'Queens of the Qing Dynasty' director Ashley McKenzie (hivisfilm) discusses her one-of-a-kind film, and how AnnaFaris's performance in 'Smiley Face!' inspired her.
When I first call Ashley McKenzie, she pauses the conversation at one point to step away: a neighbor is at the door, bearing the gift of a giant zucchini. From my cloudy patch of gray in New York, such a bounty sounds idyllic. “I’m surrounded by woods and mountains, and the village where I’m located is about 500 people,” McKenzie softly tells me from her home on Cape Breton Island, in Nova Scotia.
I talked with McKenzie about bringing Star and An to the screen and the real-life source material, how she pushed herself to find new directions in filmmaking, and the movies and moments that have inspired her, from Cassavetes to Anna Faris.The development of Star’s character is closely modeled from a young woman I met when I was casting my first feature,. She was not an actor, but just an interesting, young teenager in my community whom I’d asked to do an audition.
A huge part of what made the performance hit the mark was Sarah’s background as a singer and a dancer—how great her ear is and how much command she has over her body. She was able to spend quite a bit of time with my friend who inspired the character, and also look at a lot of material that I had developed with my friend, who was a script consultant on the film and would do table reads of the script with me in development.
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