00:00And there were kind of subtleties
00:28kind of throughout.
00:29And so looking at Kim over a lifetime and really creating the crown, had it 3D printed
00:36and hand painted it, just to make sure that it came across the way that I wanted it to.
00:42And it's the same crown that is used throughout.
00:44It's not like multiple crowns for the different heads.
00:45And so the art department really worked hard to make sure it fit the heads differently.
00:50And so as the youngest version, it really doesn't fit, right?
00:55And so it's kind of hanging off and it's always in danger of kind of like, you know,
00:58because he has to grow into it.
01:00And then the kind of middle age or middle kind of school aged kid, you can almost see the
01:07spaces around it, right?
01:08Because it's something he has to grow into.
01:10And as he gets older, the image of it tilting to the side is really kind of from Biggie Smalls
01:16Kings of New York, that photo series in which, you know, the young man feels like he's the
01:21king of the world.
01:22There's this ego where what was this greatness that's inside of him then becomes almost like
01:29a plague, right?
01:31So now everyone is like, I'm the center of attention.
01:34Everyone bows down around me.
01:36And then over a lifetime, he really kind of grows into that more.
01:40And then it kind of straightens up a bit, you know, and wears it with a certain type of
01:44dignity in which when he was younger, it felt like a burden.
01:47It's almost heavy.
01:48Wow.
01:49And so the details matter.
01:50And then even how the mother touches his face to bring him up.
01:52It was just us.
01:54So we became the men of the house, young princess, soon to be kings.
02:00I was embarrassed of where I lived and the little we had.
02:06I wondered how others perceived me.
02:09There's one scene in particular that the head tilt is really borrowed from iconography and
02:17the idea of how the fingers are situated when he's older and how she tilts his head versus
02:21when he's younger, she kind of snatches his head up.
02:24When he needed her the most is when she was the most gentle and was like this godlike figure
02:30for him in that moment.
02:31And so all those kind of details really play into the film and how touch matters and how
02:36many people touch his head throughout the film in addition to his mother.
02:41They all kind of play a key element in the details of the film.
02:44Which is interesting because you haven't seen her film.
02:47I can't wait.
02:48There's a similar aspect of the way she lifts him up.
02:51That's right.
02:52And it's coming of age too.
02:53It is.
02:54It's a film about vulnerability and love and sex and power and how all those things
03:02co-mingle.
03:03Yeah.
03:04And violence.
03:05And violence.
03:06Absolutely.
03:07That's a big part of it.
03:08And the conversations around that.
03:10And what we learn as young people as to how much of ourselves we're supposed to give or
03:16not give or how we give of ourselves.
03:19But keep our actual self behind a closed door because vulnerability is so terrifying.
03:27And everyone in mind, the period is very particular because everyone can be really buttoned up.
03:36And yet there's these expectations swirling around.
03:39And my main character, Michael, I really have two main characters.
03:43But Michael, when he's in the beginning of the film and he's looking around and his father
03:47is like, oh, this is no place for girls.
03:49And he sees an inequality immediately and doesn't know how to put words to it or how to frame it.
03:56It's sort of like you were saying.
03:58It's like almost information before you're ready.
04:01Yeah.
04:02How do you move through your life with that kind of information?
04:20It's quiet, isn't it, miss?
04:22I think one of the bigger, you asked how we directed our people.
04:35And I think one of the bigger moments was for the character Aisling, who is in the hallway
04:42and directing him through the hallway, that she is also scarred.
04:46And I said to her, you are the representation of humans and what we endure and the scars we bear.
04:57And so it's pretty monumental that you're bringing him through this place.
05:04And it was really interesting.
05:06She's been phenomenal.
05:08Emma Rose is a phenomenal actress.
05:11She took that note so deeply.
05:14And there's a reservation that is so powerful that actors have that I really appreciate
05:22in that they can convey, again, these little micro movements that say a million things.
05:29And I think she really nailed that.
05:31Yeah.
05:32It's so fascinating.
05:33I cannot wait.
05:34I cannot wait.
05:35It's so zoom in.
06:00Hello?
06:02the notion of power now when i mean power i mean the power of the individual inside yeah because
06:10that's what's going to motivate them later in life but also the societal structure that is
06:15bearing down on them yeah and this both happens in different ways yeah in each of your films but
06:20can you talk about that for me it it was really about knowing the actors and so spending time
06:26with even like the the kid actors the children taj and chase to find out just notions and so
06:33talking to their parents about like okay what what does he feel like how does it and so being able to
06:38really um talk to him about moments that were real to help them understand the character they were
06:45playing better um and for me really having experienced these things in my life was really
06:53able to kind of see it when it happened again to them and so when i saw it come across in their
06:58faces okay that's it right like that that's what i was looking for did you see it in the moment or did
07:03you see it in the edit in the moment yeah so i'm a person that i have to see it in the moment in order
07:07to move on and if i see it the first time we're done like we don't i don't need to reach you we're
07:11we got it um and in the film it plays so heavy right like the external forces because that's what
07:19it is like the crown represents all of that and so in the same way that walk that you talk about
07:25i was shy and afraid of what others thought of me
07:27but she told me what carry yourself with pride
07:33but just kind of helping them understand the weight of like these these props even in like what
07:42they meant in terms of like this is what this means for you and so even the oldest character
07:47yeah um he was on set the least amount of time um but i just told him one thing this is what this
07:54moment is for you is you've given this world everything and it's still not enough what does
08:01that feel like to you and he took a beat and like you said they have this well they can just tap into
08:05crazy and then he gave me a performance and i was like great all right we're wrapped that's it
08:12for power dynamics in my film it's again it's the idea that you know we're born into this world we
08:18didn't necessarily ask to come in you know and and it's it's a it's a tricky world to navigate
08:26no matter who you are and um for michael he's he goes in the lamb to the slaughter in in a way
08:37he's so naive and buttoned up and unsure and he sees around him a power dynamic he sees it in his
08:46father he sees it when he looks across the room and he sees these people that are navigating
08:51a world of men but there's two women you know dressed like men and then there's a a sex worker
08:58i was wondering about that yeah and so he sees men who are allowed to be men he sees women who can
09:06only exist in male spaces if they present as men and then a woman who is allowed in the male spaces
09:14because she's commodified and even their names that for example the woman uh dia who played the
09:22the sex worker she is named gilda nobody ever knows anybody's name but i know as i'm writing it i know
09:30gilda means gold commodified so that's her thing
09:34i had to about my life and expose the traumas i cloned to its arm and the name of it will never happen again
09:40all the insecurities i tried to hide pierce through my skin
09:48whatever the world that told me i was never enough
09:52but my shoulders are wide
09:55because that's how she made me
09:58and i was raised to carry a crown
10:01i took an acting class just so i could talk actor and it was so fascinating to be in that class and to
10:10see how actors go through their process mad respect for what they are capable of and
10:18there is a power dynamic on a set as well and it's so i don't i'm sure for you too for me it was so
10:26important it's like listen everybody we're a team this is a community this is a family there were 65
10:33people in total on set which is a lot it's my first film so i had to entrust that they were going to
10:41trust me and they had to trust that i also had their well-being and and i could care for them
10:47and i think all of that is reflexive in the story being told and we're because i was the lamb to
10:53slaughter you know what i mean like so so yeah that power is incredibly important in a story and that
11:02quiet power things that aren't said as we've spoken before and the power of the light and the sound
11:10and there are moments where there's no sound at all in my film and that's oh that's for me a big deal
11:17you know yeah yeah silence is such a powerful thing it knocks you on the butt in a lot of ways yeah
11:24jerry sign for one said like the worst thing that can happen to him when he does a stand-up set
11:28is if people laugh or they boo you can handle it but when they say nothing there's such a power
11:35and like the silence to say like uh okay you know it's it speaks volumes
11:41so
11:48you
11:50you
11:59you
12:03you
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