Inside the Sundance Labs: Michael Lehmann on Emotional Breakdowns and Epiphanies

As the director of the seminal high school film Heathers, Michael Lehmann knows a thing or two about navigating a world filled with peer pressure and backstabbing -- just the attributes that make him the perfect creative adviser to talk Hollywood at the Sundance Labs. That isolated, idyllic workshop experience in the wilds of Utah might seem like an entirely alien world to the Hollywood veteran, but he tells Movieline that it's one that provides some of his biggest artistic highs (as well as, on occasion, some emotional lows for the vulnerable, fledgling filmmakers gathered there).

How did you first get involved in the Labs?

The first year I was there was 1996. My first movie, Heathers, had played at the festival, so I had a little bit of a Sundance connection but I didn't really know about the Labs. I knew [program director] Michelle Satter through friends, and I'm pretty sure a producer friend of ours told her that I might make a good adviser, so she invited me to go. And it was about the best experience in my film life.

How come?

It was really interesting to work with all these filmmakers and help them get their bearings. They're all coming from different levels of experience, but for the most part, they haven't gone to film school and made all these short films. They don't have film experience at the level you would want to have when you're making a feature film. So it was an incredible experience for me, the other advisers, and clearly, the fellows.

Do you remember who was there that first year you were an adviser?

I can't remember all of them, but one was Dan Minahan. He had a script called The Lottery, and he made it, although I can't remember the actual title...

Was it Series 7?

Series 7, yes. So, he was there with that, Tim Blake Nelson was there with Eye of God, a young woman named Melissa Painter was there with her project.

And you and Dan are now both doing a lot of cable television work, aren't you?

Yeah, with Dan Minahan, he directs True Blood for HBO and so do I, so it's hilarious. We're running across each other all the time. I tell him, "Don't forget, I was your teacher!"

Do you have a lot of "proud papa" moments with these filmmakers when they go on and become big?

I'm proud of all of them, honestly. They're all talented people, no doubt. There were a couple of them that I thought were maybe more talented writers than directors and they needed to figure it out, and those I haven't heard from since. But someone who comes to mind is Rodrigo Garcia, who was a fellow at the Labs during one of my first years there. Something personal had happened with him and he'd had to leave midweek, so I only spent a few days with him, but I watched him work with the filmmakers and I was so impressed by what he was picking up from the filmmakers. Sure enough, he was making movies right afterwards.

What's the typical day like for you at the Labs?

For the advisers, a sample day would be at 9am we meet together for breakfast and discuss what we had done the day before. Each one of the advisers talks in turn about who they spent the afternoon went and about where the filmmakers are in their process, what they're dealing with, how they're working. It's not so much critical -- we don't pick them apart -- but we'll sit there and say, "This guy who was rehearsing had a really tough time communicating with his actors," and then Michelle might suggest, "OK, Michael, you worked with another filmmaker yesterday -- do you mind working with this filmmaker today?" So we'll figure out who we might spend time with.

We leave that meeting and some of the filmmakers might be shooting, some might be editing, some might be rehearsing. Well go out and spent the morning with one, and then we'll have lunch with a different filmmaker every day. Afterwards, we'll probably spend time with that particular filmmaker, and at the end of the day there'll be dinner with the group and a screening and discussion. One some days, too, we'll look at the projects the filmmakers made.

You guys are working nonstop, it sounds like.

Yeah, this is not, "Let's go into the mountains and hang out for a week." You're working steadily without a break until 11 at night, sometimes.

Well, I hope the food's good, at least.

It's not. The food sucks. It's terrible. [Laughs]

You've been involved with Sundance for quite a while, and in that time, the festival itself has undergone some enormous changes and become a major event. Have you seen that effect on the Labs at all?

Over the years I would sometimes grouse about what the festival has become, and the people at the Labs would say to me, "Don't talk to us about that -- that's not us." The festival issues have to do with the fact that it's become so successful, not anything that has to do with the actual institute...I think people should understand that the Lab itself is not adjunct to the festival. It's been around a lot longer and the Labs were created by Redford as a place for filmmakers to work on their projects apart from everything else.

We learn as much as the fellows. We get the benefit of discussion with all these filmmakers, all of whom have a different point of view. Also, we discuss among ourselves, the advisers, what we might have done in all these situations. It's amazing what I learn from the other advisers. This year, all the filmmakers were very strong -- while I was there, at least, there were no breakdowns that I saw.

Have you seen breakdowns before?

Oh yes. It varies from filmmaker to filmmaker, but all of them to some degree go through this process: They show up and they're feeling good because they got selected by the Sundance Labs and they have this script that they went through in Screenwriters Lab and they're smart and talented. Some of them respond by puffing up and saying that they don't need help, and at a certain point they realize it's so much harder than they think and find that they like to get the feedback they were resisting in the beginning.

Others come in and they're like, "Oh no, I don't know any of this stuff," and they want a whole lot of stuff from the advisers. They break down because it's overwhelming, but they come out much stronger. It's a rocky road for the filmmakers.

Do you feel like there's any advice you have to keep giving, year after year?

For me, one of the things that's interesting is that we give them a lot of theoretical advice about how performance should be achieved, and my advice is that ultimately at the end of day, you make the film any way you can. You can be taught all these methods about talking appropriately to actors, and there's a certain kind of politically correct process that's encouraged at the Labs. I'm always telling the filmmakers, "Yes, you should listen to this, but at the end of the day, do anything you can to make your movie. Don't forget that it's practical and you put one foot after the other. When you show up on set, whatever your ideas and lofty goals are, you're still going to put a camera somewhere and your actors are gonna be people who are walking and talking." I try to remind them that they have to be both highly artistic and extremely practical.