Sonja O'Hara Left Atlantic Canada For New York To Become a Movie Star

A kid from Williamswood leaves Nova Scotia at 17, lands in New York with no connections, survives the visa pressure cooker, and ends up directing heavyweight actors in Hollywood. That’s the real arc behind our conversation with Sonja O’Hara, an Emmy-nominated writer, director, and actress who’s built her career by treating filmmaking like both art and entrepreneurship. We talk about what the highlight reels never show: daily rejection, imposter syndrome, the cost of American education, and why a supportive home base can be the difference between resilience and burnout. 

Sonja breaks down the practical side of making it, from neutralizing a Maritime accent for casting to understanding why LA is still the gravitational centre for film work. We get into the Canadian side too: Telefilm point systems, what qualifies as Canadian content, and how public arts funding can create real jobs and real culture when the rules line up. Then we go deep on career control, including the advice that pushed her into screenwriting and self-producing, how she uses cold emails strategically, and why feedback can either sharpen or weaken a writer’s point of view. 

There’s plenty of craft and behind-the-scenes reality: directing for Lionsgate, earning trust on set, navigating union rules like turnaround and intimacy coordination, and the weird stuff nobody warns you about, like how hard it is to work with animals (yes, a cat gets fired). We finish with hot takes on horror, blockbuster culture, and a rapid-fire question game that shows what kind of storyteller Sonja really is. 

If you like honest conversations about acting, directing, screenwriting, independent film financing, and building a creative career that lasts, hit subscribe, share this with a friend who’s chasing the same dream, and leave a review. What part of the industry do you want us to pull apart next?

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Transcript

Cheers And Meet Sonja

SPEAKER_05 0:16

Cheers!

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Cheers!

SPEAKER_05 0:18

Welcome to the afternoon point. I'm Mike Tobin. I am Matt Conrad. And who do we have here?

SPEAKER_01 0:25

My name is Sonia O'Hara, and I am an Emmy nominated writer, director, and actress originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Emmy Nomination And Cult Horror

SPEAKER_05 0:36

Awesome. Emmy nominated. So let's leave with that. What did you get nominated?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Absolutely. Yeah, well, it was during the COVID era. And I had previously written and directed a series that was on AMC here in the States. There's like a division of AMC that's specifically for horror movies and things like that. And I had written this limited series called Doomsday about a matriarchal cult. And I ended up making another third episode of it. And that got nominated for best like original limited series in 2021. So then I was able to add Emmy nominee, which I think has probably opened doors for me as both an actor and a filmmaker, but also when I'm able to bring in financing for my own films as a director, because the more accolades you have and the more institutional credibility, you know, the more that you're certainly able to have people that want to invest in your work.

SPEAKER_05 1:34

I love post-apocalyptic stuff. Like what were you going to say about? Like what was the gist of it?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Yeah, it was about this interesting older lady who has this like very secretive sort of sect that is in deep in the forest. And she ends up getting a lot of like runaways and hitchhikers. And it very much fits into, you know, the Jonestown kind of thing that you have a lot of like lost souls that are coming together. And this is a cult that like denies any sort of reproduction. So of course, the second that you ban sex, that's going to instantly make it a, you know, a hothouse for tension and chaos. So it ended up being this like dark, sexy, messed up sort of cult series. And that got me signed with one of the biggest agencies in the world. And then I started getting to opportunities to direct, you know, big movies for other people. And that was never really the plan. I've been an actor since I was 10 years old in Halifax and I had been taking classes at Neptune as a little kid. And I always knew I was going to be an actor, but I never intended to direct. It just sort of happened to me.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

So before we do that, I uh I knew that she was going to be an actor because I've been watching her since elementary school.

unknown 2:56

It's true.

SPEAKER_03 2:57

In plays. So yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I have never not acted in my whole life. So it was one of those things that I think I dorkily wrote in like the sixth grade yearbook that I was going to be an actor. And then again in ninth grade and again as a senior in high school. I've just never wanted to do anything else and have been very aggressively pursuing this, even though it took me a really long time.

SPEAKER_05 3:21

Go to the US. Like, why did you why did you leave Canada for an acting career?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

I remember when I was at uh in at grade 12 at JL Elesley High School. And I remember that I went to the Atlantic Film Festival to go and see a talk. And there was a casting director that was talking about discovering the actress Rachel McAdams. And she basically said that if you wanted to be able to sort of compete on the world stage and not just be a local performer, but to be able to sort of go all the way, that all of the Canadian actors went to the States. And it's not always the case now. And there are people still that break out that are able to stay at home. But I was like, okay, all the actors that if you're a Ryan Gosling or anyone else, you end up going and need to be able to work in the States. So I knew because I have no American family members and I'm not a Nepo baby and I'm not from any sort of, you know, this side of the industry. I thought to myself, I need to train and go to theater school in New York City so I can get an like a visa to be able to work into the state in the States. So I did that and got the 01 and I went through the whole immigration thing. It took 10 years to become a dual citizen, but I made sure I was like, I'm keeping my Canadian passport and healthcare, no matter what. Like no one's taking that for me. But yeah, it's a whole crazy path.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

That's amazing. I mean, seven, 17 years old moving to the like, you know, right out of high school, moving to the US, not just like moving to the US, but moving to New York City, like one of the largest It was bonkers.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Yeah. It was insane. Like when I think back now, like my poor sweet mother, you know, in her fishing village, like she just had a it was so like I I am very lucky. I'm not from any sort of money, but my mother remortgaged her house to send me to acting school in New York because the cost of American education is obscene. Like it's it's incredibly problematic how expensive all these schools are. And I got the maximum student loans and scholarships. And I still, it would not have been a possibility if my mother hadn't done that. So it definitely changed the course of my life. Yeah, she's the best. And we still speak basically.

SPEAKER_05 5:32

I think in the Harriet's Field area, you said? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

She lives in in Williamswood. And she's, I still talk to her almost every day. And we're very, very close. And I'm very grateful to have had support like that because I know so many people who didn't get that at home. And it gives you imposter syndrome, I think. Like I think there's a lot of things that factor into being able to have the resilience to stay in a field with so much rejection. Like I get rejected every single day. And now, of course, you know, social media, you get to see all the positive things. And it's wonderful. And I'm very grateful that I'm in a period of time right now where I am getting a lot of work, but no one gets to see the other side of the industry. And I think that if I didn't come from a family that was so supportive, I don't know that mentally. Like I see people in LA all the time that are having mental breakdowns. And I'm like, dude, I get it. Like if I didn't come from a supportive group of people, I think it would be a lot harder.

SPEAKER_05 6:26

The first thing that comes to mind to me as a maritimer, it's like your dialect. Like, my gosh, I know we have a very specific brand of dialect. I know this personally, and I can't leave uh I can't really leave Halifax without somebody pointing that out to me. But like tell me about that, because when I listen to you, I do not hear someone from Sambrose, someone from Williamswood. I live there, so I could say that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

When when I was 15 years old in Halifax, there were these movies of the month that were lifetime movies that were shooting there. And my agent in Halifax at the time said that if I wasn't able to do a standard American dialect, I wouldn't book. So I took this actra class on how to neutralize my Nova Scotian sound. And still, after a couple drinks, my friends out here will make fun of me because I'll go from saying like out and out and about and mouth to out and about and hose. And it comes out. But I've had to, unless I'm really angry or really tipsy, you'll never hear it. But yeah, I had to take Americanese class, they called it. And you had to put a cork.

SPEAKER_05 7:30

I need to really do.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

You're like asking for a friend. But no, yeah. It was, and I still have to make sure like I'm around other Americans to keep it when I go back to Halifax for Christmas. Every time the regionalism slips back in. But I love the sound of it. I just want to be able to also play people from other places.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

No, that's fair. So I mean, like kind of back to like you know, you really kind of doubling down on yourself, your mother definitely doubling down on like on you. I mean, yes, it's it's an I think it's a pretty interesting story to go from Williamswood, which is a very, very small town outside of Halifax, and you know, now living in LA uh and taking a huge risk. Like you hear stories of actors and actresses and and people just in the film industry uh talk about all the the the craziness that they've had to go through. And I mean, you took a huge risk. I feel like it's paying off for you though, because I mean Emmy nominated, right? Like, I mean, that's pretty cool. Next is next is Emmy wimmer winner.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yes, yes, that's that's definitely the goal. I will say, with all of this stuff, when I first moved there, being young and naive is such a helpful thing. Like, I really think that when I arrived in New York, I had never I didn't know one person in the entire United States. So that's bonkers, right? Like moving to a country where you know no one, I didn't know how to drive, I didn't have my license, I was just this, you know, kid, but I was so ambitious and so obsessed, and I just did it. And now when I look back, I was like, wow, that was really naive. I absolutely all kinds of terrible things could have happened. But I think I was really focused on school. When I was in New York, I was making sure I could do every, I was auditioning constantly. I I think I was late to sort of meet a lot of this like the coming of age sort of things that happen to you in college because I already felt like I'm a stranger in a strange land. If anything goes wrong, I could be deported. And now in a world of ice and all of the terribly problematic American politics, it's obviously everyone's very aware of that. But being an 18-year-old from Canada in a city where you know no one, I was just constantly worried. And I was told that if you ever had any sort of legal thing that you were in any way affiliated with, you wouldn't be able to stay and work in the States. And then I thought to myself, then I'll never win an Oscar. So I do think there was like an element of fearfulness at a young age that kept me on like a super straight and narrow path. And then, you know, you grow up and you chill out and all of that. But I do think for a long time I like joke, I was an actor, but I was also a nun because I was just like, I this is getting one chance to be able to break in and make it. Otherwise, I would have to come back. And Canada's amazing, and I'd be so lucky to come back, especially, you know, with everything we're talking about now in the current climate. But I knew that if I wanted to sort of be able to have the career that I wanted, I needed at least the opportunity to be able to also work in Hollywood.

Naivety Fear And Immigration Pressure

SPEAKER_05 10:43

Amazing you had that foresight. I gotta ask though, did you end up getting your driver's license or what?

SPEAKER_01 10:47

No. So this is crazy. I do not drive, and I'm one of the many New Yorkers that lived in New York and then now live in LA, who Uber everywhere and take Waymo's. And I'm never, I'm probably never gonna drive.

SPEAKER_06 11:00

So never gonna drive. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

That's you know what? That is a that's a thing that I didn't even really like, I don't think fully comprehended until I started watching How I Met Your Mother like a long time ago. And and a lot of them, because like some of them on the show, like some of them had like look like Marshall from Minnesota had his driver's license and a car. Yes, but the ones who lived in New York like didn't.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

And I was kind of like no one in New York drives. It's a really crazy thing. If you live upstate, if you live outside of the city, but the crazy thing is you'll see celebrities on the subway every day, you'll see the mayor on the subway. It's like this great unifier. In LA, there's more of unfortunately a stigma and like on the subway. Yes. Here you won't. In New York, you will. In LA, in LA, there's an unfortunate, like a classist divide, and no one takes public transportation, but everyone Ubers and Waymo's, and you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

Okay, interesting.

SPEAKER_05 11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

Yeah. It is it is funny too. It's like, you know, you watch like a show like Entourage and they talk about like going from New York to LA and about how like wide open LA feels and things like that. And it's just it to me, again, it's like a it's a weird concept of thinking like LA is like, oh, it's so wide open and everything. But I guess when you know LA doesn't have, unless you're downtown LA, they don't have skyscrapers. You probably don't feel as closed in, right?

Why LA Pulls Film People West

SPEAKER_01 12:22

You you don't. It doesn't really feel like a city in the way that I want it to. Like there's now lots of reasons that I love LA, but New York is to me just it's the real city. Like you're, you know, you're just amongst people 24-7, and there's a vibe and it's it's yeah, it's incredible. And I'm there a lot for work, and I look forward to being able to be bicoastal again. LA is wonderful in that it is you have space. Like I have a beautiful bungalow in LA. In New York, I would never be able to have the life that I live in LA. Like there, you're on top of each other, and like wealthy people are living in tiny places. So if you're an artist, it's really unrealistic that you're going to have any sort of property, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Right. The so what really kind of like how many years did you spend in New York? And then what was the moment you're like, nah, I'm going west?

SPEAKER_01 13:40

I did 10 years in New York, and they say it takes 10 years to become a New Yorker. So from 17 to 27, about I was in New York. Some of that time I'd be going back and forth for acting things, but I would 10 years in New York, fell in love with the city. I'm still obsessed with it. I go, I was back a couple months ago for a Tribeca Film Festival thing. It's it's great, but I just kept on hearing that if I wanted to be pursuing film and not just Broadway, that I had to be in LA. So I did it reluctantly. I signed with a big agency. They said I they were like, Sonia, when will you be moving out to LA? And I was like, Oh, you know, it's the plan to spend more time there. And they're like, Great, so you'll be here in August. And I was like, Okay, this is happening. We're doing this right now. So, and then you just jump in and yeah, but most of my friends out here are still former New Yorkers or they are immigrants from other places. Like, I have so many friends here that are other actors and writers and directors from other places that are from Greece and Australia and England. You just have a melting pot. Like, as much as there's the stereotype of LA people, and that exists, and those are definitely you'll meet all the influencer people and all of that, but there were also just really hard-working artists from all over the world who are all hellbent on doing something significant, and you'll find a lot of really cool people too.

unknown 15:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:07

Did you have any moments where you thought, hey, I just like to go back to Canada? I wish I could go back, or did you feel like that you were just in the right place and not look back?

SPEAKER_01 15:17

I don't think I've ever looked back. I think I felt fearful that if I didn't make it, I would have to go back because it's just so expensive living in New York and LA.

SPEAKER_06 15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

But I've never, other than when I've had health things and I've thought, oh my God, I am definitely like I always thought there were for the first five years, I didn't get health insurance in the States because I just said, like, if anything happens to me, I'll just fly back to Nova Scotia. And luckily I was healthy and nothing happened. But it could have gone very badly.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

A flight is probably cheap, much cheaper.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Way cheaper. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Yeah. As long as you can get on the plane. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Right, right.

SPEAKER_06 15:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

But if you like break your arm in LA and you fly back to Canada, apparently you have to wait something like 24 or 48 hours or something before they will treat you as a regular resident, because otherwise people do this all the time. So I haven't tested this out, but that's what they say. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_05 16:14

I never that's crazy that that's a problem that they actually had to prepare for people flying across the border to get a isn't that awful?

SPEAKER_01 16:21

I guess that's really that's telling.

Telefilm Rules And Canadian Funding

SPEAKER_03 16:23

I mean, it's probably not as it's probably not as super popular with people in like LA, but you gotta think of people in like Chicago or Detroit, it's probably really popular.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yeah, it's so close for sure.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

Yeah, so just crossing a bridge in a lot of cases or a quick little trip, like Buffalo just crosses. Anyone who's living in Buffalo can just cross border, right? Like no problem. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

No, I mean they're basically Canadians for sure. Uh yeah, I think that if you are living on the border, it would make perfect sense. But now I'm going through all of the things, even though I am a dual citizen, I'm from Canada, to be able to shoot this next movie in Canada and have that count as a telefilm project. There's this point system where you have to have a certain amount of Canadians in key positions. So your star has to be Canadian, it has to be Canadian written, Canadian directed, Canadian produced. And and like I qualify as a number of those because I wear multiple hats and I act and write and direct and all of that. But they were upset that my cinematographer is from the States. And I was like, I'm sorry, that's like the one person from my team. I'll hire everyone else locally in Windsor, Ontario. But yeah, it's it's and it makes sense because you want to give that.

SPEAKER_05 17:37

It makes sense because yeah, I mean, and actually I'd probably be pushing for them to live on Canadian soil if it was me running it. No, no, no, no disrespect.

Breakthroughs Goals And Chasing The Next

SPEAKER_01 17:44

No, no, no. And and and that makes sense, right? Because you want to you want to give those grants to people that are making real Canadian content and stories about Canada. You don't want somebody flying in from another place and like taking those funds and using them to make a story that doesn't reflect like the Canadian culture. So I totally see that, but it's other places don't like the rest of the world, looks at what Canada does for the arts as a really incredible thing because you are not getting money as an American from the government to make art, like absolutely not, you know.

SPEAKER_05 18:17

For sure. I get that 100%. Gotta ask you though, when did you feel like this this dream, this crazy dream of yours really hit and you you you kind of you you broke through, or what was your first kind of breakthrough role or whatever in the US where you were like super proud and telling all your friends that you're you know super jazzed for? Like what was what was the first big uh the big product big production?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah, I mean, there was a movie that I auditioned for and got when I was maybe like 24 or something like that, that went to one of like the big like Sundance type festivals out here. And seeing yourself on the big screen, I went to the Cannes Film Festival one year in the south of France. That felt very cool and very exciting. But it feels like every time that now that I achieve a goal that I had in the past, by the time I achieve it, I'm like, okay, cool, that's awesome. I glad I'm glad I got it, but I'm already on to the next. So the dopamine kick of achievement, actually, the more you achieve, the less it sort of acts like a drug, which is a crazy thing. So I don't know what that says about, you know, mental health and going after your goals, but I think about that a lot.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

There's nothing like there's anything wrong with being motivated, right? I mean, like there's nothing wrong with like once you've achieved something to move on. I mean, I I I kind of get that feeling oftentimes where it's like, you know, it's like I I want to do something and then it's like done, check, move on. What's next, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:43

So yeah, for sure. No, it's like I'm just always obsessed. Like, until I win that first Oscar, I'm not gonna chill out. Like, I'm really going to be.

SPEAKER_05 19:56

That's an awesome goal to have, man. I think that is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah, thank you. But yeah, it makes you kind of crazy all the time. And like I had I was somewhere yesterday. Oh, sorry, go.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Well, no, I was gonna say, Mike, I think our goal should be to be that when she's walking on the red carpet on the Oscar, that we get to be there to interview her on the red carpet.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Only if we have beers in our hand like we do now. And yeah, we'll bring beers.

SPEAKER_05 20:19

Yes, see, it's a win. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

I mean, I love that because they they also love the idea of you know, press from like your your you know, your home. Yeah. So I think that when that happens, I'm gonna I'm gonna hit you both up.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

Give us a show. We'd love to come by. Yeah, that'd be awesome. We were we were very popular on the Atlantic Film Festival Red Carpet. We were very popular, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

We did really well. Yeah, we had lots of fun questions.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Submit my new movie to the Atlantic Film Fest. I was just saying that earlier today to my partner that that the Halifax Film Festival is is wonderful and they show some of these like incredible films.

Making A Living On A Tight Visa

SPEAKER_05 20:56

I can't say enough about it. It has so much more mojo than you would think, you know, on this side of the world. Like it's going a long way to come down, a lot of impressive projects. I saw one movie that I always thought was the best one of the best movies I ever saw, and then there were eight more just like it, right? You know what I mean? Like, like and that just speaks to the the quality of work that's being submitted from Canada now. It's like the game is stepped up, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:23

There's there's and from around the world, like it's a competitive festival elsewhere. I keep on meeting Americans that are like, oh, I went to this amazing festival in Halifax, and I was like, Yeah, it's you know, it's it's great.

SPEAKER_05 21:35

It's crazy to think, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:37

Yeah. Now, do you have to subsidize your life in any other ways as an actor these days? Like, is it still really hard to make in LA?

SPEAKER_01 21:45

I I will say that because I came here on a visa that would not allow me to work in any field outside of acting, that sort of makes you not be able to do the struggling actress cliche of working at a restaurant. And that's probably the best thing that ever happened to me because I was forced to be able to stay in the country. I had to support myself within my exact field of study, otherwise, you had to go back.

SPEAKER_06 22:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

And it was really hard, but it instilled in me sort of like an obsessive determination. And now, for like the last seven years, now it's not all from acting. I write and direct and I produce. So but every every year.

SPEAKER_05 22:27

Like I I I'm writing now, and that's something I'm big into. Like, I I absolutely love writing. So, like, what got you into writing and to make that transition? Where where did that spark hit?

SPEAKER_01 22:38

So, when I was 20 years old. Old, I was working for a movie star as her personal assistant. And this was this older actress. Yeah, it was it was Faye Dunaway who won the Oscar for Bon for Bonnie and Clyde and Network and all of this. So I was working for this crazy old movie star. I mean, crazy in that she's had a crazy career, but she's also eccentric and like notably eccentric. Notably. And she said to me that if I wanted to have any autonomy over my career as an actress, that I had to self-produce. And she was like, you have to do that. And I was like, okay. So I went back to New York at around that time and I signed up for a screenwriting class. And I, and I knew that that same teacher was teaching at NYU and Columbia and the big universities, but I couldn't afford any of that. I was a broke artist. But I saw that this teacher was teaching this class that was like$400. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to take this class. And I told the guy on day one, I am here because I'm going to write a screenplay and then I'm going to self-produce this and I'm going to make this as a movie. And he sort of, and then I'm going to act in it. And he sort of looked at me like I was insane and was like, sure. And then I did. And within a year, I had made this first movie called Ovum when I was, you know, in my early 20s.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

I remember, I remember seeing that on Facebook and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Funding Ovum Through Egg Donation

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Yeah. And I was like, I'm going to do that. And I did it. And of course, your movies get stronger and stronger. But I just wrote and I wrote and I wrote and I threw out so many drafts of things and got so much feedback. And, you know, it's that thing of it takes 10,000 hours to be able to do anything at a competent level. And I think for me, my perfectionism really, I was like, okay, I'm both of my parents are teachers in in Halifax. And I grew up with sort of a nerdy thirst for knowledge. I would read and see every movie growing up and like go to the Oxford movie theater that's no longer there and see every sort of like obscure arthouse release. So I knew the kind of work that I wanted to do. But they say there's that chasm early on between your ability and your taste. So those first couple of years, it's like you're wanting to write this thing that's going to win Sundance and change the world, but you are still going through the phase of being a writer where you're like re-rehashing the same cliches. And then at some point it gets stronger. And I just really recommend for writers that you never crowdsource everyone you know for feedback and instead are really strategic and go to the people that are doing the work that you actually want to make your work be like that and only go to those people because otherwise I think people weaken your point of view and why you're writing. So I always knew I like my goal is to write an A24 movie. I want to be making dark, provocative, and cerebral, like sexy HBO A24 neon kind of movies. And because of that, I was like, you know what? I need to be surrounding those by surrounded by those people. So I became the queen of the cold email. And I would write people that were the head of giant studios and get crazy meetings, like with the president of Lionsgate and like the head of casting at places. And I got in every door that way. And then, you know, in the beginning, they're like, they think you're cool and they're nice, but they're not going to hire you right away. And then I would just give everyone like an update of every month of like this is a new thing that I've done. But I wouldn't overwhelm them. I wouldn't ask them to read a script or anything else. And then bit by bit, I was gaining trust of people that were ahead of me. And then eventually I went and directed a movie for Lionsgate. But it took me probably four years from when I wrote a cold email to be on set directing that movie. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:29

Well, okay. I I like that your career sounds pretty awesome to me. So going back to I I wanted to ask you that first movie you wrote, like, or that first screenplay you wrote, what was it about?

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yes. It was it was autobiographical because they say write what you know. I wrote about a young actress who was in New York, who wanted to be taken seriously, who ends up selling her eggs and and goes through this crazy process of egg donation in the States. And I really sold my eggs and made a hundred thousand dollars and made my movie. So it was meta and insane. And that's what that was my first movie. So it changed my entire life.

SPEAKER_05 27:13

That's an awesome concept. And I can't believe like that you did that, and then you were brave enough to share the story and make a film out of it. That's ballsy. Seriously, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:20

It was balls.

SPEAKER_05 27:21

For lack of a better word, that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 27:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 27:25

It it's it's it's another like example of just like really like betting on you. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

I I just knew that no one, no one's entitled to anything. I there was no reason for somebody to give me money to make a movie until I showed that I would make sure that I could deliver. And there was actually and somebody that went to high school with me in Halifax, when I so before I went to jail, Ilesley, I went to St. Pat's. And when I was there, there was somebody who was a year ahead of me that I didn't really know in high school. But through me posting on social media about my career, he reached out and gave me a chunk of money to make that first movie. And I will be grateful for that person, Jeff Forbes, for the rest of my life because he did that.

unknown 28:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yeah, so someone from Halifax. What a lot of things.

Directing Lionsgate And Earning Trust

SPEAKER_05 28:14

Going forward, like you you said so much there. I really want to talk about a few things that you just kind of told us there. Matt Matt blipped out for a second and he's back and he blipped out again. Hopefully, hopefully, I'm here.

SPEAKER_03 28:24

I'm here. Just my computer decided to do a random reboot.

SPEAKER_05 28:27

Okay, so all good, man. No, no worries. We were just we were just talking, like you were just telling us, Sonia, all the crazy stuff you did. So you directed a film for MGM.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

For Lionsgate, but yes. Sorry, for Lionsgate. Whoops. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

Okay, so what was that about? Like what what film is that?

SPEAKER_01 28:44

It was, yeah, it was interesting. It was, I was hired to direct a movie that somebody else had written, and it was called Midcentury, and it stars Bruce Dern, the old like Oscar-nominated actor, and Stephen Lang, who's the old guy in Avatar, and the dude in Don't Breathe, and the wonderful. Shane West. And Shane West, who's wonderful from you know, that we grew up watching in A Walk to Remember. And it was amazing. I got to just come in and work with these world-class actors, and it was a horror movie. And I didn't write it. And my scripts are very different. They're a little bit more, they're just very different than this. This was a more traditional horror movie, but it was an incredible experience. It really taught me how to direct, how to make movies that were bigger in scope than the kind of things that I was, you know, coming up with on my own. And it gave me enough credibility that later when I was going in and pitching on bigger projects, like I'm attached to direct one movie that stars Harvey Keitel. And it's like now I'm being given the opportunity to direct heavyweight actors, but it came from like you just have to do it again and again. And then you get far more confident. Because before day one of going on that movie set, I was terrified. Like I was worried these dudes were going to eat me alive, you know? And they still, the first few days, there's always trepidation and they always want to make sure they are watching very carefully how you direct other actors in the cast and seeing if they like the sort of the performances you're getting out of those actors. Because if not, they don't want to it potentially embarrass themselves. So everyone's very cautious, and then you gain their trust. And then they're like, okay, Sonia, Sonia can direct, and then they're then they're chill. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

I think this is maybe like maybe this might be an East Coast thing, but like it's it's do you find it weird meeting like famous people?

SPEAKER_01 30:59

Yes, yes, it's wildly weird.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

I'm not even someone who really gets like starstruck, but like when I was younger, I worked at a place that a lot of famous people would come into when they're in Halifax. And you know, you get to meet them and whatever. And I didn't like I didn't really care. I wasn't like, oh wow, like we we we closed the store down for William Shatner one time, kind of thing, right? Like it's one of those things where it's like you don't care, but at the same time, it's kind of like I had this moment where like I met someone who was like pretty pretty famous, and I was like, This I this person knows I know their name, but like normally I would introduce myself and I'm like, you know, like I but I've had this like awkward moment where I was kind of like, do I just call them by their name because they know I know who they are, or do I like ask them their name like I would like everybody else? Like, I don't know. I just it's this weird situation.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

It's yeah, yeah, it's it's a very weird thing. And I think that my favorite a when I meet a giant actor like the Matt Damons or Leonardo DiCaprios or people like that, I find that those people are often very gracious and very kind, and they know that you, the person they're talking to, are probably going through an emotional whirlwind trying to navigate the social mores of that core of that interaction. So most of the very successful people are lovely and gracious, and they're like, hi, I'm Matt or I'm Leo, and that it makes it easy so no one feels awkward. It's the people that want to make it, that haven't, that are posturing that I find are the really difficult people to direct or interact with because they're trying to be like they want you to think they're bigger than they are.

SPEAKER_04 32:46

I am trying to do. And you don't, and that's what I feel like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

And that's where the resentment comes in. And those are the people that I'm like, oh God, they're gonna make it really hard on set. And sometimes I, you know, direct those people and I'm like, okay, but and you, you know, and it is what it is, and it's fine, and you find a way because we're all just humans and they want to look good on camera too. But it makes our lives harder, and it's really nice when people are just gracious and lovely, you know.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

Yeah, and it and I kind of I guess going back to like the how you were talking about how you have to write and direct, because you did act in the mid-century and you directed and everything, right? So there is something to be said about grassroots arts where it's like if you're fine, if you're not getting roles, create them.

Unions Intimacy Rules And Turnaround

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Yes, completely. And now it's an interesting thing because I'll say for a it's a bit sexist in our industry that men like Bradley Cooper and Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood, they've all been doing it forever, where they are acting and writing and directing. And people don't think of it when the men do it as, oh, that guy's having to cast themselves. They think like, oh, how cool that this person at the top of their field is getting to do anything they want. And they also happen to put themselves in those movies. So I'm always sort of thinking to myself, when I'm in a situation where I'm pitching a giant company, and I'm like, yeah, I and I am gonna play this role. And, you know, that doesn't mean I'm right for every part. And some of my movies I don't act in. I did a movie in Louisiana, everyone was supposed to be from the deep south. There were no roles within my age range. And for that one, I was like, I'm not gonna be in that movie, and that's totally okay. But the newest movie that I just directed that we're in post-production on right now, the one of the leading guys from the new Mission Impossible movie is my love interest in that. And it was a really wild experience working with this like handsome young actor who is like only done A-list movies, and he's coming onto my set to, you know, make an independent film because he loves storytelling and he wants better roles. And he doesn't only want to be holding a gun opposite Tom Cruise in all of the, and he was in Top Gun too. You know, so it's been really, really fun getting to just sort of own your power a little bit and be like, hey, I can do multiple things and I'm good at it and I enjoy it, but that doesn't mean that I'm entitled to it. It doesn't mean anyone owes me any opportunities. And sometimes now when I go and act on other people's movies, I'm so grateful because I don't have to produce the thing. I don't have to worry about feeding everyone on time or meal penalties or union jurisdictions. I get to just go and like be a kid and act, and it's the best.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

But you talk about union restrictions and stuff like that. Like, I find that super fascinating. And the reason why I find it fascinating is because I mean, I understand that at one point in time, like you need to have representation because people were getting taken advantage of and it was not you know, like the people at the top could essentially get you to do anything. You were kind of you know working slaves. But at the same time, working when you're doing a movie, you need to like you need to do different, you have you need to work at night sometimes, you need to work a day sometimes, like you need to get when people are available. Like there's all these things where it's like, you know, it's like here in Nova Scotia, it feels like acting is a Monday to Friday job because they don't do anything on weekends, versus like, I don't know what it's like in LA, but like or or and where you have to go everywhere elsewhere in movies because sometimes you hear things where it's like, oh, we just filmed for like three weeks straight and that was it, and we were done.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Yeah. I mean, I think I I that's a really interesting point because it's been so long since I acted in Halifax that I don't really know how different their union is. But like I'm a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers' Guild and all of these American unions. And I'll say that they have realized that they're going to have runaway production and everyone's gonna go non-union if they don't work with you part way there. So here, even on a union contract, I am spending tomorrow on set and Sunday on set, and it's it's like weird hours and the unions are fine with it. Like I still had to do a shit ton of paperwork to make it where now I have the freedom to sort of do what I need, but they're not like getting in the way so much. But they do when you're shooting a sex scene. You have to have 72 hours beforehand everything cleared, all of the paperwork done. You can't be spontaneous, you have to have an intimacy coordinator. These are good things, these are bad things, depending on if you have a safe set and you are going to treat people respectfully and professionally anyway. Right. So I think you get why these rules need to be there because there are people that have abused them, but most of us aren't going to abuse those rules, and then it does make it harder to make art.

SPEAKER_05 37:42

Well, it's like right and the and the budget kind of creeps up too, because you're trying to do budget creeps up on a shoe string, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Well, it's like when we make any rule, like we make rules in society for the lowest common denominators, right? We make them for the people that are not gonna listen to the right way of doing things, right? Yeah, but the unfortunate part to that is like, you know, you yeah, like I mean, there's costs, there's all these other things that go along. I mean, you know, here are movies where people have to sit in in makeup for like four, five, six, seven hours to get whatever it is, and then they gotta go and do an act and act for whatever.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

And and like, yeah, and there's there are rules, and some of these, again, are good, but we have a thing called turnaround that you have to have X amount of hours after you're wrapped before the crew is allowed back on set. But like, let's say you were trying to make sure you have a shot that happens before dusk, and the second it gets dark, you're screwed and you can't do it. There are so many times that I, as a filmmaker, have been running outside trying to catch like the last light before I lose this sunset so I can make this beautiful Terence Malik-esque scene. And yet I have a strict supervisor being like, You can't shoot without this clearance. And you're like, God, I'm just trying to make art and you are stopping it and I'm losing my mind.

SPEAKER_03 39:01

But that's exactly what I was thinking is like there's unions and we need them for the so people don't get abused. But at the same time, when you are the artist and you're trying to create art, you almost become neurotic about wanting to get it right.

Animals On Set And The Nepo Cat

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Insane. You become insane. And like, I basically can't put children in anything I do because the amount of hours that kids are allowed to be on set is so prohibitive. Like, we're talking like at certain ages, you're allowed to have like a baby work for an hour. And it's not that I believe that children should be there all day, but it makes it impossible to get your scene, you know.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

John Samos fire fired the Olson twins, right? Like that that's a little fun fact that he got the Olson twins fired because they were crying too much and they couldn't get the scenes done, and then he had to bring them back because it turns out babies are hard to work with, and the other babies are so hard to work with. The other babies were worse than the Olson twins, so the Olson twins were the best of the worst kind of thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Oh my god, it's so hard. It's a ridiculous fact. But in my last movie, there's a scene with a cat, and we tried to use my own cat, and my cat was terrible on camera, and we had to fire my cat and get a professional cat to come in. And I was like, no one's safe, you know. I was like, We like we need this scene to work, and yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

You fired your own cat?

SPEAKER_01 40:21

I fired my own cat. We had to get a professional cat.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Your cat is plotting your death now.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

A hundred percent. We were like, this is like and we we got a famous person's cat. So it ended up being a Nepo cat. And I was like, wow, this is the worst. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:37

So like I'm assuming like like how how do you how do you pay cats? Like how how does that how does that work? Like, I mean I've always been curious about that.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

PETA, PETA, they don't even want you to use pets at all. Like they literally don't agree with animals. A friend of mine is doing a movie about Ernest Hemingway, and he famously had many cats. He didn't hurt his cats, but they just lived on the compound where he lived. And PETA called this director and were like, hey, we're asking that you don't put animals on camera. And she's like, I'm not gonna hurt them, I'm not making them jump through hoops. We just want there to be cats. And they were like, Yeah, please, no animals. So if you were to ask, you know, PETA, we wouldn't have any animals in it. I think it's fine if you're not doing anything that's exploitative. My cat was fired because he wasn't a good one, he wouldn't like do a double take. Like I needed him to do certain things, and this cat just like lay there and looked pissed off.

SPEAKER_03 41:36

But that's probably when like remember uh Sabrina, the teenage witch, and like the like late 90s.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

Yeah, it's a fake animatronic cat.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

Yeah, they had Salem in there.

SPEAKER_05 41:45

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the moving.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

That's probably because of that. Yeah, that's probably why. They're terrible.

Business Savvy Without Selling Your Soul

SPEAKER_05 41:52

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, remember The Little Is Hobo? You guys remember that? Like, there was a show that used to come on CBC, and it was Canadian classics for years. Yeah. And that those weird videos in the 80s where men used to dress up as dogs and do dog things where they couldn't have dogs before they had CGI. Those were the best movies. Wow. There was a movie where a dog was a detective, and it it's absolutely fantastic to watch. I forget what it was called, but it's not.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

You sent it to me. It's not fantastic, it's terrible.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

I was gonna say that sounds terrifying, but that's amazing. It's pretty awful.

SPEAKER_05 42:25

I would love to see her input on the case.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Please, yes, please, please send me the the human furry dog people. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 42:34

So I mean, I mean, talking about cats and stuff, this is all great because you know, we did want to ask you too about like now I I you've demonstrated through through this podcast, you know, your your business mindset, your artistic mindset. Like, and uh I like this a lot too. I mean, with what I do with with you know, creating and producing and management and dealing with stuff, and also us having a general tone. We want to be supportive of people, we want to bring everyone to the center, so we don't want to put too much negative opinions in our material of other people, right? You know, so we have certain things that we we silently follow, and then but we also have opinions and hearts and artistic integrity and all that other stuff. How do you balance like the business brain and the artistic soul? Because those are two conflicting beasts.

SPEAKER_01 43:25

Yes. I will say that right now I can never go and see anyone's movie and put an opinion online that is negative, even though I have strong opinions and I go and watch movies and I love theatrical criticism, I love reading reviews, I am very interested in why something works and why something creatively doesn't work, but I can't put opinions anywhere online because I have big agents and managers who sent me meetings with all of those companies every day. So I would absolutely, and I see some of my moronic peers out there being like, dude, my letterbox review about this movie. And then I'm like, you're going to be meeting with Guillermo del Toro's company next week. And now they have a reason not to hire you. Like, be smart, you know? And I think that it's like if you think of it as I don't have to say yes to jobs that I get that aren't creatively aligned. Like I turned down a project with Michael Bay's company that would have been a bunch of money, but I'm not the right person to tell that story. I'm not into the kind of movies that necessarily doesn't mean they're never going to make a movie that I want to direct. But the script that they sent me wasn't right for me. And I know lots of other people could have elevated it and made it very cool. But it's thinking of it as big picture that why would I want to burn any bridge when I, you never know when somebody's going to be like, yes, right now I only direct giant tentpole franchise. Films, but maybe I'm gonna want this Oscar drama that's a biopic, and I'd be like, I'd kill to be in that movie or make that movie. So I do try to think about the big picture of it all, and that everyone is accessible and looks on social media, and anything that you say on there can and will be used against you. So to be savvy, you know? So and very aware of that.

SPEAKER_05 45:22

Yeah. Yeah, it seems like you are, and that's awesome that you can keep that so conscientious and all. I mean, and like the other thing about art is I just want to say the other side of it, art work, art speaks for itself. So if you make something that's not outwardly lecturing people and how they should think, and let people just interpret it, more times than not, you know, the the the humans are pretty smart, right? Like I I I have a little bit of faith in us as a whole, and they're gonna see see that piece of work, and that might help.

Portfolio Careers From A24 To Blockbusters

SPEAKER_01 45:51

That's what really moves the needle is the artwork itself and the I had I had a pitch yesterday at Sony, and when I was there, one of the big things that we were talking about was how we don't necessarily need to dumb down our scripts just because people are watching Netflix and also on their phone and they're scrolling and they're not really paying attention. It is, and but that means that there are companies that will want that, but I'm not the right storyteller for that because I don't want to make I think audiences are inherently far more intelligent. And for that same reason, if I'm making social commentary horror movies, I don't think it should feel like you're having to take your medicine and that it feels so heavy-handed in trying to like force some sort of like political ideology. Like it should also be.

SPEAKER_05 46:57

There's other black uh like like hip-hop music that's just like dumb and fun, and yeah, I like both, right?

SPEAKER_01 47:03

And there's room for all of this, right?

SPEAKER_05 47:07

It's the same in it's the same in in film and it's the same in writing, and it should be the same for us as writers, too. It's like I can produce something that is meaningful, and I can produce something that is dumb and fluffy and fun and makes no sense and is almost forgettable, or but but it just made you smile because both of those things to me are extremely important.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

Completely. Like right now, I am writing a movie that might I think will probably be very much like that Sydney Sweeney, the housemaid, and I'm gonna get paid a bunch of money and it's gonna be a cool job, but I don't want to direct that one. I'm also making this grounded sci-fi that's very much like annihilation meets eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, and that's my baby, and that's the thing that I know will like go to the big film festivals, but there's room for both of these things, and saying yes to both of those opportunities will keep rising my platform. So I keep on getting to cool do cool work, but it's like don't put yourself so in one lane that you think you can only do one thing because that's so limiting.

SPEAKER_03 48:07

There's a directory. I think what's what's next for you is to write a great movie about these two guys that do a podcast that just drink while doing it.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

You're like it's a it's this two-hander Canadian classic. I I how can I see it?

SPEAKER_05 48:21

Exactly. There's a director. Gosh, Matt, you're gonna help me with his name because you know what I'm like. So so Matt Matt knows, or you'll know now that that I'm terrible with like pronouncing anything. Um the gentleman that made Thor two, Thor III.

SPEAKER_03 48:34

Oh, what yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

Um Taiko Waititi. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 48:40

Thank you. Like, like to me, he is one of the like satirically funniest like create writers that I've ever seen. Oh, yeah. He writes stuff, but he also makes blockbusters. And when he made Thor, there's just little nuggets of his humor in there that are so great and so unique to that entire franchise that make that movie to me one of my favorites. Like, you know, and I like all the Marvel movies. And but I mean I also love art kind of more art style pictures or whatever you want to call them, movies of real emotional depth. And I mean, well one thing I think is like when I see uh directors like him work, I appreciate the big blockbusters because it brings people into his other work, like we are in the shadows where he has the the parody the vampires and uh other other things that might be a little bit more intellectual, even uh, and you get to see a broader scope of what this guy can do, right?

SPEAKER_01 49:37

I mean, I think that's great. I think it's the way to make more obscure work accessible by making something that is, you know, that is appreciated on a global scale. Like I think if you can go and be whether you like Chloe Zhao's like Eternals movie or whatever, if you can go and make a movie that wins the Oscar, that's like a small grounded film, and then make a Marvel movie, like you, the amount of people that are going to suddenly be able to see her new movie, Hamnet, it's like it's really, really wise to diversify your portfolio, right? And to not just do the same thing.

Horror Hot Takes And What Works

SPEAKER_03 50:14

I 100% agree. That's why, like, as much as I love Martin, like Martin Scorsese and pretty much everything he does, because I love mob movies and everything. His opinion on Marvel movies, I strongly disagree with, and I think he's short-sighted on this, right?

SPEAKER_01 50:29

But I also think he's kind of coming around in other ways. Like he's started to be really complimentary of all the horror movie directors. Like he like loves Ari Astor, who did Mid-Sumar. And I think that was a great movie, though. That was awesome. It's so good. It's it's fantastic. But I think now he's like, Marty is trying to be like, look, I like populist art too. Look at me liking horror movies and hip films. So I think it's like his way of being like, Look, I don't only like like erudite old man stuff. So maybe he's starting to see the error in his way to see.

SPEAKER_05 51:00

I have a hot take right now, you might shoot down, but I think that horror movies are actually some of the the most artistic films we have right now of their time in the last five years. Like I've seen more, more, more horror films that I'm just like, well, that was like a brilliant that was brilliantly shot. I love the performances in it, and I've taken so much away more away from it than just you know a Freddie Krueger like figure or something, right?

SPEAKER_01 51:24

Like, no, I love that. I agree wildly that.

SPEAKER_03 51:28

I gotta I get an even bigger hot take uh there for for that. I am a horror fan, I love horror movies. I've been like I watched The Exorcist when I was like too young, right? I think I was like nine years old or ten years old when I watched The Exorcist. Love horror movies. My hot take is as much as I love them, I think only 20% of horror movies are actually good.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

I agree with both of these takes because like I think right now every prestige filmmaker is being pushed into making horror movies because that's the one place where there's ROI for our investments. So people will go and see horror movies. So we're there are many drama directors that are pretending they're making a horror, but they're really making like a psychological drama. And you'll see those movies, and they're and the horror fans are like, this isn't really horror. Like it's the reason that horror movie people don't like it when you say you're making an elevated horror movie. They're like, fuck you. Like it's you know, it doesn't need to be elevated. It can just be, you know, a schlocky horror film. And there's room for that too. But then, like what you were saying, that only a percentage of them are good for sure, because there's more horror movies being greenlit every day than any other genre. So it's so in there's so many of them that even just statistically, many of them are going to be with non-famous actors. Many of those actors, you know, are acting their hearts out, but aren't necessarily any good. And the scripts are riddled with cliches, but the good ones, and we all know what those are, are like some of my favorite, favorite movies. Yeah. And like the new movie I'm doing right now is in the vein of the substance, and it's like balls to the wall, insane. And like I love that scene.

SPEAKER_05 53:14

Andrew and I, or my partner and I, we watched The Substance, and we thought it was one of the best movies we saw of the year. Like, we were just incredible, right?

SPEAKER_01 53:21

And it was so great to see it like win Oscars. And I was at Cannes when this was all happening, and I was like, wow, this is like this moment for body horror, and like in a way that it's very exciting.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

And it didn't know what, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:36

Oh, the other thing too is like when it comes to like when it comes to like horror movies. I mean, you can get and you can get like lower budget, not like no name actors and do well. Like the first paranormal activity movie was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

Right, agree.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

They got not so good after that, but like the first one was like incredible, right? And then you can get the bigger ones, like you know, like everyone seems to do zombie movies, honestly. Like, you know, I get a little bit kind of tired of zombie movies because I find zombies in general are kind of one-dimensional. It's kind of like you gotta move on or whatever, right? I mean, we the like in speaking of zombie movies in Canada, The Last of Us was filmed in Canada, and they it it it's to this day, it is like the number one show that has brought more revenue to Canada in film than any other film in Canada.

SPEAKER_01 54:30

No that that's really cool. I know a lot of people that worked on that show, and I have a friend at HBO who's like the exec on that show. And I'm obsessed with it. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_05 54:41

Well done. It's such a well done show.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

It's amazing, so good.

Canada Dreams Subway Takes And Blair Witch

SPEAKER_03 54:44

Yeah, like I didn't play the game because I'm on a gamer, but I can tell you right now when uh I mean, spoiler alert, I guess, if you haven't watched it, but like when Joel dies, like both my wife and I were like, What? Like, holy crap, right?

SPEAKER_05 54:58

Like, yeah, like it's like I played I played the game 10 years before I saw the show, and I mean it really it worked, it worked on both ends for us. Like, you know, we I loved it. Like when we watched that show again, we were both we were we were fully emerged. Great, great performance.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

I mean, that's exactly a perfect example of the kind of work that I want to do where it's both commercially accessible, but also brilliant acting, grounded work, it's smart, it's important, it's emotionally available. Like those that's the kind of work that I think it's like genre work, but it's just uniformly brilliant.

SPEAKER_03 55:34

Yeah, you know? Well, I I honestly hope, like, you know, I hope people listening here and everything, I would love to see you bring work to Nova Scotia, personally. You know, that would be super cool. Like if you can write, direct, and and bring work. Because one, we Mike and I have covered this through this year. Like, we firmly believe that artists, people in the film industry are entrepreneurs. They are a form of entrepreneur. They don't get they don't get that label very often, right? They kind of get the arts get cut easily, oftentimes. They're not looked at as a as an economic powerhouse, but they really can be. And they can be, they really can be when it's people like yourself who now have moved to LA and could have the potential of bringing LA money to Halifax.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

It's true. Like the Canadian movie that I'm directing is a is a seven million dollar Canadian budget, and like all of that we have to hire all Canadians, you know. So it's a lot of jobs for a lot of people for that those six weeks, you know?

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

Yeah, so yeah, no, I definitely I want to shoot a movie that's part in Nova Scotia and part in PEI. So I do have something that I'm planning.

SPEAKER_03 56:48

Zombie the Anna Green Gables. Can you imagine? That's amazing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 56:58

Wait, Matt, I I I mean, we've been going on in about an hour, and I don't want to keep you too long, Sonia. I mean, I've been really loving this conversation. I love the hot take questions too, just because the New York thing, you know, I feel like this is this is natural for you. You you I'm sure you watched that subway show where he asked the hot take questions. Have you seen that?

SPEAKER_01 57:15

The uh guest on that.

SPEAKER_05 57:17

You've been a guest on that.

SPEAKER_01 57:19

Yeah, I I my my episode has two million views. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:23

Okay, I'm gonna have to go back and find it because I've seen I've thought I've I thought I've seen like all of them, but I obviously have not.

SPEAKER_05 57:29

That's my favorite show, right? That's my favorite thing on Instagram today. I'm absolutely obsessed with it. I think he does a great job.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

Yeah, go look at my episode of Subway Takes. It's on my social media too. You'll find it.

SPEAKER_05 57:41

Okay, have a look. Thank you. So, yeah, so I mean, uh here's a hot take for you. Blair Witch Project, maybe one of the most popular films ever made in Nova Scotia. Great movie or not so great?

SPEAKER_01 57:55

I I don't love that movie. I think that when I saw it originally, it really freaked me out. But I know I'm one of the act the actress who's in it, I know her in real life. And they got so underpaid on that project that she ended up suing Lionsgate. And it's been like a whole thing when they wanted to do a re-release. So I think that like I am just so protective of the way that those people got exploited that even though I think the movie's good, I'm like not supportive of it just because I'm like, pay your actors, give them residuals, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:32

I love movies that are great and brave and in a new lane. I thought I could not stand that movie. I could not get into it. Really? Made me feel sick and terrible. It made me feel like sick inside watching the camera shake and stuff. I just couldn't see it.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Yes, I I as somebody who likes more like sophisticated, beautiful cinematography, I do actually have a really hard time with shaky steady cam and like docustyle. Like there were moments that shots can be motivated and you want that tension, but I can't watch two hours of that. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_05 59:02

That's how I felt about it. Yeah.

Ten Questions And Rapid-Fire Picks

SPEAKER_03 59:03

Do you know what? I actually I rem I to this day remember sitting in that and watching, and I really like I really enjoyed it. But I remember about getting about halfway through this and when like everything started to go down and everything like that. I remember in my brain, like in the theater, looking at and go, if they show this damn witch, I'm leaving. Because the fact that you didn't see her was way more scarier than if they if they would have showed that witch, I would it would have it like would not have been scary. It would have probably been hokey because it was in the 90s, right? Yeah, and uh the fact that they chose not to show them was the right move. And if anyone listening right now, sometimes you have to realize that not showing something is scarier than showing something, totally scary.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Totally agree. Yeah, that I think ending on that point. That's that I fully, fully agree.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:00

I think that's a DGI monster into your film 43.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:03

No, it ruins it. It's like do not show you.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:06

You just all that emotion you've invested into the film that just drops, and you're just like, that's what I'm looking at. Yeah, agree. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:14

Hopefully, Matt's okay there, and we're gonna get into 10 questions here as you can.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:18

I'm just copying, I'm just copying the questions over there because uh okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:22

So 10 questions a little game we play at the end of our show. It's just kind of fun, sometimes dumb questions, and sometimes intelligent questions. Okay, so I'll kick off question one. What is one movie that you can watch over and over again and never get sick of?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

The David Lynch movie Maholland Drive. I have seen that movie more than any movie in the whole world. It's it's a mind fuck, but I love it.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:48

Never saw it once. I'll have to watch it. You need to see it. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

Officially, it's absolutely bonkers and weird and surreal, and it doesn't make sense, and it's creepy. And I watched it the night before moving to LA because it's about an actress in LA and it like fucked me up. So it's it's good.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:04

Awesome. I will check that out. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:07

Dibby, I'm trying to send these over to me. I'm having some technical difficulties here because I'm on my phone now because my computer went all we're gonna. I'll read question two, and when you can get this going, you just actually can you can you do me a better favor? Can you send those? Oh, wait, they just came through. Never mind. All right, so we can cut that all out. We can cut them all out. I I emailed them to myself so to my work visa. There we go. All right, okay, so question number two. So we all know that you know, to make it in this industry, people have to work odd jobs and things like that. And I know we talked about how you had to stay within your lane because of the way your visa worked, but was there any weird or strange jobs that you worked, you know, to get through? Tell us what they are.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:55

One of them I I was I would type for a blind playwright. So I had to like write out all of her thoughts, which was weird and wild. And then another one, my first year in New York, I would pose for art classes, like for painters at painters college, like pose naked for art classes, and you're drawn. So that was definitely one that like got me past all of my insecurities at like 20 years old.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:22

Yeah, especially yeah, the blind, uh the blind writer.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

That's the blind writer, yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:28

Okay, question number three What's your go-to comfort food? What do you like?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

Well, I'm a big I'm a cheese person, so I eat like blocks of brie, like they're like a chocolate bar.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:40

So hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

I love cheese all the time.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:44

Now, Canadian poutine, will you like that, or do you is that a little obsessed?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:48

Best food, and you can't get it here. And when I go to Montreal this summer, I can't wait to have poutine here.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:54

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:56

Okay, number four, Matt. Question number four. So, okay, I'm sure you've seen Black Mirror. So the recent, more recent season, they had a uh an episode where you could insert yourself into a movie. So into like a movie verse. So if you could insert yourself into any movie verse, what movie would it be?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

It's cheesy, but I probably would choose Lella Land because I've always really identified with Emma Stone, and I've always thought that was like my ideal like trajectory. So I'd be in Lella Land.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:30

Redhead's gonna stick together, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:32

Exactly.

unknown 1:03:32

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:33

And she's the loveliest person. When I met her, she is so kind and so gracious.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:38

So she seems like she seems like someone who would be like real.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:42

Yeah, the coolest, like funny and self-effacing, and like a nerd, and like just like the coolest person. You're like very, very lovely.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:50

Awesome, cool. Next question. What's your favorite like kind of guilty pleasure entertainment? So, this is not thinking of an artistic art house variety, but maybe leaning in a little more into something that's probably a little silly.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:03

Oh god. Yeah, what's your love is blind?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:07

Oh man, I'm there must be something. I feel like I I feel like like you, it's like what it's I subway takes, obviously. I was on that, so I but things like online scrolling, like I really will get like lost in like stupid cat videos and stuff. So it's really like like that the silly cooking videos on Instagram is like probably my like lowbrow entertainment.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:36

Okay. So yeah. Both of those things I I I I spend way too much time watching cat videos.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:41

Way too much time.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:42

Mostly because of my partner and kid.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:44

Yeah, I get it. So question number six.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:49

So if you could pick one leading actor, one leading actress of over any time to star in a movie that you are going to direct, who are you picking and what genre are you picking?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:01

Oh god, I would definitely pick a I've always wanted to do a great drama about somebody in a mental institution. Like uh one flu over the cuckoo's nest or something.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:15

One of my favorite movies.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:17

It's so fucking great. And I would love to have used God. Oh man. I I it's so funny. I think about casting all day long, and I'm like constantly like assessing actors' values, and now I'm like, if I could have like anyone in the whole world. I mean, right now, I would really still like to. Leonardo DiCaprio never works with female directors, and I want to be the first female director that he works with. Yes. So I would cast Leonardo DiCaprio and I think Catherine Hepburn in I like one flew over the cuckoo's nest, you know, version, like mental sanitarium crazy, crazy movie. Yes. Okay. Wow. Cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:01

Love it. All right. Question number seven over to you.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:04

Okay. What would your theme song be? What's the song that pumps you up?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:10

Oh God. It's super lame and super annoying, but me and my ex-boyfriend, who's an actor, who's now my best friend, every time we don't get an acting role, we play the Taylor Swift shake it off. And that has gotten us through many sort of like dancing crazily moments of like this industry, but also we're gonna keep going.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:32

So that's it. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:36

Alright, question question number eight. If you weren't allowed to use a camera ever again, how would you tell stories?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:47

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

I mean, I I love making art on all of my movies. On all of my movies, I like To make like the hand props. I was working on a movie the other day where my character was described as a trash angel, and she like lives in this like pile of beautiful Christmas lights and illuminated sparkling trash. And I ended up working with the art team and like made all of it myself. So I think I would physically be like some sort of sculptor. That would be fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:21

That sounds like a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:22

Okay. All right. Didn't see that one coming, but yeah. Question number nine, or you told.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:29

So this is a question for someone that's that that that kind of took everything. She she went to New York, went to LA. Do you think location matters anymore in our digital world? Like where you live?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:40

If I had, I moved to LA in 2018. If I had waited two years more, I was told I could have stayed in New York and I never would have had to go. Because then, like as long as you have the ability to be able to work in the States, I could have done it from anywhere. So I don't think now it matters nearly as much. You still need the ability to have the papers to work in like the UK or wherever else. But besides that, almost all of my meetings, unfortunately, are Zooms, even though I live 20 minutes away from Warner Brothers and 10 minutes away from Paramount. But I do ask for my meetings to be in person. And I usually am more likely to book if I can be in front of somebody. But yeah, yeah. I want it to be more in person. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:29

There is there is something there does seem to be a bit of a decentralization happening in Hollywood because with a lot of like A-listers have chosen to live in like Wyoming or something like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everyone moves away. Most of the work, every time I do a movie, they're usually not in LA. And none of our auditions are in person. Everything is online. So you probably could live almost anywhere now. But the people that I meet that get me my next job are all people that I meet socially in New York or LA. So I still think you have to like know the people. But once you do, I could live in Halifax now, probably, and take all my meetings by Zoom and still be fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:07

Networking, networking is still the king, right? It's still the king.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:12

It still is. It still is. And somebody said this well yesterday to me. They were like, people don't hire people just because they know them. They have to like you. So I think it's like networking is superficial, but people hire their friends. People hire people that they genuinely like.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:27

So that's fair.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:29

Yeah. Question number question number 10. Is there a style of film that you have zero interest in going near?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:38

This is gonna sound terrible, but as a director, I never want to direct a comedy ever in my life.

unknown 1:09:43

Really?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:44

I know. And as an actor, I love being in comedies and I'm and I'm funny, and I get to do Pratfalls, and it's great. As a director, I like to direct visually beautiful things. And I think comedies, we don't really get to do incredible cinematography and like heartfelt weeping actors.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:02

Well, I just gotta see natural libre because that's a visually beautiful film.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:07

I have not seen that.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:08

There's not a frame wrong in that movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:10

Every drama and no comedies.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:12

So that is like okay. Yeah, there's some great comedies with great, great cinematography. I think I think that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:19

People say it. I think that dramedies, dramedies are the sweet spot because I think there should be levity. There should be levity in everything. But yes, I'm never going to direct anything crazy.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:33

Which one which one was that? Jason Bateman. Almost everyone, that's a really popular one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:38

Yeah. Great, great cinematography. Very funny movie.

unknown 1:10:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:42

That's so funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:43

That's a bit of a bonus question because I meant to ask you this earlier. And you know what? Yeah, we can we can cut it if, like, you know, it doesn't make sense either, too. But being Canadian, having the red hair, rocking the last name O'Hara, is that a shout out to Catherine?

Final Advice Don’t Wait Permission

SPEAKER_01 1:11:00

Love Catherine and people recently when she passed away, I had multiple people that thought I was related to her that reached out. And I love her so much. So I think it would became the greatest compliment that I've ever had. And under my Subway Takes video, multiple people said, Is she related to Catherine O'Hara? And I was like, My God, I wish. Yeah. So, but she was truly like one of the greats. So it makes me so sad.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:27

She was in The Last of Us and like rocked it, killed it.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:31

Like and the studio, she's so good on the studio. She's so funny.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:38

Like, yeah. Yeah. Underratedly great actress who could do like drama and was funny, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:48

Agreed. 10 out of 10. Yes. She's brilliant. Agreed.

unknown 1:11:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:53

Well, there you go. That's good. Do we do we want what's the last one, Matt? We asked people, it's uh do the advice one?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:01

We bounce back and forth.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:02

Like, so you you we'll let you let's do the advice one. Okay. What's one piece of advice you were given in your lifetime from anybody that you can remember? Oh, there's a cat. Halo.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:13

The cat I fired that you'd like to pass down.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:17

So a piece of advice you're given in your lifetime that you want to pass down.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:20

I think just don't wait for permission to create. Like the amount of time that actors wait for opportunities for other people to give them in order to be able to go and have this dream. And I say again and again, like, don't wait around. Don't make that short film and then decide that that's it and that you can't make a feature. There are ways, there are grants, there are application process processes, like just go and make that movie that you want to make. And if you build that team, all of the opportunities and the doors will open. Like, I think leadership is a lot of it. But when I started to own my power, I started everything I needed came together to get be able to facilitate what I needed. So you just have to take that first step and believe in yourself. And it sounds cheesy, but it's really true. Love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:07

No, that's that's great. Oh, that's great advice.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:10

Tons of inspiration in this conversation. I really want to thank you so much, Sonia, for trusting us and thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:15

This was so, so lovely. And when I come to Halifax, I'd like to get a beer with you both in real life. Yes, please. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:22

Yeah, round two anytime. Nice to meet you guys. Amazing. Cheers, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:26

Such a pleasure. Amazing. Oh, here you go. Have a good one.