{"id":544754,"date":"2026-01-26T19:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/544754\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T19:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:32:15","slug":"paul-feig-on-channeling-hitchcock-for-the-housemaid-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/544754\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Feig on channeling Hitchcock for ‘The Housemaid’ \u2014 Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Editor\u2019s note: This interview contains spoilers<\/strong> for \u201cThe Housemaid<\/a>.\u201d]<\/p>\n

One of the most delightful surprises of the holiday movie season last year was director Paul Feig<\/a>\u2018s \u201cThe Housemaid<\/a>,\u201d a thrill ride based on the novel by Freida McFadden about a housekeeper (Sydney Sweeney) who gets more than she bargained for when she takes a live-in job with a dysfunctional wealthy couple (Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar<\/a>). Feig has long expressed admiration for Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s work, and in screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine\u2019s adaptation of McFadden\u2019s bestseller, he discovered the perfect vehicle to, as Hitchcock was fond of saying, \u201cplay the audience like a piano.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"'Gail<\/a> \"Salman<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first read the script and then the book, I thought, this is so much fun to really make an audience root for everything they should not be rooting for in the first hour and get them really passionate about it,\u201d Feig told IndieWire\u2019s Filmmaker Toolkit<\/a>\u00a0podcast<\/a>. \u201cAnd then have the fun of their anger in the second half for being so hoodwinked, and the satisfaction that comes with the retribution.\u201d The fact that \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d essentially reboots halfway through, revealing to the audience that the husband we thought was a nice guy is actually the antagonist, is instrumental in its box office success, as many viewers are returning again and again to the movie to experience how it plays differently once one is aware of the twists. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously every filmmaker hopes to make things that you\u2019ll want to watch a few times, but knowing this has that twist, it\u2019s really fun to know that we\u2019re seeding things in the first half that, if you watch this a second time, you\u2019ll interpret in a completely different way,\u201d Feig said, adding that the script\u2019s potential for manipulating the audience was a large part of its appeal. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, when I was in film<\/a> school at USC back in the 1980s, all the serious film students were very against manipulating the audience. They were down on Spielberg because he was \u2018manipulative.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Guys, that\u2019s what movies are. All we do is manipulate people!\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, one of the many pleasures of \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d is the way Feig and his department heads slyly direct the audience\u2019s eye to miss the clues that are often hiding in plain sight; from the use of color and the selection of props and artwork to the subtle performance choices by Sklenar and Seyfried \u2014 whose work has to be convincing in two entirely different contexts \u2014 every decision in \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d is geared toward deceiving the audience without cheating, so that when they discover they\u2019ve been manipulated they feel giddy and not offended. Figuring out how and when to parcel out the information was a painstaking process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very slavish to test screenings,\u201d Feig said, noting that he tends to screen his films for audiences as early in the process as possible so he can gauge what\u2019s landing and what isn\u2019t. \u201cI have 10 weeks [to put together] a director\u2019s cut where no one can mess with me. I\u2019ll do my first recruited screening at about five weeks, just to say, okay, I think this is working, it\u2019s all together now, but I don\u2019t want to fall in love with anything.\u201d Feig not only records audio of the crowd reactions but also video via night vision goggles. \u201cI find night vision to be incredibly helpful because you can see if people are watching passively versus when they start sitting forward and looking around at each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pacing of \u201cThe Housemaid\u201d was particularly tricky, because it required a certain amount of patience from both the audience and the filmmakers in the first half \u2014 if the groundwork wasn\u2019t carefully laid, the shocks and suspense of the second half wouldn\u2019t work. \u201cI always say I want to shoot my movie out of a cannon,\u201d Feig said. \u201cBut you can\u2019t shoot this movie out of a cannon. We tried [with an opening flash-forward to the crime scene], but we found with an audience that it took the fun out of them discovering this world.\u201d Feig looked to \u201cOnce Upon a Time in the West\u201d and its meticulously calibrated structure.<\/p>\n

\"Amanda\u2018The Housemaid\u2019Courtesy of Lionsgate<\/p>\n

\u201cThat movie\u2019s brilliant in its slow doling out of information,\u201d Feig said. \u201cIt\u2019s the best way to do a movie where you\u2019re trying to pull people along.\u201d If Leone was an inspiration in terms of pace, Hitchcock remained the big influence in terms of tone. \u201cWhat I love about Hitchcock is he always lets you have fun. I\u2019ve watched so many thrillers in my life that take themselves so seriously that I don\u2019t feel there\u2019s room for fun. I\u2019m very religious about the thriller genre, but how can I bring [laughs] into that genre and get the double response out of the audience? We\u2019re treating the story seriously, but there\u2019s something wonderfully absurd about this dangerous situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In spite of Feig\u2019s reverence for Hitchcock, he says he doesn\u2019t follow the master of suspense\u2019s model of rigid planning. \u201c\u200aI leave myself very open,\u201d Feig said. \u201cWhen I started my career, I obviously loved Hitchcock, and he storyboarded every shot, didn\u2019t shoot any more frames than he needed so he could control the edit. I tried to do that, but you get to the set, and people have ideas, and you\u2019re slapping their ideas down because it takes you off your plan. And I realized early on that I was cutting off all the creativity from my cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feig changed his approach when he worked on the TV show \u201cArrested Development\u201d and was forced to fly by the seat of his pants. \u201cThey would get you the scripts so late,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes you\u2019d just show up in the morning and get the scenes. But it was the greatest thing because it got me out of my head to work with the actors.\u201d Feig typically comes in with an idea of how to shoot the scene, but leaves himself open to new possibilities suggested by the performances. \u201cI\u2019ve got all these versions of the line or scene, so that when I get to the editing room, I can figure out, \u2018Were they right or was I right?\u2019 I want that input from the cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Input from his collaborators also led Feig to one of the best needle drops in \u201cThe Housemaid,\u201d for Amanda Seyfried\u2019s dance of liberation to Kelly Clarkson\u2019s \u201cSince You Been Gone.\u201d Initially, Feig used Bob Seger\u2019s \u201cOld Time Rock and Roll\u201d as an homage to \u201cRisky Business,\u201d but when he screened the film, the cue didn\u2019t work. \u201cI realized, okay, I\u2019m an old guy,\u201d Feig said. \u201cNo one in the young audience gives a shit about that.\u201d Feig polled the women who worked on the movie to ask what they would put on to celebrate breaking up with somebody or getting out of a toxic relationship, and the Kelly Clarkson song won in a landslide.<\/p>\n

Relying not only on test audiences but his cast and crew is central to Feig\u2019s filmmaking philosophy. \u201cI\u2019m very democratic when it comes to this stuff, because I\u2019m making commercial movies,\u201d he said. \u201cI have things I\u2019ll fight for, but at the end of the day, if the audience doesn\u2019t respond to it, or if women don\u2019t respond to it \u2014 because I make very female-centric movies \u2014 I\u2019m not going to be the guy saying, \u2018You\u2019re wrong.\u2019 I want to be in service to them so they have the best experience they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Housemaid\u201d is currently in theaters.\u00a0To hear the entire conversation with Paul Feig<\/a> and make sure you don\u2019t miss a single episode of Filmmaker Toolkit, subscribe to the podcast on\u00a0Apple<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>, or your favorite podcast platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Editor\u2019s note: This interview contains spoilers for \u201cThe Housemaid.\u201d] One of the most delightful surprises of the holiday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":544755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,1020,239902,239903,180318,120306,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-544754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-filmmaker-toolkit","12":"tag-filmmaker-toolkit-podcast","13":"tag-paul-feig","14":"tag-the-housemaid","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115963071790683586","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}