00:25Could you talk about the concept
00:27in terms of the story and the character,
00:30specifically these two characters,
00:32because they have to interact in many different ways
00:34in terms of the psychology and the masks they wear?
00:38Could you speak to that first?
00:39And then I'll go to Beth.
00:40Sure.
00:41So just speaking about the two leads, Alex and Kiana.
00:44Yeah.
00:45I mean, it was interesting.
00:46Like you mentioned,
00:48this film started in some ways with a short film,
00:52which focused on the two female lead characters.
00:55Although at that time that we shot the short film,
00:58Aidan West, the screenwriter,
01:00had already written a draft of the feature,
01:02although it would go on to change very significantly
01:04between then and now.
01:06Yeah.
01:07But it's interesting.
01:07Like basically, I guess, simply put,
01:11you know, the story,
01:12it was always those two from the very beginning.
01:14And then the nature of their relationship
01:15and the things that they went through
01:17sort of was shaped by years of sort of development
01:21and rewrites and et cetera.
01:22But for me, I guess the big thing
01:26that I'd like to explore in a lot of my movies
01:27and then this film is no different
01:29is just the ways that,
01:31well, women's relationships,
01:33whether they're romantic or non-romantic
01:35and how women help each other
01:37and sort of the unseen sides of women's relationships
01:39that are just not often portrayed on film.
01:42So I think this movie is,
01:44you know, it's sort of a,
01:46it's a relationship.
01:48It's the beginning of a budding relationship.
01:49But it's also, I think there's just a lot of nuance
01:53in how both of these women
01:54come into each other's lives
01:56and serve a sort of purpose.
01:57And like, they're both sort of the thing
01:59that the other person needed
02:00that I thought was really interesting
02:03because I find that's a thing that happens a lot,
02:05maybe not in such a dramatic way,
02:07but with just the way that women help each other in life.
02:33What do we do now?
02:42I'll jump right over to Bethany.
02:44Could you talk about how your character,
02:45like she has this idea
02:47between what's normal and ordinary,
02:50boring versus extraordinary,
02:51and she comes across Tandia's character.
02:53Could you talk about that?
02:54Because it's about how we see ourselves,
02:56but how we want others to see ourselves as well.
02:59Well, I think for Alex,
03:01she starts off in this box of like,
03:05there's a prescribed list
03:06of what you're meant to do in this life.
03:08And for her, it was get an education.
03:11It was find somebody to settle down with
03:13and then date for a while, get engaged,
03:15get married, have kids, have a house, have a mortgage.
03:18And so she's doing all that prescription.
03:21But I think along the way,
03:24she really lost touch with
03:27or maybe never even knew what she wanted actually
03:29or what she needed.
03:31And so I often say that her headlamp was faced outwards,
03:35knowing other people's needs
03:36and other people's wants and desires
03:38and maybe meeting those even before
03:39they knew that they needed them.
03:41But she'd never turned her headlamp inward to go,
03:43but what about me and who am I?
03:45And then, you know,
03:47you get this spark of meeting the Kiana character
03:50and who knows so much about what she needs
03:54and what she wants
03:55and fantastical dreams and desires.
03:58And it just sparks something in Alex
04:00to start that journey of self-discovery.
04:04So that's kind of the beautiful arc
04:07that they get to take.
04:08And I loved how Gloria said,
04:10when like you meet another person,
04:13they sort of give you something that you needed,
04:14but you didn't even know that you needed it.
04:17Andy, could you talk about Kiana and that?
04:18Because it's a reverse though,
04:20because she is doing everything she wants,
04:23but yet she wants different things.
04:25Could you talk about that and approaching that?
04:27Yeah, I think, I guess, Kiana,
04:31she, well, yeah, she's very hard-headed
04:33and she knows what she wants.
04:34And she has this very like tough outer shell,
04:40but her soft side comes out.
04:45Which is something she's not used to
04:47around her boyfriend, Matt, I think.
04:51So it's like nice to be less guarded around someone.
04:54And I think back on the theme
04:56of like women's relationships,
04:57we can find that in our friends a lot of the times
05:00where around certain people,
05:03a different part of you comes out that you enjoy,
05:05which is why you like spending time with that person.
05:08And Matt challenges Kiana,
05:10which I think Kiana likes to a certain extent,
05:12but it just kind of gets to a certain point.
05:17And she, yeah,
05:20she's not able to like be as soft around Matt
05:23as she is outside of that.
05:26Yeah, so.
05:46Here, this is good.
06:02Gloria, could you talk about the idea of expectation?
06:06You know, expectation of self,
06:08but also wants and desires,
06:10because obviously that plays a lot into it.
06:13Desire might be too strong a word,
06:14but maybe identity,
06:17however you want to speak to it.
06:18Well, I think actually, Bethany,
06:20like you did a really great job sort of touching on this,
06:23like just the,
06:24that I think like Alex has her,
06:27the things she sort of assumes she wants,
06:29and then there are the needs that are,
06:31like she has sort of gone to the work of burying
06:34so deeply that she doesn't even recognize them until,
06:37and I, yeah,
06:38I think like when,
06:39when we were,
06:40when I was working on the script with Aiden,
06:42and like,
06:43I was sort of telling him about the things
06:44that I found interesting.
06:46I just think like I have,
06:48I had been in relationships
06:49where it sort of felt like you were going along
06:52and following the script,
06:53and then you get to a point,
06:54and you're like,
06:54how far have I gone making myself
06:56into this sort of thing that I think is the thing,
06:59but actually I've sort of made myself small,
07:00and I,
07:01and Aiden and I,
07:02he tossed around the phrase a lot of feeling
07:04like a supporting character in your own life.
07:06How you act in any different situation
07:08determines where you think you should be.
07:10I mean,
07:11whether that's coding,
07:12whether that's shifting,
07:14wherever,
07:14you know.
07:15Yeah,
07:15so I think like,
07:17in terms of just identity and expectation,
07:19like,
07:20yeah,
07:21I like to,
07:21I've said before that I think
07:22what Alex goes through
07:24in sort of the middle of the film
07:25and near the end of the film
07:26is just this kind of complete breakdown
07:28of who she thought she was,
07:29and then this kind of phoenix appears,
07:32and then you sort of get the more complicated thing
07:33of what,
07:35how much of that did,
07:36like,
07:36was it too far,
07:38and you know,
07:38was this the right decision,
07:40were all these decisions the right decision,
07:41but it was kind of this transformation
07:43she had to go through
07:43to get out of that other part of her life
07:46that really wasn't fulfilling her,
07:48so.
08:19Even in the way that they walk,
08:21they talk in many ways,
08:22which happens that transference
08:24is like through the rebirth of the river
08:26and stuff like that.
08:28Bethany and Tendi,
08:29could you each talk about,
08:30like,
08:31physicality,
08:31because,
08:32you know,
08:33it becomes that thing,
08:34whether it's the holding of the gun,
08:35whether,
08:36you know,
08:36there's so many different things
08:38that you both do.
08:39Yeah,
08:39I liked when you brought up the word desire,
08:42because female desire
08:43was really sort of a point of meditation
08:45that I took
08:45when I was breaking down the script,
08:47because I saw Alex as this woman
08:49who was so out of touch
08:51with female desire,
08:51and I think as a woman,
08:53I'll speak for myself,
08:54I wasn't taught
08:55that I was allowed to desire.
08:58I was more so taught
08:59that I was allowed to receive desire
09:00or put up boundaries against desire,
09:04and so I think it's an interesting thing
09:05when that fire gets lit inside of you,
09:08because it's very motivating.
09:10Like,
09:10it really kind of yanks you
09:12towards,
09:13like,
09:13the next phase of life
09:14or over the next obstacle,
09:15and that's so not who Alex was,
09:18so you see a woman
09:19who really wasn't in touch with her body,
09:22who was very uncomfortable
09:23in so many different contexts,
09:25and then
09:27there's sort of this
09:30initial transition moment
09:32where I think,
09:33you know,
09:33she does some mushrooms.
09:35I don't know if I should say it.
09:37You know,
09:38and then she really is thrust
09:40inside of her body
09:41and is feeling some feelings
09:42that she hasn't felt
09:42in a very long time,
09:44if ever,
09:44and then you're right,
09:46there is this transition
09:47of she's clocking Kiana
09:50so often,
09:51and there is this chemistry,
09:54this pull towards this gravity,
09:58this new gravity,
09:58which is either their relationship
10:00or maybe Kiana,
10:02and she's learning so much
10:04and so fast
10:05about the options
10:08of being a woman.
10:09It's not just,
10:10a good woman is this,
10:11a good girlfriend
10:12or fiance or wife is this.
10:14it starts to open up
10:16this like rainbow
10:18of opportunity
10:18of how to be
10:19a really cool,
10:20interesting,
10:20good woman.
10:22So, yeah,
10:24and I think that's all lit
10:25by female desire
10:26or lit by desire.
10:45That's all.
10:46That's all.
10:48That's all.
10:50That's all.
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