00:12The one moment I even told Rob this was when a woman named Jennifer, her name's Jennifer Collins,
00:18she said, my husband may have, this is kind of dark, so excuse me, but may have pulled the
00:23trigger here, but he died in Afghanistan. And as soon as I heard that, I looked over and the people
00:28who were with me were all in tears and we kind of nodded at each other like this has to
00:33be a bigger
00:33story. Well, I was fortunate enough that Josh came to me with this unbelievable story. But as far as
00:44myself, I work with a lot of veterans organizations. So I've had a lot of opportunity to spend time with
00:49veterans who, you know, suffer from PTSD and have struggled with this in the past.
00:58And suicide is a problem right now in the veteran community. So I thought it was very important to
01:05do this movie. But I know this, I know these guys, I know them through conversation, through friendship,
01:13through all kinds of ways. And PTSD is something I'm very familiar with. So it just was a very
01:22personal story. And it was a story I thought that was very important to tell. And when you get to
01:27know people's stories, you know, the little details and the truth that lies within that.
01:34I've never gotten to play a real character like this. And when I read this script, I was so moved
01:42by
01:42what Josh had written and what Jennifer, just everything about Jennifer. And I got to meet her
01:50when I was in Virginia Beach at Chicks, one of the shout out to Chicks. And it was just such
01:57a powerful
01:58thing for me to get to do and felt so meaningful in a way that I've never gotten to experience.
02:07And
02:08it was and just the support of Josh, like Josh talked to me about Jennifer before I did the scene.
02:14And it was just one of the most incredible things I've ever gotten to do. And I feel
02:21so lucky. And it was also so much pressure because it is such an important story to tell. And I
02:29hope I
02:30did it somewhat justice.
02:36The sandbox kind of the setting of our movie is so unique, you know, it's just this like, you know,
02:42pirate reenactors. It's a world that, you know, is quite. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was fun.
02:48So in this sort of like odd, you know, avant garde setting for a movie, there's this really human
02:54thing that I connected with, which was these, you know, these veterans who kind of went to war and,
02:58you know, took care of their country and then come home and felt like it wasn't that care wasn't
03:05returned. You know, that sense of betrayal would be really hard, especially when you kind of are
03:10making the ultimate sacrifice. So the fact that these guys and gals found salvation and these pirate
03:17reenactors, this, you know, it's kind of like therapy. And then, of course, like my character,
03:21he kind of takes it one step further. And but there was something really human in that that I found
03:25beautiful and, you know, cool. Well, the screenplay was beautiful and had a message without
03:33being saccharine, which I think is very hard to do. And it also doesn't shove the message
03:36down your throat. It's like a very heartfelt, authentic script. And then I was super excited
03:43to play a sex addicted OnlyFans, like cosplay pirate chick, because I've never gotten to do
03:51that before. So I was like, yes, sign me up. When I read the script, I don't know why I
03:56just
03:56felt happy that I even got this role and I could be with everybody here. So yeah, it's really,
04:05it's really fun working with everybody here. I think they're awesome.
04:09Yeah, absolutely. Really hard balance. And I leaned a lot on my cinematographer actually,
04:16believe it or not, as well, when we were talking about how we wanted to not only shot list,
04:20but tell the story through visuals. We had a kind of call to action, if you will,
04:25is courage over coverage. We didn't want to do a thousand one different angles. We wanted to just
04:29let these guys play. And so we actually had a very minimalist approach to the film, which helped
04:34ground everything when you don't move the camera that much and you just let people live, you actually
04:37get more drawn into the story. So through visual storytelling, we were able to do a lot of that
04:41tonally. And then just through the screenplay, truly, the truth is always stranger than fiction.
04:46I would like to take credit for everything, but literally I transcribed what Jennifer said and
04:51what some of these other people said. So finding that tone of, okay, I know that's going to be
04:56really grounded and difficult. How do we counterbalance that? And that was just, oh, pirate
05:00reenactment. So you have to have both ends of the spectrum without being so wildly unscaled that it
05:07feels like a different film. And I will say a shout out to, because I drew most of my inspiration
05:12from the Peanut Butter Falcon. I felt they did a really good job with that. So hopefully that
05:15answers the question.
05:16For the cast, how did that filmmaking process, that approach to filmmaking kind of help your
05:20process and getting into those characters and being in those moments?
05:27Courage over coverage is like the best thing I've ever heard. And I wish everyone would do that
05:32because when you're on take like 10 or you're getting an eight and you're just like,
05:35oh, this is, we're beating a dead horse. And so I also love pressure. So there was one day,
05:41Josh was like, we're going to lose this location in two hours. And like, then everyone needs to
05:44bring their A game. And I think it's just, there's something great about that. So I love that we
05:49were all in it because we love the story. And we were like, we have three weeks. Let's go.
05:53Diamonds are made under pressure.
05:58Does anybody else have anything to add about that?
06:00That's kind of what Jordana said. Like, that's, what's fun about independent filmmaking is like,
06:04there's no frills, you know? And like, you know, the reason that everyone gets into this
06:09business really is probably because they're passionate and they want to be there. So
06:12this is like highlighted in these kinds of movies where everyone's there for love of the game.
06:16And you have to just like show up and bring your A game. And it comes from, it's kind of
06:20a pure
06:20place, I think. So yeah, I don't know. There's a lot, kind of, I think you, you, you get the
06:26best
06:27out of people when they're there kind of coming from the heart. So yeah, felt that way.
06:31And Josh just created such a comfortable environment. I've actually never had this comfortable
06:37of an environment. And the scene that we did together was a really difficult emotional scene.
06:43And he made us both feel so comfortable to get into all the different, all the depths of the emotion
06:53together and just let us be free and didn't like give us line readings and just let us play. And
06:58it
06:59was such a gift to get to work with a director like that. And I think that really comes from
07:05being an
07:06actor too. Like I think actors that go into directing are sometimes the best because they
07:11really know how to communicate with each actor and what each actor needs. And Josh did such a
07:17spectacular job with that and creating this really comfortable, cozy, wonderful environment for all
07:23of us, I think. Yeah. They've said it all. This will be some form of reiteration, I'm sure. But,
07:31but Josh did set the tone for the set and, and, and did a wonderful job of that. I think
07:38I used the
07:38analogy. He was good captain of our ship, but yeah, the, the teamwork, everybody on the cast,
07:46everybody on the crew. And again, it still, it, it trickles down from Josh's attitude and approach.
07:51We didn't have much time. We had long hours. We had to get things done. We were battling weather.
07:56We were battling all kinds of things. And yet everybody rallied. You know, it was fun to see
08:02that level of professionalism from everybody, where it's like, we got to do it. And so we just
08:07did it. And the complaints went away and everybody just had the same mission in mind, which is let's
08:12get this done. Let's get it done. Right. And that kind of selflessness is how these things get done
08:18in three weeks, you know, without it, it just doesn't happen. So it was the, the cast and the crew
08:23really did an amazing job. You said the weather and you took Billy right back there. She was like
08:30transported back to that. It was like the feels like was 117. It was raw to put it lightly. And
08:40they were all in full pirate garb. I thankfully got to wear a sundress. So I was all right, but
08:46it was
08:46brutal for them on those days. And I had my two kids there who were two and four at the
08:51time. And we
08:51were at the mini golf place. Big shout out to jungle golf. I mean, you guys want to sponsor
08:57me, I'm available. And we were absolutely dripping there every day because my kids were forcing me
09:04to be outside and play mini golf. I think that the transition of the answer to this question
09:10perfectly encapsulates the movie a little bit. Thank you so much for being here.
09:16Let's end it on mini golf. Shout out jungle golf. Jungle golf. We love you.
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