Ridley Scott has helmed as many as 30 features since he made his directorial debut with The Duellists almost half a century ago – and he's showing no signs of slowing down now that he's in his late 80s.
In fact, if anything, the veteran Alien and Blade Runner director has picked up the pace in recent years. New release The Dog Stars marks his fifth film in just five years, with Scott having adapted his practises to shoot at a faster rate than ever before.
This approach – which includes little to no rehearsal time and very few takes for each scene – can be a little galling at first for some actors, as Josh Brolin pointed out during an exclusive interview with Radio Times.
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"It was f**king terrifying in the beginning," said Brolin, who previously collaborated with Scott in American Gangster back in 2007.
"Especially with people who have been around for a while – he and I – you get comfortable and you don't even realise that you've found a comfort zone, or you've created an intimidating facade that allows you to live in that comfort zone," he continued.
"And I think what Ridley does is creates a lot of discomfort and uncertainty."
Brolin explained that for intimate scenes they would do only roughly four takes, adding that on most films "you're just starting to get the motor revving" at that point.
"[Normally] they're going to do a wide shot, and then they're going to do an extreme close up, and then they're going to do inserts," he said.
"With Ridley, all that's done at the same time. So you've done four takes, and then you see him walking away, and you're like. 'Where are you going?'"
He continued that he'd been so concerned by the process that Scott took it upon himself to do something he wouldn't normally do in order to put Brolin's doubts aside.
"I was a little reticent about the whole thing, and then he brought me in and he had cut a scene that we had just finished already – a rough cut – and he said, 'Sit down, watch this.'
"And I watched it, and I was like, 'Wow, that's pretty good!'"
Brolin wasn't the only cast member who took a while to adjust to such a quick pace of shooting, with Margaret Qualley explaining: "It's kind of like one of those trust exercises where you fall and someone catches you."
And Guy Pearce added: "He's clearly extremely experienced, so you know you're in good hands.
"But I think that the tricky thing for me – if there was a tricky thing – was kind of going, 'So there's this book with this very dream-like quality. Is that what the tone of the film is going to be? And I didn't really realise that until I saw the finished film.
"But yeah, working with Ridley... you've got to you've got to keep up!"
The Dog Stars is now showing in UK cinemas.
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