I have to ask about the title.
Lindsay MacKay: Wet Bum! Don’t you think it’s the kind of thing where people will be like, “I saw Wet Bum last night.” “Excuse me?” “Yeah, it’s this movie about coming-of-age.” Yes, it will definitely put people off. I know it has put people off. When the script went out in the States originally, a lot of people thought I was British because of ‘bum’ and because of the way we spell ‘favorite’ and ‘color,’ all of those things. In the US, bum means homeless person more than your actual bum.
I think it’s intriguing. I love little titles that add meaning to the story but also aren’t on the nose. I guess technically, this is kind of on the bum.
So to speak.
Lindsay MacKay: [Laughs] It really stuck with me. I’m so happy… For now, we get to keep it. Who knows what’ll happen in the future? I feel it’s kind of in tone with the movie.
Julia Sarah Stone: It made me really curious, yeah. “This is a script I should read.” The fact that you chose it says a lot about who you are as a writer and a director.
Lindsay MacKay: What does it say?
Julia Sarah Stone: The fact that you choose the title that’s so blunt, it shows that you’ve got a bit of courage as an artist.
Lindsay MacKay: Oh, thank you!
The opening shot of the film is really fascinating, of the three characters floating in their own spaces. It shows their connection, both in their loneliness and their yearning to be free. How did this moment come to be?
Lindsay MacKay: With all of my movies, I kind of play with the supernatural. I really believe in magic and spirituality. I believe in connectivity and things like that, and symbols, like the world providing you with metaphors or images that give you insight that there’s something else, there’s another layer. There was the bird imagery that I was playing with. When I was thinking about these three characters and their relationship, in this moment in time, these characters were connected in some way or form. I wanted to find a way to encapsulate that idea, of the three of them and their connectivity and their spaces.
Space is so important to me and the way in which we all try and permanently… like, we erect buildings, we have our homes, we collect our things and we have all these things that represent us. Really, when you’re gone, all of those things disperse and the world changes. For me, it was like putting each of these people in the space that was important to them where change happens, and letting them go… those places exist without them.
It’s also the kind of thing that I want people to interpret themselves. I want each person to see it in their own way. It’s the kind of thing that leads people to think about the film, and that’s great.
Julia, how did you find out you were a TIFF Rising Star?
Julia Sarah Stone: I heard about [the Rising Star initiative] and thought it would be a good thing to put out there. So I put in my application and I got the phone call a few weeks before we came out here in August. It was just so exciting.
It’s an incredible honor to be a part of the four people who were selected this year. It’s such an amazing learning opportunity… metting new people and delving further into our craft. I feel so lucky to be a part of it and experience TIFF in this way they’re so graciously letting us do. We’re going to get to meet a few really amazing casting directors and directors. We’re doing some workshops with some really great actors. It’s just really exciting, learning about the artistic and the professional side.
Lindsay, what piece of advice do you have for filmmakers about to embark on their first shoot?
Lindsay MacKay: Take risks! Why not? Discover your voice and try to make something that’s unique and different and specific. Specificity, I think, is something that really sets people apart. Find your voice, I feel that that’s super important. There are so many generic, cookie-cutter films out there. It’s exciting to see new voices. Even if you don’t like the movie, it’s fun to see directors at work making choices.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Julia and Lindsay very much for their time.