Tomorrow is a very special day for True Blood’s Carrie Preston (Arlene Fowler). The feature film she directed entitled That’s What She Said will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival as part of their NEXT <=> series at 5:30pm at the Prospector Square Theatre in Park City, UT. Leading up to the big day, Carrie talked with the Salt Lake City Tribune about the film and why acting will always be her first love.
That’s What She Said, written by Kellie Overbey, started out as a play that Preston directed in New York City some years ago. They wanted to adapt it for film because it depicts real women according to Preston and not necessarily the Hollywood stereotypes that pervade movies today:
“…It was adapted into a screenplay because Kellie and I wanted those women and everything they stand for to be on screen. These characters are not the standard Hollywood issue: preternaturally gorgeous, wedding-obsessed, fashion-focused, sexed-up child-women. They are real women, comically portrayed, who are wrestling with the very expectations of womanhood that Hollywood movies propagate. And it’s a movie not afraid to be dialogue-driven. The characters talk honestly, crudely and frankly. And that’s refreshing to me.”
Carrie revealed to writer David Burger that the last time she was at Sundance was 13 years ago for a film entitled Guinevere. She was new to film at the time having her acting career as a theatre actor. She describes the experience as thrilling and alien all at the same time. Coming back to the festival as director is something she never would have thought possible at the time. But Preston promises she will try to take in every moment.
On the subject of the film’s title, Carrie says it’s a woman’s take on all of the male bromance films and television shows that have become a part of popular culture:
“… The title works on two levels. First of all, it’s definitely a punch line that dudes like to say a lot after something unintentionally sexual has been uttered. It’s funny and sophomoric and right in line with the ubiquitous bro-mance films and TV shows that have made their way into the pop culture dialogue. Our movie is the chick’s answer to those films, so I love it that we are giving a nod to them in our title. The other level is that it literally is a dialogue-driven movie about what women say to each other, what’s true, what isn’t, what’s really going on inside of them. The “she” in “That’s What She Said” [is] any of the women in the film. No men even speak in the film.”
So now that she’s directed a film that has seen significant success does Carrie prefer directing or acting and what attracts her to each discipline?:
“Acting is my first love, and I have no intention of giving it up. With acting you are responsible for getting inside the skin of one character and breathing life into it and figuring out how you relate to all of the other characters and the situations in which they find themselves. And with directing, I get to get inside all of the characters. I get to figure out how to paint the whole picture. It feels like I am exercising all of my creative muscles.”
That has to be one of the best answers I’ve heard about acting and directing yet! For more on That’s What She Said, check out the trailer here.
Source: Sltrib.com-”Sundance filmmaker profile: Carrie Preston’s ‘That’s What She Said’”
Image Credit: Salt Lake City Tribune
