The Andor creator and Michael Clayton filmmaker is standing amid rows of orchestra musicians in the center of the historic Newman Scoring Stage on the 20th Century Fox lot in Los Angeles, California. It’s where the music for Jaws, The Sound of Music, and countless other classic films was recorded. But on this day, the recording session is part of the actual movie.
Pedro Pascal straddles a cello among the dozens of co-stars—who are actual violinists, cellists, French horn players—as they all shoot the opening scene of the musical drama Behemoth! Gilroy points at the ornate web of microphones dangling from above, and then to the glassed-in control room where a team of engineers are attuned to every whisper. A concert keeps going and doesn’t stop.” But here, in this historic space, the precision equipment doesn’t just expose every false note—it records each one for posterity.
This is where Alex Serian, Pascal’s virtuoso cellist, discovers he can’t hide anymore. His past, going way back to childhood, is littered with broken promises and false hopes. His love life is a freeway pile-up.
His family has disintegrated. All he has is the cello, and now it’s literally time to face more than the music. By focusing on the one thing he is good at, the only thing he can execute flawlessly, Alex finds a way to revisit all these broken memories and figure out a new way forward.
He’s already a world-class musician, but he’s trying hard to become a better man. Pascal says Gilroy explained it like Alex was being swept along in a flood. The actor gets choked up as he describes this lost person, grasping for something to hold onto and pull himself out.
It’s not an exquisitely styled concert hall. It’s an open space big enough to be a basketball court, but not big enough for spectators. The wood panels affixed to the walls look like they’re in someone’s unfinished basement, ready for plaster and a paint job.
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