Summary
“If you wait long enough, the world moves in circles.”
At this year’sSundance Film Festival, first-time feature writer-directorCarmen Emmidebuted his dramaPlainclothes.
To round out this intimate and talented cast,Orange Is the New Black’sMaria Dizziaco-stars as Marie.
Image by Photagonist
Check out the full conversation in the video above or you might read the transcript below.
CARMEN EMMI: I’ve been describing it as a thriller-drama with romance, honestly.
Its about a police officer in the 90s.
Image by Photagonist
What I was so surprised by was that was so legible on the page.
RUSSELL TOVEY: I think for me, it was that period of history I find fascinating.
It really did move me.
My brother, at the same time, was becoming a police officer.
It was a very therapeutic experience, honestly.
I’m always fascinated by what you first start writing and what ends up on the screen.
Image via Sundance Institute
Was there a big change along the way?
How did you get to where it was all going to go?
EMMI: This was my first screenplay, so I hadnt written a feature before.
Image via Sundance Institute
TOVEY: Oh, yeah!
I didn’t think of that, the shattered mirror.
The way that the footage cuts in there, it’s prismatic.
Image by Photagonist
TOVEY: Well done.
[Laughs]
‘Plainclothes’ is set in the ’90s and is based on true events.
So, that’s where it really came from.
Image by Photagonist
Honestly, it was like, Oh, this is Hi8.
I actually think it would be very interesting if the whole movie were like that.
It would just be an aesthetic choice.
Image by Photagonist
It would be another version of the story.
But I do think that the way you intermix works really, really well.
EMMI: I really was inspired by Dogme 95 filmmaking, especially withThe Celebration.
Image via Sundance Institute
DIZZIA: I love that movie so much.
Can you guys talk about the world in the 90s?
It was just a different world in terms of being able to talk about your sexuality.
Image via BBC One
If you wait long enough, the world moves in circles.
Unfortunately, you’re 100% correct.
I just live in a different world.
Mentally, I’m in a different place.
TOVEY: Thats movies.
They can send you to that place, and you’re free to escape.
The importance of this film feels about visibility and representation, and that’s why you wrote it.
That’s why its important for you to say this.
EMMI: I agree.
It was specifically 1997, and thats also the year my second favorite movie came out.
[Laughs] Buckle up, everyone.
Its a small indie film.
So thats yoursecondfavorite film.
What’s your first?
EMMI:Wizard of Oz.
EMMI: Oh, yeah.
I saw it three times.
TOVEY: For me, theres intimacytheres really intense intimacy in this film.
For those days, you do circle those, and you build up to that.
But as an individual, you feel an apprehension building up to those.
So, those days, for myself, are quite dramatic.
DIZZIA: For me, the day that I circled was day one.
We’re going to do the climax on the first day.
I dont want to say.
EMMI: Yeah, we don’t want to spoil too much.
TOVEY: Maria and I only met today.
We’re both in the same film, but the scenes never cross.
Theres big climactic stuff in the third actI don’t want to spoil it.
You were filming that stuff on the first day?
DIZZIA: Well, the rising action to it, yes, we were filming on the first day.
EMMI: The bedroom scene.
So, yes, we did all of that stuff, but it was wonderful.
EMMI: It was wild.
DIZZIA: It made us feel like family very quickly.
So, I had the whole 18-day shoot circledto answer your question.
It was so nice.
It was really playful.
TOVEY: I had no idea that it was going to be in the film.
But when seeing the cut, it was like, This is so dynamic.
EMMI: I was discovering how it was going to be.
DIZZIA: I think that was nice not knowing how it was going to be used.
I felt like it was part of the freedom and the playfulness of it.
TOVEY: But you knew you wanted it in.
But maybe I’m just reading too deeply into this.
EMMI: No, it’s a beautiful read.
That wasnt intentional, to be honest.
I suppose that that could be true.
I love that interpretation, truly.
I suppose that that could be true.
I’m really wondering if it was just something Erik did.
Maybe Im reading too deep into it.
So, I think that whatever someone’s interpretation is when they see that is right.
The Hi8 footage and the chaos is a lot more prevalent.
As he figures out his sexuality in the third act, it’s much less.
It’s almost like he’s not nervous anymore.
He’s more confident.
I rarely read this deep into films, but that’s what I got.
DIZZIA: Thats so nice.
EMMI: That was certainly the approach with sound, I would say.
In the 80s and 90s, malls were everything.
Talk a little bit about putting it in the mall and trying to get permission to film the mall.
EMMI: It’s a really great question.
We were supposed to shoot in a mall in my hometown.
I actually shot the proof of concept in there.
And when it came time to shoot, we actually didn’t get permission to shoot in the mall.
That was, I would say, six years of my life dreaming about it being in that mall.
So this new space that we got was amazing.
I honestly cant imagine the film another way.
But I wanted to shoot in a mall because that was another memory growing up.
I would go to the movies with my brother in our childhood mall.
The sounds, the smells of, like, the pretzels, that all informed the setting for me.
Again, for younger people, everything’s online.
They don’t really understand the significance of the mall where I grew up on the East Coast.
DIZZIA: Me too!
Im from New Jersey.
Thats my natural habitat.
Mall culture is completely a thing.
TOVEY: You used to plan to go to there, and youd all be there.
You wouldnt have phones or anything.
DIZZIA: Yeah, you cant take a selfie, so thats where you were going to be seen.
Its like, Lets waste time.
You have no money.
Where can we go and waste time?
Let’s go to the mall.
EMMI: And that’s just where a lot of men would connect.
Through this film I was exploring what happens beneath the surface, through the cracks.
That was just how it worked.
EMMI: I didn’t change that much.
There were just two scenes that I flopped in the third act.
EMMI: Yeah, it’s a Landmark Theater in my hometown.
I just thought it was such a beautiful backdrop for these two men to connect in.
I don’t know, the Landmark is just kind of a place that feels so sacred.
It just felt like the right location for that moment.
I love talking to actors about how they get ready for something.
You stay with the American accent the whole time?
TOVEY: I have a go at, yeah.
I have a go at get the sound in my head so that I can be in it.
That’s important to me.
Is it like a month before?
TOVEY: I dont think I had a month.
EMMI: I don’t think you did.
[Laughs] You’re not even sure if you’re doing this thing or if its starting.
I felt like I had the good fortune to read the script well before we started.
You pick up little thoughts, like a collage, in some way.
But then you hit the ground running.
We had one day of rehearsal, which was nice that we got to interact.
But I think so much of it has become so instinctual and flying by the seat of your pants.
TOVEY: Youve got to trust your instincts.
DIZZIA: Yeah, totally.
EMMI: And I feel we had so many of our conversations in the beginning.
Russell and Maria brought so much of their personal lives to the characters in some ways.
I do have an individual question if you dont mind.
A lot of people at Collider are very excited for theDoctor Whospin-off.
What can you tease about it?
What was it about the project that said, I want to do this?
TOVEY: Well, its Russell T. Davies, who Ive worked with a couple of times now.
Again, the scripts and the dialogue and the character.
Thats all you’re able to go on.
For me, dialogue is paramount to whatever project I pick up.
It can be a simple back-and-forth of someone going, How are you?
And Im like, I want to say those words.
It was a really wonderful job.
I finished that just before Christmas.
For aDoctor Whofan, how does it compare to theDoctor Whothat they know?
Is it the same kind of tone?
TOVEY: Its more indie, and Im not just saying that because were at Sundance.
It feels like a more indie vibe, and thats what I was really excited about.
I saw that, and I was really compelled by his tone.
So, tonally, its part of the Whoniverse, but its its own special creation.
Do you know when it comes out?
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