Jordan Waller has hit the ground running when it comes to making his name on stage and screen (big and small). Probably most famous for playing Lord Alfred Paget in ITV’s Victoria, most fans may not know that Waller had also had huge success in his one man show at 2019’s Edinburgh Festival where the focus was what some people may consider an unconventional upbringing.
Now Waller has shed his period drama performances (for now at least) and is looking to his future, showing off his comedy writing and his tastes for horror in Two Heads Creek. I caught up with Jordan Waller where we talked about horror, cultural differences and Brexit and how they overlap.
How did you come up with the idea for Two Heads Creek?
Jordan Waller – It was the day of the Brexit Referendum result, the culmination of an absurd, horrific, bizarre year of nonsense. I woke up to David Dimbleby croaking the result on the BBC and just thought – that poor, tired, ugly man. He looks like he’s starring in a horror movie.
Two Heads Creek could have been set anywhere, so besides working with an Australian director, why set it there? Was that always the intention?
I originally planned to set it in Norfolk – the home of inbreeding. But fortune, in every sense of the word, changed the path of production and years later, we found ourselves sweating in the outback of Australia for some godforsaken reason.
You and Kathryn Wilder have great chemistry in the film, had you worked together before?
Kathryn is a brilliant actor. I met her at a party after having seen her in a Kenneth Branagh production of Romeo and Juliet where her comic timing totally stole the show. We’d never worked together before but we got on, I think, because we’re both ginger. The chemistry is all down to that deep understanding. But having worked with her once, I hope never to work with her again because she’s a kleptomaniac and a hard drinker.
Do you have a favourite horror movie?
Silence of the lambs. I watched it when I was twelve, illegally. It’s no wonder I’m disturbed enough to write what I have.
Do you think horror movies are better with lots of blood or a slow burn intensity?
There’s room for both – but I think I’m with Tarantino on the blood front. We want to know what’s going on in the inside of a character – I may have taken it too literally.
There are quite a few stereotypes about Australians in Two Heads Creek, are there any stereotypes you like or dislike about the English?
Stereotypes are great weapons for oppressors – anything else is punching down, which is a bit 70s for me. The white English are game for all manner of mockery. So, any stereotype knocking our bad teeth, snobbishness, shopkeeping-mentality, loud-mouthed, brash, parochial, patriarchal, queue-loathing, weather-complaining, systemically racist, pig-fucking, Boris Johnson voting, bad salad qualities is – very welcome. Because at least we’re not French.
Acting in a movie you wrote yourself must be quite a challenge, do you prefer acting or writing?
I see them as very different things, and I couldn’t say whether I prefer one or the other. One I do in my pants; the other, I only sometimes do in my pants.
Have the events of this year (pandemic, protests etc) had a big effect on you? Do you think it will change how you work in the future?
It’s been horrific. It’s changed the world; hopefully, it’ll be for the better in the long run. For now, I’m just keen to get on and get back to work.
You’ve worked on many period pieces (Victoria, The Darkest Hour, Love & Friendship), is there any period of history that interests you most?
I’d love to do something set in the future.
Is there anything you can talk about that you’re working on next?
I’ve got three projects in the pipeline: two about trains, one about cars and another about lesbians.
Libby McClean (Romane Denis) is about to start a new job in a fashionable clothes store. She’s nervous but optimistic and willing to do a hard day’s work to please her overworked and pressurized manager, Craig (Brett Donahue).
It’s always hard starting a new job where you don’t know anybody, so Libby tries to make a connection with her reluctant co-worker, Shruti (Sehar Bhojani), but they get off on the wrong foot and the store is busily preparing for a visit from fashion vlogger, Peyton Jules (Erica Anderson) anyway.
Also, the news of a brand-new line of jeans that will fit any shape gets the staff excited. However, when Libby’s co-workers start disappearing, it’s up to her, Shruti and Craig to get to the bottom of what’s causing the jeans to kill. Hardly what Libby imagined she’d be doing on her first day of work.
Slaxx is a horror-comedy co-written and directed by Elza Kephart. Taking social commentary inspiration from Dawn of The Dead, Slaxx takes a more modern approach as it explores the full range of issues surrounding the fashion industry. Everything from consumer hunger, vapid trendsetters and even the darker side of how clothes get made that are so often swept under the carpet.
Kephart manages to take a unique concept and manages to balance the comedy and horror expertly, so after the initial deaths of inconsequential characters, Kephart ramps up the tension. By the end, the audience will not only be thinking about the movie’s message but will never put on a pair of jeans in the same way again.
The cast all work well together and Erica Anderson does a scene-stealing performance as a vacuous fashionista, so whilst there are some deaths the audience will enjoy because of the morally vacant characters, they will still root for Libby and her colleagues.
As the ‘inanimate object horror’ subgenre goes, Slaxx is a well-fitting body of work that will give horror fans plenty of blood, laughs and maybe something more thoughtful than they may have been expecting. Slaxx is a fashion-conscious fable worth seeking out
Right at the beginning of Boys State, there is a scene where a teacher teaches the boys the difference between Brave New World and 1984, two staples of the school system. It is a subtle dig at how things would play out in the movie as Boys State almost portrays the titular convention as a totalitarian government and the camera following the main characters as a Big Brother-like figure.
Also interesting is the way they choose to show past Boys State alumni in the opening credits scene. The names that pop up instantly grab your attention and make you sit up and notice. It might seem like an underhanded tactic to grab eyeballs, but what comes after the credits is what truly stays with you long after you finish Boys State.
The Apple TV film by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss focuses on the yearly convention, which has been in existence since the 1930s. A legion of schoolboys gets together at the conference taking place in their respective states, the one in focus here is the 2018 Texas Boys State. However, it looks like a comic con for governance aimed at teenagers with a single uniformed costume. It manages to successfully bring out the emotions at play where the kids get to be part of opposing parties, namely the Nationalists and the Federalists and hypothetically play out the inner workings of the political system.
To streamline the film’s focus, the makers wisely train their attention on four students. Ben Feinstein, a double amputee whose knack at playing the political game with effortless ease, might feel horrifying or praiseworthy to others depending on your personal views. He realizes immediately where his strength lies and adapts accordingly, sometimes even single-handily turning the course of the events around if you believe the documentary’s timeline. (“I think he will be a fantastic politician. But don’t think it is a compliment,” one character says about him at one point.)
Steven Garza, a son of Mexican immigrants who has a powerful notion about what is right and wrong, and this would at various points of the documentary, hold him in good stead and drag him down. It is the battle for territory between the two that drives a good portion of the movie even though they rarely interact directly throughout the film.
It is telling though that Ben’s disability comes up as a clutch throughout the movie only occasionally, and the focus is mainly on his political stance. At the same time, his actions set him up as a villain of the piece, whereas Steven’s immigration status comes up multiple times to set him as the underdog.
René Otero, a skillful campaigner, is the third character given prominence here. However, a lot of his screen time is devoted to being one of the few black people around.
But my personal favorite is Robert MacDougal. His instant likability comes from his honest admissions (“My stance on abortion won’t sell so I choose a bigger easier topic”) mixed with his inability to cross the line, which Ben comfortably does.
There is a scene right before he debates with Steven where he gets some dirt on the latter. His attempt at a last-minute manipulation of Steven before the debate reminds you of Arnold’s takedown of Louis Ferrigno in Pumping Iron.
He knows who is the better person but decides just this last-ditch attempt at manipulating Steve. Even then, what endures is the fair warning he gives Steve about it. He almost looks relieved when he realizes that he might end up losing and now go back to having fun.
The trajectory and journey of these four protagonists are so compelling that you almost want to take a time capsule and go to the future to see how they ended up. Right before the end credits, the makers do show a small glimpse of where their future is.
The best thing about Boys State is seeing how the participants behave and react to their situations. Now it might not be a parable of what these kids should be, but it is a mirror into what they believe they should do. Many of them come in thinking personal attacks are the way to go, having already been hit with us or them syndrome long before they even started.
As you can see, a lot of them are here to have fun and are just excited to be there due to the history of the event. Some of the kids know manipulation is inevitable given what they associate politics with and the nature of Boys State. To see if they follow up on that very instinct or not is why this is a movie that is a must-watch.
After watching Words on Bathroom Walls, I was truly stunned to see that it was directed by Diary of a Wimpy Kiddirector Thor Freudenthal. Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching young Greg Heffley’s middle school first-world problems, but it’s not a masterpiece or anything. It’s a fun children’s flick that parents can show your youngsters in the hopes of entertaining them and putting a smile on their face, and for most kids, it did exactly that.
Freudenthal isn’t really a director that is known for making rather serious movies. His films are all a little bit goofy, such as the aforementioned Wimpy Kid as well as Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. The reason why I was so surprised that he directed this movie was because it was actually a remarkably mature teen-centric coming-of-age story that is going to mean a lot to schizophrenic youth.
In Words on Bathroom Walls, we follow a teenage boy named Adam Petrazelli who absolutely loves to cook. He always cooks fancy chicken dinners for his mother and her boyfriend Paul who both greatly enjoy and appreciate his meals. He dreams of one day being accepted into culinary school so he can become a professional chef. It’s what he loves to do more than anything else in the whole world. The only problem is that he is schizophrenic. He feels like he is an outsider and thinks that nobody is going to accept him. He’s almost scared to come to terms with who he is.
Along the way, we see how this disorder seriously impacts his life. One moment he will be laughing and having a good time with his parents, and the next he hears a creepy, loud voice talking to him. He starts to see the doors in his house start to open and shadows begin to consume the walls, and eventually, him.
But, when he meets a girl at school named Maya (Taylor Russell), his whole life starts to change. The only thing that makes him happier than being around Maya is cooking. She is the only person that genuinely understands him, and doesn’t make him feel bad. She always tries to be on his level and to make him feel like he is accepted. They both mean a lot to each other, and seeing their beautiful relationship blossom onscreen was wonderfully sweet and uplifting. Charlie Plummer and Taylor Russell have truly outstanding chemistry with one another here. They feel like they are actually best friends in real life. I never once saw the actors here. I saw Adam and Maya. They brought these characters to life and made it look easy.
It’s also a surprisingly funny movie with a lot of the jokes landing quite well. Screenwriter Nick Naveda injected a ton of heart and love into this screenplay and it shows. It’s the type of movie that will make you feel warm and cozy inside, but also isn’t afraid to show the dark and scary side of things, especially when it comes to Adam’s schizophrenia.
This is not a perfect movie, however. One of the biggest issues I have with Words on Bathroom Walls is its pacing. The majority of the first act feels rather rushed and I didn’t feel like we spent enough time with the characters for the first little while. It seemed as though the filmmakers wanted to get us into the more juicy and entertaining second act rather quick, and I wish that the story had slowed down just a tad.
Also, the film can suffer from a lot of exposition as a result. Every once in a while, we will cut to Adam talking to the camera as he basically explains his whole life story up until this point and it comes across as frustrating and lazy. It would have been nice to have gotten some more visual storytelling in the bunch, but this gratefully doesn’t happen too often and it mostly doesn’t detract from the story.
As a whole, Words on Bathroom Walls is an excellently moving coming-of-age story of a young boy with schizophrenia that is going to mean a lot to kids that also suffer from this disorder. It never once talks down to people that have it, but rather, it gets on the same page with them. It understands the disorder and it tells a beautiful story of learning to love oneself for who they are because at the end of the day, we are all beautiful no matter what disorders we may suffer from.
We talked to British director Chloë Thomas who has worked on high-profile shows including Harlots, Victoria and most recently The Deceived.
Where did you grow up and how did you get into directing?
I grew up in Oxford and I got into directing from two things really. I joined a youth theatre when I was 11 that really radical and did a lot of improvisation, and I just got really into acting and devising shows. The other thing was my Mum. When I was growing up she used to act out movies in the kitchen. Not really suitable ones for kids. She would act out Psycho, Alien, Jaws, Close Encounters – that was all right. But she’d do it shot by shot, and now I realise that actually she was directing. She’d go “then you see this, then you go up the stairs…”.
I did loads of drama in school and actually got onto this fantastic drama degree course at Bristol University thinking I might act. Then I got there and I was absolutely rubbish compared to everyone else and thought “no I don’t have that thing, I want to create”. I love writing, I love art, I love drama. And then I entered a competition for a short film and I won. They said “what do you want to do on it?” and I said, “direct”, because I didn’t want anyone else to do it. But I didn’t know what that meant.
After that I just got really into filmmaking and wanted to keep doing it. I still didn’t think I could be a director. I couldn’t think of any female directors apart from Agnès Varda, and Jane Campion was my hero. There is something about visibility.
I had no contacts in the industry, no contacts in theatre or film/TV. I just sort of carried on really. I went to drama school- Bournemouth drama school – and did training at the BBC. Once I discovered there was this thing called filmmaking I thought “oh that’s great”, but I didn’t think I would earn my money doing it because I just didn’t think that was possible.
So did you have a “break”, something that got the ball rolling? Or was it more like a slow process of just building credits?
It’s been a mixture. I’d say that, in a way, getting onto the BBC training scheme was a massive break, but the experience I got there was a lot of documentary stuff. I always wanted to do drama but I couldn’t get into it. Then I started to realise that people did hire relatively new people into comedy, and I love comedy too.
A really big break happened when I was working on this show on E4 that was about dating, which was made by people who did loads of comedy. At first I was thinking “this isn’t me, should I just leave the industry now?”. But the people were fantastic, and it was with the company who went on to make the Inbetweeners. I said to them “look please I want to do some comedy, I’ll do anything, I’ll work for free, I can do a pilot, anything!”. And that was how I met Sharon Horgan who had the sitcom “Angelo’s”. That was really important to me. I started to get into comedy gigs after. I was still trying to get into drama but it was really hard.
I then did Horrible Histories which was one of those things where at first people were like “oh it’s a children’s show, why are you doing that?” and I’m like “because the script is amazing!”. And I knew it was going to be a massive hit.
Then I had my second child. That was quite tricky, because it’s lovely having children but it is quite difficult career-wise. Lots of people thought I’d give up. They would say “are you going to stop now?” and I would say “well I don’t want to do anything else”. That was my real problem. Then I did some documentaries again with Sharon, very funny documentaries. I felt like I was starting again and everyone was like “what have you been doing lately” and I was like “well I was having a child”.
Eventually a period drama came along called Hetty Feather, from the book by Jacqueline Wilson, which I pitched hard for and I got. So then I ended up doing ten episodes of very high quality period drama for kids. I thought that I could use that to get into period drama with adults. Because before that I was getting nowhere.
And it worked. After that it was about two years of not getting the job but getting interviews. At least I was in the room. Then the biggest break happened that transformed my career- I managed to get an interview for Victoria. I basically just shamed the producers into seeing me. I knew the subject, I knew the time, I knew the story, so I was really passionate about it, and I got the gig!
Now finally, this has taken twenty years or so, but I’m being seen for dramas.
The important thing is don’t give up. I’ve had lots of support, a lot of childcare. But every time I think I’m not getting anywhere and I should think of something else to do, I realise there’s really nothing else I want to do.
How did your production company One Glove come about, and what are your goals for that?
It’s early days but it really began in that moment between Hetty Feather and Victoria when I thought, “I have to generate my own work”. Because if I’m serous about being a director, although I’ve always made shorts, I have to actually step it up a bit. Being a jobbing director is fantastic but you have to hold on to your ideas because that’s the currency, that’s what people are buying.
I moved to Cambridge – which was difficult because I was out of London – but I started going to Footlights productions and scouting talent. I went up to a guy after a show who I thought was very funny and I said “I loved that!” and I then went to see his stand-up too. We ended up creating a character, got a script written and shot a pilot at my house. We did it on absolutely no money. Then I found a scriptwriter on twitter who was interested in meeting women comedy directors. I met him and liked him and we started a project together. It’s the basis for a series we are developing that has a little bit of funding from a private investor.
It sounds like the industry has a bit of a stigma around transitioning from comedy to drama. In the future would you be interested in working between both, or would you want to just focus on drama now.
No I’d totally like to work in both. When you’re younger you can be quite naïve and say, “why does it have to be in a genre, why!”. But actually that’s what it needs to sell.
I think comedy writing is really hard; it’s harder than people think. To get that laugh or even a smile they work really damn hard. I like dramas that are funny and I often feel that comedy-dramas are better than dramas. The Sopranos is one of my favourite things of all time- it’s very funny and it’s also very wicked and violent and sad and stupid. Breaking Bad is funny. When you look at Sharon Horgan’s comedy Catastrophe, a lot of that is drama. That’s the area I like. My bottom line is that life is ridiculous. I’m not a real genre person; I like that space in between.
How would you describe your experience in being a female director, compared to what you think the experience is for a male director?
I think it’s different because life is different from being a woman to be to being a man. I think there are some hardwired differences between men and women, probably due to hormones. But mainly it’s the way you’re treated. A lot of it comes down to the boring everyday sexism, which in my case is things like people assuming I’m the unit nurse and not the director, or people just assuming in general that I’m not the director. This happened the other day when I was talking to someone in regards to a pilot I’d made, and they said “oh yeh I was speaking to the director the other day on zoom” and I was like “no you weren’t”, and then they stopped and said “oh no, I’ve done that thing haven’t I?”. They assumed the writer was the director because he was a man. At least they had the guts to say it, and I laughed.
It’s the expectation, it’s the boring little niggles that people say like “oh she’s changed her mind…” and they don’t need to say “because she’s a woman” because you know that’s what they’re thinking. So I always used to say back “oh yeh men never change their mind do they?”. The hardest thing is that men bring with them intrinsic authority. I think there are different ways of doing things. I’m very interested in female models of power.
Most male directors you meet are not assholes; they are extremely hard working, talented and often quite humble, gentle people. There are quite a lot of assholes as well. But there’s a sort of patriarchal structure where men come in with this in-built authority, which I feel that women have to really project. We constantly have to be aware of how we come over, what we look like; it’s such a pain in the neck. I would really like to not wear makeup on set but I feel like I probably have to, but men can turn up looking like Captain Birdseye and it’s still all going to be okay.
It suddenly struck me when I was having run-ins with a couple of DPs that I thought to myself “can this be misogyny?” And I told myself “no that’s lazy thinking Chloe”, and then after a while I realised it was. It just was. They had a problem with being told what to do by a woman. And that’s hard. If you called them on it they’d be shocked but I can see it.
I feel strongly that it shouldn’t matter that I’m a woman director, but it does matter in the same way that it matters in society. I wouldn’t say I’ve been the victim of any massive sexism but it’s defiantly happened.
Most women think about having children in their life, and a lot of women do. It is quite hard when you get to drama directing and you spend time away, you need a lot of support. I do think that the film industry and society should change in terms of childcare, because if they want all these women to go out to work and contribute to the economy, then they need to make childcare affordable and better.
Tell us a little bit about the feature film you have coming up, Making Babies.
It is early days, but what’s exciting about it is working with Deborah Frances-White who came up with the Guilty Feminist. Also that it’s with Redwave Films who made The Full Monty. This is a comedy about fertility; it’s a rom-com definitely. Hopefully I’ll have some exciting news about it soon, but offers are currently going out to cast.
How are you planning to go about making a film in the current climate?
Filmmaking is going forward definitely. There are separate bubbles, at some places the actors don’t go out at night, tests are taken once a day on larger projects and more like twice a week on smaller ones, people wear face masks and they are separating the different components of filming. As far as post-filming work goes, a lot of editing is happening remotely.
