Childhood trauma from Director Laurel Parmet’s real life helped lead to the premise for 'The Starling Girl.' And the cast revealed that this script and shoot forced them to take a closer look at some preconceived notions.
00:00It's definitely a departure from anything I've done thus far.
00:03I wasn't seeking it out because nobody was coming to me for roles like these.
00:09I wanted to do something that was scary, that was complex and ugly and beautiful.
00:18And the script was all those things and more.
00:20I think, ultimately, this film is about a young girl's journey to try and realize her own truth and, you know, what happens when women's desires defy society's expectations.
00:38It started from a personal place. I had a similar relationship when I was a teenager with an older man, and then after it ended, I had felt a lot of guilt about it.
00:49Flash forward some years after I, like, tucked all of those feelings away and I was in Oklahoma doing research for a totally different project and at a rodeo met a group of women from a Christian fundamentalist community who were proselytizing.
01:03I was curious about them maybe for this other project and I spent some time with them and I went to their church and, you know, learned about their beliefs.
01:10And I was really struck by how much we had in common, actually, just in terms of, like, attitudes towards our own sexuality.
01:20And it brought me back to how I felt about my relationship when I was a teenager.
01:24It made me really reflect back on it in ways that I hadn't before, just in, I kind of realized the guilt that I had felt and I was like, why did I feel guilty when he was the one that took advantage of me?
01:34And it was this really very eye-opening experience.
01:36And so I decided that I wanted to tell a story, make a film looking back at my experiences and set it in this world.
01:44It wasn't that hard to say yes.
01:48Um, it was a brilliant script and it's something that Laurel has been working on for a long time.
01:55So when I read it, it just felt complete.
01:59I don't know.
02:00I think Laurel has a very rare type of screenwriting where I think you told me you have a rule where the action in her script can't exceed four lines.
02:11And I know some screenwriters do not follow that rule, but I think it's, I don't know,
02:17it just made the story shine for me when I was reading it.
02:20Spit and Bananagrams was a clincher.
02:25We played when we weren't shooting, when we were waiting for the rain and the electrical storms.
02:29We had a lot of lightning storms that would delay us.
02:32Yeah.
02:33I whipped out the Bananagrams and that's how we bonded.
02:36One day you dropped it on the table and I was like, this is this.
02:39What are you guys going to do?
02:42Yeah.
02:42What's that?
02:42There's a foam, a sharp foam with like that dance routine.
02:47And then that we would, I was trying desperately to learn it and failing.
02:50And so Eliza and I would do that together.
02:52I feel like both who Eliza is as a person, like Eliza is so incredibly present that in some ways
02:58I feel like not only the preparation you do, you know, for a job, but also just being able to fall
03:04into a scene with her and same for Jimmy.
03:08You know, there's just, I feel like you start to get that gauge as an actor as you go along and
03:12you do it for a while that you can kind of understand.
03:15Like there's just, you feel an energy and you just think I can jump into this fast
03:20with these people and trust.
03:21Mm-hmm.
03:22We also, we did rehearsals too.
03:23Oh yeah.
03:24Luis and Eliza came out a week early and we rehearsed together and just like really went
03:30through the scenes and really played around.
03:33Like, cause we knew on the day, like it was going to be really fast paced.
03:35It was, you know, a tight schedule.
03:38So we wouldn't have been able to like try things out.
03:41So really like we gave ourselves the space in the rehearsal to just like play, try this thing,
03:46even if it's wrong.
03:47And I think that was a good way to like build trust too.
03:51Yeah.
03:51Yeah.
03:52I think we all kind of judge things that are different, especially when the structure is
03:55rigid and it looks like it might be uncomfortable for those applying it.
03:59Um, uh, but, uh, Laurel was, she was so prepared, uh, to, to deliver this story with no judgment
04:07that all of the information she provided, it did, it opened me up.
04:12I, I don't prescribe to it now, but you understand.
Be the first to comment