I should say this or not.

[laughs]

Oh, no!

Every single filmmaker who has a bad guy

in their movie that's supposed to be a secret

wants to murder me right now.

Hello, I'm Rian Johnson, I wrote and directed

"Knives Out," and this is "Notes on a Scene."

- Know you heard something.

Spill it!

- I just heard two things.

[Harlan and Ransom argue indistinctly in another room]

- [Harlan] You think I'm really changing my will?

- "My will," and then there was more yelling.

And then I heard Ransom say, "I'm warning you."

- [Linda] Ransom?

- So this is one of the first scenes

where Chris Evans' character, Ransom,

has just shown up, and it's right before

the family's gonna read the will,

and Chris has breezed into it and kind of

thrown everybody into chaos.

So this was also kinda the first scene

where we actually had everybody on set at once.

And with these actors coming together

to play in an ensemble, it was so much fun,

it was, because everyone showed up just ready to play.

The way it feels in the movie,

that everyone's kinda having fun,

that's genuinely the way it was on set.

So Jamie Lee Curtis, who I love so much,

she and Daniel and some of the other actors,

everybody was kind of setting the tone on set.

The fact that when all of these people came together,

I'll be honest, I had no idea it was

a bunch of movie stars, most of whom I've never,

all of whom I've never worked with before.

I had no idea how it was gonna go on set,

and whether it was gonna be a nightmare.

I had no clue.

But you get good people on set, like Jamie,

and you show up on set and there's just this warm,

inviting atmosphere, and everybody's

playing with each other, and everybody's having fun,

instantly, everybody just kind of gels.

And actors like Jamie, besides being fantastic on screen,

that's one of the great things she brings to it.

Hoo, boy, this frame is actually a good example

of one thing I tried to do a lot,

which is, you can see there's kind of a triangular

shape to it, in terms of Jamie here in the center,

Michael on the left, and then Don on the right,

with Ransom in the background,

but it creates, it gives the frame depth,

and there's always several layers of people

to look at in the scene at any given time.

Also, a little shout-out to the props department,

and know that any time a clock or a phone is in set,

somebody has paid very close attention to the time

and has made sure, has asked me what time

it's supposed to be in the actual scene.

The will reading, we said, is gonna be, like,

it's at 10:30 or 11 or something,

and so it made sense that at this moment

in the story, it was 10:15 in the morning.

Thank you, props.

Also, another funny thing, I don't know

if I should say this or not.

[laughs]

Not 'cause it's lascivious or something,

but because it's gonna screw me on the next

mystery movie that I write.

But forget it, I'll say it, it's very interesting.

Apple, they let you use iPhones in movies, but,

and this is very pivotal, if you're ever watching

a mystery movie, bad guys cannot have iPhones on camera.

So, there you, oh, no!

Every single filmmaker who has a bad guy

in their movie that's supposed to be a secret

wants to murder me right now.

Let's see what Jamie's saying.

- Know you heard something.

Spill it!

- Jaeden Martell, who plays Jacob,

first of all, he's just insanely kind

and so smart, and also such a cool kid.

I've been going to premieres and seeing him,

and going to different press things,

and he always shows up and he just

looks like he's stepped off the cover of a magazine.

He's always wearing the coolest stuff.

I think Jaeden actually wins the sweater game here

with the pink shirt and the lines.

It all lines up.

- I just heard two things.

[Harlan and Ransom argue indistinctly in another room]

- [Harlan] You think I'm really changing my will?

- "My will," and then there was--

- Again, always looking for ways, composition-wise,

to get more than one actor, depth-wise, into the frame.

So you have a couple things.

You have Blanc, who is absorbing all this.

You've got Marta, who is watching Blanc,

because she's very nervous, she's trying to,

at this point in the story, kind of fool him.

And then, deep background, you've got Noah Segan,

which, it's always fun to have Noah Segan in the frame,

and then, Harlan looking over it all as the portrait.

A little technical thing, when we started

shooting the movie, we didn't have the painting.

It wasn't done yet.

We had done a bunch of revisions to it,

and we just didn't have artwork that we were happy with yet.

So, when we actually shot this and every single shot

that you see in the movie that has

the painting in it was a green screen.

We just had green inside the frame.

And we had some amazing effects guys

who went in there and comped, we took

a high-quality photo of the painting

and then they comped it in for every shot.

Isn't that crazy?

[laughs]

Also, Daniel Craig wasn't there for the entire shoot.

He just did all of his stuff

[woman laughs] on a green screen stage

in one day, no, that's not true.

Daniel was so dialed-in.

It's funny that in this scene he's not talking at all,

'cause I'm about to talk about

the last 30 minutes of the movie,

where he just talks the entire time.

And Daniel showed up to shoot those last 30 pages,

and had the whole thing memorized

like it was a stage play.

He just had it down.

He could've done, I ended up throwing out

all my little shots and going for longer

and longer takes so that I could just

give him runway so that he could just keep going.

'Cause he had it down, and the longer

you gave him, the better it got.

And Ana de Armas as Marta, who, again,

is mostly listening for this scene,

but, you know, Ana has done great work before,

and she's been working for a while,

but compared to how high-profile

most of the other actors were in this movie,

she was one of the lesser-known actors

who were showing up.

And she is, again, really the center of the film,

and for Ana to step into the center of the movie

with the confidence that she had,

and really carry the film to the extent she did,

I just think she's extraordinary.

- Was more yelling.

And then I heard Ransom say, "I'm warning you."

- So this is a good example of Michael Shannon

being, you would not maybe expect this,

but he was the funniest person on set.

And so, this little football goal gesture

that he does, which cracked me up on the day,

that was entirely just him coming up with that.

But there were a lot of lines,

we're gonna get to a line down the road,

which were some of the funniest things in the movie

that Michael just came up with on the day.

[Rian laughs giddily]

This cookie right here!

Inside his mouth!

[crew member laughs] I'm so happy I have this pen.

You would never know this,

so I'll get the, mmm, oh, yum!

Look at those cookies!

Delicious! [crew members laugh]

These were these Belgian cookies, right here,

and, actually, when we screened the movie

at the Ghent Film Festival in Belgium,

everyone was so excited that we had

the cookies in there, 'cause they

were like, "Belgian cookies!"

They're very buttery, and I picked them just 'cause I

thought they looked cool, and then, poor Chris.

Any time you see an actor eating food in a scene,

pity that actor, because they've had

to eat that food all day long.

And these cookies, you eat, like, two of them,

and you feel like your throat is coated in butter.

And Chris was pounding these all day long.

So I feel very bad for him.

- Ransom?

What's that mean?

- This is all about blocking, and blocking,

or staging, was kinda my big lesson in this movie.

Any time there is multiple people in the frame,

especially, trying to figure out how

to line up your shots, first of all,

so there's depth, so that it's not just

kind of a police lineup with everyone in the same frame,

but then, also, so there is kind of a shape to it

and multiple things to look at, so you're getting value

out of all of these amazing actors

in the same frame at the same time.

- I think it means our father finally

came to his senses and cut this worthless

little brat out of his will.

So I guess you're gonna have to sell the Beamer

and give your notice at the country club--

- Michael Shannon, who is one of my

favorite actors working today.

I was excited that he wanted to do this part,

because usually, when Shannon shows up on screen,

he can be playing very intimidating characters.

He's incredibly good at kinda playing heavies

and bringing kind of a menace or bringing

a strength to the screen, and the idea of seeing

what he would do with a part that's kind of

supposed to be the weaker brother who's kind of trying

to compensate for that by acting tough,

but is not really there, that, to me,

seemed really, really interesting.

And he's also hilarious.

After working with him, I think he's gonna do more comedy.

Michael Shannon for "SNL," please.

- And kick whatever fashion drug you're on,

because if you think--

- This scarf!

I just wanted to call out this scarf.

Jenny Eagan, who was our costume designer,

I gave her the note that I wanted Ransom

to be wearing incredibly nice clothes

that he obviously didn't take care of.

And so, that's why he's wearing beautiful sweaters

throughout the movie that have holes in them.

And he's wearing, you barely see them,

he's wearing these Gucci loafers,

but they're completely worn out, and he's stamped

the heel back on them and kind of ruined them.

But this scarf, when she put that on him,

I was just like, "Ah, yeah, that's awesome!"

- [Walt] If you think that after all the bridges you burned,

after all the shit you said, after everything

that you put this family through--

- Riki Lindhome is a comedian, singer, and writer,

and she's in this singing duo, comedy duo,

called Garfunkel and Oates, and I've known Riki for years.