Interview: WAMG Talks To TREADING WATER Director Analeine Cal y Mayor – Stars Douglas Smith, Zoë Kravitz & Carrie-Anne Moss

TREADING WATER is a modern-day fairytale complete with hero and heroine, seemingly insurmountable obstacles, a fairy godfather (of sorts) and an unexpected all-dancing / all-swimming finale.

Mica (Douglas Smith) faces a number of challenges. He’s grown up in a house that’s actually a museum celebrating the renowned Mexican crooner Guillermo Garibai (Gonzalo Vega). Mica’s mother Sophie (Ariadna Gil) is the guardian and tour guide of this wildly over-the-top shrine. And then there’s the fact that Mica smells like fish…

Mother and son are both too much (or not enough) for Mica’s father Richard (Don McKellar), who ends up abandoning them. No one around Mica, not even his therapist Catherine (Carrie-Anne Moss), is able to get him on track, until his childhood crush Laura (Zoë Kravitz) swims back into his life. For the first time in his life he feels happy, but Mica ends up losing her as well. That’s when Guillermo Garibai magically swoops into town in his white Caddy, meaning to save the day. And he does… in his own fairytale way.

TREADING WATER opens in NYC at the Cinema Village and in LA at the Laemmle Music Hall on March 13.

I recently interviewed Mexican filmmaker Analeine Cal Y Mayor about her first feature film.

WAMG: I loved the film. It’s absolutely charming. How did you come up with the idea for the film?

Analeine Cal Y Mayor: Thank you! The film’s co-writer Javier Gullón saves newspaper articles in a folder for script ideas. I saw this one about the disease and immediately felt attracted to it. It read “First Case of Fish odor Syndrome Detected in the Country,” and the article came with the photo of a very sweet 7-year old girl. I had never heard anything about this and when I started looking for information online I saw that the problem was more psychological than physical, and most people knew they had a disease after suffering from it on average more than 8 years!

The patient and everybody surrounding them usually think they smell bad because of their personal hygiene habits. It all seemed so unfair, so sad. Later on, I decided to give it a twist and turn it into a comedy.

WAMG: What inspired the opening animation sequence?

Analeine Cal Y Mayor: There are two styles of narrative in the story, realism and “magic realism” which is a term used mostly in Latin American literature, like in Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude where there is magic and acceptance of it in the world that we know. So the disease Trimethylaminuria is real, and the effects that it has on Mica are real, but as the story advances there is some magic that the audience accepts and enjoys, like the underwater world under the tub or the arrival of Garibai.

Since I don’t want to give away the ending, I would just say that the animation sequence opens the possibility that this boy felt better in another world, and there was a mermaid in that world.

WAMG: I really like the characters – the Therapist, the Girlfriend. Mica. How did the unique cast of Zoë Kravitz, Douglas Smith & Carrie Anne-Moss come about?

Analeine Cal Y Mayor: Yes, I couldn’t have been luckier with the ensemble of amazing actors I have! My producer Niv Fichman visualized Doug in the role just after he finished reading the script for the first time (maybe even while he was reading it!). He told me Doug was very talented, very handsome and very tall. But sometimes it seemed that Doug didn´t realize just how tall he was, or he wasn´t completely aware of his own body… and this is close to how Mica is, because in a way Mica doesn´t seem comfortable with his body.

For example, the very first time I met him in person (I had been waiting for that moment) we said hello, hugged each other and I thought “Oh, he is stepping on my foot”! The next day he took his coat from a hanger and everything fell on top of a lady because he is so strong! Niv knew he was the one and I also never doubted it.

Then with Zöe Kravitz I wanted someone that had more energy than Mica and the character had to be very sure of herself. Zöe had the right energy for the role and made a great combination with Doug. (I’m not even going to start writing about her talent because that would take up a whole page!)

With Carrie-Anne Moss the role called for someone that had a lot of determination, and who is a parental figure, but also someone who was attractive and at the right age where it would be believable for Mica to kiss her and the moment would be awkward, uneasy but not funny. She was perfect as the therapist.

WAMG: Who composed the score and decided on the choice of songs? It’s fantastic.

Analeine Cal Y Mayor: As you can see, it’s a very musical film as we are always talking about the fictional character, the Mexican romantic singer Guillermo Garibai.

The score was composed by Benoit Charest, an incredible Canadian composer who was nominated for an Oscar for the film The Triplets of Belleville and won the Cesar award for the score, then Yamil Rezc in Mexico City composed some parts that feel different in the film like the animation sequence and the witch doctor sequence, and the original songs for Garibai were composed by the duo of Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. I told them that for me Garibai was a mixture of style and personality, like Tom Jones meets José José and with that in mind they started to compose and have fun.

And last but not least, both Doug and Zöe have bands and know music, in fact Doug plays guitar the minute he wakes up. They generously gave me a song for the credits that they composed and recorded in Mexico City.

WAMG: The film was originally titled THE BOY WHO SMELLS LIKE FISH. Why the change to TREADING WATER?

Analeine Cal Y Mayor:  I think that a number of people thought that The Boy Who Smells Like Fish was a very long title and not very commercial. What can I say? Yes, it may have been too long but all my titles are very long and I couldn’t think of a better one! I knew with this title either you love it or hate it, there´s no in between. There were discussions about the title even before we started shooting.

My next film is called The Day When Nobody Died. Another script that I have with a colleague is called The Stars Shine On Me Backwards (translated into English) – ok, this one doesn’t sound very good in English, and it’s really more like The Stars Don’t Light My Way… Still long, you see?

WAMG: Two Mexican filmmakers, Alfonso Cuarón (GRAVITY) and Alejandro González Iñárritu, have won back-to-back Oscars for Best Directing. BIRDMAN’s Alejandro González Iñárritu was the first Mexican to win 3 Academy Awards. What did that mean to you as a filmmaker?

Analeine Cal Y Mayor: The fact that Iñárritu and Cuarón both have Oscars doesn’t really change my way of creating or envisioning my career. I mean, I’m blown away by Children of Men and Birdman, and they’re both very talented filmmakers. I’m sure it will change the way a lot of young people think in Mexico. They’re going to think bigger, maybe become more ambitious.

The important thing is that they keep working on scriptwriting, as that is always the weakest part! And also I tell my students to travel, to read more, to go to the theatre. You’ll never be a great director if your background and knowledge comes mostly from other films.

WAMG: Are there opportunities for women filmmakers in Mexico?

Analeine Cal Y Mayor: In Mexico, it´s still a male dominated industry. During filming they sometimes called me “Sir” but all of this is changing, I can see it.

WAMG: What’s your next project?

Analeine Cal Y Mayor: Because I always get into trouble and don´t like easy things I´m trying to do a project that will probably be a Mexican-German co-production starring José María Yazpik. The title is The Day When Nobody Died, still a comedy but a lot darker than Treading Water.

WAMG: TREADING WATER is an endearing film. The ending credits sequence with the synchronized swimming scene is right out of an Esther Williams’ “aquamusical” – it’s delightful! What do you want the audience to take away from your movie?

Analeine Cal Y Mayor: I hope that they identify with Mica and be more open and tolerant with people that are different.  Also I’ve learned to see my own problems from a different perspective.

TREADING WATER is now available on iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Google Play/Youtube Rentals, Xbox & PlayStation and all US cable platforms.

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