Danny Ruhlmann talks Anyone But You, Filming Challenges

Anyone But You cinematographer Danny Ruhlmann spoke with Solzy at the Movies about the film and some of the challenges in filming.

My conversation with the cinematographer came shortly before the film’s December 22, 2023 release in theaters. Ruhlmann discusses how he joined the project in addition to his experience working with Will Gluck. If you’ve already seen the film, he also discusses the challenges that came with filming some of the scenes. I won’t spoil them in this paragraph for anyone who has yet to see the film.

The film is now playing in theaters.

It’s so nice to meet you today. How are you doing?

Danny Ruhlmann: Yeah, I’m pretty well, thank you. Life is not too bad. I’m excited to see this movie come out and see what happens, ee what eventuates from that.

How did you first become attached to working on Anyone But You?

Danny Ruhlmann: The director, Will Gluck, had worked a number of times with an Australian executive producer by the name of Catherine Bishop. She was very much determined to use an Australian cinematographer. I think Will may have had some local people he wanted to work with but it was because of pre-production spanning over Xmas and New Year’s and that was all over the holiday season, it was a bit difficult for people to commit to that. In the end, they decided it would be better to use a local cinematographer. Although I’ve been living in the States for 10 years or so prior to Covid, I think I’ve got a nice mix of being considered a local Australian cinematographer, but also having that international experience.

What was it like to work with Will?

Danny Ruhlmann: I love Will. He’s a super smart guy and very confident in his filmmaking process. I think he surrounds himself with good people and he just lets them do their thing. Ultimately, of course, he has his opinion and he may change things up a bit. It’s a very much a collaborative effort. He’s also very determined to keep things as real and as natural as possible.

We filmed almost all of this film in real locations, rather than studio sets. Even the interior of the 747 aircraft, all the interior helicopter work—we did it all for real with the actors. Will and I were crammed in the back of the helicopter, the actors were in front of us, we were flying around the city at night. He just wanted it all to be as real and authentic as possible, which was kind of unusual at first, but I really enjoyed working that way.

That puts an entirely new perspective on the plane scene with a cookie and getting stuck.

Danny Ruhlmann: (Laughs) Yeah, that was tricky. It was a very hot day when we film that scene. This aircraft is part of an aeronautical kind of museum, just outside of Sydney. It was donated to these guys by Qantas so you can go there and tour the aircraft with the retired captains and engineers. We had a lot of extras on board. It was really hot and because of the audio requirements, we couldn’t really use air conditioning in that aircraft so it got even hotter, more hot than it needed to be. For the cookie scene, that was tricky because we couldn’t remove any seats. It was a tight squeeze in there. We were all kind of stepping over each other and it was it was challenging.

Was there a shot that you found challenging from a cinematography perspective?

Danny Ruhlmann: The most challenging sequence, in a general sense, was the harbor sequence at night in front of the Opera House. And then, to be more specific, that was the one that I found was kind of most stressful leading up to that point because working on boats and lighting actors at night in the harbor, it’s tricky stuff. Every little wave or the wind change. We had two barges full of lights and then we had two barges for camera equipment and camera cranes. We had a flotilla of maybe 10-12 vessels and just coordinating and controlling all that stuff was the most stressful situation for me. It wasn’t technically very difficult but it was definitely something that I was concerned about leading up to that point. I was definitely very relieved once we got it in the can.

Yeah, it’s always amazing with the work that goes into these sequences that are shot on water.

Danny Ruhlmann: Yeah. I mean, what was even more so with this one was leading up to the point of shooting, we then realized that the studio lawyers would not allow the actors in the water because they were worried about shark attacks. At quite a large expense, the producers had a shark cage built that was large enough for our actors to swim in. It was also dragged along by a jetski. It sat just below the surface so it was difficult to maneuver that. At times, we had boats hitting it and it was really tricky. But whenever you’re working on water, it’s fraught with potential disasters. It’s difficult, really difficult.

At what point did you know that Will was planning this whole cast sing-along at the end of the film?

Danny Ruhlmann: He kind of mentioned it a few times in pre-production. I didn’t really think about it too much and didn’t really pay that much attention to it. Will kept saying, Make sure you give me enough time to do the sing-along. Anyway, I think the first time we did it was in the nightclub scene where they reunite for the first time and we had all our extras singing in the background. It was actually really fun because these extras had been there for two days, they’d worked really hard. They all knew the song and they sang with so much enthusiasm and we thought, oh, this is cool. He really made it a priority that we should that sing along as much as possible and he felt it was a very important part of the film.

Yeah. Having watched Easy A several years ago, I wasn’t surprised to see Will find a way to put Natasha Bedingfield on the soundtrack again.

Danny Ruhlmann: (Laughs) Yeah. He really understands pop culture. I think he surrounds himself with interesting younger people who keep him in touch with what’s kind of interesting and cool. Whether it’s his daughters or production assistants, there’s a lot of input from outside influences, I think.

Is there a secret to lighting Sydney Sweeney or Glen Powell?

Danny Ruhlmann: Well, shooting in the city of Sydney, Australia in the middle of summer is not always easy, because the light here can be very, very harsh. My plan for Sydney and Glen was that they always look like movie stars and like people you can easily fall in love with, almost perfect. I mean, they almost look perfect anyway. As far as making them look as good as possible, it wasn’t that difficult because they look great. Where possible, I used to be big overhead screens just to soften the daylight, the sunshine. I kept them back lit as much as possible. I just tried to protect them from the harsh light. That was the main thing that I had to do.

Was that spider real, fake, or was it added in CGI in post?

Danny Ruhlmann: It was absolutely real. It was a big real spider. The spider handler was saying, it’s fine, the spiders—they’re harmless and whatever. Sydney was up for anything. She’ll do her own stunts if asked. She’s very physical, likes to get involved. She was just holding a spider and the spider was crawling up her arm and she’s repositioning that in between takes. I think it just got to the point where the spider had just had enough and ended up giving her a bit of a bite. Sydney did the take again. It wasn’t like the scene was over, she kept working with this spider that had just bitten her and she was a real trooper.

I would have been freaking out and would have probably done the same thing that Glen’s character did and throw all my clothes.

Danny Ruhlmann: (Laughs) I don’t think that was a lot of acting from Glen’s point of view either. He was scared of that spider. Sydney was definitely the brave one when it came to the spider.

Unless I knew for sure that it was a radioactive spider that could give me superpowers.

Danny Ruhlmann: (Laughs) Yes, that’s right. Well, it was a good story, but she was very brave and she handled it very well.

It was so nice chatting with you.

Danny Ruhlmann: Thank you very much.

Anyone But You is now playing in theaters.

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