Shyamalan: You know, they're all a little bit like therapy, all these movies. They're about something that's bothering me or family things. I'm always working them in, in kind of like a journal way. But it does represent the things that are on my mind. I think everybody in our generation is starting to worry about these types of things right now, certainly in an election year and everything. It's thinking about the future. It's interesting, with a slew of kind of end-of-the-world movies, the anxiety that's in the air sort of mimics the '50s, the same kinds of anxieties that were about our future. Where are we headed? Are we going in the right direction? Is it too late to change course? All [of that was] in the back of my head. I never thought I was actually all that serious a person. But when I sit down to write, I guess more adult things come out.The idea of plants having consciousness is sort of a non-Western world view. Night, did you consider that as coming from your other influences? And for the cast, can you comment about the spiritual side of the film?

Shyamalan: Definitely. The first thing, it's interesting, because the Native American culture, that's all it's about. My middle name, Night, it's an American Indian name. That is what I would feel so attached to when I was a kid, to the American Indian culture, was their relationship to nature, and worshipping the sky, the earth, the rock, the bear over there. That relationship felt correct then, as a kid, and it feels correct now, as an adult. And it's interesting how in all our religions so little is said about how we should feel towards nature. It's an interesting thing to kind of get the hierarchy back in line with kind of the way it is, because we're just one of many living creatures on the planet.And the cast's thought on the spiritual aspects of this film?

Wahlberg: Well, I think Night cast me because of my strong faith. But then we'd do a take, and he'd be like, "That was great. What were you thinking about?" I was like, "Jesus." He was like, "Oh, we got to do it again!" Literally.

Shyamalan: We had this conversation. "What were you thinking about?" "Jesus." "What?!"

Wahlberg: He said, "Oh, my God. I really liked that! What were you thinking about?" I said, "Jesus, baby." "We got to do it again." But obviously, you know, yeah, I think he cast me because of my faith. Somebody asked me why Elliot survived, and it's because he had so much faith and hope.

Deschanel: I mean, I think as much it can be interpreted as a philosophical message as much as a spiritual message, in that faith can be spiritual or it can also be a philosophy. So I think the movie raises questions, and any time you're raising questions you're inspiring people to think about things. And I think that's really good, because I definitely came out of seeing the film feeling like I wanted to question my own beliefs.

Leguizamo: I haven't seen the movie. I didn't see the flick. I don't know why. Probably because I'm a pagan, and people who have no faith weren't allowed to see it. [Laughs.]

Wahlberg: No, because it will convert you, baby. You will be touched by the hand of God, trust me.

Leguizamo: I'll be touched by something. [Laughs.] But what I loved about the script [is] I think great writing has a message, has some heart, and has something to say about the world and the state of human beings and the human condition. And that's what I love about the screenplay. There was that message that's missing in so many big Hollywood flicks that don't have a point of view, don't have some visceral thing to say to make us feel something. And I loved that about the movie. I loved that it had a point of view, and that it wasn't afraid of that.You have a protagonist who's a science teacher, and near the end you have a talking-head scientist who speaks about the limits of rational thought. How does that tie into the whole spiritual message?

Shyamalan: Right. Well, you know, I was reading the Einstein biography when I was writing the screenplay. I don't know if you've read that book. It's just fantastic. The new one, by Isaacson. A beautiful, beautiful book. One of the things I was struck by—and when you read the book you may not even see that it's in there, but I saw it in there—was that Einstein was this guy ...

Wahlberg: He converted?

Shyamalan: Yeah, he rejected religion and became atheistic, did his wondrous things in his 20s and got really into it. Then in the gaps in science he started seeing a hand, you know? In his point of view, the hand of God, a divine kind of "Is there something there?" His life struggle was finding an overall formula, an overall thing that could define the design of things, and a belief that that was there. And then he became very religious again. The ultimate man of science became a man of faith. And in a way, when I was writing Elliot, it affected Elliot. He's just a high-school science teacher. He has plenty of gaps in his knowledge of science. I said, "You're just a regular science teacher. You're not going to be the hero that figures out something. It's not like that. But you see in those gaps ..." He honors those things in the gap. That's why Mark felt like the right casting, because obviously he's a man of faith, you know? In the things that we don't know, the lack of need to define it in the closest category is something inspiring when I see that in somebody, whether it's Einstein or Elliot's character or in Mark. And so it is a kind of question of science to almost give evidence to something else.For the cast, can you talk about playing your characters?

Wahlberg: I was paranoid because I was some high-school dropout. I wasn't a good student, and I had to portray a teacher who was actually really good at his job, and the kids loved him. I didn't tell Night that. I don't know if he knew too much about my past. But I definitely got a GED science book and spent a lot of time walking around the Ben Franklin Institute, following kids around on their class field trips. In other films, I've spoken other languages, and it's one thing for me to be able to say the words, but I obviously need to feel confident enough to understand them, to convey them.

Leguizamo: It was a departure for me to play somebody, I guess of ... a little upgraded kind of character, in that kind of intellectual way. But I tutored calculus in college. The kids all failed, but ... I transferred to a different college after that.

Deschanel: So they couldn't find you? [Laughs.]

Leguizamo: I also tutored Spanish. The kids all failed that, too. But there's only so far a teacher can take students. That's why I washed my hands of that. But I felt confident. I enjoyed it, because math to me in college was the only thing that I felt you could believe in, that was finite, that had answers, and it kind of helped me through those years. And then I dropped out of college ... when I felt too confident. [Laughs.]Zooey, how about dumbing down to play the ditzy wife?

Deschanel: "Dumbing down"? You thought I was ditzy? I was supposed to be a therapist, with a Ph.D. I don't know. That's doctor to you!

Shyamalan: When I wrote the characters they all had some aspects of me, things I was struggling with or thinking about. So Zooey's character is kind of the person that's scared to be vulnerable. They're scared to be vulnerable, and kind of use humor to deflect that feeling of "I don't want to risk myself." The movie's really about the state of where we are now in the world, the paranoia, how we feel toward strangers, to each other, to other countries, to everything in the sense that we don't trust anybody. I was saying that Mrs. Jones [Betty Buckley, who plays a lonely, bitter old woman] is kind of the ultimate version of her character. Like, if she kept on going, she would close off everything and distrust everybody. So we went that way in talking about her, and really that's the part of me that wants to protect myself and kind of jokes about it and tries to undermine it, but it's really a delicate thing of me to kind of go, "It's better to protect myself. Let me protect myself like everybody else is protecting themselves." Which is exactly the opposite of what I tell my kids. I tell them, "Be completely vulnerable. Take every hit you can, because that'll allow you to feel all those great things that are gonna come: love, all the joy, creativity, all that stuff. It will always outweigh the amount of hits you're gonna get. Although you want to protect yourself from those little hits." So really the struggle of the movie was her struggle, which is my struggle, which is "Is this an appropriate way to be, this person?" Which is the way I am naturally. "Is this an appropriate way to be, or is this the right way to be?" The struggle of whether to question it or not.

Wahlberg: He's all the characters.

Shyamalan: John's character for me is ... I'm the guy with the numbers. I always give numbers. "There's a 34 percent chance that we're gonna be OK and duh, nuh-nuh-nuh." Again, in many ways they're similar, because he sees beauty in math as well. So when he tells that story when they're dying in the Jeep, he tells that beautiful riddle, saying, "If you just double that penny, at the end of the month you'll have over $10 million." It's amazing, the properties of math. And he tries one last time to teach this little girl in the jeep, "Isn't math wondrous? Do you want to hear one more story about it?" Again, they each see something kind of bigger in their fields. Whereas Alma's the person kind of deciding whether the world is that way, or is it really kind of a crappy place? So that was what they were all setting out to do. And in all of them, the first thing I wanted to do was ... but literally, it was an agenda, and I know this sounds silly, but I wanted to pick the most likable cast that I could possibly put at the center of the movie. Because you can get a great actor, but they come from a dark place, you know? And then if you put that at the center of this dark movie, the movie would just go, whuuuush [he points down]. It'd be unbearable. But they all come from a place ... they don't know it, they don't know why they do it ... that's their gift; they come from a place of light, all three of them. And to put those guys and all the rest of the cast, even Betty Buckley, who chose to play Mrs. Jones, [is] kind of trying to have light, and then it just messes up. It just messes up for her. A whole cast of actors coming from light was right at the center and that's why the movie, even though it's so dark, has such a great light to it.Is this a popcorn movie to you? And is it possible to have a popcorn movie with a personal message?

Shyamalan: Yeah, definitely. One of the things that I said to everybody, the cast and crew, I said, "This is a B movie. Let's get ourselves straight here. This is just a great B movie. We're making the best B movie we can here. That's our job. We're making a B movie. If the themes of the movie have something that stick with you, great. Great. But we're not gonna put that in front of the movie. We're gonna have a lot of fun. It's a paranoia movie. We just need to pound away. That's our job." I was really clear about that. So in that way it was meant to be entertainment, but I think all of my movies are a little bit of that. One reporter, I think it was yesterday, was saying, "How come you just don't go make a pure popcorn movie and then go make an art movie, because it seems like you want to do ..." The problem is that both are my instincts, to have one leg in each place, which sometimes pisses off one group and then sometimes pisses off the other group. And my wife says, "Just make one or the other." I wish I could, but as it ends up I do think about all these kinds of spiritual things, and I do love cheeseburgers, and I do love Seinfeld, and I do love Coca-Cola, and I do love Michael Jordan. It's just me. So if I took one side away, the side that really loves to read about philosophy and these kind of things, if I just pretended that didn't exist, it would be a lie. And if I pretended I wasn't jumping up and down watching the Celtics last night, that would be a lie as well. So it's that balancing act. I keep trying to be honest here.The Happening presents a nightmare scenario, a worst-case nightmare for most people. Could you each share your greatest fears in real life?

Leguizamo: We're getting a little personal here. [Laughs.] I'll share with you my second biggest fear. ... My first big fear? No, I can't do that. Wow. To be asked about my big, that's my big fear! That Obama doesn't win this fall. That would be terrifying. That would be my most horrifying fear; that would really depress me. And math wouldn't even help me then.

Deschanel: I would have to agree with you. That's a big fear.

Leguizamo: That's terrifying.

Wahlberg: I don't even want to think about that. .. You guys ever been to jail?! Then you'd be scared.One more question about science. What did playing on science in The Happening allow you to do that you couldn't do with fantasy?

Shyamalan: I was talking to a science reporter. ... Well, let me go back a second. When I came up with the idea, I said to the research people, "Give me every piece of information. I want to know from a 1 to 10 whether this idea is totally-totally possible, probable or impossible completely." And when they came back there was a stack of information about how the environment works and the plants work, and examples of anomalous things that have happened in the world, and how a cotton plant can send out a signal to the other side of the field to tell them that this insect is coming. And they sound out poisons and they send out toxins. All these things [are] happening in a smaller form [in real life]. It was really fun ... I talked to the University of Massachusetts and some other institutes about how the brain works and toxins and how they affect each other. It was really fun to ground ... in a way I have done two movies where there wasn't any supernatural, The Village and this. And it was kind of fun, because in the process of the research there were all these cool scientific facts that came out about other cool s--t to write about and make movies about. It was really a fun source of finding more conversations about faith. Just looking into science I found so many more wonderful things. So maybe that will be a fun way to go.