Robert Pattinson & Co’s photo explained

Polygon interviewed Robert Eggers and asked the question a lot of us have been wondering [Warning: the article contains major spoilers for The Lighthouse]:

There’s a picture of you, Willem, and Rob at Cannes where you’re all flipping the double bird. What’s the story behind that picture?

I really regret that because it looks so full of ourselves. But also, because the movie is so dumb and so flagrantly vulgar and over-the-top and making huge, bad choices and sticking to them wholeheartedly, I’m shocked that the movie hasn’t been more overwhelmingly divisive. When you’re swinging for the fences and just hoping that it works, it’s a scary thing to do. So I don’t like that we’re giving the middle finger there.

That’s not why we’re doing it, but it must be said that Valeriia Karaman, who plays the mermaid, that was her thing. She was always doing that. That was her hello, her goodbye, her dance move, [she’d do it] jaywalking in Halifax at police officers. [Cringing] “No, don’t do it!”