Russell Mael and Ron Mael on their cameos in the romantic musical drama, teaching Adam Driver to sing, and how they sold their vision without a script.
As far as creative visions go, Annette is one of the year’s most spectacular from its conception to its execution. The brainchild of Sparks’ Ron and Russell Mael, the romantic musical drama, is director Leos Carax’s English-language feature debut. Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard play a couple, he’s a controversial comedian, and she’s a famous soprano. They fall in love, get married, and have a daughter, the titular Annette. However, rage and jealousy bring tragedy, tearing through their lives. I caught up with the iconic brothers Mael to discuss the evolution of their vision and the journey from Cannes to the canvas of their hometown, Los Angeles. Simon Thompson: I got a real kick out of your cameos in Annette. I know there was an original plan for you guys to take the male leads in another incarnation of this, so what happened? Ron Mael: The original concept was that it would be a stage presentation, Russell was going to be the Henry McHenry character, and I was going to play The Accompanist. There was that intention. Once it got into the film arena, I think we’re more strongly suited to cameos than the lead parts. Maybe I’m too self-deprecating, but I think perhaps Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard also mean a little bit more when it comes to Annette ’s box office success than we might. Thompson: Did the cameos also give you a bit more room to play with some of the creative eccentricities of Sparks? Russell Mael: Yeah, and a lot of that came from Leos. The first scene in Annette is called So May We Start, and, in our original version, it was a piece of music and a scene that was outside of the movie itself but self-referential to the movie you’re about to see. We really liked that idea. Also, the ending piece called The End was, again, like a book ending piece used in the same way as the opening piece but referring to the movie that you’ve just seen. When it came to the other pieces, we had no input into what we would be used for. Leos wanted us in that opening part. He also wanted us in the scene where we’re briefly seen in the airplane as the pilots. We have a few other cameos. There is one where we are in the audience during Henry’s performance, and then also, as he’s being led away to the prison with that unruly mob of people, we’re in there shouting at him as he comes around the crowd of people.
