While we’d begrudge you from going down the rabbit hole of explainer articles for mother!, the chance to listen to writer-director Darren Aronofsky discuss the film with his F CinemaScore brethren William Friedkin is something not to pass up. Recently gathering at the Director’s Guild of America following a screening of his divisive biblical horror film, their full 34-minute talk is now available to listen to.

They work through a number of topics, from Aronofsky’s initial inspiration of Luis Buñuel’s The Exterminating Angel, the main allegories of climate change and biblical tales (no word on the artist metaphor), writing the original script in five days, and how Paramount gave him the money (“It came down to the number and Jennifer Lawrence.”)

Being that this was at the DGA, he also touched on more technical aspects, including three months of rehearsal with the main cast, then he shot a two-week rehearsal with everyone which resulted in a 110-minute edit to work from. Aronofsky also revealed that the edit took 53 weeks, the main reason being was orchestrating from only three types of shots (POV, over the shoulder, and close-ups on Lawrence) with very little coverage.

Check out their discussion below, along with our spoiler-filled on on the film.