By: Izumi Hasegawa April 2, 2024
When I last spoke to Tye Sheridan at the after-party of The Tender Bar, he told me that one of his favorite films at the time was the Japanese animation film, Your Name. I was impressed not only by his ability to say the title in Japanese but also by his pronunciation, which was pretty good. So, this time, I started my interview in Japanese, and he responded in Japanese!
Q: Konnichiwa
T: Konnichiwa
Q: You can speak Japanese?
T: Konnichiwa, Arigato, only a couple of things. Genki desuka?
Q: Did you study Japanese?
T: No. I just have some Japanese friends. Mostly, they have taught me how to talk to girls. [laughs]
Q: When I saw Asphalt City, I noticed you are good at using chopsticks. You hold them perfectly. Did you practice, or have you just eaten a lot of sushi?
T: I had no idea until you told me. Thank you.
Q: What are your hobbies?
T: Watching movies. I just love movies and working on movies. I like the outdoors. This project, Asphalt City, was one that we were trying to get made for a really long time since 2018. We’re trying to make a movie that was a labor of love for a long time and a really special movie we were all really passionate about.
Q: Are you living in LA or Texas?
T: Yeah, mostly Texas.
Q: What do you like in Texas? What foods, music, and movies do you like?
T: Well, I like it all. I like new experiences. I’ve loved to travel, I love to meet new people, love to try new foods, love new music. I think I’m an adventurer type, so I like all kinds of things.
Q: In the film Asphalt City, your character, Ollie, got so frustrated and upset that he threw a mattress out a window. How about yourself; when you get frustrated, what do you do? How do you deal with anger?
T: I think I just try to calm myself down. And I spend a lot of time writing in my journal. I try to meditate and relax.
Q: What kind things do you write in your journal? Stories?
T: No, just really, you know, kind of every night I write in my journal about the day, about you know where you could be better yourself and check. Yeah, more of a diary.
Q: When can we read it?
T: Never. [laughs]
Q: I would like to talk about AI. You co-founded and are president of Wonder Dynamics. When I interviewed the director of Godzilla -1.0, Yamazaki-san (a member of Shirogumi, a visual effects company,) he spoke about the Uncanny Valley. What is your view on AI?
T: Well, Wonder Dynamics, the company that I co-founded, is really on a mission to try to enable indie filmmakers to still tell big stories, but on an indie budget. And how we do that is we utilize AI machine learning models, but not really to replace the artist; really it’s to speed up their process and make it more efficient and make the effects more usable and more attainable for people who maybe don’t have the backing of a major studio or those who don’t have the knowledge of how to create these effects. So I think I’m more of an optimist when it comes to AI in terms of the opportunities that it presents. Maybe if we’re not making movies for $200 million, maybe we can make them for 25, we can make more movies and we can employ more artists. So I think I’m very excited about that. You know, and for AI to pave the way of creating opportunities that weren’t there before.
Q: Are you a tech nerd? Is that why you founded the company?
T: When it comes to filmmaking technology, yes. And cameras, absolute tech nerd. But any other kind of tech, I’m not so much of a tech nerd, more kind of specific.
Q: In your next movie, The Order, what kind of character are you going to play?
T: I play a deputy in a sheriff’s department.
Q: Is he a good guy or a bad guy?
T: Good guy. I don’t know. You have to watch it and find out.
Q: In Asphalt City, your character Olllie dreams of becoming a doctor. What about you? You have accomplished many things. I think you did everything that you wanted to do, but do you have any dreams?
T: No, that’s not true. I have a lot of dreams. I think the truth is I don’t know exactly what I want. Taking it one day at a time. I love working on movies and am really happy doing what I’m doing, and yeah, I’m hoping for more adventures in the future.
Q: I will wait for you in Japan for an adventure! Arigato!
T: Arigato!
Asphalt City is playing in theaters.
Edited by Tiffany Le
