Oscar-Winning Mexican Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron Claims He Can’t Do TV: Too Late To Learn

Five-time Oscar winner Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron shared his experience of directing ‘Disclaimer’ and how challenging it was for him , according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Cuaron made his feature film debut with the romantic comedy ‘Solo con tu pareja’, and directed the film adaptations ‘A Little Princess’, and ‘Great Expectations’.He gained much popularity for directing the fantasy film ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’, the dystopian drama ‘Children of Men’, and many others.

The challenging aspect for him was directing the psychological thriller miniseries ‘Disclaimer’. “I realised I’d never done something overtly narrative. And maybe, okay, I don’t know how to do it [TV]. That was part of the motivation,” Cuaron said at the Toronto Film Festival.

He added that TV was out of his comfort zone, “I said, guys, I don’t know how to do TV. I think it’s too late to learn how to do TV. I’m not interested in learning how to do TV. I do films and if [I do] this, I will approach it as a film.”

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‘Disclaimer’ is a 2024 psychological thriller miniseries written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Renee Knight. It stars Cate Blanchett and Kevin Klein.

“I know how to do films, and I’m not very fast,” Cuaron opened up about his early discussion to take up the project. Cuaron worked with his long-time cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, another veteran of the Mexican film industry.

“At least in his collaboration, we’re always bouncing ideas. I get so involved in his lighting, and he gets involved in my directing. It’s very organic,” said Cuaron.
“‘Disclaimer’ tells the story of Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett), an acclaimed journalist who has built her reputation by revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Cuaron appreciated Blanchett as another key collaborator. “She’s so involved in each one of the process, with the screenplay triggering rewrites, and with casting, I was conversing with her all the possibilities, and if she was hesitant, I wouldn’t go there,” Cuaron added.

He remembered his early days as a director along with Mexican filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro G. Inarritu. “We love each other. We trust each other and we’re brutally and painfully honest with each other. The conversation isn’t easy when we’re collaborating and showing each other films. I’m terrified, because I know it can be tough,” said Cuaron .

“And sometimes me, or the other person is listening, and at the end you can tell the other person is listening and at the end is upset, and myself I feel they didn’t understand anything,” he added.

‘Disclaimer’, his seven-part psychological thriller, will have a Canadian premiere in Toronto. The Toronto Film Festival continues through September 15, as per The Hollywood Reporter.

(With Inputs From ANI)