Gander’s Brad Peyton just finished directing the biggest movie of his career

Film director Brad Peyton traded in central Newfoundland for central California and found success every step of the way.

Peyton has worked on multi-million dollar projects with stars like Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, Jason Momoa, and NL’s Allan Hawco.

Peyton returned from Los Angeles to visit her hometown of Gander for the first time in about 20 years during the holidays.

He sits in the studio with CBC Radio CBC Newfoundland Morning to talk about his career so far and his next film projects — Atlasstarring Jennifer Lopez.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Let’s talk about last year. How would you summarize 2022?

A: It was better than two years before because I had to leave the house and do something. I’m still making, but I shot my biggest film that I’ve ever worked on. This is called Atlas, it’s for Netflix. Starring Jennifer Lopez, Sterling K. Brown, Mark Strong. This is a gigantic sci-fi movement that requires so much world building. It’s the most complicated thing I’ve ever done. It’s been a very busy year, very good.

What’s directing Jennifer Lopez like?

Jen is a force of nature. He is so well prepared and he is so focused, thorough and professional that you just help guide him more than anything else. It was the most collaborative effort I’ve ever done with a lead actor, where they are constantly communicating with you and guiding you and making you aware of where they are comfortable and uncomfortable. It’s like having a dance partner, that’s how I would describe it. It’s someone playing there with you. Such a person does not need much direction. Some actors are better off stepping aside as filmmakers and trying to get them to focus on performance as much as possible. So that’s what I do, I really just focus on guiding him or supporting him in finding the best performance.

He’s amazing in movies. He’s amazing. I think people are going to be really impressed with what he does. He goes to some very heavy places in this and he’s also very funny. He’s a superstar. He can do anything. I had a great time working with him.

It will be on Netflix in 2023. What should you do now to make it happen?

I have a year post[-production]. I have tons of visual effects. The film mostly takes place on an alien planet 200 years into the future. It involves artificial intelligence, involves [mechanical] suitably, it involves a huge visual effects budget to bring it all to life.

We had a directors’ meeting, which I’m having right now. We put in the basic effects so the story can be told so that anyone who knows what the movie is not going to get confused, and once it’s been approved by the studio or they’ve given their notes, we massage the piece and we go and start implementing the visual effects in earnest, like design plants, creatures, moon, all environments. This movie has five or six alien environments in it, a huge amount of technology, ships, crafts, all that sort of thing. It will be a few months to design and then 10 months to implement the stuff. It’s a lot of post-production. These films usually take three months to shoot and a year to complete. All the technical stuff comes into play now.

IMDb says you also have a few other projects. Are you juggling them at the same time?

In my position, you’re constantly getting things in and talking to people, studios, and producers about finding the next right thing. The hardest thing about being a filmmaker is not like being a musician where you write a three-minute song and then you move on to the next thing. I’m so jealous of that. I always thought of myself like how Neil Young described himself where you put everything you have into something and then you do it. I just empty myself into something. The thing with movies is two years of your life, so emptying yourself out for two years is exhausting and by the time you do it, sometimes you’re not really sure what you want to do next. You just need to take a break and go, “What kind of story do I want to tell now?”

This is a very strange lifestyle. A lot of people don’t get it and a lot of us who do don’t get it. I wasn’t an actor before I became a director. I wasn’t a technician before I became a director. Me being a director as a director, it’s one of those things I experienced early on in life. There is no financial support because I am this other thing. I just said, “OK, I’m going to direct. That’s where my passion is. I’m going to try my hardest to make it happen.”

I don’t sit still so I write things down and have meetings and conversations. You definitely only talk to people about things that you’re really, really interested in doing because there’s only so much time in a day.

Come to think of it, have you ever gone back to that little boy who was interested in movies and maybe never dreamed of leaving his hometown of Gander?

I’m not back to how I used to be and I think that’s because you mature with time. I felt like it was tapping into my naivety and my job, or where I was in my career, wasn’t about tapping into naivety as much as it was about looking ahead and trying to move beyond myself and progress in ways I could never get ahead. It’s like a reverse exercise.

At this point I was an instinctive filmmaker. I don’t really intellectualize anything. Even when I’m on set and an actor is doing something, I know when they’re doing it and it’s not that I can intellectualize it, I know when it feels right. It’s an intuitive process.

How do you best enjoy your success?

I don’t enjoy my success. I’m not a person who likes success. I started to understand that in the last few years. Whatever people think I need, I don’t need. People think that if I want something, I probably don’t want it. Everything I want and need in my life is not something you can get from success. I already checked that box. I’m fine. That’s not where I am in my life. So I’m not necessarily enjoying my success.

Complicated. I enjoyed some of it and some of it was really hard. That’s why I talk about the “why” of things because I think it’s important to get back to enjoying it as much as humanly possible.

I just finished the biggest movie I’ve ever made and I’m so tired. I’m not the type to celebrate something until it’s over. I’m also like “I’m going to enjoy it when I’m done and I’ve proven to myself that it’s good — it’s good enough for me.”

You are here for a little rest. How much rest will you get?

To be honest, I didn’t really rest. I wake up and I write and I consume material. I’m just going to take my time in Newfoundland to see everyone I know here, recover, take my time and slow down a bit. I’ve never really idled well. I tried my best not to do anything. There’s extra cranberry vodka in the evening which I usually don’t do just to slow down as much as I can. Then I go to bed and read for four hours and jot down ideas. You never quit. You can’t really stop. So I’ll slow it down as best I can.

One final question, when will you be bringing The Rock to the Rock?

I definitely don’t have the strength to carry The Rock anywhere. He’s a hard person to carry around. I will do my best, I will convey good words, but I don’t know if I can promise to make Dwayne go anywhere.

Dwayne is a busy man. He probably did. I think we can talk him into it.

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