Interview: Rudy Mancuso on ‘Música’
While Música may be the directorial debut of Rudy Mancuso, the multi-hyphenate has been steadily building a career as an actor, musician and content creator for the past decade, amassing over 1 billion views through his YouTube channel, opening for the Brazilian dates of Justin Bieber‘s Purpose Tour and even appearing in YouTube Red’s Keys of Christmas musical variety special alongside such names as Mariah Carey and Ciara. Música, however, marks his first official step into the realm of filmmaking, bringing his unique blend of comedic timing, musical talent, and creative vision to the screen.
“Everything I’ve done leading up to Música has been an audition or test run of various ideas that became moments, scenes or sequences in the film,” he says. “If you’ve seen a lot of my previous work from music videos I’ve made to even compositions for other people’s work to the short videos I’ve published online, you can see what moments of the film are reminiscent of some of those styles.” While Mancuso may be known for his popular YouTube videos and a number of viral comedy sketches he put together on Vine, he’s always had his eye on filmmaking in the long-run, even making an appearance as Albert Desmond in Andy Muschietti‘s The Flash. “The long-term goal for me was always to make a film,” he says. “To write it, direct it and make the music for it. So everything leading up to this has been some kind of audition for this moment.”
Música follows Rudy, played by Mancuso himself, a young street performer from Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood who possesses a unique perspective on the world due to his rare condition called synesthesia, which transforms everyday noises into intricate rhythms in his mind. Balancing college classes, puppet performances, and his relationship with girlfriend Haley (Francesca Reale), Rudy grapples with his inner musical world while living with his mother, Maria (Maria Mancuso), who urges him to settle down with a local Brazilian girl. Seeking guidance from his best friend Anwar (J.B. Smoove), Rudy’s life takes a chaotic turn when he encounters Isabella (Camila Mendes), a woman who may understand him like no one else. Finding himself in a tumultuous love triangle, Rudy attempts to navigate his cultural heritage, relationships, and the melodies inside his head.
The film’s portrayal of synesthesia, a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway, has been hailed by critics and audience members alike as one of the best put to screen so far, with IndieWire’s Rafael Motamayor praising it as “a good cinematic portrayal of synesthesia that it’ll make you forget all about the other, misbegotten attempts to thread the same needle.” Mancuso was diagnosed with synesthesia himself, he says, a factor that helped him depict an accurate portrayal of the condition.
“There are so many different types of synesthesia,” he explains. “I identify with at least 3 or 4 types. One in particular, which is a musical synesthesia, is the one I chose to depict the most in the film. It’s this involuntary obsession with organizing sound into some kind of musical construct. I’ve never really seen it properly depicted in mainstream film and TV, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to, from an editorial perspective, a visual perspective, and of course, a sound design perspective, really bring that to life where it’s not quite a musical where we break into song, but the musical design encroaches on our foreground in almost every single scene.”
In addition to its authentic portrayal of synesthesia, which differentiates the film against some of its more familiar genre conventions, Música also features pitch perfect performances from every single cast member, including Mancuso’s actual mother Maria Mancuso, who plays his character’s mother in the film. “First and foremost, I knew that my mother needed to play my mother [in the film],” he says when asked how his mother ended up becoming part of the project. “That was non-negotiable. If I was going to have a film loosely based on my upbringing, my mother was going to be in it.” However, the film didn’t fully come together until Camila Mendes, who plays Isabella, boarded the project as both a star and an executive producer.
“It really came down to who’s going to play Isabella because it’s kind of a tall order,” he elaborates. “We needed her to be Brazilian American. We needed her to speak both Portuguese and English. We needed her to be super talented and beautiful. We needed her to have a producerial mind and also be really believable as this Brazilian girl next door. Camila really ticked every single one of those boxes and more. She was really the top dream choice for a long time and it just came down to, does she respond to the material? Was she going to be available because of her busy Riverdale shooting schedule? And we got really lucky that both of those things happened. She responded to the material and she was available, and she ended up really elevating it.”
Mancuso also has nothing but praise for Francesca Reale, who portrays Rudy’s girlfriend Haley, and J.B. Smoove, who appears as Rudy’s best friend Anwar. “Francesca did something with Haley that I was struggling to do on the page,” he says. “She’s already written as somewhat of a two-dimensional character because that’s how Rudy perceives her in the film, but she brought this likability, nuance and a sense of improv to the role that made it a lot smarter.” As for Smoove, Mancuso says he’s been a fan of the comedian “for a long time” and always knew he wanted to work with him on a project. “With Anwar, I knew I wanted to roam free with the dialogue there,” he explains. “I knew I wanted to improv. I wanted to find the character through the actor [who was going to play him]. So once he said he was on board, he and I just shaped Anwar to his sensibilities and it was a dream come true.”
In addition to its exceptional cast, the film is brought to life thanks to Mancuso’s adept directorial skills, which he’s spent years honing through his work as a music video director. One scene in the film – a breathtaking sequence that depicts Rudy quickly going from restaurant to movie theater to nightclub to café as he attempts to juggle two girlfriends while keeping one secret from the other – perfectly showcases his potential as a filmmaker, drawing from the transformative nature of stage sets to bring a sense of theatricality to the film. “I had done these long, elaborate one-takes before in music videos for other artists and for myself,” he says. “So I had the experience of commanding a set where these movable backdrops would assemble and disassemble in real time. Not to this degree, but I had some experience in that. I knew it was possible. But yeah, it was tricky because it could have very easily just been your traditional second-to-third act montage where we watch the character jump through a bunch of different scenarios and tribulations with different locations and match cuts. But what I have not really seen done as much before was a theatrical approach to a montage. So a live theatrical performance that’s all in one-take. I wasn’t quite sure if we pulled it off or if it would work, but after half a day of rehearsal and half a day of shooting, I think we all felt like, ‘This belongs in the movie.'”
While it stands firmly on its own, Música features several references and callbacks to Mancuso’s career as a YouTuber and sketch artist, including an appearance from mischievous puppet Diego, first introduced in Mancuso’s popular Awkward Puppets video series. “I remember talking to my co-writer Dan [Lagana] about what Rudy’s profession would be,” he reveals when asked how that connection came to be. “What does he want to do? Who does he want to be? Because it’s one thing to say an aspiring creator or aspiring musician, but it didn’t feel nuanced or unique enough for the film. So I looked at my actual life and I realized hand puppets are a pretty unconventional passion. And I knew I wanted Diego in the film as a character, so we ended up merging Diego the character with Rudy’s backstory, which is this passion for puppetry. The puppet show becomes the backdrop for his future success. But yeah. I always knew Diego needed to be [in the film] as [Rudy’s] unreliable voice of reason.”
In addition to co-writing and directing, Mancuso also produced the film and composed the score alongside Dan Lagana, who’s mostly known for his work on beloved Netflix series American Vandal. Did he have any reservations about having to wear so many hats while making the film? “There was a time in prep when I started to question it,” he recalls. “Can I manage this? Can I command this set and manage all these different departments simultaneously? Typically, the answer would be, ‘Yeah, of course. No problem.’ But the stipulation here is that I’m in every scene as the lead. So I’m on camera for literally every single scene of the film. There’s not a single moment that I’m not on screen. There were times when I wished I could just sit back and watch the painting being painted. It’s hard to do that when you’re a part of the painting. Composing, writing, directing and acting would normally seem like four completely different departments, but to me in this film, they’re so heavily interwoven that it almost felt like one big hat instead of various small hats; writing the music was happening as I was writing the script. Directing was happening as I was acting, so it all felt like one co-job.”
As Mancuso steps into the director’s chair with Música, he not only fulfills a lifelong dream but also demonstrates his ability to seamlessly integrate his numerous skills and talents into one cohesive cinematic experience that audiences will undoubtedly find charming and endearing. Joining the upper echelon of YouTubers turned filmmakers, including Bo Burnham with his acclaimed coming-of-age film Eighth Grade and RackaRacka with last year’s surprise horror hit Talk To Me, Mancuso has solidified his place as a promising filmmaker with a bright future ahead.
Música debuts on Prime Video on Thursday, April 4.