Going practical in “The Legend of Ochi” was important to director Isaiah Saxon — and it turned out that was true for A24, too.
Saxon was asked about the benefits of leaning into puppetry in his upcoming film about a girl who befriends an alien species called an Ochi rather than creating them through VFX. The director explained that he did not have to do any convincing to the studio that using puppets was the right choice for the story.
“No challenge,” Saxon said at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “Everyone loved the idea of going practical. The challenge was just in making that happen and making it look convincing and real and to deliver that kind of performance.”
He added of the process that “it’s one thing to get two actors to sync up in a scene and really be responding to each other and present, and it’s a whole other thing to get a puppet with an animatronic face operated by seven people simultaneously to create that performance and have that sync up with the best takes of a kid at the same time. It’s the hardest thing you can imagine doing. When we could do them together in a two shot, and it worked, it was just pure magic.
Emily Watson, recent star of HBO’s “Dune: Prophecy,” plays Dasha in “The Legend of Ochi. She chimed in saying the puppeteers in charge of controlling Ochi were just as talented as anyone else on the film’s set.
“I think it’s testament though to the skill of the puppeteers and John Nolan, who was the creator of the physical Ochi, because some of those puppeteers are every bit as good as actors as we are,” Watson added. “Their understanding of subtlety and nuance is just amazing.”
A24 is also a distributor who loves their project-specific merch — and fear not: When asked if there were chats about physical Ochi merch, Saxon quickly said, “Of course.”
Watch the full interview with the cast of “The Legend of Ochi” in the video above.
