To be a member of this particular family, sugar, junk food and any electronic device are prohibited. Also, you need to know how to survive in the wild without help, have a high-level international politics conversation and embrace the alternative lifestyle, do you want to be part of it? Something like this was the contract signed by the protagonists of Captain Fantastic, the film starring Viggo Mortensen that is broadcast tonight at 10:30 p.m. on La Sexta.
Matt Ross directs this film about a family with an alternative style of education that faces the system. Tonight at La Sexta at 10:30 p.m.
The film tells the life of Ben and Leslie Cash, a couple who have raised a family outside the system, with homeschooling and a self-sufficient camp. When a tragedy forces them to return to the civilization we know, the Cash philosophy is called into question.
This way of life that may seem like science fiction is based on the real life of the film’s director, Matt Ross. The filmmaker spent part of his childhood living in communes and, although the film is not autobiographical, he has used part of his experience to build the idyllic life of the Cash. “The personal is not always autobiographical. My mother started or was part of the birth of alternative communities. And I always say that because they were not ‘hippie’ communes. People were not ‘hippie’. That is reductionist and imprecise. It was the 80s, it was different, “he explains in an interview with SensaCine.
Some of the houses had electricity and plumbing, others did not… In summer we lived in a tent. I think the most autobiographical thing is that I felt the need to be surrounded by children my age
So Ross was very clear about how to prepare the actors to be part of Captain Fantastic. The young performers – George MacKay, Samantha Isler, Annalize Basso, Nicholas Hamilton, Shree Crooks and Charlie Shotwell – signed a contract when signing for the project whereby they could not consume sugar or junk food for the duration of the filming of the film. They were also unable to bring electronic devices to the recording. So they got a little closer to the reality of their characters, but it was not the only thing they did.
Nature is a very important component in the feature film, so the cast had to prepare in this regard as well. They embarked on a two-day survival trip, in which they slept together in a hut they built from ferns. They learned to track, build a fire, read a lot, and learned how the world’s political systems work.
George MacKay, in addition to all this preparation, had to practice yoga between 3 and 4 hours a day since he was given the role to be able to replicate the postures that his character had to do. He says that was the hardest part of the shoot, without a doubt.
If you want to know the result of all this effort, tonight on La Sexta at 10:30 p.m. they broadcast Captain Fantastic.
