00:00After the first season of Silicon Valley, I wasn't a serious regular.
00:03I got paid day rate, $900 for three days.
00:06So I saved up like $2,700 and I'm like, this is obviously not sustainable.
00:11So I went and got the oldest Prius that was still qualified to drive Uber.
00:16This Prius with a hundred thousand miles from 2006 for like three grand.
00:21And I drove Uber from like between season one and season two of Silicon Valley using
00:26that car.
00:26Wow.
00:31I'll ask questions about the movie, but first I did want to ask you, Vera, your director
00:35statement video with your dog throwing up in the middle of it and interrupting you.
00:39Was that, that was totally an accident or that?
00:42It was completely an accident.
00:43Also, she never throws up.
00:45Oh my God.
00:46I was, I was legitimately filming what I swear to God was a professional video inside and
00:53it just wasn't coming out right.
00:55And she was father, she was yelling at me while I was doing it.
00:59So I'm like, she, but she never does.
01:01Um, so I was like, okay, we'll go take this outside cause it's not working in here.
01:05And she usually just sits in the sun.
01:07And this time she vomited this time.
01:09She paced all around, but I liked that you left it in and then cut to incredible.
01:15I haven't seen this.
01:15It was much better ultimately than what I was trying to do by myself.
01:19I love that.
01:20Yeah.
01:21It stuck with me and none of the other director's videos stuck with me.
01:24So that's the power of Sesame.
01:26Yeah, absolutely.
01:27Um, and so, okay, something else we've had a few other people coming in with, with films
01:31that, you know, touch on either ghosts, paranormal, any sort of adjacencies.
01:38And several people have talked about having, um, I guess I'll call them interactions.
01:43Um, but has anyone here had any interactions with any sort of spirit, otherworldly, other
01:53side of the veil?
01:57Not yet.
01:58Not yet.
02:00Uh, just gin, uh, for me, in terms of spirits.
02:06Occasionally rum, I know.
02:08Yeah.
02:10That was said very casually.
02:12You're going to have to elaborate.
02:13I mean, it's not like.
02:15Before or after making this movie?
02:16Or while?
02:17Okay.
02:17Before.
02:18It's not like, um, um, it's not like I had like poltergeist experiences or what have
02:23you, but yeah, I've definitely, um, felt and been in the same, I've been conscious and
02:29aware of another presence.
02:31And not necessarily in an ominous way.
02:34I think there was one particular experience, um, when I was younger, uh, when I say younger,
02:40like in my twenties, um, that is too long and involved the story, but I did actually feel,
02:46uh, the presence of someone who owned the estate that I happened to be spending the night
02:51at and, um, felt that she visited me in my dreams and when, and I spent most of my time
02:58apologizing
02:59to her about being in her space.
03:01Um, and then I think I recently lost a very dear old friend of mine, um, to cancer and I
03:09feel her
03:09with me, um, a lot and that's a beautiful thing.
03:13Yeah.
03:13And not to do the, you know, almost cheesy tie into the film segue, but like that does,
03:18this does sort of tie into the film.
03:20Yeah.
03:20Um, but what, what was like the first kernel of idea for this movie?
03:25Yeah.
03:26I mean, for me, I love horror.
03:28Um, so it is oftentimes maybe where I start thinking story and, um, a question had popped
03:35into my, my head fully formed and the question was, can I explore diaspora through horror?
03:42And, um, I'm a child of immigrants.
03:44And so when the question came into my head, it was really about the felt experience of
03:50being a child of diaspora.
03:52So emotionally, that's gotta be longing.
03:54That's gotta be loneliness.
03:56That's gotta be a sense of fragmentation or sort of not belonging anywhere.
04:00And, you know, very much, obviously a story of being haunted by the idea of something
04:05that you never had, or maybe you were never entitled to have, um, ghost story.
04:10Yeah.
04:11It's also my absolute favorite sort of subcategory of horror.
04:16Um, and that was the starting point.
04:19Uh, and, uh, I knew that it was going to be a contemporary story, but I also knew that
04:25I wanted to integrate, um, untold history of the first Chinese, um, communities in America.
04:31And how much of that was something that you just knew inherently and how much of it was
04:35stuff you were researching and trying to.
04:37Oh, I did not know about the Roxbury.
04:38Oh, okay.
04:39Yeah.
04:39Yeah.
04:40The funny thing is, is so I knew it was going to be untold history and maybe to some degree
04:43it was sort of a selfish thing.
04:45Like I would force me to do research.
04:48Um, and I had spent some time in the Mississippi Delta and so was started actually in the Delta,
04:55um, and had stumbled across this documentary by Dolly Lee, which Ryan Coogler also watched
04:59that became the inspiration for the Chinese characters and sinners.
05:02Um, so I was watching, you know, Dolly Lee's documentary.
05:07I was doing a little bit of research about the history of the Chinese communities and business
05:11owners in the Delta during the Jim Crow era and loved that, but also didn't necessarily
05:17find my way in, but I'm in the, I'm in the sort of research hole, right?
05:21So I just literally searched the question, were there Chinese cowboys?
05:27And so far the answer's no.
05:29Yeah.
05:29I haven't found anything, um, definitive, but it, it, what popped up was the Rock Springs
05:33massacre and I was shocked.
05:35I'd never heard of it.
05:36Yeah.
05:37Um, literally kind of bowled backwards and that's, I started digging in and everything
05:44fell into place once I started reading about the massacre.
05:47Um, the, before the three of you did this film, how, what was your interest in horror movies,
05:53the ghost story genre, et cetera, kind of what was your.
05:58I, I, I personally avoided them from, from being traumatized from watching Hellraiser and
06:04then only to obviously with weapons coming out and seeing how, uh, what, uh, an original
06:10story it was.
06:11Because that's what, uh, drew me to it and, and, uh, in some respects I was the, the beast
06:17that was going to play it.
06:18So I wasn't going to overly scare myself.
06:21Did you, did you have, did you, you didn't, you made this after you made weapons, right?
06:24Uh, yeah.
06:26Or.
06:26I did, didn't I?
06:26Was it, was it the shoot after weapons?
06:28Uh, yes.
06:29I think so.
06:30So you, did you have to be convinced for weapons?
06:33Like if you said after watching Hellraiser, did you have to be convinced that you should like
06:37read the script, this horror script?
06:38Or were you already like, okay, now I can give it a try.
06:42No, I, well, I kind of, I watch, I watch Barbarians in this camera, okay.
06:47But the, the old man was actually a friend of mine, Richard Brake.
06:51So that was like, softened the blow.
06:53And so, and so it kind of works out quite well, actually, the whole structure of that
06:59script.
06:59But, you know, the difference with speaking to Vera about, uh, this ghost story and, and
07:06as she's said before about true events, I mean, for me, that's, that was a real hook
07:10for me about telling in some degree, erase stories or highlighting them told through this
07:20genre lens, you know?
07:21So, yeah.
07:22Yeah.
07:22I didn't know, by the way, until we started talking about the film up here that Benny was
07:29traumatized by Hellraiser and, and, and doesn't, and doesn't, doesn't do or like horror.
07:35In the head, in the head.
07:36It's terrible.
07:37Yeah.
07:38And I was like, I saw Hellraiser really young and I had a very opposite reaction.
07:43Yeah.
07:44It feels, I can remember the nightmare.
07:47It just felt really suffocating and I could just, it was only just me and him in there.
07:53Anyway.
07:53Yeah.
07:54I'm actually curious about you guys.
07:57I'm scared of horror films.
07:59You know, I, I wouldn't be able to go to sleep.
08:00I think the last one I saw years ago in theaters was paranormal activities.
08:05Well, that was, that was when I was in college.
08:07All right.
08:08And I was so scared.
08:09I had to turn the night light on.
08:10I had to turn the bathroom light on.
08:11Uh, my roommates were making fun of me, but I think the great thing about the horror genre
08:15is now the stories are getting more and more nuanced.
08:18It's not just like jump scares.
08:20It's not just like nightmare and monsters, um, you know, like weapons, like this film,
08:25like barbarians.
08:26It's just a great story that has a horror element.
08:30So yeah, I was all on board about this.
08:33Yeah.
08:33It's, it's really clever.
08:35There's a restlessness to these spirits.
08:38Why, and why is that?
08:39Why is the reason of that?
08:41And you know, this story of grief and loss and about, yeah.
08:46Yeah.
08:47Honoring what, uh, the people that have come before.
08:50It's like the most humanized horror story I, I, I've read or I've been a part of for
08:55sure.
08:55Yeah.
08:56And working with these legends as well.
09:00Always helps.
09:01Yeah.
09:01Kelly, did it feel like you were making any sort of horror movie or for you, I'm, I'm
09:05obviously without spoiling, it does get into that.
09:07I'm sure it did feel like that, but a lot of the beginning, it's like such a personal,
09:11you're doing a lot of personal acting and your grief work.
09:14Yeah, I mean, in the beginning of the film, I don't think it felt like a horror.
09:19I mean, I think that grief is horrific in many ways, um, when you experience it, but
09:25I very much felt like it was a grounded, like family drama for the first portion of the film.
09:33Um, what was, okay, I'm going to try to say this without spoiling the end, but when you
09:39have your big scene where you're, the final confrontation, thank you, that's a good about
09:46your final confrontation, what were you confronting in real life?
09:50Was that like, what did it look just like, were you, was it, um, practical effects or was
09:55it?
09:56Yeah.
09:56What I was confronting in real life.
09:59I also, I also kept, so it was a practical design.
10:03Okay.
10:03Practical suit, which I kept hidden from Kelly.
10:06Yes.
10:07Oh.
10:08So I hadn't seen it.
10:09Yeah.
10:09I will say.
10:10It's definitely.
10:11I also don't want to give away too much.
10:13Yeah.
10:14So I'll just speak in sort of generalities.
10:16But I think in that moment, seeing the being and, um, the resemblances of, you know, I'm
10:25not, I'm so big.
10:26Um, I was grappling with, I was scared of something I didn't understand.
10:33And I answered that fear with violence.
10:36And I think the end of the film really makes you ask that question.
10:39Like, is that a good way to react?
10:43Um, and how do we move past that to get to healing?
10:48So, uh, I hope I did that without spoiling.
10:51That was much better than my attempt at talking around it.
10:54So I appreciate it.
10:55What?
10:56Okay.
10:56A couple of pivoting to some light questions about the movie that I've been very curious
11:00by.
11:00One, where did you find that house?
11:02And two, your character's wardrobe is incredible.
11:05And he did that.
11:06I love these questions.
11:09Beryl G.
11:10Beryl G.
11:10Beryl G.
11:10Beryl G.
11:11Beryl G.
11:12Yeah, the house, practical location, it's actually, um, so we shot in Vancouver, uh,
11:18well, in British Columbia, and, uh, we were out in a rural area and it's sort of like a,
11:22it's a funny place.
11:24It's, it was like hundreds of acres and kind of an abandoned farm that had once tried to
11:29be a resort.
11:30So it was a very odd place.
11:33The house itself kind of had a lodge feel to it because they wanted it to be that vibe.
11:39There was actually, and I couldn't figure out a scene to do.
11:43There's a perfectly circular in-ground pool in the middle of this farmland in the back
11:48that's abandoned and just like overgrown with like brackish water in the bottom.
11:53It's incredible.
11:53Um, so it, we really lucked out.
11:56That physical location was so cinematic.
11:59Um, and I had particular requirements, right?
12:02I needed a long hallway.
12:03I needed, you know, I had written obviously with certain kind of layout in mind that could
12:08only move so far.
12:09Um, we needed to have woods behind and, you know, blah, blah, blah.
12:12Um, and I needed a ground floor window that an eight-year-old child can conceivably, uh,
12:18God, I'm spoiling.
12:20Okay.
12:20Anyway, there were parameters.
12:22There were requirements.
12:23And so we were lucky to find that location.
12:25Um, and then wardrobe, I have to, you know, so my costume designer, Farnas Kaki Sadiq, is
12:31incredible.
12:32Um, and also I, I came to her with like really a specific vision in mind, um, around, I really
12:40wanted this to be, you know, uh, what is the, the term?
12:44The odd fish out?
12:46Is that the, is that the, the only way you know that English is not technically my first
12:49language is when I try to use the, um, the odd bird, odd bird.
12:54Or odd man out?
12:55Fish out of water?
12:56No, fish out of water.
12:56Fish out of water.
12:57Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
12:59I wanted, um, to, it to be really clear the second they step out of the car into this
13:05new place that they are fish out of water.
13:08That they are both, um, sort of not, they don't quite come together well with each other
13:16as a family.
13:17The unit, the family unit itself is not cohesive.
13:20And then this place that they're clearly moving to, they stick out.
13:24And one of the key places that I could do that with was with Emily's, Kelly's character's
13:29wardrobe.
13:30Perfect.
13:31Um, okay.
13:32Before we run out of time and while this is my, you guys are our last groups, this is
13:35also my last time asking this question.
13:37Everyone that comes through, I'm asking, what was your first job, acting job that gave you
13:44a paycheck where you could, there was something left over and you bought yourself a little treat?
13:47And what was the treat?
13:48Ooh.
13:49Wow.
13:51A little treat.
13:52That's what I wanted.
13:53I can't wait to hear this.
13:54You go first, man.
13:55Yeah.
13:56I can't remember what job.
13:57What was the job?
14:00Um.
14:00And it's okay if you don't remember the exact job that went with the treat.
14:03I don't remember the job, but I do, a significant one is I bought a car.
14:07Uh, it was a Peugeot.
14:11Peugeot?
14:12Peugeot.
14:13205 or 105 and I called it Pegasus.
14:17Yes.
14:18Amazing.
14:19Yeah.
14:19And I, I, I went down to South London and there was a car salesman and I distinctly remember
14:25there was a, a shotgun on the desk.
14:30So that's all I remember.
14:31Wow.
14:32Do you still have the Peugeot?
14:33No.
14:34I went, I went, I'm on a third car now.
14:38Those were the days.
14:39Yeah.
14:40I got a car too.
14:42Uh, it was after the first season of Silicon Valley, I wasn't a serious regular.
14:46I got paid day rate, $900 for three days.
14:50So I saved up like $2,700 and I'm like, this is obviously not sustainable.
14:54So I went and got the oldest Prius that was still qualified to drive Uber.
15:00This Prius with a hundred thousand miles from 2006 for like three grand.
15:05And I drove Uber from like between season one and season two of Silicon Valley using that
15:09car.
15:10Wow.
15:11That's an amazing story.
15:12Yeah.
15:13That's amazing.
15:14That's amazing.
15:14I'll drive you guys around sometime.
15:15Please do.
15:16Please do.
15:17No conversations, please.
15:19Yeah.
15:20Fire and ride.
15:21Fire and ride.
15:22Yeah.
15:23Um, my first, or Star Wars was the job that gave me extra money before that.
15:28I had only done like one line on sitcoms here and there.
15:31Um, and I paid off my student loans.
15:35It was the most incredible feeling.
15:38Um, and I guess what I'll say to that is make education accessible for everyone.
15:44I went to two years of community college, two years of public in-state school, and I still
15:48had $40,000 worth of debt.
15:49I believe it.
15:50Um, which is insane and not okay.
15:53Anyway.
15:53Yeah.
15:54But I bet you that click of the button, like now that it's-
15:56I cried.
15:57Yeah.
15:57What an incredible feeling.
15:58I fully sobbed.
15:59I was like, oh my God, I can't believe this outfit.
16:01Yeah.
16:01I'm still paying mine off.
16:03Just-
16:03Yeah.
16:04Serious.
16:05Seriously?
16:05Yeah.
16:06Cause I don't know.
16:07You're doing like the-
16:08You gotta do the payment, you know, don't do the lump sum.
16:10You get some tax credit or something.
16:12I think-
16:13Oh my God.
16:13I don't do this.
16:14Make education accessible.
16:16I mean, really?
16:18Oh, are you asking me this too?
16:20Yeah.
16:20If you have one.
16:24Um, let's make independent filmmaking sustainable.
16:30That would be-
16:32Let's get rich.
16:32That would be like my underlying message.
16:39Um, this is not from my first job, but I did buy a piece of art.
16:45What was it?
16:45What was it?
16:46What was it?
16:47Very irresponsible.
16:49Oh my God.
16:50Culture.
16:50But we love it.
16:51We love it.
16:52That's so cool.
16:52Gotta feed the soul first before you feed yourself.
16:55When the, the, you know, like when I identified an artist and it was like, okay, let's be real.
17:02It was a limited edition print.
17:04So it wasn't, you know, so I'm still a, I'm still an indie filmmaker.
17:07It was one of those monkey NFTs.
17:09Really?
17:12The banana taped onto the wall.
17:15No, um, it, so, but I did, I did buy a piece of art.
17:19Nice.
17:19Do you still have it?
17:20I do.
17:20Nice.
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