Interview
QFest St. Louis Interview: Caleb Michael Johnson – Writer and Director of THE CARNIVORES
Ticket information for the virtual screening of THE CARNIVORES at this year’s QFest St. Louis can be found HERE
The 14th Annual QFest St. Louis — presented by Cinema St. Louis (CSL) — will take place from April 16-25. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, CSL will offer all programs virtually, protecting the health of patrons. Programs can be streamed at any time during the festival’s dates. Recorded introductions and Q&As will be available for most film programs. All of the information about this year’s QFest St. Louis can be found HERE
One of the oddest and darkest films screened at QFest to date, writer-director Caleb Michael Johnson’s THE CARNIVORES features a young lesbian couple, Alice and Bret (Tallie Medel and Lindsay Burdge), whose dog, Harvie, is slowly dying. The vet bills are adding up fast, Alice is quietly panicking, and high-strung Bret dotes on the dog and ignores the reality of the situation. When poor, innocent Harvie goes missing, the fragile status quo is finally shattered, and both women go off the deep end in their own way. What had been a bright and happy little family unit is undone by self-doubt, suspicion, and a disturbing amount of ground beef.
The Hollywood Reporter writes: “(Director) Caleb Michael Johnson employs a dreamlike, David Lynchian aesthetic to the proceedings throughout the film. If you are a fan of abstract, surreal storytelling supported by strong central performances and a fascinating relationship dynamic, then THE CARNIVORES has more than enough meat for you to chew.”
Caleb Michael Johnson took the time to talk to We Are Movie Geeks about THE CARNIVORES
Interview conducted by Tom Stockman April 12th, 2021
Tom Stockman: I saw your new film THE CARNIVORES last week and really enjoyed it. Then I watched your earlier film JOY KEVIN (2014). Tallie Medel starred in both of your features. Talk about your friendship with Tallie.
CMJ: I was not aware of her before JOY KEVIN, but she had been around. She’d starred in THE UNSPEAKABLE ACT (2012) which got quite a bit of Indie claim. When casting JOY KEVIN I had an open call in New York and just couldn’t find the right person. In desperation I literally just googled actors reels and hers came up as one of the first hits. I then googled actors reels and hers came up. I was immediately captured by her and emailed her, not really expecting to hear back, but she agreed to come in and meet, and she was just as compelling in person as she had been in her reel. So JOY KEVIN was the first experience I had working with her. As you can see in the material that she has done, not only in my movies but others, she has this capacity to embody so many different ideas and emotions physically regardless of what is on the page in terms of dialogue. Once I had the idea for THE CARNIVORES I wrote it as if I knew she was going to be involved though I had not officially confirmed her availability,
TS: You wrote the part of Alice in THE CARNIVORES with Tallie Medel in mind.
CMJ: 100%.
TS: She certainly has the perfect kind of dreamy presence for your aesthetic. THE CARNIVORES is a really interesting film, something of a love triangle between these two women and one of their dogs resulting in jealousy issues that affect their relationship. Was this originally written to be a gay couple? To me it doesn’t seem essential to the story.
CMJ: That’s the point really. It’s entirely about the relationship regardless of gender and when we went to cast it, we decided to use the most talented actors we knew. We looked at every possible combination, and it just so happened that nothing was really working out with any of the male actors that we brought in. It could’ve worked with a male lead but I became less interested in those versions of the movie. The Director of Photography, Adam Minnick had recently shot a movie with Lindsay Burdge, who plays Bret. He recommended reaching out to her, and when she said she was interested, we flew both Lindsay and Tallie to Austin and had them work through a scene. The chemistry there was very apparent and that helped inspire the writing of the rest of the story. There was the initial concept in terms of the set-up between the people and the dog, the broad strokes of how the story was going to go, but then there was the actual nature of the relationship and who these people were. So much of the tangibility of that came out of what Lindsay and Tallie we’re bringing to the table as individual actors.
TS: I was just glad to see a dog at the center of a film. It seems like they used to make movies were characters had a dog but it seems like for the past decade or so, especially in Indie films, everybody has cats. Do you think dogs are more difficult to work with the cats?
CMJ: I’m sure that’s true. It’s much more open ended than what a cat can do, but in reality getting them to do that thing is often an exercise in frustration. I know that there are cat lovers and that there are dog lovers but I have found is that people who are dog people, their relationship with their dog is much more of a parent-child relationship than cat owners. Nobody goes out and walks their cat The degree of engagement for dog owners is often higher, there is more at stake, and that was important to the story.
TS: I think having a cat is a parent-child relationship as well, but in that case the parent is the cat and the child is the owner. The dog in your movie I think is a device that represents a wedge that can come between a couple. The dogs name is Harvey. Was that a reference to the Jimmy Stewart movie?
CMJ: No it was just me wanting to give the dog a human name that crossed the boundary between human-ness and still be cute enough to be a dog’s name.
TS: I’ve known people, and perhaps you have too, that have spent an inordinate amount of money on an old dogs health. I love dogs but if I had an old dog, I wouldn’t spend $10,000 for it to have hip surgery or something like that, yet people do it all the time and I’m sure it’s caused financial dispute between couples.
CMJ: Right, it’s stressful. I think there are a lot of those kind of instances, especially with the age of the dog and the dog’s inability to understand what the treatment is doing for them. The reason I chose that wedge in this case was because what Bret‘s character is really hanging onto is her own sense of self. All of the years and associations that have been stamped by their time together. I think that is true that you want to hold on to the idea of a pet and the time that you have spent with that pet and that can come to represent more than the actual quality of life.
TS: And I think that obsession can come off as unstable. While Alice in your film is the spacy, and out-of-it one who sleepwalks, I think Bret was really more the deranged of these two women.
CMJ: Right I’m glad you feel that way because the goal from the beginning was to give each of them their own mania and show that they were pushing in opposite directions But yes, I think that while on the surface Bret seems more stable, hers is just one we’re more familiar with, it’s a normalized kind of obsession, but in some ways much more destructive.
TS: I enjoy the humor in your film. For the most part, it’s dark and deadpan. But then you introduce Roland, Alice’s bank coworker she eats lunch with He’s played by Vincent Prendergrass nad he, in his three or four hilarious scenes, just kicks your film into a different kind of comedy. Tell me about Vincent Prendergast.
CMJ: He gave that gift to the film in the sense that his character was supposed to be that element that broke up the heaviness and interior-ness of the film, but he elevated it in ways that we did not expect. His scenes were not scripted out line-by-line. Originally there was going to be only one scene with him. When he came in for his first scene, we were late shooting that day and running behind and the only thing I had to tell him before we started shooting was that his character’s coworker had lost her dog and he was giving her all this advice that he probably should not give but he can’t help himself. That’s all I gave him and he had about 30 minutes to think about it before we start rolling. He just started with these lines that were so great that we did it in one take and after that, once we had that scene in, we realized how important that comedic release was to the structure of the film. So I added two more scenes with him to balance the 3 acts.
TS: Is Vincent Prendergast a comedian or an actor there in Austin?
CMJ: He’s not a comedian. He has a regular day job. I met him soon after I moved to Austin in 2012. He’s had some small parts of the number of films including a movie called ZERO CHARISMA . I enjoyed his character in that but I also enjoyed him very much in person. I had always wanted to do a project with him so when this came up we put him in the role.
TS: Let’s talk about you. You said you moved to Austin in 2012. Where did you grow up?
CMJ: I grew up in western Kentucky.
TS: Why did you move to Austin? To become part of the film scene?
CMJ: Not specifically. We were in the New York area for a long time prior to that. My wife and I had just become pregnant with our second child and were living in a one bedroom apartment, just running out of room. We were looking for places to move to where we could get jobs and we knew Austin is a sweet spot for having a film scene.
TS: So there’s a lot going on in the Austin film scene?
CMJ: Oh yes. I think a Austin is a place that’s not oversaturated with filmmakers and there’s less of a sense of cynicism about filmmaking. If you want to film here in a street, people are still excited about being part of the creative process. On the coasts, everybody just sees the sets in their way and filmmaking as just a money-making opportunity.
TS: Were you a movie buff growing up?
CMJ: Not really. I enjoy movies and they have affected me deeply, just like music has affected me. But I never did think of myself as a cinephile. I didn’t even have a VCR or cable until I was much older so I did not have access to many films. Even the video store in my hometown mainly only had the blockbusters. But I always had a lot on the inside that I wanted to get out, and I wasn’t a very good painter or musician, so filmmaking became a way I could do that.
TS: Let’s talk about the film festivals. THE CARNIVORES was originally supposed to play at SXSW (South By Southwest Film Fest). What happened?
CMJ: Cancelled. That was last year . That was the first major national film festival after the virus hit.
TS: Were you able to have some sort of premiere of THE CARNIVORES?
CMJ: Yes, but it was very do-it-yourself. SXSW wasn’t in a position to host or participate in anything. Everyone around here was so invested in the film and we decided to do our own thing. Our DP J. Minnick offered to host the premiere at his house. He is a cinephile and had a big screen in a big living room and surround sound. So we just invited everybody over to his house to for a premiere. At the time there were only six cases of Covid in Austin so we figured we could get it in under the wire without being much of a threat to anybody. So we rented a bunch of chairs and got a red carpet made up a bunch of posters and put up some lanyards, sort of SXSW-style and we had our big screening. It was well-attended and lots of fun. It was also cathartic because we had it on the night that our premier was originally going to be at SXSW which gave it some closure.
TS: Has THE CARNIVORES played a lot of virtual film fests in the past year?
CMJ: We were very selective. A lot of the fests just weren’t sure what to do or what was going to be possible, and neither did we. It’s a bit unnerving to go from all in-person festival stuff to suddenly jumping online instead, so we were very selective. We did participate in Outfest in L.A. That was later in the summer and they really had their act together. It played Frameline in San Francisco.
TS: Q-Fest St. Louis is quite prestigious. They are going into their 14th year, so congratulations on getting chosen by them.
CMJ: Thank you, we’re definitely thrilled to be included.
0 comments