How M. Night Shyamalan Chose His ‘Glass’ Cameo

M. Night Shyamalan chooses his cameo moments in his films more and more carefully, these days.

Having appeared in several of his own movies, heading into Glass the director wanted to make sure his appearance in the sequel to Split did not distract audiences. He manged to pull off a secret sequel to Unbreakable more than a decade later, so this would surely be an easy feat, right? Well, it took a good bit of planning and consideration.

“It’s important to not derail the movie when I come into,” Shyamalan told Kevin McCarthy of Fox. “I’m the bridge between the suspension of disbelief of the movie and reality. I’m in the middle, there, for them. I’m the author of this and I’m in reality. They’re like, ‘He’s the director! He’s the writer!’ I have to pick and choose. I tend to want to make fun now and wink and make people giggle. So, as early as we can, and not derail them.”

In fact, that same delicate and detailed process goes into every step of Shyamalan’s filmmaking strategy. “I have a process where when I’m done with the screenplay, I make the movie on a piece of paper,” Shyamalan said. “I draw everything. I draw the entire movie from the beginning to end. Every shot. That takes a few months, two, three months. That part is unusual in movie making, to make it before you make it. Pixar, obviously, does that but for live-action to do that… So, for those two shots you mentioned, we were intended: stay with him. In the background, the Beast is beating up all these people and you’re hearing the sound effects and it’s getting more and more out of focus as he’s wheeling away from them.”

Over the course of the extended four-day weekend because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Glass is anticipated to debut atop of the box office in its first weekend, making anywhere from $105 million to $120 million globally. Should the film make $120 million in its opening weekend, the latest flick in M. Night Shyamalan‘s Unbreakable trilogy. Splitopened just over $40 million in 2017 while Unbreakable tallied a $30.3 million opening in 2000.

Glass opens January 18th.