Chapter 945: Is He Flattering Himself?

Just as he favored digital technology, Duke was never a traditionalist. He didn't dwell on Hollywood's past, nor did he hold any interest in a golden age he had never experienced. His eyes were always fixed straight ahead.

Rather than the past, Duke was driven far more by the rapid advancement of modern film technology—an approach that was, in a way, the exact opposite of Martin Scorsese's.

"Yes, my style and philosophy are completely different from Martin Scorsese's."

When Ellen DeGeneres brought it up, Duke didn't shy away from the topic. "Martin always emulates the aesthetic traits of European filmmakers, but I don't. I just love movies. I throw all these aesthetic concepts into a blender. To me, the results shouldn't be forced into one specific style. I remember consciously training myself to use a telephoto lens on Saving Private Ryan, pulling the camera back to pack more content into the frame, simply because that was what everyone did. But that isn't what makes me unique. I completely abandoned that technique on The Matrix, and I never did anything like it again, because that just isn't how I see things."

Duke never hid his views on cinema. Ellen DeGeneres knew this as well. She clearly understood that the superstar director sitting across from her had zero intention of pandering to anyone—and if he did, it was undoubtedly to the broadest possible audience in the world.

'Is this the key to his massive success?' The thought flashed through Ellen DeGeneres's mind, but she was an outstanding host and wouldn't let it disrupt the rhythm of the show.

She asked, "If you don't believe you have a specific style, then what is your approach?"

"I think it all comes down to narrative. What does this scene need? How am I going to tell the audience? How does one character drive another? What is this character thinking but not saying? Is this moment dangerous? Is this moment uplifting? I force myself to step outside my comfort zone when thinking about these questions."

Shifting slightly, Duke settled into a more comfortable posture. "Take visual effects films, for example. A lot of people think they're easy to make—just use motion capture technology or CG and so on. But massive visual effects are actually incredibly complex. They burn through money, require grueling production work, and demand that the filmmaker quickly and effectively evoke a kind of transcendent, out-of-body state that allows the audience to connect with the characters one hundred percent. To be honest, whenever I watch a brilliant VFX film, I'm always filled with admiration, because I believe it's the hardest thing to pull off."

Although the thought jumped into her mind, Ellen DeGeneres wouldn't say it out loud. The director sitting across from her had every right to say such things. Hadn't his films conquered the world using advanced visual effects as a foundational pillar?

If you stripped away the VFX and slowed down the breathless pacing, even a layman like Ellen DeGeneres knew those movies would just become another entry on Hollywood's endless list of flops, rather than synonymous with the word "classic."

Gathering her thoughts, Ellen DeGeneres moved on to her next question. "Once you've mastered the production of visual effects, how do you handle your relationships with the actors?"

In truth, on any Hollywood set, interpersonal relationships were always a headache to manage. No Hollywood crew ever finished filming and production in complete harmony, and certainly no crew ever wrapped a movie and instantly became as close as family and friends.

Anyone with a little real-world experience knew this.

But Duke would never say that. What Hollywood presented to the public was never the darker side hidden away from the sunlight.

"Back at Mountain High School, I worked a holiday job at a theater, but I really didn't have any training on how to interact with actors. My experience in that area was zero."

Duke paused for a moment. Resting one arm on the sofa's armrest and lightly propping up his chin, he said, "I think my way of reaching them is through writing. I write the characters, and the actors need to wholeheartedly bring those characters to life. Because of that, we have plenty to talk about. It's as simple as that."

Ellen DeGeneres chimed in, "Communication is crucial. I think everyone understands that."

"When you have a lot to talk about with someone, you can find a bond and form a working relationship. I've found this makes it incredibly easy to get along with actors, and it makes it very simple for them to work with me. Sometimes actors can't hold everything in their heads at once; they can only latch onto a single authentic moment."

Duke's train of thought shifted abruptly. "These days, I find high-definition cameras amazing, because you don't have to cut—unless you're using a Steadicam, which isn't my specialty. But I can control everything else: the crane, the dolly, the handheld camera. So, usually, I'm just right there, quickly resetting for the next take."

He mimicked how he acted on set. "I'll say, 'Hey! Give it to me again, quick. Push in like this, or like that, or like so.' Some actors can genuinely react to that because they can hold onto the moment. It's not a case of yelling 'Cut!' and having the crew step in, tearing everything down, and watching people start joking around while the mood shatters. With HD cameras, they can stay in the zone. It's like in American football when you hear the coach in your ear saying, 'You're still out there, you're still in the game, you don't need to stop, nobody blew the whistle.'"

Duke's last few sentences were a bit scattered, and Ellen DeGeneres had to pause for a second before she grasped his meaning.

Duke's words had thrown off her rhythm. Needing a moment to recover, she asked a fairly standard question. "In your films, there are scenes where individual actors shine, and there are incredible ensemble scenes. Is there a difference in how you shoot them?"

"Take Independence Day, for example. Every scene was an ensemble piece, so I had to gather my actors together and start figuring out how to direct a team."

Such a question posed no difficulty for Duke. "How do you position them correctly? When actors aren't actively part of the creative workflow in a given shot, how do you reassure them so they don't feel slighted? Not everyone gets the same amount of screen time in an ensemble scene. So, that was a huge challenge for that movie, even if it ranked secondary to the pure technical and logistical hurdles."

After that brief adjustment, Ellen DeGeneres fell back into her own rhythm, asking a question many people cared about. "As everyone knows, your films always showcase the most cutting-edge visual effects in today's film industry. How do you ensure those effects don't overpower the story?"

Compared to the previous ones, this question was slightly more difficult.

If blockbusters in the nineties, like Independence Day, could rake in massive box office returns purely on the strength of stellar visual effects, then in today's era of CGI saturation, advanced effects alone were far from enough.

Take Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, for instance. It pushed Hollywood's visual effects to the absolute limit, yet its final commercial performance was frankly abysmal.

Just as Duke had said in the past, a wildly successful movie was never the result of excelling in just one area, but rather the culmination of multiple elements working together.

"You have to make choices. You want to take people into a realm beyond their imagination, but it has to be built on a foundation you've already established. It's not about those 'damn!' moments; it's about the details surrounding those moments and what those details are made of."

Duke thought for a few seconds before continuing. "Now, if you really stop and look back, a lot of stories are absurd, or at least highly unrealistic. But when you build them brick by brick—you just keep building, and building, and building—eventually, you create the details. These actors shoulder a heavy burden because they believe completely in your vision, and that vision is what convinces the audience that what they are seeing is real."

Mindful of the show's runtime, Ellen DeGeneres slightly accelerated her questioning. "Nowadays, actors have to perform in front of green screens or blue screens, or act opposite imaginary objects added in post-production. What can you say to actors who have no experience with this kind of acting?"

"Any actor can pick up the dialogue and act out a great scene with another actor. From a director's standpoint, there's really nothing to it—all you do is make sure they're in the frame, right?"

After that rhetorical question, Duke gently shook his head. "But when the other actor isn't in the frame, that's when you have to go to work. You use every trick, every method you know to create something that feels dramatically real in their minds. So you talk a lot about what they're seeing, and you try to explain what it is. I mean, it's actually very simple—you have to understand that actors can create anything."

"Every time your movie comes out, the promotion is insane," Ellen DeGeneres said, shifting the topic toward her own industry. "What are your thoughts on the power of the press?"

"I've learned a lot about the media. They can be crazy. They can be like starving, frenzied sharks..."

As Duke said this, Ellen DeGeneres laughed. Facing a director and producer of Duke's stature put a certain amount of pressure on her, and digging up juicy scoops was no easy task.

Besides, he was incredibly busy. Getting him back on the show for another interview would be anything but easy.