Interview: Michael Pitt and Mike Cahill On Their Metaphysical Thriller ‘I Origins’

Preston Barta // Film Critic

I ORIGINS | 113 min. | Rated R | Director: Mike Cahill | Stars: Michael Pitt, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Brit Marling, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi, Venida Evans, Cara Seymour, Rhonda Ayers and William Mapother

Mike Cahill’s ANOTHER EARTH follow-up, I ORIGINS, is one of the finest movies of the year. It explores themes and ideas that cause us to reflect and think about life in a whole new way. No matter how much trust we have in science or fate, this film successfully brings our attention to the complexity of our physical structure, which we rarely recognize.

We had the chance to sit down and talk to the film’s writer-director, Cahill, and his leading star, Michael Pitt (BOARDWALK EMPIRE, HANNIBAL), about movies that have left them feeling changed and their perspective of the film business.

I ORIGINS opens on July 25.

Preston Barta

I have been working as a film journalist since 2010, dividing the first four years between radio broadcasting and entertainment writing in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In 2014, I entered Fresh Fiction (FreshFiction.tv) as the features editor. The following year, I stepped into the film critic position at the Denton Record-Chronicle, a daily North Texas print publication. My time is dedicated to writing theatrical film reviews, at-home entertainment columns, and conducting interviews with on-screen talent and filmmakers, as well as hosting a podcast devoted to genre filmmaking (called My Bloody Podcast). I've been married for ten happy years, and I have one son who is all about dinosaurs just like his dad.