friends that you've repeat repeatedly worked with. Can you talk a bit about your buds?

JT:  That's one of the things that I learned that Tilda and I have in common, which is this love for working in partnership with other people and finding a creative family and nurturing that creative family.

And I am very happy that that is what I'm doing. Working with friends time and time again. I hope to continue to do that and not only welcome them into whatever project I'm doing but hopefully set up a stage where they get to have their own projects. And then I can be a small part, a big part, or just cheer from the side. 

I hope for more of that because when I think of the kinds of works that I really like, they're not made by committee, you know. It's not a bunch of executives deciding the pieces. It's just very honest and very organic.

BT: I think that comes through in your work in many ways. So this is your first big film doing that. What comes next? 

JT: I want to take a little break, figure out what comes next and see where that takes me. But yeah, I did like making this movie. I hope to make another one.

BT: I hope you do. My final question — if you could cryo-freeze yourself to be reanimated in the future, what would you hope to find when you wake up?

JT: I would hope to find people who are patient enough to teach me what I missed and how to adapt to that world.

BT: Beautiful. Is that something you think you'd be interested in doing if it was a possibility?

JT: In the hypothetical, yeah! The purely hypothetical, sure. Why not?