Director Spotlight: Richard Ayoade

While Richard Ayoade is probably known best for his portrayal of Maurice Moss on the British television comedy The It Crowd, he is also an exceptional director. He has directed music videos for bands like Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, as well as television shows, including one episode of Community and two films, Submarine and The Double. Despite the fact that he has only directed two films, it is clear that he has a real talent for directing.

Richard Ayoade as Maurice Moss

Submarine (2010)

This was my first experience with anything involving Richard Ayoade. Before I watched it, I had not heard of his name or known of The It Crowd, and The Double was not yet released. I became interested in the film a few years ago after hearing that Alex Turner, frontman of Arctic Monkeys, had done the soundtrack. Without any prior knowledge of the director or any of the actors, such as Craig Roberts (who plays the protagonist Oliver Tate), I decided to give the movie a watch. After watching the film, I was certainly not disappointed. There are plenty of laughs and a really interesting storyline, which is broken up into a prologue, three parts, and an epilogue.

Submarine is the first film Ayoade ever directed. He also wrote the film. According to an interview with Tom Charity for Sight and Sound, Ayoade had no formal training in directing films prior to the making of Submarine. Other than directing music videos and a few television shows, Ayoade had no other experience. Ayoade told Charity that he learned as he went along and learned from watching movies he liked and disliked.

Further along the interview, Ayoade said that films like The Graduate, French New Wave films, Taxi Driver, and Badlands all had an influence on Submarine. In an article he wrote for The Guardian, Ayoade also discussed anti-heroes that had a huge influence on the protagonist of the film. Ayoade lists characters like Alex from A Clockwork Orange and Max Fischer from Wes Anderson’s film Rushmore as inspirations for Oliver Tate.

Interestingly enough, the film was produced by Ben Stiller. In an article written by James White for Empire, Stiller says about Ayoade: "Garth Marenghi I had seen and was a fan of. That was all I knew. So I can’t say that we had any kind of relationship beforehand. We just got sent the script – I don’t even know, to tell you the truth, how we got hold of it – but Richard’s agent might be our agent too. But we thought it was a really great script and then I saw his videos that he had directed and just thought he had a really interesting sensibility. We met and he’s just a very thoughtful guy. And I thought what he did with the movie was very assured and bold, for a first film. Just his process was very specific. I had a really good experience with him.”


The Double (2013)

After seeing a preview for The Double I was really excited. I was really impressed with Submarine, so I couldn’t wait to watch Ayoade’s second effort as a director. The film managed to score a famous actor in Jesse Eisenberg, and also featured appearances from Craig Roberts and Noah Taylor (who played Lloyd Tate in Submarine). The film, similar to Submarine, is really quite funny and also follows an interesting storyline. Although the film’s content is really interesting, it is also very visually pleasing. The film manages to capture a lot of really cool images on camera.

In an interview conducted by Melissa Locker for Time Magazine, Ayoade said that working with an accomplished cast was very enjoyable. He also noted that when the actors are involved “the project takeson a three-dimensional quality that is impossible to imagine when you'rewriting it.” Ayoade was also asked if it was hard for him, coming from an acting background, to step back and direct rather than act. He responded saying, “I was a writer and any performing that I did was generally as a way to show the writing.”

Unlike the Submarine soundtrack done by Alex Turner, the soundtrack for The Double features orchestral music and Japanese and South Korean music that are played from jukeboxes. Despite his experience directing music videos, Ayoade said of his decision to do this: “The idea was that unless the music exists diegetically, it had to be from his point of view, so all the music is orchestral apart from these jukeboxes that play sort of Japanese or South Korean music.” He then went on to say that this idea influenced by the film Taxi Driver.

Another really interesting thing about The Double is that the setting cannot really be placed geographically. The film features characters with a variety of accents and the music that plays on the jukeboxes add to the geographical complexity. When asked about the film’s setting, Ayoade commented that this is the first film in which Mia Wasikowska uses her real accent (half American, half Australian) and went on to say, “I also feel that often in films you don't get a variety of accents and that seems odd to me. My mom's Norwegian, my dad's Nigerian. No one had the same accent in my house, so to me each it's strange when you hear a number of people and they all sound the same, especially in a city. So we wanted it not to be anchored, we didn't want the music to be a signifier of an era, either.”

Now

There’s been no word on what Ayoade’s next directorial project will be. When Locker asked if he would like to return to acting anytime soon, Ayoade responded by saying, “Not particularly. It's not the side of things I've actively pursued. You're slightly out of control of it. And it's not something I do everyday. I don't act, generally.” In my opinion, Ayoade’s directing so far has been extremely successful. Submarine has helped to launch the career of Craig Roberts, who since appearing in the movie has had a small role in the popular British television series Skins, as well as in popular movies such as Neighbors and 22 Jump Street. Submarine and The Double are both excellent movies, and I can’t wait to see what Ayoade does next.