Humpday - Lynn Shelton interview

WRITER-director Lynn Shelton talks to us about making Humpday, a film about two life-long friends who decide to sleep with each other on film for a porn festival, despite being straight. She also talks about creating a more honest, authentic movie and why the male bravado was such an interesting to explore. This was a one on one held to promote the film's appearance at the Raindance Film Festival.

Q. Where did the inspiration for Humpday come from?

Lynn Shelton: Well, the starting point for me was actually wanting to work with Mark Duplass, who plays Ben in the film. My last two films, I decided to start with a person that I wanted to work with and sort of custom design a character for them. This is all in the quest for extreme naturalism, which is something that I’m really interested in getting – really feeling that a film isn’t written but is actually unfolding and you’re believing everything that everybody is saying. So, in the frustration that I encountered in achieving that through a traditional mode of filmmaking with my first feature film, I came up with a grand experiment of trying this crazy, unorthodox method for my second feature. I’ve kind of elaborated on that for Humpday, although in both cases I started with a single person – in this case Mark.

Q. What happened next?

Lynn Shelton: I called and pitched to him the idea, which was still very loose. I had two character types and a basic premise. Once he was on board, we tried to figure out who’d be appropriate for him. So, we brought on Josh Leonard and then a couple of months later invited Alycia Delmore on board as Mark’s wife. The idea is to invite everyone early enough, before you’ve really cemented their characters, so that they can participate in the development of their own characters and try and create that custom-build situation where they’ll be donning that character like a glove and it’ll be an easy fit.

Q. How was Mark to work with?

Lynn Shelton: He and I bonded as filmmakers. He’s half of the Duplass brothers and there’s a lot of overlap with the way we like to work with actors – there’s a lot of improvisation. One of the conversations that we had about movies and what makes good movies was that sometimes the simplest idea of taking a well drawn out character and putting him in a situation that’s totally out of his comfort zone can make the best drama. I love the purity of that idea. So, like a little paper doll I took Mark and put different clothes on him, outlining the different scenarios in my head. Ultimately, it was hard to think of a way to make a couple of straight guys more uncomfortable than to make them sleep together on film for a dare. Luckily, Mark and Josh were both game for it.

Q. Are the two guys based on anyone you knew in real life?

Lynn Shelton: Not really, no. It was really just the average, well-meaning straight guy who… the thing is, these days it’s not at all a cool thing to be homophobic. Most straight guys I know aren’t in terms of being gay-hating. They have lots of gay friends and have no problem with other people being gay, but there’s still this strange anxiety about their own personal relationship to homosexuality – thinking they may be secretly homosexual or something. There’s this strange attachment they have to themselves as straight guys and making sure that everybody, especially themselves, know that they are straight. So, that kind of tension automatically provides for a lot of interesting territory to explore and a lot of opportunity for humour and drama.

For instance, if you’re that anxious about your own identity as a straight guy what does it mean to love another guy? And straight men do… I’ve seen them do it again and again throughout my life. Men can feel passionately in love with each other, totally platonically, totally non-sexually, but it immediately complicates the relationship. They can’t just simply say “I love you” to another straight guy because what does that mean? What’s it saying about me? So, that’s something I find incredibly poignant. And then the attachment to their sexual identity means that if they want to breakout and be cool and try and sleep with each other it might provide some comedy and a little extra tension.

Q. Is that one of the main things that Mark and Josh responded to as well? And did they bring their own emotional baggage to it?

Lynn Shelton: Yeah, I think so. Right from the beginning none of us were interested in making a sort of broad, Farrelly brothers-style farce, or any kind of slapstick comedy. The only thing that interested us was seeing if we could make this movie in a completely believable way. And Mark told me upfront that he thought it would be impossible. He didn’t see how we could possibly make two characters like these believable but he was really excited about the challenge. And thank goodness… because I think we did accomplish that goal.

Q. It’s also interesting that they do come across as jerks quite often. Was that intentional… was it not so important that these characters were likeable all the time?

Lynn Shelton: I think we were all in agreement that nobody is perfect and that characters need to be sympathetic and flawed. I’m not interested in working with characters who are completely irredeemable. I want my audience to connect with the characters. But at the same time, I don’t want them to be without flaws. It’s fun to lovingly point out those weaknesses and flaws. That’s where a lot of the humour comes from… recognising something like: “Oh my God, that’s the look on my wife’s face when I’m trying to bulls**t my way out of some situation.” Or I have that friend who just shows up out of the blue after some crazy adventure somewhere. I wanted humour that would really feel like it was coming from a place of authenticity and within the realm of actual human behaviour.

Q. Alycia Delmore’s character – Ben’s wife – is the conscience of the audience, though, isn’t she? Would you be as tolerant yourself?

Lynn Shelton: I have to say, I felt it was essential that she did tell that to go through with it if they needed to. I really wanted the two guys to head off to the hotel room with the audience feeling that there was nothing standing in their way; they could actually go through with it. If she had only half-heartedly given her permission, or if she’d denied it or hadn’t been told, I think Mark’s character would have been completely irredeemable. Alycia and I spent a lot of time talking about what could possibly get her to the point of waking up in the morning after a long night of soul-searching and realising that she had to give him permission in a heartfelt way. We had a lot of different ideas and the version in the film is sort of a lark. We had time for one last take where we tried it differently and she really nailed it.

But you’re right, she also functions as kind of the standard for the audience. She’s the one who goes: “You’re doing what?” I wanted their relationship to feel real. Even though they may not be in the early rush of love and passion, they were a couple that works and that you’d root for because they laugh together, they talk things out together and they have a deep fondness for each other. I didn’t want her to be the type of character who wasn’t fun. I wanted her to be a real partner in their marriage and to feel real every step of the way.

Q. How have women responded to the movie?

Lynn Shelton: Women really love it. It’s actually a great girls’ night out movie, which is something we discovered in Edinburgh. There were a few girlfriends out together getting a little sloshed and having a great time, laughing their butts off. But I think every demographic has something to gain from seeing the film.

Q. What’s the most surprising reaction you’ve had?

Lynn Shelton: I really had no idea the appeal would be across different genres. I had an idea about certain art-house cinema crowds but not beyond that. But I remember being stopped by this woman who looked like a grandmother in the grocery store in Park City, Utah, during the Sundance Film Festival, who said: “Did I see you at the screening today?” When I said yes, she said: “I did not think this was a film for me… I read that film premise and there was no way I was going to go. But I got dragged to it and loved it!” She then stood there for five minutes gushing non-stop. It made me so happy and realise that this film could really go places. The only problem, of course, is that on paper a lot of people immediately reject the idea of going to see it no matter how many critics say they love it. I think they have to pulled by a good friend, which is sad. I hope people don’t stay away because they think it’s going to be one kind of film, which it really isn’t.

Q. Was there ever an alternative ending?

Lynn Shelton: Well, the dialogue was left up to them. I had a really structured outline [for the film] so we knew exactly what was going to happen to them in each scene up until the hotel room, which we decided to leave open-ended. We were really searching for authenticity and honesty, so I think that informed the rest of the movie as well because we weren’t aiming for this pre-determined ending. So, we shot the whole film in order, which was incredibly luxurious, and we walked into that hotel room and shot all night. It was just me holding one camera, my DP with the other, and my sound recordist and the two actors. We were open. We’d all left our pre-conceived ideas about what might or might not happen at the door and I basically said: “You guys are fully embodied in your characters, so I now need you to live this scene out.” And so, we really tried to keep it true. That meant anything was possible when we started, but by the end of the scene we felt like this was the only way the film could have ended. We remained true to those characters and what they would do.

Q. As an actress yourself, is it easier to direct other actors coming from that kind of background?

Lynn Shelton: I think so. It’s interesting because I’d never directed before my first feature. I didn’t read any books about directing, I never went to film school. I came at it through being an editor. But I wasn’t worried about working with the actors because I thought that I spoke their language, and I’m an actor myself. It was only on the set that I realised it wasn’t the same thing… it’s a completely different skill set. You have to communicate with them in a different way, you have to work with them differently. And so since then I have done a lot of reading and thinking about it… practising. But I have to say, just being an actor is not enough. But I also think that having that context helps. It certainly gives me incredible empathy for how hard it is to act and what you need to act. And that’s why I’ve created the set that I have, which is completely in service to the actor. It’s all designed to put the actors at complete ease.

Q. What made you decide to step behind the camera?

Lynn Shelton: Well, I was an actor for many years in the theatre and got my BA in the theatre and moved to New York after graduating in my home-town of Seattle to do theatre. A number of different things came together but I just sort of had a falling out with it [acting]. I realised that it was actually not good for my mental health at that point in my life and I needed to change to something else. I needed to be able to express myself in an art form that would allow more of my own voice. I was starting to feel like a puppet for other people’s words. I ended up getting a grad school degree in photography, which at the time felt like a complete polar opposite direction. But then in the middle of my time in grad school I took a video workshop and started working with video and film. Still, I was making experimental work without actors for many, many years… so it was a very long route to get to feature film directing, but I felt like it came at the end of a two decade long film school. I don’t know if I could have done it earlier in my life. I certainly didn’t have the same sense of confidence that I have now, having had more life experience.

Q. But you haven’t given up on acting. You’re in Humpday…

Lynn Shelton: I am. I’d been invited by a good friend to be in a couple of projects and really enjoyed acting with him because he works in a similar way. I’d also been cast in a short film a couple of months before Humpday shot and I learned a lot about acting in front of the camera, so I felt confident that I wouldn’t ruin my own movie by casting myself [laughs]. I actually got stumped. Mark suggested that I cast myself because I’d been having a hard time finding the right person to play that role. So, when he said it, it resonated and I figured it would be fun. I love acting but acting and directing at the same time is really freaking hard, especially if you’re not working in a traditional way with a proper dialogue-driven script. I find when I’m on set that I’m really working on my feet as a director, improvising almost as much as my actors, so I just couldn’t do that style if I was also in front of the camera. And so it was tough. I know how I’d probably do it next time but I think I’ll probably just likely leave it for now.

Q. As a director are you hard on yourself as an actress?

Lynn Shelton: Absolutely! And it’s just not as fun acting when you also have to think as a director.

Q. Which directors inspire you?

Lynn Shelton: I love Noah Baumbach… I’m jealous that he’s able to write incredibly naturalistic beautiful dialogue that makes you cringe and laugh at the same time. Let’s see… Y Tu Mama Tambien is one of my favourite movies. It’s really great. The French New Wave… I love Jules et Jim. I love early Woody Allen. He was a huge influence… Stardust Memories, in particular, is really a big favourite of mine. Early ’70s American cinema like Dog Day Afternoon and Midnight Cowboy. I love Altman, McCabe and Mrs Miller. Claire Denis is a huge influence as well.

Q. Would you want to move to the mainstream?

Lynn Shelton: Would you call Brokeback Mountain mainstream? If not, then no. I’d like to work at that level. I don’t have any problem working with bigger budgets or name actors as long as it feels… the thing that I have a lot of problem with in regards to a lot of Hollywood fodder is that it doesn’t feel real. It’s like this weird parallel universe; it’s a Hollywood version of life. And I’m not interested in that life, or that reality. So, that total kind of rom-com, almost human reality is not something that I’d ever want to work with. But if it was a great script, great actors, great material and something I could really get behind I would definitely work on a larger scale.

Q. So, which actors would you most like to work with?

Lynn Shelton: Samantha Morton is my favourite actress on the planet! I’ve never really seen her do a lot of comedy. I thought it was a short list but then I started to write my fantasy list up and it’s long. There are some really amazing actors out there. Emily Blunt is a big favourite of mine right now. I think she’s kind of amazing. And Amy Adams for that matter! There’s tonnes [laughs].