EVG Q&A: Darren Aronofsky on 'Caught Stealing' and revisiting the East Village of 1998

Darren Aronofsky (in the green shirt) as seen filming on 6th Street last fall 

Photos and interview by Stacie Joy 

Director Darren Aronofsky filmed parts of "Caught Stealing" in the neighborhood last fall, recreating a 1998 version of the East Village with authentic details, including signage from Kim's Video and Benny's Burritos at their former storefronts. 

Adapted by Charlie Huston from his novel of the same name, this crime thriller — with some welcome humor — premieres Friday. In the area, the film is showing at the Village East by Angelika, AMC Village 7, Regal Essex Crossing, and Regal Union Square, where it had its debut on Tuesday night.

The story focuses on Hank Thompson (played by a charming Austin Butler), a former baseball star now adrift and working as a bartender who inadvertently becomes entangled in New York's criminal underworld. (The Double Down Saloon on Avenue A between Second Street and Houston represented Hank's workplace, Paul's Bar). 

The cast includes Regina King, Zoë Kravitz, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D'Onofrio, Bad Bunny, Matt Smith and Griffin Dunne.

We'll admit we expected Aronofsky, an Academy Award nominee whose films include "Requiem for a Dream," "The Wrestler," "Black Swan" and "The Whale," to come across as dark and brooding (especially after seeing his bonkers 2017 "mother!"). 

Instead, the longtime East Village resident, raised in Brooklyn, was thoughtful, genuine, and even quick to laugh during a Zoom interview with EVG as he talked about filming on his home turf, bringing back pieces of the neighborhood's past, and how he sees it today. 

Charlie's book is set in 2000. Why did you choose 1998 for the film? 

You know what? It's a good question, and people have asked that, but I don't know. Actually, if I see Charlie [Huston] tonight at the premiere, I'll ask him, because I can't really remember. I think it may have been as simple as the postseason in baseball. And we wanted the Giants. We just, you know, baseball fans are very, very fanatical about statistics, and we wanted to be truthful, and we liked the postseason of the Giants in '98 more than we did in 2000. [Hank, the main character, is originally from the Bay Area and loves the Giants.] 

What was it about that specific moment in New York that you wanted to capture? 

I lived through that time in New York City, and I wanted to share the kind of joy I had back then. 

You've said the East Village was the place to be when you were growing up in Brooklyn. What's one memory from those early days that still informs how you see the neighborhood? 

I think it's always been a very, very kind of energetic, exciting, young place that hasn't changed. Even now. 

I think it's very hard to gentrify our neighborhood too much, and many things have remained the same. It's changed a lot, but it hasn't been destroyed, I don't think, by any means. But, gosh, I mean, from my high school years, which had been in the 1980s, I think it was a lot more dangerous, and there was definitely some really scary criminal things that happened when I was there, just seeing kind of a lot of danger on the streets. Still, the good memories were how you could really flow from event to event. And there was always something happening three blocks away that was interesting. 

Of course, it always topped off with Save the Robots [on Avenue B], which was such an amazing classical mythical place — before I ever got in there. And then, when you do get in there, you just realize it's this tiny room. It was still amazing. 

When you were shooting here last fall, did anything about the neighborhood surprise you, either in how it's changed or how it hasn't?

Definitely, I couldn't believe how much of a circus Friday and Saturday nights have become. It's like being on Bourbon Street, and it's just so crazy with the bridge and tunnel crowd that it's gone to a different level, but the kind of density of the nightlife scene is just on a whole other scale.

Vanity Fair mentioned an anecdote about a woman urinating on a PA from a fire escape during filming here. Beyond that, how did residents react to the filming? Any other unexpected interactions you'll remember? 

Yeah. There were a few comments where people would walk by and go, "Get the f out of my neighborhood." And all I was thinking was like, actually, I'm pretty sure I've been in this neighborhood longer than you have, so you should be getting out of my neighborhood. 

But I think there was an excitement, too. Look, I live here. I know how much of a pain shooting in one's neighborhood is, so I had a lot of empathy for that. We were careful to have a light touch and to involve as many neighborhood businesses as we could, so that we weren't such a drag on everyone. But you can't make everyone happy. You know, when you ask a New Yorker to cross the street, they're just never going to be happy.

Aronofsky with Austin Butler on 6th Street

What little details did you make sure were accurate, that only someone who lived or hung out here back in the late 1990s East Village would recognize? 

All the businesses. I think that has been a really big hit — from Benny's Burritos and Kim's Video, and people have been pretty psyched when they were up, and also when they see them in the film. But we were really careful. 

We went as deep as the graffiti that was up, contacting some of the great graffiti artists from that time period and asking them if we could put some of their pieces up. My designers went really, really deep into every decision on that and presented me tons of photos. 

There were many little things, such as the type of trash piles, which featured a huge selection of bikes. My production designer showed me a picture of it, and it totally triggered a memory of it. But there would just be the weirdest kind of art, sculptural, part-artistic things that were happening in the streets back then, which were fun to recreate.

You folks did a phenomenal job. EVG documented it pretty obsessively. I was super impressed.

Thank you!

The East Village has always had a push and pull between being a stage for outsiders and a home for locals. How do you balance showing its grit and unpredictability while avoiding caricature? 

Oh, I mean, it's always tricky. You know, they call it a cliche because it's often true. So how do you walk down that line? Very carefully. I think we were just honest and truthful. And then, of course, there's always a conversation like, Is that too much? And if it's too much, you pull back.

Was there an instance where you pulled back? 

That would happen more in wardrobe, makeup, and hair, that type of thing. I think in the actual landscape, it's hard, you know. Sometimes with picture cars, sometimes that looks too much like a real kind of collectible car, like a show car, more than like a car that would have been in the East Village that was often like, "Get that Cadillac out of here!" Because if there was a Cadillac parked here in the 1990s, the radio would be gone, and no one would really park that car on the streets here.

If you could drop back into the East Village of 1998 for one night, where are you going first? 

One night? 

Yep, one night. 

I know I always go to Sophie's [on Fifth Street near Avenue A]. Start the night in Sophie's and end the night in Sophie's. It's always my place. Best jukebox, best pool table, best bartenders. 

Can't argue. Best black and white cookie?

I mean, if I were in the East Village, gosh, I'm totally spacing…What was the Jewish place on Second Avenue that's now a French bakery? What was it called again? 

Moishe's? 

Yeah, Moishe's!

Aronofsky with Austin Butler at the Double Down Saloon on Aug. 17.