“We shot at the pace of an indie,” explained Cruella director Craig Gillespie. “At the end of the shoot, my AP said to me, ‘We shot almost 2,700 setups in 65 days, which means we were lighting and shooting a setup every 25 minutes.’”

That’s not the only thing that makes Disney’s DIS latest live-action movie unique. On Tuesday, May 18, 2021, Cruella, the origin story of the iconic villain, Cruella de Vil, had the honor of being the first in-theater, red carpet Hollywood premiere for a major studio movie in over a year.

I caught up with the filmmaker to discuss the movie, which stars Emma Stone in the titular lead role, why he wants to work with Disney again and again and expanding the Cruella-verse. 

Simon Thompson: Cruella was the first Hollywood premiere for a major studio movie since the pandemic began. That is a pretty big deal. 

Craig Gillespie: That is crazy. I didn’t realize that, but it is really surreal. It was a tapered down premiere, but I think after everything everybody has been through for the last year, even that amount of human contact is kind of surreal. It’s such a bizarrely pleasant thing. Just having that camaraderie was a fantastic experience.

Thompson: Did you realize the significance of the event?

Gillespie: That it was the first one back? There was an inkling. I didn’t know for sure as I haven’t been keeping track of that stuff. I’m actually in the middle of shooting Pam and Tommy right now, so I was on that set, then I’m jumping into this. It was just great to see everybody did a great job of pulling the premiere together. It was also the first time that I got caught the movie with an audience.

Thompson: I’m guessing that this was the first large audience that has seen Cruella? Did it get the reaction you expected?

Gillespie: To be fair, it’s not quite the real world. There were many friends and family there, a great support system, so you’ve got to consider that. I’d got it to a point where I feel like I’ve got something that’s working. That happened with I, Tonya too. It was daunting going into the Toronto Film Festival. We showed it to 1,200 people there, and we’d finished it two weeks before we went to the festival. This one, I had the luxury of showing it to groups of five people, people that I respect the opinions of, about a half dozen times before COVID shut everything down. I cut Cruella on the set, and I’ve used the same editor for six movies. I was cutting scenes as we went, throwing music on them, and she’s sending me cuts the next day. Within the first couple of weeks, we know what was working or if there was a problem. So, because of that, I felt confident with the film. Actually, I showed it to one person, and they didn’t like it, and that was surprising and made me think, ‘Maybe I’m wrong?’

Thompson: When the embargo lifted, the reaction on social media was overwhelmingly positive. Did you check any of that out?

Gillespie: I didn’t look at them, but I started getting texts from friends. I was shooting that day, and as I left the set, I got a text from Disney saying congratulations. It was the first I heard of it. Then somebody else texted me to ask if I’d seen the reaction. I said I hadn’t had a chance and asked what was going on, and he sent me a bunch of screengrabs. I wasn’t aware it was being screened or that the reactions were coming out that Friday. It was really gratifying and a nice surprise, so I wasn’t able to stress about it.

Thompson: This is not the first movie you’ve made for Disney. What is it that makes you keep wanting to work with the studio?

Gillespie: Overall, they’re amazingly supportive, but then specifically Sean Bailey, the President of Production at Walt Disney Studios DIS , because he used to be a producer and writer, I think it’s so filmmaker friendly and so supportive. He has some great ideas in terms of working on narrative and tone, so I feel like you can talk to him as a filmmaker. Having him in my corner has been huge.

Thompson: This is a big-budget Disney movie, and it looks incredible but was there anything that didn’t cost a small fortune that is a standout element of the film?

Gillespie: It’s funny because whatever the budget is, it’s never enough, but I literally approached it like an independent film. We shot at the pace of an indie. My cast was so capable and fast, efficient, and good at their craft that I could do that. At the end of the shoot, my AP said to me, ‘We shot almost 2,700 setups in 65 days, which means we were lighting and shooting a setup every 25 minutes.’ I like that pace because there’s an energy to it. When we’re quickly grabbing stuff and then jumping to the next thing, and it just keeps everybody loose. One little thing that gets a big reaction is the opening of the champagne bottle. It’s the biggest laugh in the movie, and it’s just a champagne bottle popping.

Thompson: Paul Walter Hauser, who plays Horace, is your biggest cheerleader. He loves you. Paul told me that you directing Cruella was a bigger deal sealer for him than it being a major Disney movie.

Gillespie: I love Paul. We discovered each other with I, Tonya. Paul has this amazing way of having humor constantly within the scene but having it be so much more layered than that, feeling the pain or the empathy under the character. It’s such a rare thing to be able to do both, particularly when he’s going for the jokes. There’s always still this human being underneath. I wanted him for Cruella. He’s kind of my like my secret tool because he’s unbelievably good at improvising. What’s also so wonderful with Joel Fry and Emma Stone, as they are in so many scenes together, is that they can just go with it. There’s nothing that Paul could throw Joel that he couldn’t react to. There’s a scene where they pull up in a van, and they’re not supposed to say anything but Joel says, ‘Alright, let’s go ruin someone’s night,’ and Paul’s like, ‘You mean the Baroness?’ and Joel stops then comes back with, ‘Well, who else would I be talking about?’ and they do this whole riff.  We got a lot of that stuff in there, but Paul would give us a different line each time when we were doing a scene with him. There’s a scene involving a rat, he makes a comment about it being a hybrid, and he gave us something like six different lines. Together we’d come up with something, and that would inspire something else. They were always able to provide that little extra.

Thompson: I asked Paul and Joel about doing a Horace and Jasper spin-off TV show for Disney+. They are down for it. I think that would be great.

Gillespie: That is true. We talked maybe the fantasy of doing another Cruella because we all had so much fun together. I’d be happy with that. I feel like we were able to crack the code on this, what its tone was, and with the characters, there was this evolution of self-discovery for everyone. We’ll see.

Cruella lands in theaters on Friday, May 28, 2021, and is also available on Disney+ with Premier Access for a one-time additional fee.