Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. A fable that’s a warning to modern America about the fall of the Roman Empire, Coppola’s innovative curiosity and experimentation have created a feast for the eyes and a thoughtful conversation about humanity’s need to evolve or risk destruction. Megalopolis is rare in its spontaneity and focus, which welcomed an open discussion with its cast.
Megalopolis is a Roman epic fable set in an imagined modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.
In celebration of Megalopolis, The Koalition spoke to actors Giancarlo Esposito and Nathalie Emmanuel about their approach to their characters, how the Roman epic compares to today’s times, working with Francis Ford Coppola, and more.
In New Rome, Mayor Frank Cicero is unpopular and in debt, unwilling to support Cesar’s experimental idea or any ideas about anything new. Instead of changing for the future, he deeply believes in helping people now. However, with a city in chaos and crumbling on every block, he appears to be more talk than action.
“I don’t know whether you really see [Mayor Franklyn Cicero’s] corruption,” said Esposito. “I think he’s trying to do things in the right way, dealing with a system that’s corrupt, and he really does care about New York on a very deep level. He wants to elicit change, but many times our elected officials don’t have the room to do that or the courage to follow through with their instinct to be straight. When it comes to his family, he loves his daughter so very much that he sees her in jeopardy, and he’s going to try to do something that’s going to save her from the monster that is Caesar. Then he is in a position where he is up against it, and so he tries his system of blackmail to allow his daughter to have to preserve her for what he thinks he should be, and it all flips on him. He then has to change himself. I love this particular character because he does have to get to a place where he sees things differently, convinced by Julia and understanding the new world will leave him behind if he doesn’t want to take part in it.”
The experience of making Megalopolis was unlike anything Emmanuel had done before—Julia is the daughter of the mayor, played by Giancarlo Esposito, who is unwavering in his traditional mindset and in his approach to both his job and life. He loves his daughter and fosters their tight-knit relationship, but because she has everything money can buy, she’s bored, allowing her intelligence and gifts to go to waste. Then comes Caesar, a man who fascinates and loves her. After a world-wind romance, she finds herself being pulled between these two intelligent and powerful men who hate each other. She struggles to be her own person, to find her voice, but it’s unfair to her to sacrifice one relationship for another.
Julia represents women whose thoughts and ideas are not taken seriously, and voices are not allowed to be heard. “Julia wants to be useful. She wants to help people,” says Emmanuel. “I think the good thing about all of these characters is they all want to help others, and Julia is trying to figure out what she thinks and how she can be useful. She’s a smart woman; she might not necessarily be when we first meet her, living a life that doesn’t have much direction, and she’s sort of living lost and aimless. She’s having her fun and trying to work it out. The fact she discovers this man who sees something in her, and suddenly there’s all these potential new ideas that directly challenge the upbringing and the values she’s been brought up with. It’s a really complex character I get to play with. Ultimately, just like her father, just like Caesar, she wants to see a better future. She’s just working out how to do that.”
One of the most important lines from Megalopolis is, ‘Don’t let the now destroy the forever.’ It asks the viewer to think larger than just ourselves and our personal goals. “In our society, the story is an ancient story of Caesar, and Caesar wasn’t accepted back in that day. He tried to coup six times, and they ran him out of town. What survived was the old way,” says Esposito. “In Francis Ford Coppola’s mind, in this new vision, the new way is the route to go. I think it lies very deeply within each and every one of us to ask ourselves if we’re truly being honest about what our future looks like, and we’ve allowed power and money to rule us. We’ve allowed wars to go on two different sides of the world, and we call ourselves humans. We’ve allowed ourselves to take a stance and to disagree with everyone, and then to put hate in between it. This is a great statement this film is making; it’s allowing a little pinhole of a vision of a new world and a new way to go.”
Esposito, who praises Coppola as an artist and a leader, was grateful to the director for allowing his actors to explore and try new techniques when creating Megalopolis. “This is a very courageous man who is in his maturity, who’s seen so much of his own life, who’s experienced love loss on many different levels. He’s experienced success; he’s seen so much, and in a way, this fable for the future is a little root for us to see that we can be empowered to change the world.”
Megalopolis is in theaters on September 27th. To learn more about the movie, check out our full interview in the video above and our interview with Francis Ford Coppola.
