LADY - Director Samuel Abrahams

Thanks for having me.

Thank you so very much for being here.

I have to tell you what a high wire act this entire film is and how beautifully you pulled it off.

It really is something to behold just from a cinematic point of view, your ability to kind of keep all of these very high tension elements of the film and where they're supposed to be.

Tell me a little bit about what inspired Lady.

I think, well, the character, really.

It all came from this character.

And so I had sort of stumbled down a YouTube rabbit hole like everyone does every now and then.

And I landed on this clip.

It's an aspiring influencer basically just putting out her first video.

And it was like the worst video that anyone's ever made.

And it was kind of brilliant.

And obviously, Miranda and I, my partner who I wrote the film with, we immediately subscribed and just watched every new video that she posted.

I think the thing that we were hooked on was just that she was so desperate for the world to see her, but yet she couldn't see herself.

And that, just as an idea, jumping off point for a character, we could just see her in just Technicolor.

You know, she was just such a fun character.

So now she's nothing like, you know, Isabella becomes our own thing.

And she's nothing like this aspiring influencer that we initially saw.

But this character was just so rich to us and so kind of funny.

Like once they're kind of built in a way, I don't know what it is.

It was just kind of magic.

Like I could just kind of see her and hear her voice.

And I think it's because the gap between Isabella what she wants the world to see her as and what she's sort of hiding beneath, the thing that's kind of shameful and the trauma that's hiding beneath.

That gap is so big.

And the bigger you can make it, the funnier and the more tragic.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you so very much for being here.

I have to tell you what a high wire act this entire film is and how beautifully you pulled it off.

It really is something to behold just from a cinematic point of view, your ability to kind of keep all of these very high tension elements of the film and where they're supposed to be.

Tell me a little bit about what inspired Lady.

I think, well, the character, really.

It all came from this character.

And so I had sort of stumbled down a YouTube rabbit hole like everyone does every now and then.

And I landed on this clip.

It's an aspiring influencer basically just putting out her first video.

And it was like the worst video that anyone's ever made.

And it was kind of brilliant.

And obviously, Miranda and I, my partner who I wrote the film with, we immediately subscribed and just watched every new video that she posted.

I think the thing that we were hooked on was just that she was so desperate for the world to see her, but yet she couldn't see herself.

And that, just as an idea, jumping off point for a character, we could just see her in just Technicolor.

You know, she was just such a fun character.

So now she's nothing like, you know, Isabella becomes our own thing.

And she's nothing like this aspiring influencer that we initially saw.

But this character was just so rich to us and so kind of funny.

Like once they're kind of built in a way, I don't know what it is.

It was just kind of magic.

Like I could just kind of see her and hear her voice.

And I think it's because the gap between Isabella what she wants the world to see her as and what she's sort of hiding beneath, the thing that's kind of shameful and the trauma that's hiding beneath.

That gap is so big.

And the bigger you can make it, the funnier and the more tragic.