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FunTranscript
00:00Hello, my name's Damon Wise. I'm at the Deadline Studio at the Toronto Film Festival. I'm here
00:15with Embeth Davids. Now, Embeth, could you tell me why you're here at the festival?
00:19I am here because I have my directorial debut film called Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight,
00:25which is at TIFF this week.
00:26And what can you tell me about this movie?
00:29The movie's based on a memoir by the same name, it's a mouthful, Don't Let's Go to the
00:32Dogs Tonight, which is really the story of a young girl growing up in Africa, in Rhodesia
00:38specifically at the time that the changeover happened from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe and when
00:44they gained independence.
00:45How did you find out about the story?
00:48I actually read the memoir and loved it, fell in love with it. You know, a lot of it resonated
00:54with me because I moved to South Africa when I was eight, so there's a lot of similarities,
00:58a lot of differences, but a lot of similarities between Zimbabwe and South Africa. And I really
01:05related to the central character of this young, spunky little girl and sort of wrote the screenplay
01:11with her as the voice and as the narrator telling the story of that African childhood
01:18from her point of view.
01:19Was there anything you brought to the book, sorry, the adaptation that wasn't in the original
01:23source? How did you approach the script?
01:26I changed it a lot actually, so people who love, because the book was beloved by people,
01:31might be annoyed with that, but I flipped it so that it was told strictly from the child's
01:36point of view. I added a lot of things, the end of the film, there's a lot of things in
01:41the film that were just things that I wanted to put in there to enhance the story and make
01:46it dramatic but magical at the same time because it's from a child's point of view.
01:52But the basis of it really is strongly from the book.
01:56When did you shoot the movie?
01:58We filmed it all in a tiny little town on the outskirts of Johannesburg in South Africa.
02:04And how did you recreate that period because it's a very different time I was thinking?
02:09Listen, considering the budget we shot it on, I mean, it was a miracle. It was a miracle.
02:14We went very much for, you know, if you go into thrift stores and old furniture stores
02:19you can find, and homes still, places that look that way. And a lot of it was the lenses
02:24that we chose to shoot it on, which are these Blackwing 7, Tribe 7, Panavision, incredible
02:31lenses that have this sort of soft, the way an old picture from the 70s might look, it
02:36gives it that look. So a lot was how it was lit, how it was shot, and then the costuming
02:41a lot too.
02:42How did you cast the movie?
02:44The casting was not, for the little girl, was not the usual process. I really did not
02:49want an actor that had acted before, and she was seven at the time that we did it. So just
02:54the films that I've ever loved of, that feature children in the lead role, are always kids
02:58who have been discovered and found for the first time because they're so fresh and unique
03:02and alive in their way of expressing themselves. So she was, we couldn't find her with regular
03:08casting, so we used a Facebook post and someone found her for me and said, I know of this
03:13little girl. And as soon as I met her, I knew she was the right one.
03:17What was it about her in particular?
03:19It was, I think about, I think the thing about her is her wild, truly open nature. She's
03:27got an amazing face, so her face is fantastic on film, but also just, she'll say the most
03:31outrageous thing. There's no filter, there's no self-consciousness whatsoever. So she's
03:38really just this unique little creature. In that moment that children are in before
03:42they get spoiled by tablets and smartphones and whatever, she's just this, and very similar
03:46upbringing, running around barefoot, growing up in the wild, swimming in wild oceans, and
03:52she just felt like she had no artifice about her.
03:56What process did you go through to have her acting? Because obviously she's very young
03:59still. What did you, I wouldn't say tricks, but what kind of routines did you use to help
04:05her give the performance?
04:06There were lots of tricks because for a seven-year-old, it's not like a normal actor where you go
04:12through 20 takes of something. I did very few takes. I always moved in and started on
04:17the close-up first because I knew I'd get in the first few takes whatever I needed from
04:20her. So I'd have a wide camera and a close-up at the same time. And really didn't, I didn't
04:25let her over-rehearse. I didn't really let her learn lines. I said, don't learn lines
04:28because she's so fast that I just said, then sometimes I'd be off camera and I'd say, say
04:33this line and she'd repeat it and try it this way and she'd just repeat it. And so
04:37there were a few takes that one would get and then you'd move on because it would start
04:41losing the spontaneity that she naturally has.
04:45Let's talk about the title. It's a very, a bit of a mouthful. Can you explain the meaning
04:50behind it?
04:51Yes. So as you probably know, there's an expression, you know, if a restaurant's gone bad, you'd
04:57say, well, that place has gone to the dogs. So the title, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs,
05:01in other words, don't, let's fall apart. It's from an English humorist that wrote back
05:07in, I forget what year he wrote in. And it was basically a funny line meant to be, don't
05:14let's go to the dogs tonight for mother will be there. And I think that's the underlying
05:18thing in the story is that the mother is slowly falling apart. So it's saying, let's not fall
05:24apart. Let's not go to that bad place of falling apart because mother will be there in a bad
05:29place.
05:30Has the film screened here yet?
05:31No, it's on Thursday night we screen.
05:34What kind of reactions would you hope to get from this kind of movie? I know that's quite
05:38a broad question to ask, but, you know, have you, from what reactions have you had from
05:41people who've seen it? What kind of reactions would you be happy with?
05:44We've been knocked out by the reactions. So we were at Telluride Film Festival last week
05:49and got really astonishing reviews, which I was very happy with. And, you know, you
05:55want people because if there are parts in it, as much as it's a very dark story of a
05:59dark time, it's very funny in places too. The child is very funny. So what I'd love
06:04is for people to start off laughing and then as the film goes on, see where it gets more
06:09serious and then be left with a feeling of optimism possibly and hope by the end.
06:14How did you get through the, in terms of editing? I mean, was it, did you always know what shape
06:18the film would take or did you find it in the edit as people often do?
06:21That was actually, editing was a big learning curve for me because I'd never edited before,
06:25right? So if you're an actor, you see certain things in the post-production thing, but
06:29the edit is a different thing. And I knew also with a child actor that there would be
06:33things that we didn't have. There were things that I wanted from the script and on a shooting
06:37day we didn't necessarily get. So what I loved about the editing process is the chance to
06:42completely reshape something, recreate it, find interesting new things. It was almost
06:46like a different creative process and a different shoot all on its own. And it actually was
06:51incredibly helpful because the raw footage is sort of like this big lump of clay and
06:55then you get to carve something out of it.
06:56So do you see yourself as, I mean, are you still an actor director or will you be directing
07:00more in the future?
07:02Probably both, you know, probably I'll still do both. I was somewhat bored with the parts
07:07that I've played in the last couple of years because I'm older and I was raising my kids
07:10and so I found this so exciting. I loved doing it. I'd love to direct again too.
07:16And do you think there's more stories in the place you were born, places you come from?
07:23Do you see yourself making more films of this kind?
07:26It's interesting because, of course, I don't want to just isolate myself to that part of
07:30the world and telling stories from that part of the world, but I think that the stories
07:33that one does best are the ones that you know best from the place you know best. So I have
07:38stories to tell about my life in America too, but I think, you know, I probably will end
07:42up shooting at some point in Africa again because I love it there too.
07:47What is it about Africa that keeps pulling you back?
07:49The people are magical, you know. People always say that anyone who's been to Africa,
07:54you sort of never can leave it behind. It stays a part of your soul and that's happened to me.