Henry Golding Interview: Making Daniela Forever & A Simple Favor 2 Update
10Lucid dreaming has enraptured humans for years now, as the ability to remain self-aware in your dreams is a concept that seems so fantastical and illusory. Director Nacho Vigalondo uses the medium of lucid dreaming to explore grief, loss, and the idea of being careful of what you wish for in his 2024 film, Daniela Forever, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Like many sci-fi films, the fancy bells and mirrors in Daniela Forever are used to tap into the most poignant and grounded truths of the human condition. Featuring a gut-wrenching romantic relationship at its crux, Vigalondo gives us his signature ethereal quality to envelop us in the visceral emotions of the world he builds.
In the film, Henry Golding plays Nick, who is grieving his deceased lover, Daniela, played by Beatrice Grannò. The character is doused in melancholy that resonates with us in a biting way, which makes his future actions and decisions sympathetic, no matter how questionable they become. Nick is enrolled in a clinical trial, which involves a pill that instigates lucid dreaming and is being used as a way to tackle grief and depression. Patients are encouraged to re-construct their lives in their dreamscapes, and Nick complies. He is ecstatic to reunite with Daniela in this ephemeral dream fantasy, but gradually, the lines between reality and the mind irrevocably blur in a mesmerizing yet dark spiral that we don't expect.
During TIFF, Collider's Perri Nemiroff sits with Golding, Grannò, and Vigalondo, and they discuss working with Vigalondo as a serious and fun director and how his "cinema fart"-filled philosophy of filmmaking creates beautifully balanced pieces. Vigalondo also reveals why he doesn't like dreams but adores the thematic and visual explosion they can create on the screen and how he approaches each film as if it were the last he was going to make. Golding also teases how A Simple Favor 2 will build on all the elements we loved about the original film. You can hear about the cast and crew's favorite movie worlds and dreams in this interview!
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