Which silent film icon inspired Jenna Ortega's portrayal of an android in Klara and the Sun?
Jenna Ortega drew from a legend of silent film for her performance in Klara and the Sun.
Jenna Ortega was inspired by silent film icon Buster Keaton for her performance in Klara and the Sun.
The 24-year-old star plays the title role in Taika Waititi's new flick and drew on Keaton's physical comedy for her depiction of the robot doll.
In an interview with Collider, Jenna said: "A big reference for us was Buster Keaton because there's so much in the script. It's Klara falls over, Klara trips, Klara runs into wall, Klara whatever."
The Wednesday actress explained that The Electric House star's deadpan facial expressions also influenced her work in the movie.
She said: "You think about someone like Buster who's doing so many stunts and still had this sort of detached expression in reality.
"It just kind of felt like it naturally — Klara being artificial and not real, and yeah, her messiness."
Klara and the Sun contains plenty of amusing moments as Klara tries to navigate human life in her attempts to befriend Josie (Mia Tharia) - the sick girl she was purchased for - and Waititi did his best to strike a balance between introducing comedy and maintaining the heart at the centre of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel that the movie has been adapted from.
The Thor: Ragnarok filmmaker said: "Sometimes, you know, there'll be cuts of a film which are all jokes, but you can't connect with the characters and you don't feel anything.
"In other ones where it's like more just drama and you've kind of like lost the sort of spice that you wanted in the first place."
Waititi explained that experimentation with scenes is key.
He said: "You say, 'Okay, let's do one. We can be a bit sillier. We can do try something really ridiculous.' I never know when I'm on set exactly what it's going to be."
Klara and the Sun is particularly relevant in the modern world given the prevalence of AI but Waititi claims that the technology was not a major consideration during the making of the movie.
The 51-year-old director said: "I'll be honest, when I wrote this, I had only heard a few conversations about AI.
"We just made a film about a robot who happened to be, like, more human than the family that she got bought by.
"And, you know, I wanted to just make something that was just a really human story about a sort of sweet robot."
