The ending of Beau Is Afraid, Ari Aster has begun to realize, may have been a little too prophetic for its own good. He’s not really talking about the method in which his endlessly tortured protagonist Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) is put on trial and excoriated for his apparent misdeeds against his mother (Patti LuPone), but more about what happens next, after Beau meets his ultimate fate: The arena crowd that’s gathered for this bizarre skeptical quietly, rather indifferently walks away, barely moved at all by what they just watched. “It occurred to me in retrospect,” Aster says now. “I knew where this was headed.”
Aster is still processing the bumpy rollout of Beau Is Afraid. Budget at $35 million, one of A24’s most expensive productions to date, the film offered the writer-director of indie horror hits Hereditary and Midsommar a massive canvas, and he took giddy advantage. Between its extended animation interludes, grotesque sex scenes, and relentless sequencing of horror after horror being inflicted upon its picaresque hero, Beau premiered in the spring with undeniable originality and vision. Aster knew his movie would not be for everyone. What he was less prepared for was that most audiences wouldn’t bother to land on a side in the first place.
Despite a robust promotional campaign from A24, Beau grossed under $10 million domestically, struggling to escape the impact of a heavily polarized critical and fan response. The film has found new champions since its digital release, and with good reason: This gonzo brand of personal cinema, infused with a sickly specific sense of humor and crafted with extraordinary care—from the elaborate production design to the superb ensemble cast—doesn’t always click on the first try. But in an era where big swings like this are so hard to even get made, let alone at this unhinged scale, Aster may have done the impossible. (Even Martin Scorsese has said he felt inspired by it.) In a wide-ranging and candid conversation with Vanity Fair, Aster reflects on his complicated feelings about the way the world received such an effort—while assuring that he’s still forging ahead, prepping a new film set to star Phoenix once more.
Vanity Fair: How have you broadly experienced the life of the movie over the last few months since it came out?
Ari Aster: I’m always happy to hear anything about the film since its release was slightly stunted. So, it’s gratifying to know that people are still finding it, and I hope that they continue to find it.
Can you say a little bit more about what you found about stunting about the release?
I always knew the film was going to be polarizing and it’s designed to be divisive. The film shape-shifts a lot, and the film has something of hostility toward traditional narrative structure. It was always important to me that the film be about a character who does not change, so already, this is something that’s going to alienate certain people and it’s designed to alienate certain people. The length is part of that. That was certainly something that I had to fight for, and to the credit of A24 who had a lot invested in the film, they really allowed me to make the film I wanted to make. I’m really pleased with the shape of the film and proud of it. When you’re making a film like that, you’re very excited by the idea of dividing people, but then it comes out and it divides people, and then you realize, “Oh, wait a minute. This is also functioning as a deterrent for people to even go see it.”
It sounds like that surprised you.
Well, the film ends on a theater just very gradually emptying out over the credits, with a very indifferent audience. I wasn’t quite ready for just how prophetic that ending was going to be. It occurred to me in retrospect. I knew where this was headed. Right. And that’s part of the point.
Do you connect all of what you’re talking about, in terms of reaction and the difficulty of getting people out for a movie like this, to the broader state of the industry?