With 23 films released by Marvel Studios to date, there’s a misconception among certain critics that Marvel filmmakers have their hands tied creatively, but Skogland remains impressed by the freedom that studio boss Kevin Feige granted her.
“Kevin Feige, from the beginning, said, ‘Make it yours,’” Skogland shares. “There’s no Marvel list. As a filmmaker, you are not only encouraged, but you are really supported to let your voice shine through. You have total freedom to push, scratch the surface and try things. Unlike the movies, which I call ‘the snack,’ this is a meal. We get a lot more time with the characters than we’ve ever had in the MCU movie world of it.”
In a recent conversation with THR, Skogland also discusses the show’s intimacy, the films that influenced her approach and the pandemic’s impact on the series.
So what was the crux of your pitch to Kevin Feige and company?
First of all, I really thought it was the most important story of the century. (Laughs.) From then on, the door was probably a little bit more open, but I really meant it. And that was because we’re talking about the shield. At the end of Endgame, the shield was given to Sam and he said, “It feels like it’s someone else’s.” That conversation, for me, was the most important conversation to have. A Black man picking up the shield — what was that going to look like? What was that going to feel like? And Sam has to decide whether he wants to take up that shield or not. It’s very racially charged. Digging into Black history and digging into what it represented as a very white construct, the whole shield and the nature of a hero that stood behind it was a very old and slightly antiquated idea at this point. So is it even relevant? And I felt that was the crux to the story and that was the story they wanted to tell. So I threaded the needle.
Once you got the job for such a massive project, what was the first order of business?
Besides thanking my lucky stars? (Laughs.) Well, we went into the writers room, and I was blessed to be a part of all that. It was great because it meant that I was really on the inside track of where we were going with the series. [Head writer] Malcolm [Spellman] is amazing, and we had a really terrific time building it from the ground up. Malcolm really has his finger on the pulse of that same story I mentioned. In and amongst the fun and the hijinks of it, we were always grounded in a very politically charged notion and very real world. Besides telling a racially charged story, we’re also telling a story of Bucky who’s suffering guilt issues, and rightly so, he’s done some heinous things. Yes, it was under the guise of having been brainwashed, but nonetheless, he’s going to have to face that. And that brings in mental health, PTSD and what soldiers go through as they’re healing. So we had some very heavy themes underneath this fun and lovely Marvel ride.
What existing work did you reference during prep?
We looked at lots of relationship movies to get some inspiration. Classics, of course: 48 Hours, Lethal Weapon, Midnight Cowboy and all the go-to ones. I also like to go very tangential so I’ll even fill my brain with stills from David Lean. I try to mix up my world so I’m really immersed. In this case, the action is always related to story so you’re never signing off into an action beat that just is fun. Character, story and plot are affected by any action sequence so you have to really design them accordingly. So a lot of thought goes into not just the choreography, but also the why, where, who and how of it. So it’s really just taking it on munch by munch, going through each of the characters’ wants and needs, and making sure that we’re really on point with the story. When you take on a project of this size, I don’t think you ever stop prepping. You’re always saying, “What do we need to rewrite now that we’ve experienced that with the character? How has that affected the outcome here?” So it’s always a moving target, which is exhilarating.
Jac Schaeffer told me how she really felt the freedom to get weird on WandaVision. And when I look at Bucky’s therapy scene — which includes these high-angle close-ups with shallow focus — that tells me that you were also able to be more off-kilter than Marvel usually is. Were you, in fact, granted that latitude?
For sure! Kevin Feige, from the beginning, said, “Make it yours.” There’s no Marvel list. As a filmmaker, you are not only encouraged, but you are really supported to let your voice shine through. So it was a joy. My job is also to push the envelope a little bit where I can. By definition, it has its Marvel stamp, and it’s probably because of the characters. They lead you down that path so you’re never outside of that comfort zone, but you definitely push it as much as you can. So, yeah, you have total freedom to push, scratch the surface and try things. We did a lot of improv and ad-libbing as we were exploring these characters. Unlike the movies, which I call “the snack,” this is a meal. We get a lot more time with the characters than we’ve ever had in the MCU movie world of it. So you get to enjoy the complexity of each of these characters, but it also means that the demands are higher to make them — and keep them — interesting.
I really appreciated the opening shot of Sam quietly ironing, as well as ruminating. Perhaps I’m reaching here, but was this your way of saying that this series will have more intimacy than we’re accustomed to, especially with these characters?
It was! Across the board. And that applied to that sequence you mentioned of Bucky, using shallow focus and interesting camera angles. But you can’t rely on that. You have to do a less-is-more approach and tap your toe in the water for it to be super effective. But the notion was intimacy and perspective. We made sure we were writing with the perspective of each character and where we needed to be. Who, in the room, are we with or against? So I used a lot of camera work to help me achieve that. The show’s intimacy allowed for a lot of performance opportunities for all of the characters, not just Sam and Bucky. We’re going to meet Sam’s family, and we’re going to take a deep dive into Bucky’s psychological issues. I wanted to see these characters in real-world ways we’ve never seen before, and we really are in a very grounded and real world. Sam’s issues are very universal, very relatable and incredibly relevant to today.
When the show was shut down due to the pandemic, I presume that you assembled the footage that you had to that point. What did you learn during your downtime that you were able to apply to the rest of production?
We were deep into it; we were like 75 percent there. So we were able to really see the show. We could really see what we had. So what was terrific was as the world was changing — between the pandemic, the protests and the political issues we were all facing through the White House as it were — we were able to sharpen our pencils. So when we came back, we really knew what we were shooting, and we were laser-focused at that point. So, in a way, we didn’t skip a beat. We were able to pivot, sharpen our pencils and remain on target, which was fantastic. The story we were telling did not change; it just got better.
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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premieres March 19 on Disney+.
