After her life falls apart, soft-spoken actor Laura Franco (Melissa Barrera) finds her voice again when she meets a terrifying, yet weirdly charming Monster living in her closet. It’s probably something we’ve all come across in our own nightmares… yet in this instance, there’s more than meets the eyes.
FILMHOUNDS sat down with Your Monster director Caroline Lindy to find out her inspiration, and why indie films are the perfect place for experimentation.
What was the journey like in terms of getting Your Monster made? You had the short film first of all so did you make that with the intention of it being a proof of concept or did discussion of a feature only begin after that was already done?
It was always a proof of concept because I wrote a very, very rough draft of the feature first. It was a mess, but I was like, okay, there’s something here, but I don’t know what to do with it. At that point, I had never written a feature before. Then I found out about Women In Film and that they had this production grant program, and they were offering grants for short films. So I thought, because I’m still trying to figure out what the story is, if I take this concept and put it into a short film, that will help me focus on what it is I’m trying to say. So I turned it into a 15 page script, I got the grant, and I shot the film. And so I was like, great, okay, this weird kooky idea, the monster romcom love story, I think this is gonna be helpful when trying to convince a financer to invest in this project. And that’s exactly what happened. I mean, I had to make other short films and do more work to kind of present myself in a way that was trustworthy for, you know, an investment like this. So yeah the short served as a proof of concept. I think, in general, for any filmmaker, especially if you’re trying to do something weird and multi genre, it’s really important to have an example of what you’re trying to do. It was very helpful in transitioning from a short film to a feature.
As you just touched on, Your Monster mixes a lot of genres. It’s a romcom, there’s horror in there and it’s also a bit of a musical. I love these genres as tools of exploring difficult and emotional subject matter but I’m wondering why you chose them and why you think they make good genres for a story like this?
This film is slightly autobiographical, and I always say, the experience wasn’t a one genre experience. So why would the movie only have one genre? That just wouldn’t feel truthful to what I had gone through. In general, I’m such a fan of romantic comedies. Those are the movies I grew up on, and they’re so comforting to me. I think people don’t take the romcom seriously enough, and they don’t realise what we can do with that genre. I just saw this story, this woman falling in love with her monster as a really fun opportunity and a chance to experiment, because it’s a love story, but it’s a monster story. This is a great chance to try to combine a bunch of different genres. She’s dealing with heartbreak and illness and so much pain. But then, you know, this monster is kind of this ridiculous, fun, lovable character who’s scary at points, but also like the best creature in the world. I just thought that their specific relationship lended itself to combining a bunch of genres and seeing if it could all blend and work together. I think a lot of people are pissed off that I did that.
But, I think that’s just society doing their classic thing of telling people you should only be one thing, there are rules and you should follow the rules. And I’m like, no, this is independent cinema! Why try to do what’s been done a million times before? Indie films are the only place where we can experiment and try stuff out and see if it works and see if it doesn’t work. It’s so wonderful to be able to do that, because you can’t do that in the studio system. So I just wanted to do something different. I just thought, you know, why not?
Exactly! Why not? I think the genre blend works so well. They all feel like such cathartic genres to me too.
Yes! Cathartic, high stakes, big emotions! We have musical theatre, we have horror and romance. It’s just like lions and tigers and bears. Oh my, let’s just out on a show and make some movies about rage. Let’s make it fun and ridiculous! Maybe that will kind of help us make the rage a little bit more palatable and that way we can laugh at ourselves, laugh together and all cry. I just wanted to make it a fun campy ridiculous experience for audiences.
You said this film is slightly autobiographical and I’m interested to know if that impacted how you found the casting process. Melissa’s character is a kind of representation of yourself and your experiences. Did that alter the way you approached casting? Did it feel more intimate or difficult?
I think that’s a really great question. I think I was looking for someone who I could trust. I wasn’t just going to cast anyone. I had to see a little bit of myself in that actress. And I think, when I sat down with Melissa [Barrera], we had a lot of similarities, and we had a similar sensibility. She’s a musical theatre actress. You know, we just had a lot of the same taste, and she shared feelings about the movie industry and about growing up as women and wanting to do this. She just felt like a very natural fit. Also I just wanted to work with someone who, when I see them on screen, I’m just smiling. Melissa just lights up a screen.
I feel, as a woman, it’s a rare thing to see an actress who I feel like, oh, I wanted her to be my friend. She’s so beautiful, but she seems like a friend to women, not like trying to intimidate us or make us feel jealous. It’s like, of course, everyone should be in love with her in this room! Men, women, and you know everyone. And she has that very rare appeal that she draws everyone in, and she doesn’t alienate certain people. That was so important for this character. There’s certain people, who I obviously won’t name, but there are certain actresses out there who do intimidate other women for some reason, who knows why. Melissa doesn’t have that. She is such a warm, welcoming presence, which was really crucial to this character.
We obviously have to talk about the Monster himself. I think he’s a really beautifully written character and I think audiences can’t help but fall in love with him too. How did you go about writing and creating that character and did you always intend for him to appeal to the female gaze as much as he does?
Monster is a manifestation of Laura’s inner rage, and because this was based on a period of my life where I was getting to know my monster, I was trying to mimic the development of that relationship through Laura and monster in the script and in the movie. So, you know, at first I was afraid of these feelings, but as I got to know them, I was like, oh, you know what? Actually, I’m kind of liking this side of myself, you know. I feel powerful. I feel like I’m getting in touch with the strength inside of me that’s been dormant for most of my life. I felt I was falling in love with that side of myself. And how do you fall in love? Post breakup, you fall in love because you see that someone else is charming, handsome, and funny, and has all these qualities that are attractive to you. So that’s the only way you’re gonna start falling for someone else. So to take the monster and make him like a real, living, breathing creature, and to make Laura fall in love with this thing, he had to be kind of the classic Prince Charming type that women tend to fall in love with.
Otherwise, I thought it’s going to be hard for us to be convinced that Laura’s falling in love with him. I just felt it naturally made sense for us to be kind of put off by him, scared of him, and then over the course of the film, realise that he’s Laura’s destiny, and we can’t help but be totally smitten with him. It just made sense. And also, I just like the concept of maybe the monster that lives inside of us is not all that bad. Maybe he isn’t, or she isn’t, or they aren’t as scary as we think they are, maybe they’re completely wonderful. They’re actually the best part about ourselves. Maybe monsters are not all bad. They’re actually wonderful. And we should start getting to know that side of ourselves more and have better relationships with them, because who knows what could happen after. Who knows how our lives would change if we all had these very healthy relationships with our monsters, not ones where we shut them away for a million years and then they come out in these horrible, messy, violent ways.
Finishing off, the production team is very women-led which is amazing to see. Was that particularly important to you and how do you think that’s impacted the film?
Yes, it was extremely important to me. Our crew was over 50% women. All the producers were women, except for our financier and Tommy, who was an executive producer, but it’s a very female-heavy team. I thought it was incredible and made sense for a project like this. I was very empowered by that, by a team of mostly all women. It made it hard for sure. You know, men still run Hollywood, and things tend to happen faster when you kind of have that classic testosterone filled team moving your movie Up. But we still did it. I mean, we worked so hard to make this happen, and a lot of people, for a long time, did not take us seriously. That’s the most tragic part about this business, a lot of people, although it’s changing, but a lot of people don’t take you seriously as an all female team. Especially in a classic, very male dominated industry, there’s so many times on set where we’d walk into a new location and they would be like “Oh, nice to meet you, director” to our cinematographer, and I’d be like… it’s actually me! But it is changing slowly. There’s so many more women in positions of power in every industry, which is what we want, but we still have a long way to go.
Your Monster is in cinemas 29 November from Vertigo Releasing.
