For writer-directorAddison Heimann, playing things safe and ordinary is not in his repertoire.
In fact, his sophomore feature film,Touch Me, is gloriouslyweird.
you could catch the full conversation in the video above, or you could read the transcript below.
Image by Photagonist
PERRI NEMIROFF:I have the great honor of introducing the team behindTouch Me.
ADDISON HEIMANN: Which is so funny!
I’m sorry."
Image by Photagonist
Would you mind giving a brief synopsis of your film?
You were ready for that.
HEIMANN: Oh, honey, I’ve been pitching this.
Image by Photagonist
It’s, like, the fifth day.
Everyone’s like, “What’s it about?”
I’m like, “Yeah, me too.
That’s why I wrote the movie.”
HEIMANN: That’s a great question.
Oh my god, I have amazing answers for this.
Image via Sundance Institute
And then these four?
I fucking found them.
They are my forever people.
Image by Photagonist
Im not even joking!
When I wrote the movie, I was like, I think they’ll enjoy some tentacle sex."
It was a surprisingly beautiful, like, “Hey, what do you guys think?”
Image by Photagonist
And they were like, Your mind is crazy.
And I was like, I know, but, like, do you want it?
And they were like, Yes!
And I was like, “Okay, cool!”
But the thing is,Hypochondriacis so dark.
I want to follow up on something you just said with your cast.
OLIVIA TAYLOR DUDLEY: I got the script.
I think you might like this movie.
Will you read it and meet with the director later today?
So I read it, and I loved it.
I laughed the whole time I read the movie, which is really hard to do.
I met with Addison.
We met at a bar.
We both have OCD, and we talked about that for two hours.
I was like, Oh, yes, hey.
I love this movie so much."
The tentacle sex and all that stuff, that’s just, like, fun stuff on top.
JORDAN GAVARIS: I was last in the casting process.
I came on two weeks before the principal photography was going to start.
I knew Addison a little bit, and I knew he was a really promising and gifted filmmaker.
HEIMANN: My ego is so high right now!
[Laughs]
GAVARIS: I did, though!
I think I was right.
That’s the moral of this story.
MARLENE FORTE: This is my second time around with Addison because I played his mama inHypochondriac.
You know what it is?
I was like, Oh my god, I think I get this!
This one he sent to me.
He wrote this thing.This frightens me and I can’t stop thinking about it."
So I called him, and I said, What is up with this?
Who comes up with this?
And he was like, Do you want to play Laura?
So, for me, that’s what it was.
LOU TAYLOR PUCCI: Lauras the scariest person in the movie.
FORTE: I am.
LOU TAYLOR PUCCI: 100%!
Lou, time to make Addison blush!
HEIMANN: Can you brag about me, just?
PUCCI: Actually, I read the script three times.
I had no idea what the fuck was happening.
But I was really like, “This is the scariest thing I could possibly do.
It’s a hip-hop dancing naked man for most of the film.
What the hell would I be doing playing an alien?”
I asked him only sci-fi questions.
I got to meet him for a second, and I said, What’s in the serum?
You know what I mean?
Everybody can actually relate to it.
It was making me wonder, did you have an aha moment while finding Brian?
This is a more realistic version of that.
I got to emulate my favorite people.
GAVARIS: And like Keith Raniere from NXIVM.
HEIMANN: None of us knew that.
It wasn’t until we did our first press day.
I was like, “Oh my god, that makes so much sense.”
It makes all the sense in the world.
You’re not that hot!
She’s so pretty.
Oh my god, I have this talent crush on Olivia.
I’m literally going to take her with me everywhere!
HEIMANN: Now I’m just talking into the void.
I’m so sorry.
DUDLEY: I love you, too.
PUCCI: I think we all have a talent crush on Olivia.
DUDLEY: I have no idea how to put that into words.
GAVARIS: It was instant.
But also, to be honest, you started talking about your germaphobia.
I hope that’s okay to say because I’m also a bit germaphobic.
I was like, I love this girl.
I’m going to really, really love you.
DUDLEY: It was like, Nice to meet you.
Have you washed your hands?
[Laughs]
HEIMANN: Then the next thing you know, you’re slapping him with a dildo!
That’s how it goes.
HEIMANN: That’s not a spoiler.
That happens in, like, the first 15 minutes, maybe.
It was a clean dildo.
We had it sanitized.
GAVARIS: In all seriousness, it was an instantaneous connection.
I’m always the best friend of a girl.
But I’m the best one.
GAVARIS: Oh, no, no.
You heard it here first.
You are the best one.
DUDLEY: Working with him was amazing.
GAVARIS: We were all so nervous.
DUDLEY: We were so nervous because the material is pretty wild.
We fell in love, and it was so easy.
That was the thing in the movie that I was like, This has to work, this relationship.
GAVARIS: And we’re getting married.
Olivia, you are above and beyond in so many different respects in this movie.
HEIMANN: And that’s her first take, too.
It was so hard, but he trusted me, and he just kept saying, You got this.
I will do all of the other weird shit in this fucking movie, but that is so terrifying.
It’s such a bold way to open a movie.
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