[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Mother/Android.]
From writer/directorMattson Tomlinand producerMatt Reeves, the sci-fi thrillerMother/Androidis set in the near future and follows Georgia (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her boyfriend Sam (Algee Smith), as they attempt to survive in a world at war with artificial intelligence. Being able to escape would give them the opportunity for a better life for their soon to be born first child, but a dangerous journey and murderous androids standing in their way make everything seem impossible.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Tomlin talked about howMother/Androidis rooted in his own very personal story, that making the film sent him to therapy once it was finished, always knowing what the ending would be, the good and the bad that comes with technology, and what it was like to work with this incredibly talented cast. He also talked about how he ended up as a writer (ultimately uncredited) onThe Batman, how that experience then lead him to writeBatman: The Imposterfor DC Comics, and the fun of doing aTerminatoranime series for Netflix.
Collider: What was the seed that started all of this, for you? I know that this has personal connections to you, but did it start with that, or did that come into it, as you realized what story you were telling?
MATTSON TOMLIN: It definitely started with it. I graduated film school and was trying to get my career started and wanted to direct a movie. It’s hard to start a directing career because it’s an expensive job. I had written a couple of different movies, to be my first one, and none of them really panned out. It became clear to me that I needed to write something that was really personal, but also had room for commercial appeal. I was not trying to go into a really gritty Sundance indie drama. When those movies get made, it’s a miracle. When any movie gets made, it’s a miracle. But it became clear to me that I needed to use genre because that would really help me get people interested.
That was the beginning. I realized that I had this personal story that was a love letter to my biological parents, but I didn’t wanna just do that straight. I wanted to do it with some kind of genre component. I was born in the aftermath of the Romanian revolution, and I thought I would change that to the robot revolution. That was getting to something special. I could feel electricity in my fingertips, so I started writing. That was it. It was born out of a couple of years of banging my head against the wall and finally mashing the two right things together.
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When you took this journey for yourself and delved into something that was so personal, how did this whole experience make you then view your own life and your own family differently, by the time you were done?
TOMLIN: It fucked me up. It was a hard thing to dive into. It’s got a lot of personal pain and a lot of beauty too. It’s an intellectual thing to go, “I’m gonna write a love letter to my parents” and that it’s a whole other thing to go, “Oh, but I have to make you feel. And in order for you to feel it, I have to feel it too.” It was really a matter of opening myself up to emotions that I didn’t even know were inside of me. That’s damage. You’re doing a certain amount of damage, putting your hand into the fire. My hope was that it wasn’t just doing that for vanity’s sake, or doing it in a self-destructive way, but really do it to make something that I believed in. It was a wonderful experience, but also so hard. It’s one of the hardest things that I’ve had to do. It’s certainly the hardest thing I’ve had to do creatively. My whole worldview of everything has changed. I walked right out of the editing room and into therapy. It was great.
Once you started having those pieces fall into place and you figured out what the story was, did you know what the ending for the story would be? Did you always know what your end point would be?
TOMLIN: Now we’re in spoiler territory for what the ending is, but the baby’s gotta go. I am the baby. And so, I knew that, on a plot level, that’s what was gonna happen, I had to figure out the way to do that. My life is not a sad ending. It is a happy ending, but it’s a happy ending in a way that is very mixed and real and adult. Figuring out how to stick the landing on the nuance of that, not just as a first-time filmmaker, but as an anytime filmmaker, is a tricky balance, to brutally punish people and then make them feel okay about it. Hopefully, the movie pulls that off.
It’s so interesting how this movie balances the deeply personal and human with the very not human AI. What are your own personal feelings about AI? Are you cool with certain aspects of it? Are you not cool with it at all? Is there a line where it feels like it’s too much and it’s gone too far?
TOMLIN: Yeah. I’m not a put a tin hat on and go live in a cave person. I’ve got an iPhone. We’re talking on computers. Technology can be a good thing, in betterment of the world. If the singularity comes, we’re all dead. And it’s gonna come, if we keep up what we’re doing. There’s a beat in the movie where Raúl Castillo’s character, Arthur, is explaining the origins of the word robot. I didn’t make any of that stuff up. That’s all real. When I arrived at the realization that the word robot – our word for robot – its root goes back to the word slave, nothing about that is good. We’re playing with fire from go. And so, my feelings about how dangerous that stuff is, really is not even subtext.
How did you go from trying to figure out how to have this career as a filmmaker to working on a script forThe Batman? That’s one of the most iconic famous characters there is, so how did that come about?
TOMLIN: I should say that I ended up not getting credit on the movie. I’m an unaccredited writer. I had a solid seven months, at the tail end of the process, getting to work with (director) Matt [Reeves] and that came about because he was already producing this movie. He and I had a good vibe between us and he knew my writing. Just being able to be a very small part of that process and getting to work with somebody, who frankly is one of my cinematic heroes and personal heroes, so much of it was luck. A component of it was that this movie played a part, but it was a life-changing experience. I can’t wait for that movie.
It’s so interesting how that experience led to you writing a comic. Is that something you ever thought you would do?
TOMLIN: That really has been the icing on the cake. I came in on Matt’s process so late. It’s Matt’s movie. But I left and a couple of months went by, and I was still having all of these Batman ideas and didn’t know where to put it. So, I called up the executives at DC and said, “Comics really are my first love. I learned how to read off of comic books. I’d love to pitch something.” And they went, “What? Nobody ever asks that.” They introduced me to Jim Lee, who is my hero of all time. That really got the heart racing, when I had to go walk into his office. The folks at DC Comics have just been rock stars. I’m super proud that book was ever allowed to exist.
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Does having an experience like that, as a writer, teach you anything about writing film, or does it change how you approach writing, in any way?
TOMLIN: We all have our egos and we all have these parts of ourselves, as artists. A movie, whether I’m the screenwriter or whether I’m the director, involves 200 people. It’s just a whole mountain of other voices coming in, and your job is to use all of those voices to steer the Titanic, and hopefully not steer it into an iceberg. A comic book is four people. It’s so much more distilled. What I really came away with is that it’s such a great opportunity to have an unvarnished look at my own writing and really put my voice to the megaphone and go, “This is me.” I hope to continue my career in comics of anything, just because they’re a lot of fun and you can do anything in them.
So much ofMother/Androidreally depends on the relationship between Georgia and Sam and the audience wanting to root for them, wanting them to survive, and wanting this baby to have a life. What was it like to cast those roles?
TOMLIN: First, I just needed really good actors, people who are tremendous, and people who understood what I was trying to do. Chloe [Grace Moretz], Algee [Smith] and Raúl all read the script and felt like there was something more here. And then, we had this meeting and I explained my personal story to them. Once I could see it click for them where they went, “Okay, it’s a robot movie, but it’s not, we’re actually doing this other thing,” that was very exciting. We all engaged in this really intense level of trust of, “Okay, we’re gonna go on this personal, painful journey and I’m gonna expose a lot of things to you. And in turn, you’re gonna expose a lot of things to the audience.” I feel so lucky to have this cast, particularly on my first film. I feel totally spoiled by them. It was about finding the right people who could play 19, who are a little bit younger than I am, and can still have that feeling of, “Man, we’re pregnant and it’s the apocalypse. What do we do?” I was lucky.
As a director, what do you enjoy about working with actors?
TOMLIN: The answer is always in the writing. If the script is good, then we’re all gonna be on the same page about what it is we’re trying to do. There was never a point where we were out of alignment with each other. One of the things that I really took away from film school and loved, in learning to be a director, is that if you’re talking a lot as the director, you’re probably doing it wrong. I’m happy to say that was the case here. There was a lot of time to give them a little bit of context and a few tweaks, but so much of it was that these people are so good that I just had to get the fuck out of their way and let them be amazing. When the writing is good and can support the actor, and the actor is good and can support the writing, my job becomes a lot easier. Then, it’s just about whether the camera is in the right place and it’s just about dialing up the temperature by degrees.
I love that you can write and direct a totally original story like this, and then play with a character like Batman that everybody knows, and then also play in the world ofTerminator, which is like one of the most famous franchises. What is it like to play in an iconic world like that?
TOMLIN: I got the call forTerminatorwhile I was shootingMother/Android, which was upsetting, for a moment. I was like, “What’s happening here?” My initial instinct was to say no, but then I realized that I actually have a lot to say.Mother/Androidis not trying to beTerminator. It’s using similar things and similar imagery, but it’s so this other thing. But I also loveTerminatorand I have a real point you on how to make it work in a different way. There’s also a lot of stuff that I would have liked to do inMother/Android, but I didn’t really need to, like with bigger battles, explosions and stuff like that. To be able to get into that really muscular storytelling with the heavy action, it’s an anime, so I can write the craziest stuff and I don’t have to have a conversation about budget with anybody. It’s a lot of fun, but it all comes down to whether there’s a real story, there are real characters, and people will feel like it needs to be made. I feel like I have that withTerminator, and I’m really, really excited for people to see what we’re doing.
