1.4 loves I Hate Helen. It’s got that same mix of absurd comedy and big heart that your earlier short film Eat It has. The narrative captures all those big feelings you have at school that feel life or death at the time – a world where teenage girls take grudges and heartbreak so seriously it becomes operatic.
Eat It was triggered by a short story – where did I Hate Helen start? And how did the narrative evolve?
Both films draw on feelings I’ve had, at one time or another. But “I Hate Helen” was more literally from my life than “Eat It”. Martha and I talked a lot about feeling queer in school, and not in the sense that queer is now… but in the sense of different, unusual, even wrong. This was always exacerbated in the PE changing rooms, nudity is so hard for all teenagers anyway but coupled with this sneaking gay feeling I think there was a lot of shame and feeling like an absolute pervert. I wanted these feelings to come out in SPITE rather than sadness. Spite is so powerful and under used! I always knew I wanted to open on a very transparent rant about hate, but also that I wanted it to be clear to the audience from the off how Priya is really feeling. The journey of the film is Priya accepting her feelings, just a little, not us discovering them. We always know.
What drew you to this particular world and these schoolgirl characters?
I always loved school and my friends at school. We thought we were so funny, and I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of capturing teenagers in totality – with all their weird quirks and in jokes. This is the start of me doing that, but something I hope to do it with longer form projects in the future. Character wise, it’s me and my school friends. We were never the ones snogging the boy at the disco, we were full of schemes but very little action.
A big visual reference was ‘Matilda’ (the Danny Devito one). I loved how rich the tones were, how colourful yet utterly grounded in reality. I wanted that for this film.
What was the casting process like, and what were you looking for in the actors?
Priyanka (who Priya is named after!) Hannah and Steph at Lane casting absolutely smashed it for us. Kanan (Priya) was always perfect for the lead in my eyes. She wasn’t the most experienced actor we saw, but she was sarcastic as hell and very very sassy. I think there is a temptation to go for more stage school actors with teenagers because it is daunting to cast someone less experienced in a role which means so much… but after much soul searching I knew it had to be her. I rewrote the character for her to try and make them as close as possible.
How did you rehearse to get the girls playing schoolmates to be funny without trying?
The best thing I did was make them make up the dance routine for the disco scene together and then teach it to me. It was equal parts bonding and humiliating. Mostly it was just letting them be and trying not to interfere. Honestly, I think they are much funnier together than this film even shows, even just on set and in rehearsal when they thought no one was watching. (Catch a view of Katie and co rehearsing the routine here)
Were there any moments during casting or rehearsals that changed how you saw the characters?
The original ending was supposed to be full fantasy and Helen and Priya snogging wildly, face licking and all. Kanan was too young for this, it was inappropriate, so we worked out something new. I’m so pleased we did – I think the new ending gives the whole film something much more sweet and innocent.
Ms Gibbs (real name of my actual PE teacher whoops) was played by the amazing Chloe Petts who is a brilliant comedian. They made the part their own and I was so happy to let them do that. I only wish we’d had a bit more time to play around some more.
How do you direct young or emerging actors differently from seasoned ones like Shannon Woodward, your lead in Eat It?
Shannon is an absolute pro and taught me so much about film making and directing actors. I will always be grateful that she was the first actor I worked with. I love working with younger actors though because they aren’t really aware of what they do. So, it’s less about giving them a literal direction, and more about a prompt or something they can imagine (which inadvertently changes their performance). I love doing this, it’s like a riddle. Also, it can yield such unexpected results.
When we spoke a couple of years ago, you said the producer/director split doesn’t really exist between you and Martha. Was that the same here?
So funny that we said that! I think we were trying to push MrMr as a creative conglomerate and it’s moved on since then. I would say now I’m very much directing and Martha is very much producing. We’re still partners and run MrMr together, but now the line exists. I think this is mostly because we’ve gotten so much busier – MrMr is now much more of an actual company (including amazing producer Rosie Brear), rather than just me and Martha as two individuals. I think this idea was also me (as a producer) pushing back on the idea that producers aren’t creative – they massively are. Martha’s voice is in everything we work on, and she is a driving creative force of MrMr. She’s just not humiliating herself learning dance routines and crying over Final Draft as often as me.
You have such a distinct comic tone – surreal but rooted in truth, and always with warmth underneath. How did you develop the visual world of I Hate Helen?
Konrad Losch (DOP) was a dream partner and collaborator for the film. I think you can see him all over it in the finished product, and he was also scrupulous in interrogating the story and drives of the film. We talked a lot about framing and a language which was Priya’s POV for the film. How to get inside Priya’s head and stay there.
Tone wise – I always want my films to feel like they are a fond older sibling who is teasing the lead but loves them really. So, you can laugh at the ridiculousness of a situation, but it’s never mean.
On Eat It you had nearly every frame drawn in pre-production; did you storyboard more loosely this time?
Nope! More closely if anything. Everything we shot is pretty much exactly what the edit is, even in order. I’ve attached some side by sides, but I knew I wanted to make a film which was snappy and pacey so even with shot listing it was a paper edit. I really like to do this for everything, it makes me feel very calm. Then the hope is that we better it on the day, but I know for sure we have something which works. The only thing that isn’t boarded is a moment we didn’t get on the actual shoot, but everything else was exactly it. I put this down to Konrad a lot as well, we knew we had limited time, but we wanted it to be as stylish as possible.
Any disasters or near-misses on this production? Please tell me you didn’t steal another slushie machine.
No robberies that I can think of. Me and Konrad almost got kicked out of Bethnal Green swimming pool for trying to film the rehearsal of the swimming scene with Edie (Helen) and Kanan (Priya). That was a highlight. Oh and I insisted on making a jelly prop for one of the lessons myself and it was a sticky, liquid disaster. All quite minor compared with Nashville but maybe that’s just getting older.
