Bones and All, the latest feature film fromCall Me By Your NamedirectorLuca Guadagnino, is one of the most intriguing films to premiere last year. As award season gets underway, Collider is extremely excited to share an exclusive deleted scene from theTaylor RussellandTimothée Chalamet-starring film.
The film follows Maren and Lee, two “eaters” that have cannibalistic impulses played by Russel and Chalamet, respectively. The story sees the duo set out on a cross-country road trip across America as they start to develop feelings for one another. On their journey, they meet other people, including two fellow eaters known as Brad (David Gordon Green) and Jake (Michael Stuhlbarg), who are the focus of this exclusive deleted scene. The deleted scene is a static shot, set outdoors at night, featuring Brad and Jake. Brad starts playing the banjo and singing an original song, entitled “Founders' Song,” which was written by the film’s screenwriter,David Kajganich. It isn’t long before Jake joins in.
First premiering at the 79th Venice International Film Festival,Bones and Allis based on the 2015 novel of the same name written byCamille DeAngelis. Following its premiere, it saw a limited theatrical release on November 18 before receiving a wider release on November 23. If you missed out on the theatrical run, the film is currently available to watch on Video-On-Demand. Alongside Chalamet, Russell, Green, and Stuhlbarg, the film’s cast also includesMark Rylanceas Sully,André Hollandas Frank Yearly, andChloë Sevignyas Janelle Yearly, among others. This film is a reunion for Guadagnino and Chalamet, who worked together on the aforementionedCall Me By Your Namewhich was released in 2017.
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To pair with the premiere of this deleted scene, Collider’s ownMaggie Lovitthad the opportunity to chat with screenwriter David Kajganich aboutBones and All, the creation of this deleted scene, how Brad and Jake’s characters function, and so much more.
COLLIDER: I think I can see why Luca Guadagnino ultimately chose to omit this scene from the final cut, but I am curious to learn about your experience writing this moment. Could you talk a little bit about how you arrived here during the writing process? What inspired you to have Brad and Jake pull out the banjo and sing?
KAJGANICH: This isn’t a scene that takes place in the novel; the characters of Brad and Jake are made up for the film, in part to give Maren (and the audience) an opportunity to feel revulsion at the idea that something that is such an inescapably destructive part of Maren’s life, and which brings her a great deal of pain and torment, is, for someone else, a choice, a fetish. But as with every other character in the film, I wanted even Brad to feel like someone with an inner life that extends beyond the brackets of the scenes he’s in. So, I thought about how to give him another, less off-putting language for whatever restlessness and self-loathing and anger and searching he is channeling into cannibalism, and it seemed like music was an interesting way to do that.
Also, because it’s something Brad could have more of a gift for than Jake, it’s a way he could shine a little in an otherwise fairly one-sided relationship. I’m a lover of roots music, and there’s a whole tradition of murder ballads that was on my mind a lot while writing the film, and it seemed to me it might also be a musical genre that would interest Brad. He’s not a “natural” eater, which he’s oddly proud of, so it made sense that, of anyone in the film, it would be Brad who’d be the one trying to mythologize them all in song. When we were shooting the campfire scene, David and Michael played the song for Timmy and Taylor’s characters, but we knew we would only be able to use part of it, if any of it, due to time constraints. So, Luca made sure we also got a single take of the whole song in case we wanted to use it for promotion instead, and that is what you’re seeing in this bizarro “music video” for the film.
Music is something that evokes so many very human emotions. Watching this deleted scene, I found that it shows a glimmer of humanity that rips us away from the fact that Brad and Jake are unrepentant cannibals. How did you find the balance in presenting each of these very nuanced characters throughout Bones and All? How do you find humanity in depraved people?
KAJGANICH: I don’t think people choose depravity in the tidy way it might be morally convenient for us to imagine. There are always complex and driving forces at work in our lives, playing out under our choices–sometimes conscious, often not, sometimes inherited, sometimes imposed or allowed to thrive through inattention of lack of care. You could argue that people become “depraved” by following their ids rather than society’s mores, and often people follow their ids because it’s the path of least resistance away from the pain and humiliation of being marginalized or maligned by one’s society, often for reasons outside of one’s control—one’s race, one’s gender or sexual orientation, illnesses one might have, one’s physical appearance, one’s religious beliefs, one’s economic standing—you name it; the list goes on and on.
I say this not at all to suggest that I think everyone deserves forgiveness for their wrongdoings. I’m only saying if we’re meant to believe a character’s depravity on screen, don’t we need to feel some of that ambiguity, some of those psychological complications and contradictions, that may have pushed them in a desperate direction, some of the tragedy of their lives that’s hardened into moral or physical violence? It’s harder to do that when a character only has a scene or two, but I could argue that’s also when it’s even more important. I choose to believe in the idea that each of us is doing the best we can with what we have, but also that our best often isn’t good enough. Clearly, the latter can be improved if the former is, but, unfortunately, we live in an America that is often perfectly ready to leave its weakest, most vulnerable, most troubled members behind.
The scene adds so many extra layers to not only their characters but also to the essence of the film. Had you ever explored lyric writing before this scene?
KAJGANICH: I have, yes. I’ve been in a sort of secret band for a number of years that I’ve been too shy to tell many people about, and one of my jobs in the band is that I write all the lyrics. It is such a different kind of writing from screenwriting. Just as screenwriting is a textual language that finally has to become a visual one, writing lyrics is a textual language that finally has to become musical. For me, it’s really hard, just mind-bendingly difficult, to write lyrics, though trying is a little bit addictive—like if Sisyphus really loved that rock. But unlike writing for the screen, I usually have no idea where lyrics come from. It’s like turning on some kind of tap to your subconscious. What comes out is often alarmingly specific and genuinely surprising, and this song, “Founders’ Blues,” was no exception. This song freaked us out a little bit. We didn’t know until fairly recently MGM would be releasing this video after all, so we’d already done a full studio version of the song for the album, and it’s fun to have that coming out to stand alongside Brad and Jake’s weird campfire cover of it.
Were there alternative lyrics or different versions of the song?
KAJGANICH: In the original script, I’d written that Brad and Jake play a different, specific folk song, but we weren’t able to track it down to license it, nor could we confirm that it had been written before 1988, which is when the film is set, so it proved to be a dead end. But we abandoned it only a couple of weeks before we were meant to shoot the campfire scene, and David needed to start learning something asap, so I just asked Luca if I could take a crack at it with the band. We’d just started working on a record that has folk and roots elements baked into it, so we already had our heads in that ethos a bit. Luca knew the guys from A BIGGER SPLASH, in which they’d played Tilda’s rock star character’s band in one scene, so he said try, but hurry! So, there wasn’t time for different versions. We really just had one shot at it. So once our guitarist, Jerry, worked out this odd, detuned melody for banjo, I started singing to it and the whole lyric just sort of showed up fully formed, dressed in that grey (and red) suit mentioned in the lyrics. It was like I was taking dictation. Musicians reading this will know what I’m talking about; writing music can be lovely and heady and exhilarating, but sometimes it’s just really fucking strange.
What do you hope people take away from getting to see this deleted scene?
KAJGANICH: First of all, I hope it helps people feel a little bit of the great, weird fun we had making this film. It was, at its core, a massive road trip through one hot and stormy summer in the great Midwest with a big group of friends working very hard creeping ourselves out and enjoying the hell out of one another’s company. you’re able to see that twinkle in Michael’s and David’s eyes in the video. You absolutely had to have that twinkle to work on this film. But, apart from that, I suppose I also hope the scene gives a sense of the wider life of these characters, of the different ways everyone in the film is trying to navigate and express the strangeness of their place in the world. And that everyone, no matter who they are or what they’ve done, has a fundamental need to be seen, and to belong, even if it’s adversarial, or ultimately fleeting.
Lastly,Bones and Allwas one of my favorite films from last year. It’s a very risky story, but there’s so much beauty in it too. I could talk for an hour about the allegories I found in it and the way things tie together. Looking ahead at award season, which is upon us, what has it been like to see the positive reactions to this film, and the love that it has been surrounded by?
KAJGANICH: Thank you for saying that, truly. Once everyone jumped into making this film with both feet, we all had to put aside the question of how it might be received. You have to. Otherwise, you’re able to get so distracted by that question you can start to second guess every little thing. But this was a tough bunch–as tough as they are lovely—so we just charged ahead knowing what a weird thing we were making and hoping people would be able to see past the film’s bloodstained teeth into its soul, which really is concerned with people’s inherent value. So, to finally have it in theatres and on streaming and to be able to talk about it with people who’ve found meaning, or solace, or recognition in the film is such a happy experience now. We know the film’s not for everyone, and we know there’s a percentage of people who just aren’t going to engage with it metaphorically, but that’s the price of staying out of the middle of the road. But the positivity and love people have shared with us about the film is the greatest gift. I have so much gratitude for the cast and crew of this film, and now I have it for its audience as well, for giving this odd, ghoulish little tale a chance in their hearts.
Bones and Allis available to watch on VOD. You can check out the exclusive deleted scene for the genre-bending feature film down below:
