Philip
Zimbardo, Michael Angarano, Nicholas Braun, Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Ezra
Miller, and Billy Crudup attend the New York premiere of 'The Stanford
Prison Experiment' at Chelsea Bow Tie Cinemas on July 15, 2015 in New
York City.
Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images
New York Premiere of IFC Film’s "The Stanford Prison Experiment" was held on July 15, 2015 at Bow Tie Chelsea Cinemas. From the film: Michael Angarano, Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller,
Nicholas Braun, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, and director Kyle Patrick Alvarez
walked the red carpet. They were joined by additional celebrity guests
Mackenzie Davis, Maya Kazan, Erin Darke, Adam David Thompson, Steven
Strait, Carlen Altman, John Krokidas, Ryan Fleck, Pamela Romanowsky,
Joyce Carol Oates, Dan Abrams, Todd and Megan DiCiurcio. Following the
screening, Psychology Today hosted a discussion with the cast, director,
and Dr. Zimbardo. After everyone headed over to No. 8 for cocktails and
canapés. The film is 122 minutes. It opening in theaters July 17 and on
VOD July 24. In this tense, psychological thriller based on the
notorious true story, Billy Crudup stars as Stanford University
professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who, in 1971, cast 24 student volunteers
as prisoners and guards in a simulated jail to examine the source of
abusive behavior in the prison system. The results astonished the world,
as participants went from middle-class undergrads to drunk-with-power
sadists and submissive victims in just a few days. Winner of two awards
at the Sundance Film Festival, including Best Screenplay, and created
with the close participation of Dr. Zimbardo himself, the film is a
chilling, edge-of-your-seat thriller about the dark side of power and
the effects of imprisonment. It features an extraordinary cast of rising
young actors, including Ezra Miller, Olivia Thirlby, Tye Sheridan, Keir
Gilchrist, Michael Angarano, and Thomas Mann. Read our exclusive interviews below:
Michael Angarano
Q: What attracted you to the project?
MA: I first read the script 8 years ago and it was a different cast, it was a different writer, a different director. And I think since this experiment happened in 1971, I think they’ve been trying to make this movie because I feel like it’s impossible to not walk away from this story without talking about it. It’s never been more relevant than it is today. But I feel like you could’ve said that for any year over the past 44 years. So I feel like it’s...it’s just a really important story to be told and it’s really fascinating what Doctor Zimbardo did. I’m happy his story finally has gotten told.
Q: Can you speak about getting into your character's head and mindset? Since he’s not the nicest guy.
MA: No, his character's not a nice guy but I think it’s so important to realize that these guys were not criminals. And they were all college kids from across the country who were really smart, and no history of mental illness or criminal record. So none of them have been arrested since then or none of them have serious offenders of any kind. I think it’s really important to realize that he really specifically made a choice that was a catalyst for the rest of the experiment, I think he intentionally did that. I think he intentionally made a choice to detach himself emotionally to his own behavior and what kind of emotional torment he was putting the other guys through. I don’t think he was a bad guy as much as he was a really good actor.
Q: You also have "The Knick" coming up, second season. Can you talk about working on that show? What the experience has been like?
MA: It’s pretty much the best job in the world. Soderbergh is essentially giving a master class and going to work every day and watching him work is remarkable. I feel like the second season, the actors were even more of a cohesive unit and everybody was really kind of firing on all cylinders. The writings better, the actings better, it just felt really good so I’m excited for it to come out.
Q: You also have your directorial debut coming out.
MA: We shot it in December, it’s with Nick Braun, Juno Temple, Adelaide Clemens, it’s about a young guy who celebrates his 25th birthday a month after his brother dies.
Ezra Miller
Q: Speak about what it was like getting into the mindset of this character, what was it like for you?
Miller: What’s really cool is that essentially for this movie, the process was to create a character or a sense of an identity that would then rapidly slip away and dissolve into this new desperate projection and ultimately loss of identity. So yeah, getting into the mindset was a lot of drawing on the source material that we had but also thinking about the position of this kid who’s an activist who’s interested in theoretically he’s interested in calling out injustice and he’s running around campus, he’s an angry kid, he’s kind of...he has one idea on how to dissolve power structures and then on the other hand he upholds a lot of power structures because he’s kind of a misogynist, he’s not very reverent towards race issues, these things I think are all clearly demonstrated in the film. He’s appropriating the words of Huey P. Newton in the context of the psychological experiment happening at the university. What’s interesting about him to me is, ultimately, his form of resistance to this structure that is imposed is highly, highly ineffective to the point that it actually reinforces the system and furthers the brutal process of this experiment.
Q: Speak about collaborating with Kyle and what you admire about him.
Miller: Kyle is such a glowing example of what a really incredible director can be, which I would say is kind. Kyle is an incredibly sweet, giving, loving person. And often, those people do not make the best filmmakers. But in the case of Kyle we find a really great exception which is that he is someone who remains loving through the entire process but at the same time is able to draw out what he requires and give what an actor might need. But in this context of being really sweet. We need more people to crack whatever code Kyle has cracked so we can get more incredible films and still just have a great loving time making it.
Nicholas Braun
Q: Talk about your character.
NB: I play Vandy, one of the guards. He is one of the more abusive guards. He starts out as a nice guy who’s excited to do the experiment. Mike Angarano’s character shows him that you can get away with stuff in there and I start to take it, get a little excited.
Q: Talk about your research. Did you watch the videos?
NB: I just abused a lot of strangers in the streets. [Laughs.] No I think its when you think about the times when you flip a switch and realize you can get some power in a situation and take it way too far. I think when you’re a kid you do it more too, like in school when you’re bullied and you don’t yet have the sensitivities. That’s what’s happening with these guys. They don’t think about the parameters outside of it, they just think about the here and now and they want power. They’re also there to do a job. They’re making money; so they want to do the job well. No body is telling them it’s too much, so they keep doing what’s working.
Q: How was that tension built on set?
NB: The prisoners didn’t take off their gowns. The guards stayed in their outfits, the prisoners stayed in theirs. Prisoners seemed to hang out with prisoners more and the guards hung out with guards from their shifts. So the dynamic was already set there. We also didn’t rehearse much. I didn’t tell the guys what I was going to do and there was a lot of improve. If I wanted to make them do 20 to 30 extra pushups, they had to do it because we were rolling and I could do that. They had real chains and locks on their ankles and they told me after that it hurt. But while they’re doing it they didn’t. That’s exactly what the experiment is.
Q: Did you learn anything about yourself after working on this film?
NB: You learn that you are capable of doing things that seem out of your typical self. But if you’re put in the right circumstances and given permission, like the director gave me permission in this circumstance similar to the way Zimbardo gave these kids permission, you do it. You go farther than you think you are capable of.
Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Q: Talk about bringing authenticity to the film. How did you go on about doing that?
KPA: We went to Stanford. We measured the hallway that is there and rebuilt it the exactly the same way. We looked at all the footage and photographs. We did what we could to still keep it a film. But the goal was that when you look at all the wealth of material that exists from this experiment and you watch the movie and you go look up the photographs, they blur. They blur because we want the film to access a certain amount of reality of what happened. The more it overlaps, the more we can make the spaces, costumes, and the reality of what happened look the same, the more legitimacy the movie carries.
Q: What do you feel is the most important message of the film?
KPA: The most important message is to say that things that define us as individuals or things that we think define us, it’s actually a little more complex than that. The things that we consider the fundamentals and make us who we are, are really much more malleable. They can change quite quickly. It’s a serving thing to accept. Hopefully the film brings you to a place where you can accept maybe I would act that way. I’m not sure; I’ve never been in that situation before. And through that creates a certain amount of empathy from the viewer for the people who are in these kinds of situations.
Michael Angarano
Q: What attracted you to the project?
MA: I first read the script 8 years ago and it was a different cast, it was a different writer, a different director. And I think since this experiment happened in 1971, I think they’ve been trying to make this movie because I feel like it’s impossible to not walk away from this story without talking about it. It’s never been more relevant than it is today. But I feel like you could’ve said that for any year over the past 44 years. So I feel like it’s...it’s just a really important story to be told and it’s really fascinating what Doctor Zimbardo did. I’m happy his story finally has gotten told.
Q: Can you speak about getting into your character's head and mindset? Since he’s not the nicest guy.
MA: No, his character's not a nice guy but I think it’s so important to realize that these guys were not criminals. And they were all college kids from across the country who were really smart, and no history of mental illness or criminal record. So none of them have been arrested since then or none of them have serious offenders of any kind. I think it’s really important to realize that he really specifically made a choice that was a catalyst for the rest of the experiment, I think he intentionally did that. I think he intentionally made a choice to detach himself emotionally to his own behavior and what kind of emotional torment he was putting the other guys through. I don’t think he was a bad guy as much as he was a really good actor.
Q: You also have "The Knick" coming up, second season. Can you talk about working on that show? What the experience has been like?
MA: It’s pretty much the best job in the world. Soderbergh is essentially giving a master class and going to work every day and watching him work is remarkable. I feel like the second season, the actors were even more of a cohesive unit and everybody was really kind of firing on all cylinders. The writings better, the actings better, it just felt really good so I’m excited for it to come out.
Q: You also have your directorial debut coming out.
MA: We shot it in December, it’s with Nick Braun, Juno Temple, Adelaide Clemens, it’s about a young guy who celebrates his 25th birthday a month after his brother dies.
Ezra Miller
Q: Speak about what it was like getting into the mindset of this character, what was it like for you?
Miller: What’s really cool is that essentially for this movie, the process was to create a character or a sense of an identity that would then rapidly slip away and dissolve into this new desperate projection and ultimately loss of identity. So yeah, getting into the mindset was a lot of drawing on the source material that we had but also thinking about the position of this kid who’s an activist who’s interested in theoretically he’s interested in calling out injustice and he’s running around campus, he’s an angry kid, he’s kind of...he has one idea on how to dissolve power structures and then on the other hand he upholds a lot of power structures because he’s kind of a misogynist, he’s not very reverent towards race issues, these things I think are all clearly demonstrated in the film. He’s appropriating the words of Huey P. Newton in the context of the psychological experiment happening at the university. What’s interesting about him to me is, ultimately, his form of resistance to this structure that is imposed is highly, highly ineffective to the point that it actually reinforces the system and furthers the brutal process of this experiment.
Q: Speak about collaborating with Kyle and what you admire about him.
Miller: Kyle is such a glowing example of what a really incredible director can be, which I would say is kind. Kyle is an incredibly sweet, giving, loving person. And often, those people do not make the best filmmakers. But in the case of Kyle we find a really great exception which is that he is someone who remains loving through the entire process but at the same time is able to draw out what he requires and give what an actor might need. But in this context of being really sweet. We need more people to crack whatever code Kyle has cracked so we can get more incredible films and still just have a great loving time making it.
Nicholas Braun
Q: Talk about your character.
NB: I play Vandy, one of the guards. He is one of the more abusive guards. He starts out as a nice guy who’s excited to do the experiment. Mike Angarano’s character shows him that you can get away with stuff in there and I start to take it, get a little excited.
Q: Talk about your research. Did you watch the videos?
NB: I just abused a lot of strangers in the streets. [Laughs.] No I think its when you think about the times when you flip a switch and realize you can get some power in a situation and take it way too far. I think when you’re a kid you do it more too, like in school when you’re bullied and you don’t yet have the sensitivities. That’s what’s happening with these guys. They don’t think about the parameters outside of it, they just think about the here and now and they want power. They’re also there to do a job. They’re making money; so they want to do the job well. No body is telling them it’s too much, so they keep doing what’s working.
Q: How was that tension built on set?
NB: The prisoners didn’t take off their gowns. The guards stayed in their outfits, the prisoners stayed in theirs. Prisoners seemed to hang out with prisoners more and the guards hung out with guards from their shifts. So the dynamic was already set there. We also didn’t rehearse much. I didn’t tell the guys what I was going to do and there was a lot of improve. If I wanted to make them do 20 to 30 extra pushups, they had to do it because we were rolling and I could do that. They had real chains and locks on their ankles and they told me after that it hurt. But while they’re doing it they didn’t. That’s exactly what the experiment is.
Q: Did you learn anything about yourself after working on this film?
NB: You learn that you are capable of doing things that seem out of your typical self. But if you’re put in the right circumstances and given permission, like the director gave me permission in this circumstance similar to the way Zimbardo gave these kids permission, you do it. You go farther than you think you are capable of.
Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Q: Talk about bringing authenticity to the film. How did you go on about doing that?
KPA: We went to Stanford. We measured the hallway that is there and rebuilt it the exactly the same way. We looked at all the footage and photographs. We did what we could to still keep it a film. But the goal was that when you look at all the wealth of material that exists from this experiment and you watch the movie and you go look up the photographs, they blur. They blur because we want the film to access a certain amount of reality of what happened. The more it overlaps, the more we can make the spaces, costumes, and the reality of what happened look the same, the more legitimacy the movie carries.
Q: What do you feel is the most important message of the film?
KPA: The most important message is to say that things that define us as individuals or things that we think define us, it’s actually a little more complex than that. The things that we consider the fundamentals and make us who we are, are really much more malleable. They can change quite quickly. It’s a serving thing to accept. Hopefully the film brings you to a place where you can accept maybe I would act that way. I’m not sure; I’ve never been in that situation before. And through that creates a certain amount of empathy from the viewer for the people who are in these kinds of situations.
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