Steven Soderbergh faces his fears
THE FILMMAKER CONTINUES TO VENTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN WITH HAUNTEDHOUSE MOVIE PRESENCE
WORDS BETH WEBB
Chloe (Callina Liang) senses some paranormal activity;
The doorbell footage from tonight would be good
Time to call Dan Aykroyd.
Illustration: Russell Moorcroft
“THERE HAS TO be an aspect of it that scares me. There’s got to be something that’s keeping me up at night.” Steven Soderbergh is telling Empire about his motivations as a filmmaker. For his upcoming movie Presence, that fear can be attributed to a few things. Firstly, it’s about a mysterious, invisible entity floating around the confines of an old family home, a premise inspired by a series of occurrences involving a deceased woman witnessed in Soderbergh’s own abode by his housesitter. “There were incidents in the early years of, ‘Did I leave that light on? Was that door really closed?’” he remembers. “But I have to say, that all stopped, like, four or five years ago. I think either she moved on or [was] bored.”