Ari Aster Had To Have This Mariah Carey Song in ‘Beau Is Afraid’

The Big Picture

• Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid explores a disturbing relationship between a middle-aged man and his manipulative mother.
• Aster was determined to secure the rights to Mariah Carey’s hit song “Always Be My Baby” as a symbol of the dysfunction in the film.
• The director personally wrote a letter to Carey, who approved the licensing and praised Aster’s talent and artistic vision.

Ari Aster has expertly produced and directed some of the most viscerally provocative A24 Studio films, including Hereditary and Midsommar. These are two of the most disturbing films of the 21st century and stand on their merit. But perhaps his most “WTF?” movie is also his most recent A24 entry called Beau Is Afraid. Joaquin Phoenix stars as the emotionally troubled, middle-aged Beau Wasserman, a man who is so psychologically damaged that he has a difficult time just living from day to day. And like many of the best characters in cinema, the troubled relationship with his mother is at the root of his issues. Beau is like Norman Bates without the evil streak. The thought of even holding a butcher knife would likely send him into the throes of a panic attack.

No, Beau’s problems with his socialite mother, Mona Wasserman (Patti LuPone), are much more nuanced and deep-seated. He lives in a mental prison that she has created for him and holds the key to. When Aster was depicting the bizarre and surreal quixotic journey of Beau trying to make it home for her funeral, he knew he would need a particular song to be the backdrop for the most pivotal moment in the movie. And he wasn’t going to be denied in his efforts to get one of the biggest pop stars of the last 50 years to sign off on the rights to one of her hit songs.

What Is the Mariah Carey Song Ari Aster Had to Have For ‘Beau Is Afraid’?

The love/hate relationship between Beau and Mona is the steadying force that cuts through an otherwise bizarre story filled with unhinged characters and surreal atmospheres. Mona has always used a toolbox full of manipulation tactics to keep Beau under her thumb. Their borderline Oedipal relationship is a result of her not wanting to let her son grow up and have his own life separate from hers. Aster has always had a knack for telling stories in a variety of ways, and Beau Is Afraid is no different. “Always Be My Baby” is one of the diva’s most well-known and successful songs, and Aster absolutely had to have it to symbolize the dysfunction that made Beau the shell of a man that he became.

The Lyrics of “Always Be My Baby” Read Like a Synopsis of ‘Beau Is Afraid’

If you just look at the lyrics from Carey’s 11th song to top the Billboard 100 charts, they read like a synopsis of the Aster movie. She sings the chorus in her unmistakable ethereal and melodic dulcet, “You’ll always be a part of me. I’m part of you indefinitely / Boy, don’t you know you can’t escape me? / Ooh, darling, ’cause you’ll always be my baby. / And we’ll linger on / Time can’t erase a feeling this strong. / No way you’re never gonna shake me. / Ooh, darling, ’cause you’ll always be my baby.” If you’ve seen the film, you know that every single line of the chorus applies to the disturbing relationship between a son in his 40s and a mother who refuses to cut the figurative umbilical cord with him. The way that Aster uses the song is a stroke of genius layered with a deftly interwoven backstory that makes it even more compelling.

Ari Aster Wrote a Letter to Mariah Carey Asking for Her Blessing

There wasn’t a lot of extra money floating around to make Beau Is Afraid. A stellar cast including Phoenix, LuPone, Parker Posey, Nathan Lane, and Amy Ryan doesn’t come cheap. The budget for the movie was $35 million and is one of A24’s most generous backings, but what they were going to have to pay Ms. Carey for the rights to “Always Be My Baby” was sure to be astronomical and not within the realm of possibility. Co-producer Lars Knudson explained to the New York Times how Aster became obsessed with acquiring it, “Ari had written a first draft of the script over 10 years ago, and ‘Always Be My Baby’ was in it from the very beginning. I honestly didn’t know how integral and crucial it was to him to have that song until we were in the edit, but we knew that it was going to be very expensive and that Mariah might not approve it. There was a feeling like, ‘Look, we’ll try, but we likely won’t be able to afford it.’” That was all Aster needed to hear, and he set out to land the hit ballad for the movie.

Aster was so determined to get the song that summarizes the relationship between Beau and Mona Wasserman, that he personally penned a letter to the pop star asking for her permission to use it. Knudsen called it “a very beautifully written letter” to the singer that pleaded his case. Sure enough, Carey admired his vision and approved the licensing, saying, “I was quite intrigued. Then, as I watched the scene, I was a bit shocked at first because of my prudish nature (ha!), but immediately understood the importance of that particular moment.” The scene she is referencing is when Beau engages in a sexual encounter so orgasmic, his longtime love Elaine (Posey) dies, further tormenting Beau’s fragile psyche. Elaine has been paid by Mona to “deflower” Beau and play that particular song as they are engaged in the act (Yes, you know how screwed up it is if you’ve seen it).

Carey also gave Aster a further endorsement, “I’m really happy with the way people are responding to it, and thrilled that Ari is being recognized for his talent, creativity, and artistic vision.” Aster praised A24 Studio for the latitude he was given to make such an ambitiously bonkers film, saying to The Hollywood Reporter, “I still can’t quite believe I was given the resources and the freedom to make this in the way that we did.” It is a crucial climax to a strained relationship, and as a film lover, it’s rewarding to see that a director will work so hard to have his vision executed perfectly. If you somehow can’t identify with the Kafkaesque journey of the main character, you have to relate to the relentless work put into it.

Beau Is Afraid is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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