Denis Villeneuve on Why Cell Phones Are “Forbidden” on His Sets

Add Denis Villeneuve to the list of directors who ban cell phones on their sets.

The Dune filmmaker recently sat down with the Los Angeles Times for a larger conversation about creating movies, in which he discussed technology and his relationship to it on set and off.

“I feel that human beings are ruled by algorithms right now,” he said. “We behave like AI circuits. The ways we see the world are narrow-minded binaries. We’re disconnecting from each other, and society is crumbling in some ways. It’s frightening.”

Like most people, Villeneuve admitted that he finds the concept of cell phones “addictive” because someone can have access to any information at any point. “It’s compulsive,” he added. “It’s like a drug. I’m very tempted to disconnect myself. It would be fresh air.”

The Blade Runner 2049 director noted that, like Christopher Nolan, he also bans cell phones from his sets because it distracts from the project at hand.

“Cinema is an act of presence. When a painter paints, he has to be absolutely focused on the color he’s putting on the canvas,” he said. “It’s the same with the dancer when he does a gesture. With a filmmaker, you have to do that with a crew, and everybody has to focus and be entirely in the present, listening to each other, being in relationship with each other. So cell phones are banned on my set too, since day one. It’s forbidden. When you say cut, you don’t want someone going to his phone to look at his Facebook account.”

While there were previously claims (quickly clarified) that Nolan didn’t allow chairs on his sets, Villeneuve shared that he and his Dune cinematographer did, in fact, refuse to sit while on the set of the Timothée Chalamet-starring franchise. But it was for a different reason.

“When I did Blade Runner, I had a back problem because I was sitting a lot,” he told the publication. “So for the Dune movies … [we] decided to stand, to have minimal footprints so we could be flexible and go fast, to keep the blood flowing, to be awakened.”