Interview with “How to have Sex” Writer/Director Molly Manning Walker

Full transcript of Interview with “How to have Sex” Writer/Director Molly Manning Walker.

0:04KT: Through an assured lens, cinematographer and director Molly Manning Walker boasts an impressive body of work centering human stories. With her Cannes-winning debut, How to Have Sex, she's taken us on an intimate journey into teenage life and friendships. Molly, thank you so much. And welcome to the For Your Reference podcast.

0:25Molly: Thank you so much for having me.

0:27KT: Well, first off, congratulations. Wow, like it, like I, I want to talk so much about the film as well as the making of the film, but it might, it might, it must be nice to also have a Cannes award-winning film as well.

0:47Molly: Bit mad that. It's a bit crazy. Yeah. Um, yeah. I mean, just such a like, you know, we finished the film on the Friday and we went to Cannes on the Tuesday.

0:56Molly: So kind of never expected what went down at Cannes, which was like a bit of a mad blur, you know.

1:03KT: Oh, and I, I, I saw, I saw the video of you accepting or running to accept. It was a gorgeous. I was like, this is great.

1:11Molly: Yeah. Like weeks of talking about what to wear at Cannes, and then end up in your sports gear, you know?

1:16KT: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that's absolutely the way that it works. Right.

1:21KT: Um, in a lot of interviews and researching, you talked about a lot of female execs that push to get this film made.

1:27KT: I would love to talk a little bit about not just backing your own work and knowing your own stories, but how important it is to have people making those decisions in those boardrooms. being able to support the film as well.

1:40Molly: Yeah, definitely. I mean, there's, um, a lot of great women that are behind this film.

1:46Molly: Um, and yeah, two execs specifically one at Film4, one at BFI, um, for Hannah and Kristen, who just worked really hard. Um, and I just don't think if there was, if they weren't in those rooms, we would have gotten made at all because they, uh, yeah, they really, they really like, uh, saw. Yeah, they understood the project, you know, in a different way.

2:10KT: How to Have Sex really balances the beauty of art and also the tragedy of life as well. Um, and you also talk about experiences of you traveling as well. And also just in general, being young and, you know, one of the things that I would hope for this world is to have young women be able just to enjoy.

2:31KT: And to be in places and be able to have experiences without it necessarily turning into, you know, tragedy. And I kind of want to talk about how experiences, whether yours or others, informed this film.

2:45Molly: Yeah, for sure.

2:46Molly: I mean, I was assaulted when I was 16. Um, and that one of the main things that I always wanted to talk about it.

2:53Molly: And whenever I talked about it, it would like suck the air out of a room, you know? Yeah. And so when you don't, when you can't talk about it, there's so much shame around it. And then also you kind of think, Oh, well, maybe it's normal. Or maybe like I should just carry, I just got to carry on kind of thing.

3:09Molly: And I think the more we talk about it, the more we can build a better life for younger people as well and say, you know, this isn't good and this isn't normal. We shouldn't be doing it like this.

3:18KT: It was interesting because I was watching it with my partner. Um, Oti and he, we were both very uncomfortable with obviously a lot of the scenes and I'm like, But that's the point, you know, that yes.

3:30KT: Like, that's what, it's not about the comfortability of the audience. We're here to talk about something true. Um, and I think that's, that's an interesting thing about exactly what you're saying. Having a one to one conversation is a lot more confronting than art, than being able to do that through the vessel of film.

3:49KT: Um, I, I guess the general sort of question, how was it filming on set, wanting to make sure that it was true to experiences, but it was also safe as well?

3:58Molly: Yeah, big thing for me was like creating a safe environment to make the film and, you know, we're talking about really heavy subjects and, um, and so we had an intimacy coordinator, but we also had like an onset therapist.

4:11Molly: And we had, you could get five sessions of therapy free through the, through the film, um, and then if the production felt like you were really, you really needed more, then they would provide more as well. Um, but also we tried to, you know, we played football every Sunday, we had barbecues, we tried to create this really family environment that meant that if anyone was going through something, they could speak up.

4:33Molly: Um, two great producers who were around for people all the time, you know, so. Yeah, it was about a work culture that, you know, is really rare in the film industry to have such a wholesome work culture, but it was really important for everyone on the crew to implement that.

4:50KT: I also want to commend you on You know, the, the sort of directorial sort of choices that you made in the film, because again, it is important to talk about assault, but the way that it was portrayed wasn't done in a exploitative sort of lens.

5:06KT: It was done to effect, but also with care for the talent as well as the character.

5:12Molly: Yeah, for me, it's all about faces, you know, like you don't need to show these things, you just need to experience it. through their eyes. And I think especially as women, but everyone we're so traumatized by life all the time, we don't need to, like, doesn't need to be so graphical.

5:27Molly: So yeah, so that was it was a big thing for me that it was just all shown through her face.

5:34KT: Well, let's talk about Mia McKenna-Bruce. Wow. You talked about very early on you just knew that it was going to be her. How was the directing and how was the overall sort of experience having Mia at the forefront?

5:49Molly: I mean, Mia is the sort of person that will light up any room that she walks into.

5:54Molly: She's like the most bubbly, happy energy. And I would say that also the work culture came from her, you know, like she can walk onto a set and everyone's like, Woo! Bye. So, um, she's a total joy to be around and she's a total joy to direct.

6:08Molly: She's, um, really up for taking direction and, but often her first takes are so good. I'm like, where do I go from here? So what was great about that was that we got loads of time to experiment. You know, if she, she would come in and nail a take and then we'd be like, shall we try it completely different?

6:27Molly: And often they were wrong, but it meant that we were really free to like. Try stuff out all the time. Yeah, it was really fun working with her.

6:36KT: Let's talk about the joy a little bit because there was definitely some really great sort of party scenes and that holiday, um, sort of vibe as well. Is it, is it just inviting people to like come onto set or like how does coordinating these really fun looking scenes but probably a lot of logistics as well?

6:55Molly: Uh, yeah, quite hard to do. But also we had a really young party team. Um, the Greeks have this really great system, the Greek film industry, where they have a extras casting team. So we had three people going out and casting young people in parties and stuff like that. And then, which was amazing because they were all right, sort of handpicked, you know, and we were at the shooting out of season.

7:19Molly: in on an island. So there wasn't a huge amount of people that we could cast and they also had to look British or, you know, international. So it was a really complex task for them and they did really well. And, um, and yeah, they, the energy was great on set. We had such a good time and, um, yeah, young crew.

7:38Molly: Everyone was really up for it. We were all staying on location on a Greek island. What more could you want?

7:47KT: Well, I think all your films will be there, right? You'll just find sequels to it as well.

7:52KT: Um, this is more of like a filmmaking sort of question because the film goes through such highs and lows as well.

7:59KT: And I think, you know, even watching the trailer or reading the description, you're waiting for that shoe to drop. Like, I'm just like Can we have fun? Something's about to happen. Like, I'm stressing out, like, just happen, but also don't happen. I don't want it to happen. Um, but when you're filming, is it, like, was it all done, all the fun stuff first, all the serious stuff first, or, like, to try and keep that sort of balance, or was it keeping in the flow of the film?

8:24Molly: No, we did, like, we shot totally out of order, firstly, and then we did, like, No, it was like three days of partying, and then an assault, and then three days of partying, and then, so, um, No, we tried to, like, we tried to get the heavy stuff out of the way, and also the really, like, uh, intense party scenes out of the way, because we just knew that by the end of the shoot, everyone would be exhausted.

8:49Molly: Yeah. So we, and so we tried to do, you know, much more of the quiet scenes at the end, or like, stuff where everyone was a lot calmer in the hotel. Also, the weather. We were shooting out of season, so, like, it really got cold towards the end of the, the shoot. So we had to shoot, uh, inside towards the end. So there was loads of logistical things that, yeah, that, um, went into the shoot schedule.

9:12Molly: But, um, yeah, it was a balancing act.

9:15KT: Yeah, absolutely.

9:16KT: Um, Speaking of balancing act, the storytelling I want to talk about, um, and the character dynamics for a little bit that are in the film, in your speech, in the Cannes award-winning speech, um, in, it was, it was so poignant, but there was a line you said in there for the friends that said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

9:34KT: Um, This, this film isn't like an educational piece that you watch at school. It isn't like, this is definitively identifiably the bad person. This is how you deal with it. This is how people should respond authorities otherwise, et cetera. It moves in the flow and the ambiguity. of life as well. And you saying that line kind of summed up the sort of watching experience for me.

10:02KT: I want to talk a little bit about the dynamics with Skye and Em as well.

10:06Molly: Yeah, for me, it's like you don't have like, well, we didn't have the language when we were that age, no, and kids don't have the language at that age to say like, To say what you really should say just to a friend, you know, much more now.

10:21Molly: Now we're older or now we, you know, we've lived through more stuff. We can be more empathetic, but I think giving, being able to, and that's, and that's not a bad thing, you know, that these kids that like have, it's not, it's, it's not meant to be a criticism on, on them. The whole thing of the film is that we're meant to like, sort of like live it through their lens at their eye height kind of thing.

10:40Molly: And they're all just trying to figure it out together. They're trying to figure it out. like we were, you know, and, um, and I think, yeah, the, that, the, the, hopefully the lesson is that, that we can, we can be more supportive as friends, um, in the future.

10:55KT: What, what do you, what, what do you hope the message is for How to Have Sex?

11:02Molly: You know, I think there's a, there's a world in which we can have better sex, especially for women. Um, I think. Yes, please. I think there's a lot of shame around, uh, Female pleasure and, and what, what that looks like and I think, um, hopefully, um, if there was less shame and there was more conversation that would, it would lead to less assault and, and better experiences.

11:25Molly: Yeah.

11:27KT: Yeah, I'm all about the self love. It's all very important.

11:33KT: Um, in regards to the film, there are some very interesting sort of dynamics and, you know, even some of the characters looked physically older than the 16 year old girls. Was that a conscious sort of choice as well?

11:50Molly: Yeah, I mean, um, in terms of the guys or in terms of, yeah, um, yeah, because like, for me, it's always like that pressure of like older guys and like how you should act in front of older guys.

12:02Molly: And, and, you know, even that is really complex in itself. It's like, why do we feel like we have to be someone different? Um, and this pressure to like, be cool or like how to, yeah. Yeah, they were always, like, meant to be slightly older than the girls, but not weirdly older than the girls.

12:20KT: Yeah, absolutely. Um, well, thank you so much for your time.

12:25KT: I'd love to wrap up with our final question. Uh, we finished our reviews with a recommendation, so what would you pair with How to Have Sex as a double feature? The Lion King. I love that. Yeah, that locked and loaded.

12:42Molly: Just for some fun, you know, some joy after, after how that takes.

12:45KT: Ooh, ooh, ooh. The original or the live action?

12:48KT: Original. Original, original, original. We're dabbling in the real jungle. Absolutely. Well, Molly, thank you so much for your time. Um, I really appreciate it. And hopefully you have a great rest of the run for the film. Thank you so much.

13:06Molly: Thanks for having me. Bye!