Babylon stars detail their favorite movie magic moment on set: 'It was the best day of my life'
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When the starry cast of Babylon gathered for EW's Around the Table series, one person was notably absent from the festivities: director and writer Damien Chazelle.
The Oscar winner had fallen ill, so his cast was charged with plugging his movie without him. "Tragically," laments Brad Pitt, who plays veteran movie star Jack Conrad in the film. "He's so wise about this period; I still learn things from him every time he opens his mouth. But you're not going to get any of that because he's not here."
Chazelle's latest is a wild and debaucherous romp through early Hollywood as it transitioned from silent films to talkies. Clocking in at an eye-popping three hours and 9 minutes, Babylon follows a large cast of characters — played by Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jean Smart, Diego Calva, Li Jun Li, and Jovan Adepo, to name a few — at different stages of their careers.
According to Robbie, who plays up-and-comer Nellie LaRoy, Chazelle's absence may be for the best: "I was just saying yesterday, when he's not here, I feel like we speak so much more nicely about him. When he is here, we all give him s---."
Or maybe it was all part of the mastermind's devious plan. "I sent him an email. I told him how much we missed him, that we tried to honor him and say that he was brilliant and blah blah blah and all that crap," Smart added. "And, he said, 'A-ha. It was my Machiavellian way of wanting to get more [compliments].'"
Scott Garfield/Paramount A film crew attempting to get the perfect shot in 'Babylon'
Intentional or not, his cast proceeded to sing his praises throughout the wide-ranging discussion, which covered topics such as the film's "X-rated" sensibilities, a riotous scene involving a snake, deep fakes, and more. But above all, the cast couldn't stop talking about what the experience of making Babylon meant to them.
Robbie noted one scene as especially memorable, even though she doesn't appear in it. It's a behind-the-scenes look at an epic movie moment being made, with 700 extras, big explosions, a swoon-worthy kiss, and a setting sun.
"It's something I'll never forget til the day I die, was that day," Robbie said, adding that she memorialized the moment in writing. "I wrote it all down, 'Today, I went to set, it was the best day of my life and blah blah blah blah.' And I described all of it. But it was. It was art imitating life in the craziest way that I don't know if we'll ever witness again. And, on a scale that we'll never witness again."
Pitt, whose character is a critical part of that scene, agreed. "For all the madness of filmmaking, this scene captures that other thing, that magic that happens in scenes that you couldn't plan for. It just happens. And, when you hit those moments, it's just a high."
Calva added that the scene is emblematic of one of the movie's running themes: filmmakers and movie stars achieving immortality through their work. "It's that idea of playing with the ghosts and the angels," he said. "We made this movie, but at the same time, the idea of the movie's more important than us, and it's going to be there forever. I love that idea."
Watch the full roundtable discussion in the video above for more with the cast of Babylon, hitting theaters Dec. 23.
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