Fantasia 2017 Interview: Writer/Director Simon Rumley Takes Us Into the World of FASHIONISTA

Throughout his career, Simon Rumley has consistently pushed himself as a filmmaker, and his latest cinematic endeavor, Fashionista, is yet another example of the writer/director evolving as a visual storyteller, as his unforgettable mystery thriller unconventionally explores the darker sides of desire and obsession. Featuring an outstanding ensemble including Amanda Fuller, Ethan Embry, Alex Essoe, and Eric Balfour (amongst others), Fashionista recently played as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival’s impressive 2017 slate.

Recently, Daily Dead spoke with Rumley about his approach to Fashionista, and he discussed how he viewed the project as his statement on consumerism and also chatted about reuniting with Fuller (who starred in Rumley’s Red, White & Blue) to take on her challenging role in this film. Rumley also talked about collaborating with Fashionista producer Tim League and how he managed to assemble the rest of his top-notch cast.

It’s great to speak with you, Simon, and great job on Fashionista. It’s such a different film than what we’ve seen from you before, and yet, it feels completely right at home alongside the rest of your movies. What inspired you to take this route as a filmmaker and take on such an unusual story for Fashionista?

Simon Rumley: Basically, I decided I wanted to do something about consumerism, almost an anti-consumerist film. And so I wrote the script in late 2014, early 2015, which, I thought it was okay, and everyone else thought it was okay, but no one loved it. And with most of my scripts, people are usually either like, "This is amazing!" Or, "This is rubbish." There's very little in-between.

So, at some point I just thought this was kind of wrong, and I went back to the drawing board, and thought more about what I wanted to do, and the stylization of what I wanted to do, still keeping the aesthetic of anti-consumerism, and knowing that I wanted to film it in Austin because I have friends and contacts there, and had such a great time shooting Red, White & Blue there.

So, from that I decided I wanted to do something similar to a drug film, but a story which wasn't about drugs. Then, the idea of addiction came to me, and in Austin there's quite a big secondhand, vintage clothing scene, too, so that was all going off in my mind. This also came about after having shot Crowhurst, which is a film that Nicholas Roeg had been an executive producer on, and he is pretty much my favorite director ever. I'd always watched his films thinking, "Oh, how does he do it? I'd love to be able to do something like that. I'd love to try and make a film vaguely like how he makes them."

Having spent a bit of time with him, I thought maybe that the time is now right to, if I'm going to do it, I should try and do a Nicholas Roeg-inspired film, since I've just spent some time with him. So, all those things were banging around in my head, I suppose over a period of a few months, and they all came together.

I thought April was a really interesting character. I loved some of the little touches that you added to her, with her always fidgeting with her skirts, and the way that she would just smell the clothing and things like that. I thought that was such an interesting physical manifestation from what was going on inside her head. Can you talk about your process working with Amanda to flesh out her role, both physically and emotionally?

Simon Rumley: When we cast Red, White & Blue, that was in 2009, and we spoke to a few relatively-known actresses. I always do with films that very much pivot around a female character. So, we had an open casting in L.A., and I think we had about 40 girls read for the part. I went to L.A. to meet them, and Amanda was the end choice, really. She understood that role instinctively, she asked all the right questions, she seemed to empathize with the character, and she had a kind of inner strength, but also a vulnerability, too, which was really perfect for that character. So, we got her on board, and she was just amazing.

Having worked with her on Red, White & Blue, we stayed in touch over the years, so when I was doing this, a light bulb went off over my head, which was really, "Why not work with Amanda again? Maybe she'll do it." I knew what she was capable of, in terms of just her acting ability. I knew that if I wrote scenes where she had to cry, she'd be able to cry convincingly. I tried to not write more nudity for her, but there's that one scene in the shop, where I thought that April just taking all her clothes off was very pertinent to the whole narrative arc of where she was, showing her complete breakdown and vulnerability. I figured Amanda would do that in the middle of a shop floor, which many other actresses I'm pretty sure wouldn't. So, she read the script, and we went through everything.

She came out to Austin, and we shot the film in a very short amount of time. It was basically 18 days. So, it was really nonstop from beginning to end, and I think she's in almost every scene. It's always exhausting making a film at the best of times, but I think she was completely shattered at the end of it. And, because the script was also nonlinear, it was written pretty much how you see it. Usually, when you make a film, the script is linear, but you shoot it out of sequence. Well, this was a nonlinear script which she shot out of sequence. So, that was quite a mentally challenging thing for all of us, but most of all, for Amanda.

She's absolutely fantastic. And the rest of the cast, too, is really great. You've got Ethan, and you've got Eric, and Alex Essoe, who I've been in love with ever since Starry Eyes. It seems almost like an embarrassment of riches for you, in regards to your actors, for this film. I know Tim League's the producer on this, and I know he's super friendly with a lot of folks, especially the indie filmmaking community that he's been so supportive of over the years, too. Did the rest of the cast come together because of Tim, or was it just because you happened to also know a lot of these folks?

Simon Rumley: It was a bit of everything, really. Tim had been an executive producer on Red, White & Blue, and of course, The ABCs of Death, and so he's just the loveliest person, and just ridiculously supportive. He’s been amazing to me and my films, and I think that anytime Tim's involved with something, then it's kind of a byword for some kind of quality, so that definitely helped.

With Ethan, he really loved the script. He said to me that he'd never read a script like it in his life. And, I think, maybe some actors don't like to be challenged. Some actors just want to do kind of easy work to get easy money. Ethan's definitely someone, from my experience, who loves to be pushed, because he's a kind of an edgy guy in a way. He's a lovely guy, massively professional, an absolute pleasure to work with, but he likes that kind of darker stuff, really.

And Alex Essoe, my manager actually manages her, and she'd worked with Amanda on Starry Eyes, so that actually was pretty straightforward. Then, Eric Balfour, his name was on a couple of our lists, and we went to him, and he was someone who also knew Ethan. It's kind of funny how it all worked out. I think Ethan spoke to him, and said, "Hey, I think this is going be great," so it all came together.

And the other person, I don't know if you spotted him or not, but I actually wrote the part for him, was Devin Bonnée. He played Johnny Frank Garrett in Johnny Frank Garrett's Last Word, and I thought he did an amazing job in that, so I wrote the role of Hank for him in this.

Can you talk a little bit about working with [cinematographer] Milton [Kam] in terms of establishing the look of this film? Because visually, there's some really gorgeous stuff that goes on in this, and I loved it.

Simon Rumley: Thank you. Well, Milton is someone I've worked with since 2004, and he's shot literally everything that I've done since then. We've now done nine films together, so he's very much my right-hand man, He’s a great guy and a pleasure to work with. He’s very conscientious and he’s always happy to push, push, push the boundaries. We work really well together as a team.

This is actually quite an unusual film for us, because usually we have a very specific idea of what we're looking for when we go in to shoot. And this is the first film, I have to say, that actually changed a little bit as we went on. Then, there's a guy called Bradley Greer who is the colorist to the film. He gave us a bunch of stills in terms of grading. Usually, you shoot the film, and then in the coloring process, essentially, you enhance what you've done. But for this one, we chose the stills which looked more like they were erring towards black and white films that were then colored in.

Once I saw that, me, Milton, and him discussed that process, and we also thought this was quite an unusual idea, and quite an interesting idea, and something that we hadn't really seen before, certainly in contemporary cinema. So, Bradley then worked to really heighten the color palette for what we had, and you’ll notice during some of those moments, where April’s almost in this hallucinatory state, that that’s when the colors in the film pop the brightest, because that’s when she’s the happiest as a character.

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Keep an eye on Daily Dead for more coverage of the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival, and check here for our previous news, reviews, and interviews for the festival.

NSFW trailer: