Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund (‘Triangle of Sadness’) and his costar Woody Harrelson have a blast doing a virtual Q&A [WATCH]

When the Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund woke up on Oscar nomination morning to find out he’d scored nominations for picture, directing and original screenplay for his feature “Triangle of Sadness,” it was a moment few could have predicted. And while few are giving the outrageous dark comedy to have much chance of converting any of the film’s three bids into wins – if it were somehow to win Best Picture, it would be perhaps the biggest upset in Academy Awards history – that didn’t stop Östlund and his esteemed costar Woody Harrelson from gabbing about the movie and their clear fondness for one another in a 20-minute virtual Q&A. Watch their interview of one another above.

“Triangle of Sadness” tells the story of what happens when the super-rich couple Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean) onboard a hyper-luxury yacht are forced to deal when the vessel is shipwrecked after a storm, stranding them and a rogues’ gallery of fellow wealthy guests on an island. They’re also forced to interact with the ship’s captain (Harrelson), an avowed Marxist. Stealing scenes along the way is Dolly De Leon as the ship’s toilet cleaner, Abigail. In fact, many expected that if the film was going to snare any Oscar nom, it would be De Leon who would get it for supporting actress.

The Q&A is a clear lovefest between Östlund and Harrelson, who said he’d decided to sign on to “Triangle” after watching several of the director’s other movies. “Now I don’t know how you’ll ever get rid of me,” he says. “People talk about there being a lot of takes, but I don’t remember that because every take was fun and it was like, ‘Let’s try this’ and ‘What about this?’ and ‘What about that?’. You made it like we were at a playground. We were having fun. There was no down side, no losing, no wrong direction.”

Harrelson asked Östlund if the last take was always the best on their “Triangle of Sadness” shoot. The filmmaker replied, “No the next-to-last is the best one. (On the) last one, people are pushing too much.”

Östlund then asked Harrelson how he felt about his captain character’s Marxist back story and how relatable he found it. “Well, I was very fascinated by the part. As you know, I’m a Marxist, anarchist, capitalist, redneck hippie, so I have all of these conflicting (impulses). But the Marxist thing, I thought it was beautiful because you’ve got a Marxist captain working on a $250 million luxury yacht. So it just has to be eating at him, the hypocrisy of his life that this is what he’s doing. Which is why he’s a drinker. He’s trying to deaden himself with the alcohol, and he couldn’t be more delighted when all the shit starts happening. He wants chaos and bedlam and for the capitalist bourgeoisie to suffer. It was a great part to get.”