The BASIC Show

TYLER MARIE: Breaking Barriers as a Female Director | EPISODE 11

• Viktorija Pashuta • Season 2 • Episode 11

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In this powerful and inspiring episode of The BASIC Show, award-winning director, producer, and creative visionary Tyler-Marie Evans joins host Viktorija Pashuta to share her journey of breaking barriers, leading with vision, and telling stories that matter.

From indie sets to high-profile productions, Tyler opens up about navigating a male-dominated industry, staying true to her creative voice, and using film as a platform for social impact. She reveals the sacrifices, mindset shifts, and pivotal moments that shaped her into the filmmaker she is today — and offers valuable advice for the next generation of women behind the camera.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
🎬 How Tyler went from indie projects to directing major productions
💡 Opportunities and challenges for women in film in 2025
🤝 How to build a trusted creative team and lead with vision
📖 Why authentic storytelling is the most powerful cinematic tool
🧠 Mindset strategies for overcoming rejection and industry barriers
🎯 Balancing creative passion with business strategy in filmmaking
🌍 Addressing social issues through storytelling
❤️ Actionable advice for young female creatives in media
📱 Navigating streaming, marketing, and audience engagement in today’s film world

Whether you’re a filmmaker, storyteller, or creative entrepreneur, this episode is a masterclass in perseverance, leadership, and creating art that resonates.

🎧 Listen now and follow the show for new episodes every Wednesday!

🛒 Get the Collectible Print Edition of BASIC Magazine – A luxury fashion and culture publication delivered quarterly:
 https://buybasicmagazine.myshopify.com

📌 Follow Tyler-Marie Evans: Instagram – @livingwithfreckles
📌 Follow BASIC Magazine & The BASIC Show: Instagram – @basic_magazine

📍 Recorded at: The Maybourne Beverly Hills
 🎙️ Hosted by Viktorija Pashuta – Editor-in-Chief of BASIC Magazine

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SPEAKER_00:

90% of the film is accurate to real life. At least I can write. I still have my ink. I still have my paper. At least I can write. And I never really had seen directing as an option. I'm a very feminine person. I always thought of a director as like Steven Spielberg, you know, baggy pants, baseball cap. I want to show people that young, beautiful, objectified young women ask themselves the same questions that Dostoevsky did. I began to independently direct. I sold my car to direct my first short film because I had no money. Writing is so easy you just sit down and bleed. And I feel that with this film, that I just sat down and let it all out.

SPEAKER_02:

They say luxury is a lifestyle. I say it's a mindset. And this one comes with room service. Here at The Mayborn, where European charm meets California flair, I don't just check in, I reset. Because real power isn't loud. It's knowing when to ghost the noise and draft something far more lasting behind the scenes. The Mayborn, Beverly Hills.

SPEAKER_01:

All

SPEAKER_02:

right. Hi, Tyler Marie. Hi there. Welcome to The Basic Show. Thank you for having me. Oh, very excited to have you and share your story with our audience.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

You look fabulous. Always sparkly. I love the eye makeup. You always

SPEAKER_00:

look like a beautiful fairy. I'm a connoisseur of glitter. You

SPEAKER_02:

are, and it really fits you really well. Thank you, yeah. So introduce yourself a little bit. Give us the background, how you started in filmmaking. So you're an amazing writer, producer, filmmaker. So give us a little bit of the tease. How did you start in film industry?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I'm a lover of stories, always love storytelling. When I was in high school, I really fell in love with literature and I saw myself as a writer. I was obsessive. And when I began college, I began as an English major. But there was a film elective and I always loved films growing up. My dad's a huge film buff. So I thought, you know, I'm going to do this for fun. And when I was on that set, I was a script supervisor. And I remember we were shooting at like four in the morning on like a 12 hour day. It started to pour rain and we all had to wear garbage bags because we didn't have raincoats. So we'd like cut out garbage bags or wearing it. And the moment that we shot was so beautiful. And I never really had seen directing as an option. I'm a very feminine person. I always thought of a director as like Steven Spielberg, you know, baggy pants, baseball cap. But when I had that moment on set, you know, I can imagine it right now. Um, I had the feeling that directing was like visual storytelling. Like it was visual writing, everything that I was attracted to and loved in writing directing was that and more. Um, so I was 19 years old and that was almost 10 years ago. And I really haven't looked back since, you know, I was, that was in Dallas, Texas where my family was. Um, and then I knew I had to go to LA. And I packed my two cats up, Renoir and Thomas O'Malley, shout out, my gold velvet couch, my few belongings, and I moved to LA with like$800 to my name. And I went to an apartment in Koreatown. And I was like, I don't have a job or anything. And I spent a month reaching out to like 20 billion people on LinkedIn saying like, hi, like I was reaching out to any place possible. And by a weird and magical situation, one of the HR people at Warner Brothers responded to me and said, hey, Monday morning, come in for an interview. And, you know, again, that was almost 10 years ago. I worked at Warner Brothers for four and a half years. I worked for DC Entertainment and Development and really got a crazy cool side of the industry and And on my lunch breaks, I would like specifically pack lunches. So on my lunch breaks, I could walk on this Warner Brothers lot and just like look at the stages and think, oh my God, you know, what a cool thing. So I really, and I was so in love with old Hollywood, like stories of Betty Davis and Lauren Bacall and, you know, old Hollywood stories were really where I found women having strong voices, whether it was, you know, their kitschy interviews on, you know, or just their pronounced characters. I felt such strong voices from women. So really loved old Hollywood. And then from Warner Brothers, I began to independently direct. I sold my car to direct my first short film because I had no money. Wow, the sacrifices. And almost everyone on that set worked for free because they were excited about it. And my selling my car, which it was an okay car, Sorry, what

SPEAKER_02:

was the first project you said you did? My first short

SPEAKER_00:

film. Your first short film? It's called Here or There, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was called Here or There, and I sold my car to make my first short film just to cover the camera equipment. And, you know, I had already been working at Warner Brothers, but I told myself, I was like, okay, Tyler Marie, if you cannot direct a short film, you cannot be a director. Like, if you can't do this first step, you have to turn away and not try this anymore. And I felt so, not helpless, but I didn't know anyone in L.A., who would work on a crew. I didn't know DPs. I didn't even know where to begin because I was in the more corporate studio side of things. But I gave myself the challenge. I said, okay, make this short film. And if you can't do it, then I don't know, stay at Corporate Warner Brothers. So I made the short film, which was crazy. And it happened during COVID. And my actress like, You know, all the actors or whatever had changes because we shot the first half of the film before COVID and then after COVID. So the whole thing was so funny and it just reminds me of how, you know, funny filmmaking can be sometimes.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, you mentioned one interesting thing. You said, oh, some magic happened that the studio got back to me. And I feel like it wasn't magic. I feel you put your effort into it. You wasn't, you weren't just sitting and waiting. for the opportunity to come your way. You actually came here determined, even though you didn't have connections, you still found the way to get through and then situations aligned to fit your purpose. That's incredible. So that wasn't magic. You actually did some work.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely, definitely. You know, I've had many an old boss say, I'm a persistent person.

SPEAKER_02:

Persistency and consistency to me is almost equal to talent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's even, it's so funny when I was in college, there was this magazine that I ended up working at called Living Magazine in the Dallas area. And I was like a junior in college and they weren't hiring. And almost every day, knock, knock, knock, I went to the physical location and said, I said, I'll do work for free. I'll do whatever you like. I will do whatever I want to be here. And my editor, Megan Camp, who's so wonderful and a good friend to this day, she said she was like, it was definitely your persistence because we weren't even hiring. And then we thought, oh, we'll make you the social media manager. And I went from that to assistant editor to and my being an assistant editor at Living Magazine is what helped me get my job at Warner Brothers because I began as an assistant editor for DC Comics. So it's, you know, that whole jump. And then from DC Comics, I went to television development at DC Entertainment.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow, that's incredible. So you said you received rejections. You didn't take it for an answer. You went, you knocked on the doors, you made connections. And this way they said, okay, let's give this girl a chance. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I did it with a smile, but I was definitely probably annoyed to some degree. But

SPEAKER_02:

also proves that you knew exactly what you want to do, right? You didn't take it for an answer. Like, okay, you know what? I'm going to try something else and work in McDonald's. I mean, yeah, no,

SPEAKER_00:

totally. And I always felt very much like, You know, once I decided I was going to be a director, that was it. And I knew I had to get there. And I didn't always know how I was going to get there, but I just knew that was the calling on my life. That's what I was supposed to do with my life. It was never like, oh, I'm trying out different things. It was just once I knew, it's like when you fall in love, you just know and you fall. And I fell in love with filmmaking. I fell in love with cinema. I got bullied in my little private university. Because everyone loved David Fincher. And I wanted Sofia Coppola and Jean-Luc Godard and Wong Kar-Wai. You know what I mean? I love foreign cinema. And yeah, it's just so funny because it really felt like a deep love affair that began then and has been continuing ever since.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, congratulations. I mean, I'm saying this because I recently saw on your Instagram the announcement that you worked on your first debut. It's called The Pretty Babies.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Yeah, Pretty Babies.

SPEAKER_02:

Pretty Babies. So and... It's incredible because it's an all-star ensemble, right? We have Ashley Benson, we have Emily Ellen Lindt, Madeline Page, and Sadie Stanley. Congratulations is big. So can you tell us a little bit more about this project? How did you get it? And then what's the theme, a story behind this film? Is it a short film?

SPEAKER_00:

Feature. Feature-length film. Wow. Yeah. Okay, tell us more about it. So, you know, it's so funny. I, you know, in college, because I got my degree in English and film, Two separate degrees. So I was writing features then. But nothing ever clicked as like, this is what I want to make my directorial debut. And it was 2020. I remember I was folding clothes in my closet and I just had this image in my mind and I had the basic storyline, which is, you know, on the Variety article. I had the basic storyline and I just thought of it and I was like, that's going to be my debut. I just know. And that was 2020. That was five years ago. There were like possible attachments and then it didn't happen and then it didn't happen, possible producers. And I never honestly was going after like big name, big talent or anything. I really thought, you know, I was, I believe the story was necessary and important. And I thought, you know, If I have to get a more expensive car and sell that and make this movie, I'll do it. The car's in work for you. Yes, I know. You know, half legs will travel. You know, I just thought no matter what, I need to tell this story. So maybe I'll get like a small amount together or something. I don't know. I rewrote that film 20 billion times. Same storyline, but like different scenes and different arcs and all that stuff. And early... Yeah, early 2024, I had like this 120 page script, but it didn't feel like what the script should be. And I just moved into this house in Silver Lake. I was by myself with my cats. And I remember having this realization of, oh, this is me and my best friend. And it became very personal and it became very emotional. And I took that 130 page script and I made it my script that I have now. And it's so funny because I was like, I'd never been to Cannes, you know, the film festival. And I didn't have the money to have gone to Cannes. So I did a payment plan for my flight. I was like, I think I can afford this amount. And I'm just going to get myself to Cannes. And I don't know what's going to happen. Maybe I'll fall asleep on a bench. But I just wanted to be in a place where cinema... I told you, cinema is and probably always will be my number one love affair. And I wanted to be in a place that loves cinema too. So I went to Cannes and... that at some event, I met my producer, Jordan Wagner, who's one of my closest people, who is one of the main reasons that this film is where it's at now, because he saw the vision, he saw me, and he gave it wings to fly. So

SPEAKER_02:

you're not just a director, you're a writer. You've wrote the script a million times. You found a way, come to Cannes, and then you found the producer?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and like I said, Jordan... You know, I couldn't have imagined a better producer. I couldn't have, you know, give me a magic lamp or something and, you know, you have the wishes. I couldn't have wished up a better producer. He is so perfect. We're such great collaborators. And he really, like I said, put wings on this project and made it fly. So

SPEAKER_02:

how do you even approach him? Like, what did you say? Like, excuse

SPEAKER_00:

me? I honestly didn't even pitch him the project. Like, we met. We got along really well. We became really good friends. And then from that friendship, I think like a trust established and we both had similar backgrounds in growing up. So we saw a deeper part of each other. Like I'd say, he's probably one of my closest friends. And he just saw the potential and he started to ask me what project I was doing. I'm kind of a shy person. Like when I meet people, I'm not like... I would never tell. Look at you, so well-spoken, charismatic. Thank you. No, I can be very shy. I definitely don't approach people and say like, oh, here's my script. Right. But because of an interest in each other and a friendship in that sense, you know, he asked me, what projects are you doing, etc., etc.?

UNKNOWN:

?

SPEAKER_00:

And that began the conversation. And then he asked me to send him the script. And I've never had this happen. I remember I sent it to him at 10 a.m. And at 4 p.m. the same day, he texted me and he was like, I want to produce this. Wow. And it was so surreal. It was July last year. It was a year ago. Wow. And I can be a little cup half empty in the sense of like, is this really going to happen? He's working on all these other projects. I don't have attachments. I don't have anything right now. But he really... stayed the narrow course, built it with me. He did so much work that he didn't have to do. You know, for me, I see the vision, I see the story, and I have that belief in it. But he really came in and helped to such an incredible degree. And we worked on it together to bring it to the point that it is, which is like, it honestly feels like a Cinderella story.

SPEAKER_02:

It is a Cinderella

SPEAKER_00:

story. Yeah. It's a Cinderella story. Finding these actors who fell in love with the story, fell in love with the characters. And what I love and that's so consistent amongst every collaborator on this set is a love and a passion for cinema and a love and a passion for story. We don't have big paychecks. We don't have glitz. We do have glamour. We have the glitter. We have the glitter and the glitz. But it truly is people loving cinema and loving these characters and loving the story. And I know... without a shadow of a doubt that that's going to come through in the piece because it's how we built it up, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, congratulations again. Thank you. That seemed like a really incredible story that you will see through. And it's exciting because this is your baby, right? This is your project. It's like a pretty baby. Pretty baby, you know. You will be able to, you know, look it through and direct it exactly how you envision it, right?

SPEAKER_00:

It is such a lucky thing because I know so many directors sometimes will write and they're not able to direct or... They're waiting for the script. And like I said, this story, I just feel it in my bones and a deep part of myself. I think a big part of directing is you have to see the vision of the story. It has to be so clear in your mind, even clearer than real life is sometimes. And thankfully, I have that with this one that I'm so excited about.

SPEAKER_02:

So you cannot, I know you cannot say a lot about it, but can you give us just the teaser what this story in the movie is about? Yes, yeah,

SPEAKER_00:

it's about two best friends who, sorry, can you tell me what the, I just have

SPEAKER_02:

to make sure I'm not adding anything. Yeah, actually, I'll read it out. So this story follows two teenage girls running away to chase stardom only to face the dark underbelly of sex work.

SPEAKER_00:

That is, I know. Is it

SPEAKER_02:

something that you personally had to encounter in terms of the plot? Or it came just as inspiration from, like you said, a cutout of the newspaper? How did it come?

SPEAKER_00:

I went through so many. I'd say most of the film is, I'd say 90% of the film is accurate to real life. And that's what I find special about it for myself is it's so personal. There's a famous quote, it's Hemingway. He says, writing is so easy, you just sit down and bleed. And I feel that with this film that I just sat down and let it all out. And so it was less building a story concept and more therapy. I'm not someone who's like, oh, I write five pages a day, check. I'm someone who in breakups, in tragic moments, in difficult times, we all have our vices. And for me, it is opening up that laptop and writing it out. When I'm hurt, when things I don't quite understand, when there's situations that I can't even give answers to sometimes, I open up that laptop and scenic writing is what gets me through it. It's really therapeutic for me. I don't write to just achieve or do something like that. I write because I need to. Because how else am I going to hold this?

SPEAKER_02:

It's interesting you say that because in my mind, it's not easy to sit down and finish the project from A to Z. I know a lot of writers have writer's blocks or they want to do something, they're so passionate, but they can't really pass through certain blocks they have to finish the story. In your case, it's opposite. You were feeling and living that much. So you just almost like in one breath.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I know. I have like pen, yellow legal pads, so many docs with just like scenes typed up and in the most unorthodox way. And then I go, I sit down and I look at the computer screen and then I begin to mesh the story together because then I really see it.

SPEAKER_02:

So as a director, what are your anticipations before you start filming? Like, what do you expect? Have you ever been on the set that big I mean it's probably the first feature

SPEAKER_00:

I've worked yeah first feature it's so huge what's daunting is of course the timeline the amount of days you know I've shot short films and commercials and music videos and things but you know you have one to three days obviously a feature is much longer but I am walking into this with such a genuine passion for cinema with you know I'm known for very decent work ethic and I believe that I don't know that the souls of my mentors will guide me that being like the Wong Kar Wai or the Jean-Luc Godard or you know the Scorsese and Sofia Coppola and you know um Sandra Locke you know I don't know but I believe that the um Jane Campion too all these uh directors who I love who feel you know like parts of me um will guide me because I'm coming to it with like a genuine desire to touch people and make a beautiful film

SPEAKER_02:

that's really beautiful what you said I don't know half of the directors you mentioned but tell me so you said you're very quiet and shy so being a director you need to get the actress to the point where they fulfill your vision how do you feel about you know settling for certain scenes or getting them to where you want them to get, kind of overcoming your shyness? Or it's a whole different personality that comes out of you when you direct?

SPEAKER_00:

It is. I feel more like myself when I'm on set directing. And because I care so much about it. And I also usually cast actors who have a deep understanding of the characters and the story and why we're here. It's definitely not for close-ups. Like it's for the story. I 100% feel more like myself. Like that's what I'm supposed to do. I think in regular life, I can tend to be more shy because I just don't want to exert too much energy towards things that I'm like, oh, I don't care. I don't care where we go to eat. I really don't, you know? So I'm going to be quiet about it versus on set when it's a scene that I really care about or a moment or a shot or something. I'm so zoned in. But also, I believe there's no reason to be aggressive or cruel on set. I love how David Lynch would talk about his sets and always, you know, you know, treating his crews and cast with kindness. And that's something that I aspire to do as well, is to always treat, whether it's a PA or makeup or anyone, whoever is on that set, I want to tell them thank you for being on my set. What if they're

SPEAKER_02:

not fulfilling your vision? Would you have the strength to really put them in their place? Or you would rather just go... Go along with it.

SPEAKER_00:

I think if they're not fulfilling my vision, then I'm not communicating correctly. So I need to change or work on my communication because I think that's one of the biggest pros of a great director is their ability to communicate to anyone the vision properly. So I think it's less, oh, this person's doing something wrong and more like, oh, how can I communicate this better? And but also when I'm hiring crew and the people that I've already brought onto this project, who I just want to say I'm in love, absolutely in love with my heads of department. Jonathan Guggenheim, our production designer, and Lauren Gutuarez, our director of photography. Again, I could not have dreamed up a better combo. And, you know, it's so funny because even like when we're not working, Jonathan and I will like look through books and be like, oh, Robert Altman's Three Women and just, you know, fangirl over cinema. And then he went to the thrift shop when we were working and he got Spike Lee's diary that he made when he was making his first feature. And we were getting teary eyed reading, you know, Spike Lee's statements and all of that. So it's like, I feel like they're my people. Like when you find your people, you just find them. And I really feel like I found my people. Lauren as well will stay up like till one in the morning, just like, oh, this scene from Christiane Epp or this scene from this film or this scene, you know, and you can just see the love of cinema. It's so fun. It's so cathartic. I love seeing the passion in

SPEAKER_02:

your voice and your eyes. I'm so excited for you, you know, for this project. It seems like a dream team come along.

SPEAKER_00:

It is. The whole thing is such a dream, and it really is. I have so many friends who are telling me, like, how are you going to feel 12-hour days, all this work, you're going to be out of L.A., you know, etc., And I'm like, I can't stop smiling. I can't sleep. It feels like, oh my gosh, I have the opportunity to do what I'm supposed to do on this earth. And it's so fun and it's so cool. Cinema directing is creating life on camera. It's a little Frankenstein's monster. You're creating life. You're doing something almost godlike in a sense. And it's just such a privilege. It's so beautiful. And then to find collaborators who see that too. And aren't on set for status or anything like even the actresses are so passionate about cinema and what and agree that it's such a privilege that we get to do this.

SPEAKER_02:

So speaking about that, how would you describe your style, I guess, filming style, your aesthetic when you're shooting?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I would have to say two of my biggest influences are, you know, foreign cinema. I love Bergman and Godard and Agnes Varda and you know so much of foreign cinema has influenced me and it's a lot more emotional you know i actually last night was just re-watching hiroshima monomore and the opening scene what is it what is it uh hiroshima monomore it's um it was made i believe in the early 60s or late 50s okay but it's about the hiroshima bomb but how the how the film opens it's of these two lovers cradling each other and you see this dust falling on them but it has like a weird glow and it's the it's so melancholy and sad because obviously the bodies were buried alive you know moments like that where an image and an image in cinema creates the whole feeling creates everything that's so powerful so foreign cinema has been one of my biggest influences um as well as old hollywood i love films i have a funny story actually um my family became very religious they became born again born again christians when i was um 13, 14. Okay. And I wasn't allowed to watch any movies like after the 1960s because they, you know, were a bit strict about it. So that was when Netflix had the DVDs that you could have sent to you. So every movie I got, you know, in my... I'm not too old. So like every movie that I got in that time was like a Greta Garbo film, Charlie Chaplin, you know, all these films from a previous period that not a lot of my peers... had been watching, but I was getting them on Netflix because I was trying to watch it.

SPEAKER_02:

Even the way you look, the way you dress, definitely

SPEAKER_00:

inspired me. I love old Hollywood. I love the glamour of that whole period and era. I love silent films and pre-code films, like all of those, so fun. And then also literature has deeply influenced me. I took a feminist lit theory class in college. A feminist lit? A feminist lit theory class. What is it? So it just goes into literature theory, you know, a lot of the feminist writers. So like Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Edna St. Vincent Millay, a lot of female writers. I need a list. Yes, yes, I love. I'm a huge reader. I love literature. But I think also those voices have influenced my work as well. I, you know... I

SPEAKER_02:

hear a lot of female voices because even the directors you mentioned, most of them, except the Sofia Coppola, are male directors. So you pretty much represent... There aren't a lot, yeah. It's really funny. Okay, give me three top world famous movies directed by female.

SPEAKER_00:

Virgin Suicides is one of my all-time favorite films. I'm a huge Virgin Suicides fan. The Piano by Jane Campion. was a film that I watched the whole thing, and then I was like, rewind, I just watched it over and over. Also one of my top films. Was

SPEAKER_02:

American Psycho also directed by a female? Yes, American Psycho.

SPEAKER_00:

That's the only one I know. That's another one of my favorites, actually. I love American Psycho.

SPEAKER_02:

Cannot

SPEAKER_00:

beat that. Yeah, yeah. I know, I can't believe they're doing the remake.

SPEAKER_02:

But to me, honestly, it feels like most of the times when a female is directing, it always comes out a little weird. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and I think sometimes... There's been a push for female directors, but we're still placing... But especially if they're not writing, sometimes it feels like placing the female director still in the construct of the male gaze. My story is very much the female gaze. It's very much a female voice. It's not just having a female direct an action movie so we can say, you know, we dotted our I's and crossed our T's. But I think women in general want to hear women's stories. Absolutely. And the way... women experience and see and touch and live and breathe and die. And that is, I think, how feminist literature has influenced me. You know, the yellow wallpaper, famous short story, Virginia Woolf. What is it about? The yellow wallpaper. It's really interesting. It's about a young woman who is being treated in a very... animalistic way for mental health issues but she's being treated like a lesser person and it goes I believe I actually is

SPEAKER_02:

it also from

SPEAKER_00:

the 60s? I think it was written in the 60s yeah I think I haven't read that since college but it was definitely like a story that stuck with

SPEAKER_01:

me

SPEAKER_00:

but you know female stories are also human stories I also love male writers like John Keats and

SPEAKER_02:

I just want to see more badass women right? in film too represented because I feel There's more emotional depth in the stories, but we're still lacking the drama, the speed, you know, the action. And it's really hard, I feel like, for female directors to bring those elements, but still have the female voice, you know, her.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Honestly, Sofia Coppola was one that really, I thought she did such a fantastic job. Virgin Suicides, again, one of my favorite films, I think, is a really... Beautiful bit of storytelling by a woman lost in translation. It feels so real. And like I said, it feels female gay, like the feminine gaze. So I feel, you know, I can't even help but write from the feminine gaze. Like I said, I'm a very feminine person. So it just naturally comes out. I have, you know, I have a sister. I'm very close with my mom. Most of my friends are women. Most of the people I surround myself with are women. you know, most of my characters. If you look at this, it's like, oh, it's literally all women because that's who I understand and know how to write and be in a sense for film.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we definitely will be looking forward for that. When is it going to premiere?

SPEAKER_00:

We're hoping festival season 2026. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, fingers crossed. Yeah. Looking forward. So being as a director, what are the differences between shooting, directing, let's say a commercial or a fashion film or a feature film?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, so, you know, fashion, I always like to tell some sort of story. With a fashion film, it's very visual and, you know, sometimes moody or things like that. It depends on the concept. But you're playing a lot with colors and temperature and movement and minimal dialogue or almost no dialogue. Commercials, you're working with a brand. I actually love commercials and prefer them over music videos because I feel with commercials, you can think of a really smart way to sell a product. In 30 seconds. Yes, exactly. You can tell a story. You can get someone's emotions. I actually, well, I can't. Yeah, that commercial hasn't come out. I recently did a Chinese laundry commercial. I know, I know. That was one of my favorite commercials to pitch because it's very much a human story. Even though it's a commercial, so you watch it and it feels like a short film almost. Even though it's short, a very short film. Even though it's selling a pair of shoes, but you wouldn't have guessed that at the end. And I think that's a really cool thing to do with commercials. But feature films, it's like that's where it's at. That's the great American novel, you know? It's telling a full story, telling a character's whole journey. How would

SPEAKER_02:

you compare a full... A full feature to, let's say, a TV show. Would you like to one day direct a TV show? Or are you more, you know, the fine art form of the cinema? I'm

SPEAKER_00:

a little bit of a commitment-phobe. So I think television shows seem daunting. Because it's like, okay, when is it going to end? Are we still on this topic? Some of them are

SPEAKER_02:

really great, like The Penguin. I

SPEAKER_00:

like to watch... It's so funny. I actually worked on the early stages of development on the Penguin. You did? Oh my God,

SPEAKER_02:

such a great

SPEAKER_00:

show. Television development. I loved it. But yeah, so with films, you know, for me, it seems like every, well, this is the first, but even like my second film, like I have the beginning pieces of that and it's a whole different chapter of my life. You know, still very feminine gays and female gays and feminine characters, but a different chapter of my life. Whereas this one is about this chapter. So I feel like with narrative features, you have an opportunity to discover different parts of yourself. Where I would guess, you know, I worked in television development when I was at Warner Brothers. It's just longer and a different type of storytelling. I'm not. It's

SPEAKER_02:

interesting. You said that it's in a sense, like you said, a therapy for your introspective. So it's not just you are telling a story, kind of giving a little piece of you. Which is really interesting. It's not like some project you've been hired to do, right?

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's totally different. That's why I have such a cathartic release with it. It just has the coolest feeling because it feels like it's literally a child. Especially you worked on

SPEAKER_02:

it for more than five, almost

SPEAKER_00:

five years. Yeah, exactly. And I remember an old friend of mine, we had seen, I think it was like Goodfellas or something, some Scorsese film. And after we saw the film, we were talking about it. And we were talking about how, you know, he took a part of himself to make that his life. Like, you know, it was probably, you know, people in that film might have been like characters in his life and just like the parallels there. And how a director and writer, you know, takes part of himself out or herself to make this story like Paul Schrader's story. how he talks about taxi driver and that's what he was going through. He was just driving around and going through these similar feelings. It's like you create these characters, not everyone, but a lot of these auteur directors, which I consider myself an auteur director. Which director? Auteur. So more like a more poetic, more emotional, poetic type of a director, more of a singular voice. You know, it's sort of how you can say that's a Tarantino film. It's

SPEAKER_02:

specific voice and style. So what is one word you can say that defines your style?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's a good question. Sparkle. Sparkle. I'd say something connected. Like, you know, I will give this a little

SPEAKER_01:

bit.

SPEAKER_00:

In all of my short films, and maybe the future, who knows, I have a similar theme of characters having to confront their fantasies, their dream life. And realize what the truth is. Like we all have our idealisms, romanticisms, things like that. And I seem to consistently show a character's inner dream world or idea of life. And yet they have to confront reality in a sense. So that's, I don't know if that's... When I've seen

SPEAKER_02:

your short films, they're to me very ethereal. Ethereal is a good word. Dreamy, ethereal. I love that. Very sensual. Yeah, very sensual. I love that. Vintage-y. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah, you definitely have... I love all those words. You have definitely a defined style and we need more of that. We need more female voices showcased because, I mean, tell me from your perspective since you worked in corporate Hollywood, What is the stance right now for female directors? Is it something just for them to put a tick and saying, OK, we just need more female directors or they're genuinely interested in exploring female perspective?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's both. And like, I think obviously you're going to have the people working the nine to five life. And this isn't everyone, but people working the nine to five life that want to fit a quota and say and then go home and have dinner with their family. And that is that. And then you have people who are hungry to work. hear and see female stories and are hungry to feel like they're being spoken to and they're hungry for these universal stories that females tell. So I think we have both. We have the people who aren't really that emotionally involved with it, just want to do the work, show that, yes, we're representing females and that's that. But then you have the people who are like, no, but we want the real stories. We don't want to just place a female director in a male construct. We want to show the story and have

SPEAKER_02:

them be specific female experiences. That's where you're supposed to pay attention to it. I just want the art to speak for itself.

SPEAKER_00:

I also want to be known as a great director, not just a great female director. I don't want to be a quota, but I also do have a decent amount of confidence in myself that I've had some comments from male directors specifically. who are like, oh, that's just happening because you're a girl. And I'm like, okay, you know, all right, you can think that, but I know that's not true.

SPEAKER_02:

Success is the best revenge. Exactly. Oh,

SPEAKER_00:

yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Love

SPEAKER_00:

a good success. Yeah, you're definitely, I mean,

SPEAKER_02:

you're already living the dream, especially without having huge experience, right? You're just kind of putting your foot down. It's

SPEAKER_00:

very exciting. I feel definitely supported. So it's really incredible.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, congratulations again. Thank you. So tell me a little bit more about your, let's say, I wouldn't say final, but your ultimate dream in filmmaking. How do you see your stardom moment? And you, after that moment, you'd be like, okay, you know, I'm happy. I can just go retire for like five years in the Bahamas. Until

SPEAKER_00:

I make another one. Yeah. You know, it's so funny because even with this film that I'm so excited and working on, I have my like second film in mind that I'm excited and also, you know what I mean? So it's like I want to make one film and then the next and then the next. I feel just so excited to work. I love working. So I don't necessarily imagine retirement. But what would make me feel beyond fulfilled? There's a famous story about this director who decided i think he was like in paris or something and he decided he saw a showing of one of his movies and he decided to go in and see it and when he walked out this young girl went up to him and said oh you're the director and he said yeah and she said you know that movie made me realize i had a soul and i saw that and my you know oh i i heard i didn't see that i heard that And I thought that would make me so fulfilled for young women, young men, old women, old men, people in general, for people when they watch the film to have this realization or that they're reminded of their potential, that they have a soul. You know, it's so funny when I was at Cannes last year pitching my film, my opening line would be, I want to show... I want to show people that young, beautiful, objectified young women ask themselves the same questions that Dostoevsky did. You know, I want to show we place, we compartmentalize people into different groups all the time. And I think there's a universalism in real human thoughts and real human aches and shared human feelings and emotion. And for someone to watch a film of mine and feel heard and feel understood and connected and to think, holy shit, I have a soul. There's so much potential in me. I'm capable of so much. That's my fulfillment. I'll go to the Bahamas. But

SPEAKER_02:

probably once you get to that point. it's not worth living anymore because you want to keep going writing.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, and it's so funny. One of my all-time favorite novels is John Steinbeck's East of Eden. And another thing I read about his writing was that, you know, East of Eden was, I believe, his last or one of his last novels. And he said that every other book he wrote was in preparation for East of Eden. He was trying to figure out how to write East of Eden. And he wrote Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, like these famous pieces of literature. And he said, oh, I was just preparing to write what I felt like my life, what my life should be, which is East of Eden, which is what that book says.

SPEAKER_02:

Can you give us a one-liner what that book is about?

SPEAKER_00:

East of Eden? Yeah. It's about two men who sort of fit the archetypes of Cain and Abel. You know, in the Bible, Cain killed his brother Abel. So one of the brothers, Adam, is... sort of like the good guy that everything goes well and he's good and he's soft and he's shy and kind and then you have the Kane character who James Dean played in the Ilya Kazan film who feels like his soul that there's something wrong with him and a really beautiful thing at the end of the novel is they go over in the Bible when God casts Kane out of when he casts him away they go over the Hebrew of what that meant. And in Steinbeck's East of Eden, it's this word timshel, which translates to only you have the power to overcome yourself. So the book is this conversation of fate and character and who decides which if people have success stories or if they don't, or if people are good or bad or whatever. And the book ends on this incredible note that really changed my life, which is Who cares? Because only you have the power to overcome yourself. Only you have the power to be who you want to be. And I have goosebumps. Yes. And you see Steinbeck's previous novels, The Grapes of Wrath, people in terrible situations who had dreams and ideas of their life. And they're all gone because here they're in the Dust Bowl and it's the Great Depression. And still, he says, only you have the power to overcome yourself, you know. And I think that is a beautiful story. And for him, I think once he felt like he got that out in an appropriate way, he was fulfilled. And I think for me, I'm not telling that story. I'm telling my own story. I think with so many directors, they're telling the same story over and over and over again, just in different disguises. And I think this feature is going to be my first attempt at the disguise of telling a certain story, that if I do it correctly, I would feel a great sense of fulfillment.

SPEAKER_02:

Would you ever sell your soul for the commercial project if you would be open? But let's say personally, you wouldn't be connected to it? It's impossible for me. Are

SPEAKER_00:

you sure? Actually, funny story. I had someone approach me before this who said, I want you, you can direct a thriller. We'll get you a big actor. You know, it's so much easier to sell a first-time director on something that's more gimmicky, risk-averse. And I said, I remember I was in Vegas with my aunt because that's where my aunt and uncle live. And my hand was shaking. And I said, no, I have to do Pretty Babies.

SPEAKER_02:

You should have agreed, bought a car, sold that car.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm just selling cars left and right.

SPEAKER_02:

Put into your passion project.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. But it's, you know. I think it's integral for the director to be connected to the material. And I feel like I'm not living. I'm not living. And, you know, my mom once she called me actually pretty recently and she said, you know, you've been in some bad situations since you moved to L.A., like not having money, no car and things like that. And she said, not once have you said, I wish I never moved here. I wish I wasn't going after this career. She was like, so you're certainly not going after money. And I was like, no, I'm not.

SPEAKER_02:

It made you stronger, right? Also made you realize what you don't want to do.

SPEAKER_00:

And the whole thing was to make a good movie that's going after constantly to tell the story that I want to tell. So I can't have spent 10 years going after telling the story I want to tell. To only say, oh, I'm not connected to that story. I don't really like it. Sure, because send me a paycheck, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Because that's what most of the directors do if you think about it. Yeah, I can't. Get a paycheck, you know, make a blockbuster, make another franchise. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00:

I'm, you know, I can't remember. I think it's called The Moveable Feast. Hemingway wrote about, like, he was so poor and his stomach was, like, his stomach was in pain. He could not afford food. And in his, like, diary journal, whatever, he was like, well... you know, at least I can write. I still have my ink. I still have my paper. At least I can write, you know, and I'm just like walking around Paris and I'm so hungry and I can't afford anything and my stomach hurts because I can't afford anything, but at least I can write and I'm not selling out. And don't worry, I can eat. I have food, you know, but I can't ever sell out because it's like the art is the thing. It's not fame. Well, I think the

SPEAKER_02:

hunger drives creativity. I feel once you have that starvation in a sense that it's pushing you to break the limits, right? To create. It's like I was thinking about the example of Leonardo DiCaprio. He's such an amazing actor, but he never got an Oscar throughout his career. And then once he finally, and I was like, oh my God, please don't let him to receive the Oscar because after once you get the hugest accolade, you kind of like relax. You stop hustling, you stop grinding, you stop you know, creating. And I feel once you have always that almost like a carrot in front of you, which may be your goal or your dreams or any kind of objection you have, you can be more creative rather than when you have everything, you know, at the tip of your fingers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I feel for me, like, unless life stops happening, the art can't stop. Because like I said, I have like 10 legal pads, notebooks with like This is what happened to me. And I write in my diary a lot. I write everything. Yeah, I usually write. And then I take it all to the laptop. But I write so much and, you know, so many moments and things. That's what directing is. It's like all these different moments and things that you go through. So many. So as long as those are still happening to me, you know, I think I can still be making things because it inspires and that's when you want to create. So what

SPEAKER_02:

can you tell to people who say, I don't watch TV? Like, I don't care about the movies. I don't watch TV. And then you speak with such passion about the craft and you're so excited about what you do. And the story told me that it changes people's perception of life. They're finding their soul watching certain movie. What can you tell to these people who say, I don't watch TV?

SPEAKER_00:

I think even if you don't watch TV or movies or whatever, somehow it'll find you. I believe that. I think in my darkest, difficult situations, I'll like, you know, be crying in bed, whatever. And then I'll think, what's playing at the AMC? What's playing at the Arrow? It's like that hunger, that need. And people go to, you know, maybe they play golf or they play, I don't know, something or do some sport or whatever. But I think There's always that little itch of wanting to hear another human story, wanting to hear or see something else. And maybe it's just my experience. But yeah, I feel like no matter what, no matter how busy I get, there's that desire to connect to another human through art, whether that was literature, poetry, you know, even TV shows, films. But there is something so romantic and beautiful about like a rainy day and then going to a theater. I remember it's so funny. When I first moved to LA, the Arrow Theater would do like director weekends. And I had baby cinema knowledge. And I remember one weekend, it was like the Tarkovsky weekend. And most of his films are like three and a half hours. And I went to the beginning and I got all these like canned roses and put them in my bag. And I just saw people going in and out. And there's this older man who was like in his 70s. rose across and we just like made eye contact because we were there the whole time which was like all day to like two days connected and I was like movies are my friends movies are my friends littered books are my novels are my friends like these are my best friends sometimes I feel so disconnected to people I would go you know I was a 21 year old in LA and my friend would be like oh there's this crazy cool pool party come blah blah blah blah And I would bring my book, my, you know, something like that in my bag. And I remember like sitting by the bathroom and reading because it's like, I want those thoughts. I want to be talking about those things. I want to be talking about Brothers Karamakov, like not just, hey, where'd you get your dress? Cool. What do you know? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm not good at small talk either. But, you know, I would bring those books and things because it brought me life and connection and It just felt so necessary. I

SPEAKER_02:

feel nowadays reading is luxury. Yeah, I know. It's always on the phone before it was a necessity or a leisure. It's just how you spend your time. Nowadays, to me, if I'm taking a book, wow, I have so much extra free time. I have peace in my mind. I have silence. Then I can actually flip the pages and read the book. Do you read a lot still?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. Well, right now, obviously, I'm in prep for the film. But is it a year and a half ago, actually? I started a book club. It's actually, it was called Feminine Mystique. It's like a little feminist book club, but we just read female stories and it's all women. And that book club changed my life. Again, another thing, because it's so special to you. And we were reading so many different things like Truman Capote's Unanswered Prayers when the Swans of Fifth Avenue came out. Wait, hold on. You just

SPEAKER_02:

come into some area club, you pick up a book, And one person starts reading it out?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, no. So we basically pick a book at the beginning of the month. So say February is Unanswered Prayers by Chuma Kapodi. So we read separately in our homes. And then we come at the end of the month. And then I would have, for example, for the swans. So you discuss it. We would all dress up like the swans of Fifth Avenue. And we would have themed foods. And we would discuss the book. And we did it with so many. We did it with Gertrude Stein's Paris, France. And a lot of modern books. A lot of classics. Um, but it was really cool. Cause then, you know, you begin, you know, for

SPEAKER_02:

the opportunity to dress up.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I know. We have so many themes. Um, but it was so fun and it was like, I think our group is like, do you still have this? I saw this group. I haven't read the last two books cause I've been working on this film, but I told them, I said, September 15th. I'll be back. I'll be reading. So how can women or is it just

SPEAKER_02:

a female women's club?

SPEAKER_00:

It's at my house. It's like a very intimate like group of

SPEAKER_02:

10. So what's the casting process to be part of

SPEAKER_00:

the secret book club? You just say you talk to me. You slide

SPEAKER_02:

into

SPEAKER_00:

your DMs. You just slide into my DMs. You get in the book club. I also follow a lot of book clubs online. I think people having book clubs is so important and so great because I think You know, we have so many things that are supposed to better our careers, our relationships, you know, our health. But what about our interior lives? What about our minds and things like that? And I think reading does that, you know. Food for thought. Food for thought. Yeah, it deepens us as people, connects us to other people, allows us to understand their experiences and thoughts. It's so powerful. So having my little women's club just, you know, moves me to read more and connect with others. It's really fun. You

SPEAKER_02:

make it almost like an immersive experience. It is. In a sense, it's reading, but also you make it fun. It's always the outfits. So what is three books you would recommend anyone to read who want to be a director?

SPEAKER_00:

Ooh, that's a good one. I would say Hitchcock Truffaut.

SPEAKER_02:

Which

SPEAKER_00:

one? Hitchcock Truffaut. That's what it's called, Hitchcock slash Truffaut. It's when Francois Truffaut interviewed Alfred Hitchcock about every single one of his films. And it's their dialogue back and forth about every film. And it's very, it's technical. And it's just, you know, Hitchcock's the master of suspense, one of the greatest directors. And then you have Francois Truffaut, who's one of the greatest directors of French new wave cinema. And they're just talking about film. And it's this big, thick book. And it's in my suitcase, and I hope it doesn't make my suitcase too big right now. It's your Bible, huh? It's my Bible. It's my Bible. So that one is one of my favorites. Ilya Kazan's book. He directed Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden. He was Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams' key director. Is it a biography or what is it? It's his diary, basically, his journal about directing. So he talks about each character. He talks about building the character of Blanche Dubois with the actress opening on Broadway. So yeah, Elie Kazan's book changed me with directing. It was so good. And then Bergman's Images, which is Imar Bergman, his journal, in a sense. So it's kind of like our director's journals. So you kind of like

SPEAKER_02:

more read on the internal thoughts and their perspective.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You know, Bergman, I love his thoughts on cinema. And then, you know, he talks about getting sick after every production. And I'm like, I feel that because you're just exerting so much energy. Because I guess

SPEAKER_02:

emotionally you

SPEAKER_00:

drain,

SPEAKER_02:

right?

SPEAKER_00:

Totally, totally. Yeah. So I'd say those Bergman's images, Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock, that book, and Ilya Kazan's, I think it's called On Directing. But yeah. Very

SPEAKER_02:

good list. Thank you. Of course, yeah. And so you picked such a profession that to me always sounded like an elitist profession because directors, like the conductors in the orchestra, right? They manage every little detail, right? And it's, of course, you have a competition amongst the actors and the production designers and the costume designers, but directors, you can count them probably by hand, how many there are directors. So do you ever see yourself being like, what is it called, starstrike? When you get super famous, super popular, your movie's going to be in every single cinema, do you feel like you're going to really kind of get bougie and lose your sense of passion, I guess? The rawness that's about you?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't think so. You know, it's so funny. When I was little, like elementary school, my mom worked two jobs to send me to this very almost elitist private school, very expensive private school. And my parents did not have money. We drove a van. My sister's disabled, so we had this van that they got for her wheelchair. But we called it the Scooby-Doo van because it was constantly breaking down. It was a piece of shit. And my mom was working a full-time job in marketing and selling Avon door-to-door to pay on the side for me to go to this private school. And I saw so many kids from really well-off families and money being a thing. And I saw a lot of pain there. I saw a lot of money doesn't solve everything. It doesn't automatically depress us, but it doesn't solve anything or everything. So I think having that growing up and Realizing, you know, having a sister with health issues, you realize what's really important in life, what matters, and that's love and relationships, passion, creation, film. So I think, you know, and I'm not looking into the future. I have no idea what's going to happen, you know, tomorrow or anything. But I don't think I will ever let go of this desire to tell beautiful, real stories. It's so much a part of me. Yeah. Even, you know, the Bahamas theme, like Bahamas sound fun, but oh my God, let me tell you about the second feature. You know, that's what excites me. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And a little more like a technical question. So directors who are working on the short films, do you think it's a good advice for them to submit their films to film festivals? Or I guess what's the route they should take to get noticed once they film the project?

SPEAKER_00:

To be honest, I think the best reason to make a short film is for the act of directing. To be directing, to learn your style. Like, I made mistakes on earlier films, as I should because I was an early director. And I think even, you know, it's so funny. When I was working at Warner Brothers, I, again, moved here with not a lot to my name. I didn't have a laptop at home. And I would reach out to actors on Instagram, film them with my phone. And then I worked nine to six at Warner Brothers and I didn't have a laptop at home. So I would edit. I don't know if they know that I was doing this. I was editing on my work laptop from six to like 11 p.m. and then going home because I wanted to experiment with these clips. And I wasn't like getting big equipment. I wasn't getting anything like that. I hope those never see the light of day, you know, but it was me learning my voice and learning what I liked and learning what moved me and how the scenes work. So I think, you know, If you are passionate and have a story to tell, and if you have a script that's ready to be told, I don't think my script was ready to be told back in 2021. I don't think it was ready to be told back then. I think when it's ready to be told, you're going to meet your match, it's all going to happen. But in the meantime, the act of directing, the act of storytelling, whether you're using your phone or an old Hi8 camera, or you're using your work laptop when you're technically not supposed to be there, so you have to dim all the lights. No matter what, just to always be doing and practicing and, you know, working at it.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a great advice. Thank you. Did you have any freaky accidents on some of your sets or something that was extraordinary?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know if I could share this, but I will. I rented a Pure Space set for this big party scene. I was so excited. I was trying to make it like Valley of the Dolls, like really cool. And... the whoever shot there right before didn't clean it up and i'm pretty sure it was a porn video because there were these condoms and like weird things and my producer of that uh like short film was like hold on actors we're gonna say let's leave it part of the set make it natural it was just so funny because you know that's a funny thing i'm trying to think if there's like any accidents um I mean, knock on wood, wherever there's one that I know of.

SPEAKER_02:

Anything weird with the model? I mean, with the actors or actresses?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I really, I consider myself an actor's director. I spent a lot of time, I'm being mentored by a great teacher, Harrison James, who taught rehearsal method to directors and things like that. She was a great mentor of mine and really taught me about that relationship between director and actor and that it's a collaboration. And she introduced me to, you know, Stella Adler and Larry Moss and Nancy Banks and these great teachers. I think one of the greatest acting, some of the greatest acting teachers, you know, and even like the Ilya Kazan, that type of director was, you know, running the actor's studio, which Paul Newman and Monroe and he discovered James Dean and Marlon Brando and all these actors. So I think that relationship between actor and director, it's almost poetic. It's like not just saying the lines and performing, it's having this deeper understanding of why you're doing this. I'm always thinking about why. Like, I have zero desire to fulfill a quota. I have zero desire to be like, ooh, shiny thing, look at what I have here. I really want to make a difference or make an impact on someone. So I need the actor to understand that. And while we have some glitz and glamour and it's fun, it's always that relationship between director and actor of that deeper understanding.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, just in my mind, I was thinking, how would you actually bond? So apparently I have already a script of a movie. How would you bond with your lead, you know, shooting a movie? Is it some kind of technique you have, how you as a director would bond with your lead, actor, actress?

SPEAKER_00:

It really is like a deep friendship. I love doing lookbooks. I love... Mm-hmm. Of course, there's like classical acting techniques I like. I lean more towards Stella Adler, Larry Moss, like I said. So what acting technique is that? Lots of different ones, like different rehearsal techniques and things like that. More specific like animal work and words of the world and things like that. Animal work? What is animal work? So animal work, a great example of animal work is Streetcar Named Desire. You have Vivian Leigh playing Blanche DuBois and Marlon Brando playing Stanley Kowalski. Ilya Kazan taught animal work. And if you see it, Vivian Leigh has the rhythm and movement of a hummingbird. She's constantly flighty. She's very fragile. Her breathing is very quick. And Stanley Kowalski's streetcar named Desire, Marlon Brando, gorilla. He wants to smash things. He comes in with this rugged things. So sometimes when an actor feels like they are hitting a wall regarding the character or a scene. It's like, what is your character's animal? And when you physically emulate that, you feel a physicality of the character. Like some people behave or feel or have the rhythm of a gorilla. Some people have the rhythm of a leopard. Some people have it of a hummingbird. So it's a way to understand and translate a character's movement. And it's used a lot in theater. Little things like that. Never

SPEAKER_02:

think that way. Yeah, it's a fun one. So if you were an actress, who would you be? If I was an actress? What

SPEAKER_00:

animal? What animal? I would be a leopard. I would be a leopard. Of course. I'm a huge cat fan. There's something very, like you said, sensual, ethereal about leopards. And you're very graceful. Thank you. Definitely. But I'm a huge cat person. So at least one of the cats, but leopards are my favorite. I have my favorite necklace. Maybe Lynx. That Ty gave me actually is a little leopard, little gold leopard necklace. I can see that. That's my spirit animal.

SPEAKER_02:

Wow, interesting. And then to wrap it up, what advice would you give to filmmakers who are just starting off and they need to pick maybe just one route, which route you would recommend them to take on the way to success?

SPEAKER_00:

I would say finding your storytelling voice is like the biggest thing. Writing, practice it over and over, get more personal, get, you know, Tarantino talks about it, the nakedness one should feel when their writing is on the page. It should feel like exposure, like, oh, gosh, this is all out there now. They should have that feeling, I think, regarding style and voice. And then just, you know, surrounding yourself with like-minded people, whether it's being on set and working as a PA or working at Warner Brothers or working with a production company or knocking down doors, you know, with a smile. But just always going after it. Always believing in yourself, always believing that you have a worthy voice, that your story should be heard, and then realizing the work that it takes, the exposure, the, you know, don't say no to watching something because it has subtitles, you know, which several people have said, but like, watch it anyways, you know. Find yourself alone drinking rosé wine, watching a weekend of Tarkovsky. With a grandpa. With a grandpa, yes. You know, your life will change. Take a weekend watching Bergman, your life will change. Take a weekend watching Sofia Coppola, your life will change. And whether you make a movie now or in 10 years, you as a person will change because that's what cinema does and that's what's so powerful about it.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, great words. And I would like to wrap up this great advice. Thank you so much for this conversation. Thank you for being on The Basic Show. We had Tyler Marie Evans. Look out for her new movie. Pretty babies coming out soon. Next year. Next year. I mean, soon. Yeah. Almost. Almost. Make sure you follow her on socials. What is your Instagram where people can find you? Living with freckles. Since I

SPEAKER_00:

was 16 years old, living with freckles. Sparkling freckles. I know. That's the next one.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, thank you so much. And have a good luck and safe travels on your trip tomorrow. Thank you so much. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

UNKNOWN:

so