Cruella Director Craig Gillespie Explains Why There’s No DVD Commentary, Reveals What Stories He’d Tell If There Were

Cruella was released earlier this year, and it didn’t take long for Disney to announce a sequel, which will see the return of Emma Stone in the titular role as well as director Craig Gillespie. While fans will probably have to wait until at least 2023 for the sequel, they are only days away from the release of the movie on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD. The movie will be available on physical media starting September 21st with lots of exciting bonus features. However, one feature you shouldn’t expect is a commentary by Gillespie. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with the director, and he revealed why there’s no commentary and shared the stories he wished he could have told on the DVD. 

“I’d be happy to do commentaries. It’s just, I’ve been so busy lately,” Gillespie explained. “I didn’t quite have the time, but I’d say I always loved hearing directors talk about the films and what got them to the moments they got to and the general stress involved.” When asked if there’s anything he’d want to say on a hypothetical commentary, Gillespie replied, “Well, there’s the two things that I… Well three things, actually. First of all, this scene with [Cruella], with the garbage truck. We had two hours to shoot it, and it was like running around like crazy and grabbing all these shots. Then we had that spectacular scene with her in the back of the garbage truck. They’d built a 65-foot train, with scaffolding off the back of the truck that moves. We had eight minutes to get it before we were going to get kicked out of there. So we’ve got two takes, and I turned to my AD, it’s one minute left and I’m like, ‘Can we get another one?’ He’s like, ‘Nope.’” 

“Then the other thing on the day that we shot her at the fountain, final fountain scene. We had shot listed that, and technocrane there, and Dolly tracks and all the toys,” Gillespie continued. “I got up that morning, we’re shooting at dusk, and I was listening to some music. As I was looking at the shot list, I just had this feeling. I just wanted it to be one take, handheld. I called Emma and I said… I sent her this music I was listening to for the mood, and I said, ‘I just want to do this one take. I want to shoot at dusk. I’m going to start shooting. And I’m just going to keep shooting until it’s dark, so you’re not doing anything wrong. We’ll just get as many takes as we can.’ We ended up getting, I think seven takes. It’s just… And the sixth take, which was the one… It’s like three minutes long, this scene… It’s hitting every moment. She’s doing an absolutely amazing job. It’s heartbreaking, and as she turns to leave the camera jams … And immediately I turned to the effects guy. I’m like, ‘Can you split that? Can you start working on that and see if you can split that together with another take, where she walks away?’ And they did seamlessly, they managed… So we managed to get to take it. So it jammed literally like one second after she finished talking.”

“The third scene was the two of them at the restaurant, the Baroness [Emma Thompson] and Cruella. Which, that dialogue is just amazing, and I love that. I get… It’s just a camera clean on each of them, and they just get to act.” 

Stay tuned for more for our interview with Gillespie where teases the upcoming Cruella sequel. You can also watch the full interview at the top of the page.

Cruella is now streaming on Disney+ and will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on September 21st.