Writer-director Ashley McKenzie discusses TIFF film Werewolf

Cape Breton native Ashley McKenzie has landed in Toronto and is ready to premiere her first feature film, Werewolf, as part of TIFF's Discovery lineup tonight (Friday, Sept. 9, 2016).

Shot (and set) in Ashley's hometown over 26 days, the film is an intimate and authentic portrait of a homeless and marginalized methadone-dependent young couple attempting recovery. It's a slice of life project that profiles the lives of Nessa (Bhreagh MacNeil) and Blaise (Andrew Gillis), who travel door-to-door and offer to mow lawns in exchange for money. They sleep in a trailer in the woods and struggle with addiction. But while Nessa longs to leave her life behind for something more substantial, Blaise wallows in despair and threatens to disintegrate at any moment.

Ashley, who has a number of award-winning shorts to her credit, sat down with Tribute's Matthew Pariselli before the screening of her film and discussed the inspiration for the movie, the process of shooting in her hometown, who she'd be thrilled to meet at TIFF this year, and how Twitter played a role in Werewolf.

Congratulations on a powerful and impressive first feature. I've read that the film is partly inspired by real people or events. Can you speak to that? Who or what compelled you to make Werewolf?
The germ of the film began when I saw a couple in my town pushing a lawn mower down the street and going to my neighbor's house. The guy went to the front door, the girl went to the side door, and they were both knocking impatiently. Eventually they walked in and I could see an altercation break out. I was intrigued because Cape Breton is a small town and generally you know everybody, so I thought this was out of the ordinary...

"They’re the lawn mower crack heads," people would say. Everyone had a story about the lawn mower crack heads. To me, first of all, that term is derogatory, but it's strange too because I was probably in junior high with these people. So I was intrigued, I was like, "These are members of my community and I want to know what their life is like." They're going around with a lawn mower, they're probably drug-dependent, and there are all these stories about them living in the woods. That incident inspired the image in my head that stuck with me. But I never did track down those people and find out what their actual life is like. I went on to write a fictional film about a couple like that and couldn't help but be inspired by people I knew who were/are struggling with similar issues. I drew from real people or places and my own personal experiences.

What kind of research did you do while writing the film?
I did some research about the methadone program. If you watch the film, it's a pretty procedural process, so I wanted to know, if you're on the program, what does that entail? How often do you have to go to the doctor? When do you have to do urine tests? If you break the rules, what happens? I also met with some people on the methadone program, and they gave me information... hesitantly (laughs). But back home, there are a lot of people on methadone, so I would just talk about it. I'd say, "I'm making a film about this," and people started telling me stories... Everyone on the crew had a story, about someone in their family or a family friend. Once you open that door, the stories just start coming out. Research just happened from talking about it and going down that road.

The film was shot in your hometown, on a consumer camera, and many shots are off-kilter. What was the motivation behind those choices?
With the shorts I've made in the past, I always felt that by the end of the shoot, I wasn't satisfied, like we didn’t get what we wanted, we didn’t take the script and translate it to real life, we just didn't get there. And this was because we felt limited by schedules and time and money. For Werewolf, everyone who worked on the film lives [on Cape Breton], which gave us the freedom to shoot when we wanted. The consumer camera, digital route helped there. We didn't have a ton of money, but it all fit the model of our shoot.

The unconventional framing was definitely intentional, but it's not like I story-boarded it or even shot-listed it to look like that. I guess every time we would go to shoot a scene, I didn’t want to settle for the conventional thing, I didn’t want to just do a wide, medium and close shot. I tried to find a singular place to put the camera that felt important. We kept searching and often it ended up being an unconventional place and I’d sometimes be scared... But I committed to it and hoped that if I trusted my instincts every single time, it would filter through me and a vision would come out of it.

I noticed many of the colors in the film are pale, almost muted. Was that a conscious decision? If so, what inspired that choice?
I think the coloring and the framing played into one another. Because we had a micro-budget, we couldn’t control everything in the frame, we couldn't set dress. If we wanted an epic shot, we couldn't control that car over there or that sign over there. Part of controlling the aesthetic look of the film meant I was going tighter with the frame because I was trying to distill a certain palette. I'm always searching for what feels right palette-wise and composition-wise. We were going for something that felt like the film, which is muted with a lot of negative space, a lot of white, and some pastels.

What was it like working with Bhreagh and Andrew?
It was great. They have really different processes. Bhreagh is a theater actress, she had never been in a film before, and she was only 19. So she was the youngest person on crew, but she felt like the most mature. She just went with the flow, like a pro... Andrew was very into method acting, that was more his thing, whereas Bhreagh turned it on and off and tried to keep a separation between the role and her personal life. Andrew really submerged himself into the part of Blaise and you couldn't really see where that began and where it ended. That meant it was a very emotional experience for him. I was just trying to watch how each of them worked, and go with them on that journey.

How did you cast them?
Andrew is a friend of mine. We grew up in the same small town, and because it’s a sports town, not many artists are around. We were on each others' radars quickly because he's a musician and I’m in film. So he would give me CDs of his music and we just became friends. While I was writing the film, I considered him because he's a non-professional actor and has that authentic vibe… Also, a lot of the issues I was exploring in the film are pretty personal to me, and both Andrew and I lost a friend -- a friend who was actually supposed to be in the film, but committed suicide early on in the writing process -- so every time we'd meet up, we’d talk about the research I was doing but also process losing our friend. It just felt like Andrew had to play this role. It was a long, gradual process with him.

With Bhreagh, it was the opposite. I was auditioning women I'd just meet in the library, who'd never been in a film before, but I couldn't quite find someone I thought could commit or wasn’t so vulnerable or at risk... Then a friend of mine mentioned that there was this actress who is really hard working, so I looked her up on Google, saw her on Twitter and saw a few pictures of her. Right away I liked her look, thought she was interesting. My producer and I messaged her on Twitter, "Will you audition for our film?" So she came over to my apartment and we ran some auditions. My producer drove her home and she said, "I've never done an audition that way before." I didn't know her, but that's often how I cast. I look people up on Facebook or Twitter, just to get a visual.

What works did you reference -- film or otherwise -- while creating Werewolf?
With this film, I guess less than other films, I didn’t have as many direct references. I made a lookbook, mostly of photographs, that I shared with my collaborators. Like Jessica Dimmock, who did this photo series called "The Ninth Floor" about some drug-dependent characters that she followed. I also shared with Bhreagh, I sent her a Dardenne brothers film, so she could get a vibe of what these characters might be like. Because her background is in theater, I wanted her to see a film like Rosetta... where acting is so understated, very minimal. I remember thinking about Yorgos Lanthimos too, who did Dogtooth... When I think of him, I think of unconventional framing... Someone also told me to see The Panic in Needle Park, an Al Pacino film. It was so good, I was so impressed by that... It didn't directly influence the film, but it was really great.

What can we expect from you next?
Another feature, hopefully. Once the whole film festival circuit in Canada is over -- I'm going from here to Halifax to Vancouver to Montreal -- I'll start working on writing my next feature. But I'm thinking I might make a short as well, because it takes a while to develop features.

What ideas are you toying with for that feature?
For a long time, I’ve had an idea about a 40s-something woman who’s very socially awkward, a misfit. She's a dog-groomer in her basement and a dogcatcher in her town, too. So I want to make this really unhinged character study. Someone like Gena Rowlands in a John Cassettes film. I watched Opening Night a few months ago and Gena's was such an amazing performance. I felt like, "I don't see female characters on screen like that, that feel so real and interesting and strange." So it'll be about her and her dysfunctional relationship with her sister.

Finally, if there's one person you could meet here at TIFF, who would that be?
Kelly Reichardt. She's someone whose work has influenced me overall. I’m really excited to see Certain Women... I love how minimal her films are. She brings the scale of drama to this really small level where tiny things can be so dramatic. I think it would be really great to meet her.

Thank you so much for chatting with us. Good luck with Werewolf and your next project!
Thank you!

Werewolf premieres at the Scotiabank Theatre tonight (Friday, Sept. 9, 2016) at 8:45 p.m. Additional screenings will be held on Saturday, Sept. 10; Wednesday, Sept. 14; and Saturday, Sept. 17.

Tags:

Ashley McKenzie, tiff, TIFF 2016, toronto international film festival, Werewolf

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