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anxious film girlie in sydney talking to people in front of and behind the camera heyitstwee.substack.com

Episodes

  1. 11/02/2025

    ep.3: aziz ansari on having keanu reeves as a guardian angel in 'good fortune'

    For comedian Aziz Ansari, the cost of living crisis has seen art imitate life. He recently tried his hand at gig work with DoorDash and it’s inspired his directorial debut called Good Fortune, a comedy that sees a delivery driver swap lives with a tech CEO of a delivery app. It stars Ansari as Arj, a gig worker, Seth Rogen as the CEO of a tech company and Keanu Reeves as Arj’s guardian angel. In July, during a press day in London for the film, we spoke about researching the gig economy, chicken nuggets and casting Keanu Reeves as an angel gone slightly rogue!!! Good Fortune is in cinemas now & our interview is below (lightly edited for clarity). ✿ ✿ ✿ heyitstwee, a film club is free. But if you’d like to support my work you can always opt-in for a paid subscription :) This is your first feature film - what made you want to do this story? AA: I spent a lot of time in LA and you know, it’s such a crazy place. You have this, you have two people like Arj and Jeff, what’s interesting about these guys is you have one guy that’s been blessed by the last 20 years. He’s probably put his money in crypto and works in tech and has this giant house and all this stuff. And then you have the other guy that’s dealing with the other side of America and LA and he’s, you know, lost his job, he’s got a lot of college debt and he’s doing gig work and things to kind of scrape by and and it’s really hard for him. The idea of putting those two guys together and trying to explore what that means and doing it in a funny way felt like a fun challenge and then when you get to have Keanu Reeves play an Angel, it kind of all came together. T: I read that you conducted a lot of research for this film, including interviewing gig workers. Was there anything you found that really surprised you? AA: It’s all in the movie, you know, all of those things that I learned from talking to those people and realizing how prevalent things like; people having to sleep in their car, which is so, so hard and people will be like, “oh, yeah, I’m doing this for a couple days” and it’s like “I’m doing it for a couple weeks” and then it kind of becomes something else. Just to really spend time with people that do DoorDash and things — I did DoorDash with this guy that we interviewed, like “hey, can I, like, take over the account for a little bit?” And he’s like, “yeah, sure.” And I did it for a couple of hours. You realise, oh, man, this is a lot different and more challenging than you realise. And the way people treat them and everything. I hope in the movie you kind of, after you see it - people have said this who have seen (it) is “oh, I think about the way I treat those people and how I tip them and everything in a much different way after seeing that perspective” you know? I was thinking that too, because I became so aware now of how much tipping helps and all of those things after seeing this movie. And I felt like the film is really empathetic. Did making this film teach you anything new about life? AA: Yeah, I mean spending all that time talking to those people I interviewed and everything, it just made me realise all the things that are in the movie that Jeff kind of experiences and learns by the end — I had my version of that even just doing this process. In terms of making the movie, it was just such an incredible experience to make my first film with Seth and Keanu and I hadn’t done comedy in a while, I’ve been doing more dramatic stuff recently, and to do a comedy again was so fun. Even in the screenings we’ve done so far to just see a theatre full of people, laughing and being in a theatre together, you know, that’s one thing that’s really important to me is people seeing it in the theatre because it’s something that’s kind of gone away. Like Seth used to do all these movies like ‘Pineapple Express’ and ‘Super Bad’ and ‘40-Year-Old Virgin’. I remember going to the theatre and laughing with a group of people. Now it’s like, you know, comedy is kind of gone more into TV series and things like that. I hope with this movie it starts the trend again of people being in the cinema and enjoying these movies together and laughing with your friends. And not just sitting at home and keeping it on in the background while you’re, you know, texting or whatever. I read an interview and I think it was related to this how you said ‘Barbie’ kind of gave you hope that comedies could be successful on a large scale. AA: I mean when people say like “ohh comedies don’t work at theatres”, I’m like, well, “which ones are you talking about? Cause no, none of them have been made, you know. And ‘Barbie’ is an amazing movie and it’s a comedy. Everyone was laughing the whole time I was there. You know, it’s so funny and that kind of made me feel like, oh, if we can do something big and, you know, we have Keanu playing an Angel and all this stuff that hopefully we can kind of get a similar excitement to the idea of seeing it in the theatre and not just watching it at home. Keanu Reeves’ character Gabriel has this kind of epiphany when he becomes human and experiences things for the first time, like dancing and chicken nuggies. What did you most want to explore in relation to this? AA: I just love the idea of Keanu’s character, you know, not knowing anything about what it is to be human and all of a sudden he’s just dropped in the deep end. He’s now a guy that’s struggling to get by in LA. He has to become a dishwasher. He starts off like, oh man, “this is great!”. Then by the end, he’s smoking cigarettes, he’s drinking and it was so fun to see him go on that journey of being excited to be like, “no, this is so harsh!” and how hard it is. He was so great at all of it and made me laugh so much. In terms of filmmaking, where do you want to go next and what kind of stories do you want to? AA: Oh man, I don’t know if I can tell you, but I have two other scripts ready to go, so if you guys go to ‘Good Fortune’ and see it a bunch of times, I’ll get to make those other ones hopefully. But yeah, I have two things. One is like kind of a smaller idea that’s like, oh, it’s kind of like the ‘Master of None’ series I did on Netflix. It’s a lot about relationships and people talking and things like that. And then I have another idea that’s a crazier idea, that’s kind of more of a sci-fi idea, which I’m really excited about. someone told me Christopher Nolan when he’s like editing his movies, he starts writing the next one. So I was like, alright, I’m gonna try that. And so I started writing while I was editing a little bit and I finished this script that I’m really excited about. But it’s too early to say much about it, but I’d love to keep making movies. I had such a great time. I feel like I learned so much that I think I’d be even better doing the next ones. I feel like this movie is so topical, especially with cost of living, even here in Australia. Do you feel like it’s an issue that we should be talking more about of in art? AA: If you look at other time periods of history where there’s been this kind of moment this is always in movies and stuff. If you look at movies like ‘Trading Places’ or, you know even further back, ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ deals with this kind of stuff. It’s in there. There’s stuff about, you know, wealth and equality and things like that. I’m in England now, there’s a lot of of films. The British kitchen sink genre dealing with people that were in the this moment of frustration that Arj has, where it’s like I did everything I was supposed to do - I went to college, I got a degree. I did good in school and and now I’m just burdened by debt. I can’t get a job in the thing I studied and everything keeps kind of feels stacked against you. When we did the early screenings, I looked at what people said and wrote in the little cards they give out and so many people were like, “yeah, I’ve dealt with this. I understand what this guy’s going through, and I’m so glad to see this on screen” cause to me the whole point is like, if you’re someone dealing with that, like you’re not alone like everyone -so many people are are dealing with this stuff and and hopefully the movie makes everyone think about it more. It definitely made me think about it. Is there a message you’d like viewers to specifically take away from this film? AA: You know, when I was working on the movie, I was like, what is this really about? And it to me it’s really about that character Arj and he just doesn’t have hope anymore. So my hope is that if you’re someone that’s struggling and you have your own version of whatever this character is dealing with is that you don’t give up and that you’re able to keep hope and that I hope things will be OK. Warmest virtual hugs Thuy Get full access to heyitstwee, a film club at heyitstwee.substack.com/subscribe

    9 min

  2. 07/14/2025

    ep. 2: "we think it's wonderful you're white", talking to the filmmakers of a nice indian boy

    Hello It’s always nerve wracking to bring someone home, but what if you haven’t been entirely open with your family about your sexuality, or their ethnicity? That’s the premise of the film A Nice Indian Boy, a romcom which follows Naveen, an Indian American doctor who brings his white partner home to meet his very traditional family. In this episode, actor Karan Soni (Deadpool, Detective Pikachu, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) and director Roshan Sethi talk about awkward parents, LGBTQ stories in Bollywood, and putting together a gay Indian wedding on screen for the first time!!! ✿ ✿ ✿ Our interview is below (lightly edited for clarity). Roshan Sethi, director: “It was based on a play called The Nice Indian Boy by Madhuri Shekar. She wrote the play in 2014 and a company financier, producer optioned the play and then actually sent it to us as a script that had been written by a screenwriter named Eric Randall for consideration as a team to direct. So we didn't find the underlying material, but it happened to correlate with something that we were going through personally, which was I had just come out. Only a few years before I received the script, Karan and I were, are in a relationship. So we ended up being really excited to take it on based on that experience. Were there themes in the film you knew from the beginning you wanted to include or address? RS: Yeah, just that it ends in a big gay Indian wedding I think was important to everybody involved because it's never really been done on screen before. There's never been a same-sex Hindu ceremony. And that it have a tone of joy and love. Because if I had actually been tasked with writing a movie about being gay and South Asian, I think it would be much darker and more harrowing than what Madhuri and Eric have written. And that was the thing that I was amazed by in the script, is it had a very populous tone. It wasn't like trying to be an obscure piece of art. It wasn't trying to be harrowing and trenchant and it was just full of joy. So that was the tone I think we all immediately signed on for. Karan Soni, actor: The other thing that we really liked about the play and the movie was that the parents were such a big part of it. Like they felt like such full characters. Often in these kind of movies, the parents are the butt of the joke or they become caricatures and we always thought that was the superpower of the play and the movie is that these characters that you think at the beginning of the movie are laughing at, maybe a little bit by the end of the movie are the characters that are probably gonna make you cry the most, and you misunderstood them or misjudged them and that felt unique and special about this project. TO: The parents line really affected me because I have a really complicated relationship with my dad. And I was just wondering, like because there was a scene in the film where she was like, I don't wanna say the wrong thing 'cause that might be the end of it’. Do you feel like making this movie has really opened up perspectives for you in terms of parents and their generation for you both? RS: It gave me a lot of empathy actually for my family because the play really forces you to consider their perspective. Interestingly, that line where she says, “when you bleed, we bleed for you”. Or when you even prick your finger, whatever, “we bleed for you”. That, and that reveal of that speech that she doesn't understand them had been cut from the script and I restored it because I was so struck by it from the play, and it really moves me every time I see it and hear it. KS: You always learn something because a lot of straight men, when they watch the movie, they're always like, I cried in one scene and it's always the same scene for straight men, which is my character and dad in front of the wedding venue, and I'm basically uninviting him potentially to the wedding and they have the father-son sort of moment in the car. And that is, it's so interesting, what different people take from the movie, but every straight man is that's me trying to talk to my dad and not making any progress. And there's always very interesting, like different people's experiences with their families, gay, straight men, women, whatever it is, they find different scenes that are all related to the parents, which is cool. One of my favourite scenes is when Jay (Jonathan Groff) starts cooking with your dad in the movie and he starts adding dates to the meal or suggests it and then he ends up adding it. And this moved me so much, was there a scene for you both that you found really affecting? RS: Yeah, I felt the most affected on set when they actually got married at the end of the ceremony and they walked down the aisle and people throw petals. Maybe because I had never imagined being there in that moment for that both witnessing something that was real, but then being part of creating it for something that's actually fake, like the whole thing was so insane and Karan is in it and is my real life partner, but he's in the wedding. So the whole thing was very emotional. Watching the movie, I find myself not really affected by that part at all actually. So it wasn't like the onset experience. The part that affects me is always the same scene, which I think you just mentioned, where Jonathan and Harish Patel, who plays Karan's dad or cooking together, that for some reason that scene almost really gets me. KS: For me performing it was this, it was the scene where there's the first proposal at the accidental one. That one was always because it felt like this character so rarely was showing emotion, and in that scene. He goes from being so quiet and repressed to literally expressing the highest level of love, which is to ask someone to marry them. And performing that in a very short amount of time always felt like it's all burbling inside. So that one was a big one while performing. That always felt emotional. I loved how you remake that scene in DDLJ to propose. Do you feel there's been a shift in LGBTIQA+ visibility in Bollywood movies? RS: There have been a few Bollywood movies that have explicitly addressed LGBTQ identities. And that was definitely like unimaginable 15 years ago. So there's certainly been progress made. But I wouldn't say it's gone as far as everyone would like. KS: Yeah. They're never the leads, they're always the supporting characters and it still feels like there's some shame there, to be honest. 'Cause they're not unabashedly being themselves if they have love interests. It's a little bit hidden and it doesn't feel like it's being celebrated always in the way we are trying to with this movie. What kind of shift would you like to see, in terms of stories being told? RS: I think that hopefully there would be a move towards more LGBT content. There is quite a bit of it actually in the independent film scene, but not as much in mainstream Bollywood out of a sense of fear - I'm sure, I'm assuming that's behind it. But India is a rapidly changing place. It was illegal to be gay technically until 2018. That penal code was overturned. That penal code, interestingly, was inherited from the British who brought Victorian morality to India, where laws against homosexuality and even against being transgender didn't exist prior to the British arriving. Now there's a big movement underway to legalize gay marriage, and I feel that it will happen in the next decade in India. So India is just rapidly changing and hopefully the arts will reflect that. Sometimes it feels like the arts are meant to be a mirror to society, but they actually often lead society and we sometimes forget that. A lot of the critical gay representation in American cinema and TV is the reason I think that we were eventually led to gay marriage, I think beyond the Ellen DeGeneres show and Will and Grace both had a huge impact on being gay in America before any of those things were legal. My sister-in-law married an Indian man, and the ceremonies were so beautiful and colourful. You mentioned that it was the first time in a ceremony it’d been portrayed like this in a movie. How did it feel being able to put that on screen and filming it for you both? RS: It felt amazing. I think the hardest part of it was just finding a pandit who was willing, A pandit is the Hindu equivalent of a priest. The word pandit actually means priest. And it's made its way into the English language to mean something else. But we have a tough time finding a pandit who is willing to help us tailor the Hindu ceremony to a gay couple and experienced a bit of homophobia in Canada. I actually had a pandit text me the F word, which was crazy. But we eventually did find someone who was willing to help us in the ceremony that you see is adapted from what a real Hindu ceremony would look like. But it was, yeah, it was really difficult. It was actually the thing that stressed me out the most, because I'm not a priest and I don't know what they're up to around that fire. What they're planting, what they're throwing, which directions they're moving. But I wanted it to be authentic. Then when I received that text from the priest, I thought, what do I care if they're rejecting me? What do I care about safeguarding their traditions when their traditions have just led them to hate? But then I ended up finding in the directing of it at least a balance where it is actually, I think, very authentic. But it brings it into the new world, and that's how cultures work. Every single culture in history has adapted and readapted and readapted and all the things that we hold as being ancient or actually an amalgamation of a million different movements and fights and struggles and nothing is like homogenously carried down from antiquity. TO: And you mentioned in the director’s statement that you’re getting married in a few months. Congratulations!! KS&RS: We're gonna go to a courthouse. We're gonna go to a courthouse a

    16 min

  3. 07/01/2025

    ep1: a chat with Materialists costume designer, Katina Danabassis

    Hello friends!!! This week I’m trying something new- I spoke to costume designer Katina Danabassis for the ABC and crossposting our longer conversation here. Thanks for opening ✿​ ✿​ ✿​ In Australia, Gen Z and milennials comprise over 56% of all cinema goers according to Roy Morgan and further research has found that young people want to see accurate representation of themselves. What's it like to dress characters for the screen? Costume Designer Katina Danabassis has worked on films and shows including Lady Bird, Euphoria and Past Lives. Her latest work is for director Celine Song's second film, Materialists, which stars Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal. To find the fashion pieces for the movies she works on she scours eBay, thrift stores and is constantly online!!! Our interview is below (lightly edited for clarity) or you can listen above :) All images are via A24/Atsushi Nishijima. heyitstwee, a film club is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. When you found out you were gonna work on this movie, what was the first thing you did in regards to deciding on the looks? Katina Danabassis: The first thing that popped into my mind was putting Lucy in that skirt suit. I was like, I think it's a great time for a woman in a power suit because it feels like something from a bygone era. And it was like, what a great opportunity for us to revisit that, and then it happened to be Dakota Johnson and her mom’s Melanie Griffith, so what a great nod to Working Girl. I feel like it's something that I don't see anymore actually. So that's why I was like this is an interesting opportunity to do something that was classic and powerful and a symbolism of women's like working strong, working women, wearing suits, but with a feminine touch. I see more women in pantsuits than I see women in, like a skirt suit. I don't know about you, but that's just in my world, it's more of a pants world. Is that important for you when you’re putting together looks for a movie? KD: Yes, I love accuracy because I feel like people relate to it very quickly and easily, and they can - it's like being able to see yourself in it. And also sometimes it's like part of a joke or part of what makes the thing like — does the West Village feel like the West Village in New York right now? Unless the girls are, you know, dress a certain way and it adds to the the storytelling and just grounds it in reality. Was there anything you wanted to bring out, in particular in dressing Lucy in terms of the themes of her story? KD: In the city and when she's dating Harry, it feels very like corporate - a little bit like it's structured, it's very city working girl, and she's moving through the world like a business woman. She's doing business and talking business and navigating a relationship that's grounded in sort of like this transactional, materialist way. KD: Not to be reductive, but that's the thing that ended up steering us - is the costumes can stay in this city mode, and then when it's with her true love, it's more grounded in an earthiness and like the flowers come out and, it's blooming, it's blossoming. So her dress is not a floral dress at the wedding it's kind of structured strong practical, chic, almost like an origami back - kind of this city dress versus like a romantic dress. How do you find the clothes? KD: On that one, I was definitely shopping myself. I pound the pavement. I scour online, I look on eBay a lot. I'm an eBay queen - that's how I approach it. I like thrifting a lot too, because I find such unique pieces you can find the most special thing. You can’t just be like, “where did you get that?” And you can't just go buy it. It's not for the masses necessarily, it's for this story. Did the cast have thoughts on how their characters would dress? KD: Of course, Dakota is just such a stylish person and she wears clothes so well. She's very involved. When we're in a fitting, if the actor is gravitating towards something and like pulls on a certain garment. I'm like, please like, //go ahead.// Unless I'm like, no, that's for this one moment, that's different. But if they are gravitating towards a certain item of clothing or piece of clothing in our racks, I'm happy to let them just be like do what feels natural, like it wouldn't be here if I didn't think it was right. So just go for it, use this as a closet, this is a collaboration — you're the actor who has to embody a character and the clothing helps you get there. I'm not going to hold you away from that. You know what I mean? What kind of discussions did you have with Celine (Song) about the characters and the aesthetic overall? KD: It was really easy for us to identify what John should look and feel like because she was like, “he should have holes in his underwear and he's been wearing the same underwear for so long and his clothes should be really worn in”. He's so handsome that it's going to be hard to, like, make him not look so handsome. He's going to look great in his like, grubby clothes. But he'll also like, have that quality - once he's in the scene and it's all the apartments, all messy and we see everything's just like lived in and water stained. It's all just going to be in the same conversation and you can see the thread bareness of his shirts and the little tiny paint splatters. KD: So that is one of the characters that comes to mind specifically, and then you know, with Harry, it was just like luxury, luxury, luxury, you know, every fabric, every garment, every piece of jewellery. It was just about luxury. Was there a piece on eBay that you found that surprised you that you're really proud of? KD: In a thrift store we found this T shirt - I can't tell if it was like me or my assistant when we were shopping, but it says “This is my story. This is my song.” We over-dyed it like a grey black because it was turquoise, and we put it on the roommate when he's blending his smoothie and he tosses the phone. But what was so funny is like I maybe grabbed it, but then my assistant, Celeste, was like, “Oh my God, this is my story. This is my song” — Celine Song, a story by Celine — just like that's fantastic. So we're like, we have to get this in there. And so we found a way to get it in. And it’s so quick he turns around and you blink and you miss it. You’ve worked on films like Lady Bird, Past Lives, how do you make sure the looks are authentic? KD: There's an interesting line you have to cross and stay within because they want to see themselves, but then they don't want to be bored. They want, you know, you want to see yourself, but you want to be aspirational. You want to be inspired when you see stuff. So I think that it's about what is sort of inspiring, but also accessible. Like sometimes for me, if something's too high fashion, it gets a little tough, but it's not about where can I get that, it's about how can I recreate that look or get that feeling that she got from pairing those two things together. With Lucy, you know there was a couple of people where I saw pulling looks where it's like “Oh, that's like a very casual, loose fitting suit.” So it looks super chic and that's inspiring to me, and so I think it'll be inspiring to other people. Lucy has an $80,000 a year salary, how do you balance that out in terms of clothes and splurges? KD: It's funny because sometimes there's, you know, a bit of flack that’s coming across like “she could never afford it”. That (Proenza Schouler) dress was on sale all over the place - the blue dress. And I think it was only like a $500 to $600 dress, it's not like a $4000 dress or something or even a $1200 dress. It was max $700, which is still a high price point. We're making a movie, so it has to stand out and then, you know, as it turns out, doing this job, I've become a very good shopper. So I know where to find really great stuff at a discount, and I'm scouring the RealReal and I'm looking at eBay and I'm finding Prada for $140, it’s possible, it is possible. KD: If you don't know where to go, that's one thing because you can just go to Bergdorf (Goodman) or whatever, you know, SSENSE or whatever. But even SSENSE has great sales too. So you got to just be able to find the pieces at the right points and price points, and then pounce on them if it's something that you really feel like is going to work for your wardrobe. It's possible to shop pretty cheap and I'd like to say a lot of her (Lucy’s) jeans are Zara. Some of the shirts are like a $50 shirt from Nordstrom, that's not like a crazy reach. KD: There are things like the the jewellery — is a bit of a high point, just because jewellery is. But Spinelli is a really lovely jewellery line and I think jewellery is kind of worth the splurge, simply just because of it retaining its value. For me, buy gold, buy silver, buy gold. How did you get your start and would you have any advice for young people who might want to pursue a career in costume design? KD: I got my start by telling a friend of mine who was designing a movie that I had a car and that I would love to work for her and I can shop and I can do this. She called me one day and I was out there buying grey hoodies and looking for weird sneakers. And so that was the very first on the job, working in a film as like a random shopper. That was in Vancouver and then then I started working in advertising and commercials with someone in LA and Camille Garmendia, and she showed me the ropes there. My education, which is communications and anthropology, isn't about, you know, design, it's about the theory behind and why you choose things that you do and how to make meaning with storytelling. Because if you're interested in storytelling, then you might be interested in how to tell a story through clothing or makeup or props, or set design. If you're a visual person and you have an

    17 min
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anxious film girlie in sydney talking to people in front of and behind the camera heyitstwee.substack.com

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