Monica | Virtual Screening Series
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00:00 Thank you for watching Deadline Hollywood's virtual screening of IFC's Monica.
00:09 Let's welcome our guests, the director, producer, and co-writer of the movie, Andrea Paloro,
00:15 and Oscar-nominated, three-time Emmy Award-winning actress, Patricia Clarkson, who plays Eugenia
00:22 in the movie.
00:24 Andrea, tell us first about finding filmmaking.
00:29 You went to school over here.
00:31 You're from Italy, but you went to school over here in the States.
00:35 Yes, I did.
00:36 I actually attended Hampshire College in Massachusetts for my bachelor's, and then I came to LA for
00:42 my master's at the California Institute of the Arts.
00:46 And there I made a short film that played in Sundance and won many awards all over the
00:52 world, and that allowed me to start my career making first a film titled Medeas, then Hannah,
00:58 then Charlotte Rampling, and now Monica.
01:02 Patricia, tell us about how you found Andrea and the screenplay for Monica.
01:10 I met this extraordinary director at Marrakesh Film Festival, gave him an award, a big award,
01:18 alongside Martin Scorsese, and I presented it to him.
01:21 And I just adored him.
01:24 I knew how talented he was, and years later, in conventional style, I get a call from my
01:32 wonderful agent saying, "Andrea has a new film.
01:36 He's just cast this wonderful actress, Trace Lysette, as the lead."
01:41 I said, "Oh, my goodness, that amazing actress from Transparent?"
01:45 I said, "Yes."
01:46 He said, "Yes."
01:47 I said, "Send it, send it."
01:49 And I opened up this screenplay not knowing what to expect, thinking I was maybe going
01:54 to be sexy mom again.
01:56 Well, ha, ha, ha.
02:01 But it took my breath away.
02:04 It's one of the quickest yeses I've ever had in this industry.
02:08 It was not lost on me that a wonderful transgender actress would get to lead a film, finally,
02:15 in our industry.
02:17 And that this part would challenge me beyond compare.
02:22 As actors, Anthony, we love our words, we love our bodies, our physicality, and I had
02:27 neither of those in this part.
02:32 But the pathos, the emotional content of this movie was everything to me, everything.
02:39 Andrea, tell us about the origin of the story.
02:45 Of course.
02:46 I mean, the experience, the trauma of not being seen, of not being recognized, of not
02:51 being accepted for who you are is something that plays such a fundamental part in our
02:58 sense of identity and also our relationship to the outside world.
03:04 And the story of Monica really provides a paradigm to understand the complexities and
03:11 the dynamics of what that means.
03:14 And I think it is something that we can all connect to in one way or another.
03:19 It's something that we can all relate to.
03:20 It's something that is so inherently human.
03:24 And through Monica, hopefully, we can get to understand certain parts of ourselves.
03:29 And that was really the impetus, the need for going into the story, for exploring these
03:38 characters.
03:41 In writing the script, were you influenced by Trace?
03:46 Well, no, actually, the script was written first, and then I started a very long process
03:54 of looking for the artist that I could really sculpt this character with, that could bring
04:00 this character to life.
04:02 And that took about a year before I met Trace.
04:07 I saw many, many candidates for the role.
04:10 But I will always remember the moment I met her, I knew that I'd found that person.
04:16 Because obviously, for a film like this, that was the single most important decision that
04:23 we could make, my collaborators and I, in making this film.
04:27 And Trace really possesses this very raw quality, this talent of being the character, instead
04:38 of just acting.
04:40 And I will always remember the very first shot in the film, the very first scene we
04:44 shot was the scene in which Monica closes herself into the bathroom after meeting her
04:52 mother for the first time after over two decades.
04:56 And it's a single shot scene.
05:01 And I will always remember what happened.
05:05 As we experienced what Trace was giving us, the whole set was transformed.
05:13 She catapulted us inside the emotional world of Monica with so much specificity and authenticity
05:21 and depth and complexity.
05:24 And she really set the tone for what this film was going to be right away.
05:28 And I will never forget that.
05:33 Let's all talk about that ending where Monica says to mom, "I have so many things to tell
05:40 you, but there are things that are never told."
05:44 Talk about ending on that note for both of you.
05:49 Of course, well, this is a film that really explores a reconciliation, like explores themes
05:57 of forgiveness and of these two characters, mother and daughter, coming together after
06:03 such a long time and reconnecting and healing those wounds.
06:09 And that "I have so many things to tell you" is her way to heal those traumas, to reconnect
06:23 with her.
06:24 I mean, I think it begins in the bathtub, the scene in...
06:31 Look, people, I think, confuse the fact that I'm sick with maybe my mind not really working.
06:38 Yes, I am struggling at times.
06:42 But I am a woman, I think, who very much knows her child and is starting to put the pieces
06:49 together, as you can see in that one bedroom scene.
06:53 But then in the bathtub scene is one of the reasons I took this part, because I thought
07:00 what an exceptional moment in a film that a woman at the very, very, very last moments
07:07 of her life finds unconditional love for her child.
07:13 And in the last moments of her life, realizes her child will not spend the rest of her life
07:19 without her mother's love.
07:21 That child, my child, Monica, will live the rest of her life with the love of her mother.
07:25 Her mother will die with the love of her child.
07:28 You know, your child is your child is your child is your child.
07:32 And I think it's just one of the most...
07:34 It's still hard for me to talk about because it's still very emotional for me and always
07:38 be emotional for me.
07:39 My connection to Monica, to Trace, it remains that for me in my life.
07:44 And I just kind of live with it whenever I talk about it.
07:49 But it to me is an otherworldly moment that we...
07:58 It's why this movie, I think, transcends classifying.
08:04 Yes, but it is about all forms of family and life and forgiveness and unconditional love,
08:12 which is the purest form of love.
08:15 But it is the hardest to come to in our lifetime.
08:19 And that's what I think.
08:21 Yes, and it's really the heart of the film.
08:25 That was the very first scene that my co-writer and I wrote.
08:29 And we built the whole film around that scene.
08:31 And to have someone like Patricia, who with a single glance can reveal such a world of
08:39 complexity and can really catapult us into the depths of a character.
08:46 Who else can do that?
08:51 It has been such an honour and really an immense pleasure to build this character with both
08:58 Trace and Patricia, these characters.
09:01 We'll forever be very...
09:03 Anthony, forever.
09:04 And I've done a lot of work.
09:06 I've won a lot of awards.
09:08 But this film stands alone in my life.
09:12 It just stands alone.
09:14 It's just was a remarkable time in all of our lives to come together to make this film,
09:20 which was also very important.
09:23 And politically, we're on the right side of history.
09:26 But it's about so much more.
09:30 And not that that should ever be overlooked.
09:32 But it was just we came together with very little money, very little time in the middle
09:36 of COVID.
09:37 None of us got COVID.
09:41 We made it through.
09:42 And this gorgeous filmmaker and our incredible DP.
09:47 Oh, my God.
09:48 Our cinematographer.
09:49 And this gorgeous crew.
09:53 I mean, this crew was insane.
09:56 Insane.
09:57 So, yeah, it's a very special thing.
10:02 How does Andrea work with his actors?
10:05 Is there a rehearsal time?
10:07 Does he rip up the shot list and say, "Hey, let's do something different"?
10:12 Oh, no, no, no.
10:13 As you can see, it's very specific.
10:15 Keep your elbows in, ladies and gentlemen.
10:19 No, he's an actor's dream because he is...
10:23 The set is conducive to making the best of you or whatever is needed for the scene has
10:32 to come forth.
10:33 And he creates a really quiet, beautiful environment.
10:38 And everything is about...
10:40 I've worked with the greatest, Scorsese and a lot of incredible directors.
10:49 And Andrea is right up there with them.
10:50 He works in a slightly different way.
10:52 But it...
10:53 You know, auteur is people who really know what they're doing.
11:01 Every time you're on a set, you have a certain solace, a certain calm.
11:05 And people think when you're acting, you have to work from mayhem.
11:09 No.
11:10 I think as actors, we do our best work when we work from a very secure, still place.
11:18 And then the mayhem or the emotion can carry on and come forth.
11:23 But when we would...
11:26 He had such a vision on this film.
11:28 And Kate Eresmandis, our brilliant DP, we were in such beautiful hands.
11:35 And we sometimes didn't know when our face was on, when our booty was on, when our elbows
11:40 in, our elbows out.
11:41 I mean, we didn't know.
11:43 But, you know, we had to enter every day.
11:47 Anthony, vanity and ego had to go away.
11:52 And that's the best place you can be as an actor.
11:54 The best place you can ever be.
11:57 It makes you a better actor when you let those two things go.
12:01 And bye-bye.
12:02 They had to go.
12:03 And they did.
12:04 And that's Andrea.
12:05 So...
12:07 Andrea, can you talk about the cinematic language you used in Monica?
12:13 Of course, with pleasure.
12:14 Well, you know, every choice that my collaborators and I made, every creative, formal, stylistic
12:20 choice, stemmed from the need to craft a very specific experience for the individual spectator.
12:27 And to let them inside the internal world, emotional and psychological world of the characters.
12:34 But at the same time, though, giving them the opportunity to have a very personal experience.
12:42 One in which they are active participants in it.
12:46 You know?
12:48 And you know, for example, even, you know, the use of the aspect ratio, you know, which
12:54 is very unusual.
12:56 It's one that my director of photography, Kate, like Patricia mentioned, and I decided,
13:02 you know, to create this specifically for this film.
13:05 You know, one in which, you know, two or more bodies within the same frame, you know, are
13:12 suffocated and where, you know, their sense of codependence is enhanced.
13:18 You know?
13:19 And an aspect ratio also that allows us to pay attention to what is left outside of the
13:24 frame.
13:26 And creating a very specific psychological relationship with the characters.
13:31 You know?
13:32 And really, every choice was meant to craft a very specific dynamic between spectator
13:44 and character.
13:46 IFC's Monica.
13:50 I want to thank our guests, Andrea Palauro, the filmmaker of Monica, and star Patricia
13:57 Clarkson.
13:58 Thank you for watching the Deadline Hollywood virtual screening series.
14:03 I'm Anthony.
14:04 Thank you.
14:05 Thank you.
14:05 Thank you.
14:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]