Giovanni Ribisi Talks Debut As Cinematographer On ‘Strange Darling’

In a business where many actors aspire to direct, Giovanni Ribisi is focusing on something different with Strange Darling.

Opening in theaters on Friday, Strange Darling—which is written and directed by J.T. Mollner—is a serial killer thriller that takes a refreshing approach to the filmmaking experience. Told in six chapters that are presented out of sequence, Strange Darling begins with Chapter 3, where a man only known as The Demon (Kyle Gallner) is racing to find and kill The Lady (Willa Fitzgerald) following a lurid erotic encounter gone haywire.

With so many twists and turns that are accompanied by a shocking revelation, Strange Darling can only be described as a film where not everything is as it seems.

Forbes‘Strange Darling’ Star Willa Fitzgerald On Unique Serial Killer MovieBy Tim Lammers

Ribisi, of course, has been a mainstay on the Hollywood landscape for nearly 40 years, playing a wide array of characters in films like Steve Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Sam Raimi’s The Gift and James Cameron’s Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water. Also among Ribisi’s 100-plus acting credits are roles in such TV series as Friends, My Name is Earl, The Offer and Waco: The Aftermath.

Ribisi is hardly a novice, though, when it comes to cinematography. In fact, his desire to shoot films dates back to his grade school years when he started appearing in film and TV projects as a child actor.

“I grew up with a camera in my hand. My mother was a photographer and she went to art school at Berkeley in the ‘60s,” Ribisi told me in a recent Zoom conversation. “So, we kind of had that visual medium in our blood and in our bones. She was just always [that way and] still is. She’s actually doing another show coming up here in November.”

Ribisi said that his desire to become an actor at a young age stems from the excitement in theaters via the blockbuster movie era, when he was 9 or 10 years old. Looking back, though, Ribisi wonders what would have happened if he had chosen the cinematography path instead.

So, instead of letting the thoughts of “what might have been” eat away at his psyche, Ribisi decided to take a leap by not only producing—but shooting—Strange Darling with his friend Mollner.

While Ribisi is completely grateful for his career as an actor, he noted, “At a certain point, I think during the midlife crisis moment that seems to perpetuate in my life, I decided to more or less come out of the closet and try this thing that I’d been chasing and working towards for the last 15 years, shooting commercials and music videos.”

Forbes‘Strange Darling’ Star On Originality Of New Serial Killer ThrillerBy Tim Lammers

Still, the idea of shooting a feature film was lingering in the air for Ribisi. But instead of letting the thoughts of “what might have been” eat away at his psyche, Ribisi decided to take a leap by not only producing—but shooting—Strange Darling with his friend Mollner.

“J.T. and I had known each other for several years through a mutual friend who was working at Kodak at the time and he would send me screenplays,” Ribisi recalled. “It’s very important for me that when somebody sends me something, I try to read it immediately. And this one just spoke to me where I saw it as being something. It was an 83-page script that was possible to do with the infrastructure that I have and all the gear that I’ve been accumulating over the last 15 years.”

As such, Ribisi didn’t take long to let Mollner know that he was ready to take his leap as a cinematographer with Strange Darling.

“It was small, attainable and still challenging, and it just seemed to check off a lot of boxes for me,” Ribisi said. “Within 15 minutes I called him and said, ‘I want to do this and I want to be involved.’”

Knowing his friend’s knowledge of cinematography and his passion to make it happen, Mollner gave Ribisi his first feature film assignment as a director of photographer on Strange Darling—even though Ribisi said the writer-director was aware of the risks of employing a first-timer.

“I think that as an actor, people, if you want to do cinematography or any sort of technical vocation, you run into [people who say], ‘Oh, that’s cute, But he trusted [me],” Ribisi said. “And not only that, it was in an environment where I could make mistakes or I could do just as any cinematographer would, even experienced cinematographers.”

Now on the backend of the experience as Strange Darling coming out in theaters, Ribisi said he is grateful for Mollner’s “undying loyalty” for backing him on “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Ribisi Shot ‘Strange Darling’ On 35mm Film

Since he was interested in cinematography at such a young age, Giovanni Ribisi grew up on film and TV show sets cognizant of just how important the job of director of photography was.

Still, the longtime actor admits, doing the job himself was quite an adjustment from acting.

“It’s a different universe doing cinematography from the job of acting. I mean, it’s like a real job,” Ribisi said. “You’re usually the first one on set and the last one out, and it’s such a technically-oriented discipline compared to something that is really sort of founded in an emotion. It comes from an emotional perspective.”

Forbes‘Strange Darling’ Filmmaker On How His Twisty Horror Tale Came To LifeBy Tim Lammers

If stepping into the world of cinematography wasn’t unique enough for Ribisi, he went about completing his job the old-fashioned way—by shooting Strange Darling on 35mm film instead of digital.

“It’s funny how things evolved, especially in the last 15 years, because for over a hundred years, film was the only medium,” Ribisi said. “And that was, if you wanted to go make a movie, it was that, or 16mm or sometimes 8mm. But the medium was film and celluloid. I found in my experience, even as a cinematographer, that [working with film] is easier. There’s just less technology encumbering the whole process and there’s a lot more focus on the task at hand.”

Rated R, Strange Darling is new in theaters on Friday.

ForbesM. Night Shyamalan’s Thriller ‘Trap’ Gets Digital Streaming DateBy Tim Lammers