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As the sun started peeking through the clouds after a sudden desert deluge, the stars and filmmakers turned out for Variety‘s 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards brunch at the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs on Sunday morning.
The annual event, held the day after the Palm Springs International Film Awards, honored Dwayne Johnson with the Creative Impact in Acting Award, Teyana Taylor with the Creative Impact in Breakthrough Performance Award and Guillermo del Toro with the Creative Impact in Directing Award.
Colman Domingo presented the award to Dwayne Johnson, saying, “Congratulations, my friend, you are a rock!”
Johnson then told a story about his fellow honoree, del Toro, and when he attended his first Golden Globes ceremony as a presenter the year “The Shape of Water” was nominated.
Johnson was surprised to be seated up front at “The Shape of Water” table, where he met del Toro, who was “so kind to me,” Johnson said. After del Toro won the Golden Globe for best director, he came straight to Johnson, hugged him and exclaimed, “We did it!”
“And I went, ‘We did do it!’ and I’ll never forget that, and everyone after that was coming up to me and congratulating me,” Johnson laughed.
Johnson was honored for playing MMA fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine,” saying, “It changed my life in ways that I didn’t anticipate, discovering things about myself.”
Johnson spoke about Kerr, who had overdosed twice, the toll of drug addiction and dealing with pressure. He counts 15 friends he has lost who died from drugs or suicide. He said. “This role gave me a greater level of empathy…and the realization that, you know who is really going through something right now? Everyone. We’re all going through it.”
“This one goes out to everyone who’s going through it and who’s fighting,” Johnson concluded.
Teyana Taylor was introduced by her “One Battle After Another” co-star Chase Infiniti, who said her role as Perfidia Beverly Hills “truly burned a hole through the screen.”
Taylor said that 20 years into her career, being celebrated as a breakthrough “feels a little ironic.” She gave a shoutout to her two young daughters at her table, exclaiming, “Are you on your phone?”
Speaking about her decision to retire from music five years ago because she felt boxed in, she compared herself to a Glade plug-in scent. “Why only plug me in a bathroom, when I can make the whole room smell good?”
“You’re going to plug me in every single outlet! I want to take up every square foot!,” she said. “There have been so many incredible directors I’ve been fortunate to work with, but none as impactful as Paul Thomas Anderson.” Taylor is preparing to direct her first feature film, she said.
Oscar Isaac introduced del Toro, saying in Guillermo’s cinema, “transformation is constant,” adding he has “redefined what genre cinema can be” and brings “poetry to horror.”
Del Toro spoke about his “religious experience” as a child when he first saw James Whale’s “Frankenstein,” and then said he was very grateful to have Sara Karloff, daughter of the iconic “Frankenstein” star, as his guest at the brunch.
“Sometimes the world gets so complicated, you can only explain it with the power of monsters,” he said. “We are in a time like that right now.”
“A director has to have two skins — a thick one for the business and the world, and a thin one for their collaborators and their heart,” del Toro said, lobbing pithy quotes one after another.
“It’s not just the size of the screens, it’s the size of the idea,” he continued. “Ambition includes failure – it’s right next door to success. There are no numbers on the door. You’re going to knock on that door, and it’s going to open, and it’s either a supermodel of your dreams or your mom in curlers.”
He directed his next remarks to the Variety 10 Directors to Watch table, saying, “Be kind, be involved, believe in your art. At a time when people tell you art is not important, that is always a prelude to fascism. They think they can debase everything that makes us a little better, a little more human. And that, in my book, and in my life, includes monsters.”
Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge introduced this year’s 10 Directors to Watch, explaining that honoree Dave Green is stuck in Puerto Rico due to flight restrictions. All the filmmakers except Green and Harry Lighton were present at the brunch.
The directors to watch are Akinola Davies Jr. (“My Father’s Shadow”); Beth de Araujo (“Josephine”); Jan-Ole Gerster (“Islands”); Sarah Goher (“Happy Birthday”); Dave Green (“Coyote vs. Acme”); Chandler Levack (“Mile End Kicks”); Harry Lighton (“Pillion”); NB Mager (“Run Amok”); Kristen Stewart (“The Chronology of Water”) and Walter Thompson-Hernández (“If I Go Will They Miss Me”).
English (US) ·