I was a big fan of Mike Cahill’s first feature, the existential Another Earth (2011), co-written by and starring Brit Marling. Now Cahill is back with his second film, I Origins, which explores equally fascinating themes. The film tells the story of Dr. Ian Gray (Michael Pitt), a molecular biologist studying the evolution of the eye. He finds his work permeating his life after an intense encounter with a mysterious woman (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) who ultimately slips away from him. As Gray’s important research continues years later with his lab partner and colleague, Karen (Brit Marling), the two scientists make a stunning discovery that has far-reaching implications and complicates both his scientific and spiritual beliefs. Traveling halfway around the world, Ian risks everything he has ever known to validate his theory.
The level of deep thought and intelligence that Cahill puts into his films is refreshing and rare. I enjoyed sitting down with him in Los Angeles.
Danny Miller: Have you been thinking about the ideas in this film for a long time?
Mike Cahill: Yes, it was germinating in my mind for over a decade. I was really interested in iris biometrics and the eye in general. Just the fact that everyone has their own unique eye is so interesting. If you look at eyes closely or ever see a macro photograph, they’re just so beautiful — like nebulae or images from the Hubble telescope.
And eyes have come to mean so much in our culture.
Absolutely. They have great significance in spiritual narratives and in scientific conversations about the origins of the species. Darwin talked about how complex the eye was and how his theory of natural selection is really set to task to try to explain it. Creationism has used the eye as an element of Intelligent Design.
How eyes are formed in utero is so interesting, too.
It’s the only organ in your entire body that doesn’t grow, it stays the same your entire life. All of this was just incredibly rich material — a complex and a peculiar puzzle — and I kept thinking that if it was assembled in some kind of narrative, we might be able to see that science and spirituality are not at odds with each other.
It makes me think of my son’s eyes. He’s five now but he was born four months early and his eyelids were still fused shut. It terrified us that he’d need surgery or something, but much later, at the moment it would have happened in his mother’s womb, his eyelids just opened on their own. I find everything about the eye so miraculous.
That is such a beautiful story. And how about that feeling many of us have had when we look into someone’s eyes for the first time but we sense a real familiarity? There are so many fascinating aspects to look at here.
How concerned were you with the accuracy of the science in the film?
Very concerned. It’s a work of fiction, of course, but I wanted to be as accurate as I could be as a kind of counterpoint to Another Earth. That story was more poetic — not very scientifically accurate, obviously, although it was inspired by string theory. But in this film I think what was most important to me was capturing the true spirit of PhD students whose mission in life is not about money at all but knowledge. For them, discovery is the most prized gem. Brit’s character delivers a beautiful line after she discovers something one day. Lying in bed that night, she realizes she’s the only person in the world who knows that one thing. There’s something so romantic about being on the cutting edge of human knowledge.
And what’s really amazing about these scientists is that their work is full of “failures.” Very little comes easily. It makes you think about the definition of the word “failure.”
Exactly. I remember when Another Earth came out, we got invited to this science film festival at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. After we screened the movie, Brit and I sat on the stage with this great astrophysicist and string theorist Brian Greene who I really admire. Someone asked him about what it would be like if he spent his whole like studying string theory and then found out that he was wrong. He thought about it for a minute and then said, “I’d be sad, of course, to spend my life pursuing this and then to be wrong, but I also think that turning over rocks and finding nothing is a kind of progress.” And that hit me like a brick. I thought that was such a noble thing to believe — you leave your tracks and let other scientists know certain things were dead ends. That is progress that is devoid of ego. I took almost that exact line and gave it to Brit’s character in this film!
It really makes you revisit the notion of success and failure and right and wrong. What I love the most about your films is that you don’t shy away from asking these really big questions. Do you ever feel a bit tormented by the concerns that your characters are facing?
You know, I used to think that we were just a tiny little blip. Whether we’re here for five years or a hundred years, in the grand scheme of the universe, our presence is very quick and insignificant. But then, one day when I was lying outside in the grass looking up at the clouds as the sun was going down, I saw the moon, I saw Mars, I saw Polaris, the North Star, and I started thinking about how the light from the sun takes eight minutes to get here so we’re always looking at the sun from the point of view of the past. The light from the moon only takes a second to arrive but Polaris takes 400 years. I suddenly realized that even if we’re only here for one second, our light is preserved in the universe forever. It’s traveling at a finite speed into space which is infinite, so our light will travel infinitely. If you looked at the Earth from a telescope that was 400 light years away from us, you’d see 400 years in the past. In that sense, from a scientific point of view, we are all eternal.
Did the film’s allusions to reincarnation change any of your own beliefs on that topic?
I feel like I’m a worm. I kind of suspect there’s something else going on here but I don’t have the language to describe it!
I think the work that you and your two former Georgetown classmates, Brit Marling, and Zal Batmanglij, have been doing has been so intriguing. And it’s very refreshing to see a studio like Fox Searchlight supporting your efforts so strongly.
I am so grateful to them — they have been so supportive of all three of us. And they see the long-term career which is so nice…and rare.
As opposed to only be concerned about opening weekend numbers (even though your per-screen numbers last weekend were very good!).
Right. “Is it a hit or is it not a hit?” That’s just not on their radar, they are really about developing new voices which is so great.
Have any of your feelings about the film industry changed since you made your first feature?
It’s funny — I feel like I just have one toe in “the industry.” I kind of do my thing and I feel very, very fortunate to be able to do that thanks to Fox Searchlight. As an artist, you don’t totally know your voice until you see a few of your films and then you can say, “Oh, now I can see what I’m interested in!” I’m not sure I’m even aware of my common themes until I’m able to juxtapose my films against other scripts that I’ve written and I start to see, “Ah, I’m really interested in identity, I’m really interested in what makes up the self — is it experiences? It is memories?
I love that line that Brit’s character says in the film: “Recognition make me extremely nauseous.” Having talked to her a few times, that sounded like Brit talking about herself! Do you share her discomfort with some of the trappings of this kind of work?
(Laughs.) Brit did improvise that line for her character! You know, I’ll tell you this — I shouldn’t say it, but I remember when I was nominated for a bunch of awards after Another Earth came out. We won quite a few, which was great, but I remember being at one particular awards presentation and just praying that we wouldn’t win! I was just feeling shy that night, I really didn’t want to go up there! Now I’m more comfortable with that and believe me, I’m grateful for any acknowledgment, even if only one person sees the movie — but fame and attention is definitely not my goal.
Take a look at this short feature from the Creators Project about the making of this film: