Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, & Izabel Pakzad on Find Your Friends, Female Rage, and Turning a Real-Life Nightmare Into Horror

[SPEAKER_01]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are. [SPEAKER_01]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media. [SPEAKER_00]: And welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with it's the interview series presented by WFPK at WFPK dot org Consequence and the consequence podcast network.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's me, Kyle Mere, today talking with Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, and Isabelle Paxod, all about the new indie thriller on Shutter called Find Your Friends. [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, let's read about it right here. [SPEAKER_00]: Amber and her four best friends, Flea Los Angeles for a Girl's Trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility.

[SPEAKER_00]: As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface. [SPEAKER_00]: What begins is fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival as past wounds and present dangers collide at a night that turns their trip into a revenge fueled nightmare.

[SPEAKER_00]: going to be so so is about box out she is the writer and director this is her feature directing film But she's had roles in the like the doos and and Bakers does it as well as the film Birds of prey of course a Chloe cherry you've been seeing in euphoria as a Faith Valentine and Belithore and she's she's been at it for a while.

[SPEAKER_00]: Shake it up blended The baby sitter Amityville the Awaking infamous famous in love [SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to get into this film right here, how a real Joshua Tree incident to actually inspire the film terrifying, the complicated friendships and double standards surrounding female sexuality, why the movie's biggest horror comes from situations, women face every single day.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll also get into flipping familiar gender dynamics on their head and building characters that we rarely get to see on the screen. [SPEAKER_00]: And [SPEAKER_00]: There will be a spoiler if you're not in for the spoiler that we're going to talk about the final scene of the movie as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's one that'll stick with you for a while. [SPEAKER_00]: So all that and more, let's get into it. [SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about the movie Find Your Friends on Shutter. [SPEAKER_00]: It's Kyle Meredith with Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, and Isabelle Paxad. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's been great, it's a pleasure to meet you all. [SPEAKER_00]: And congratulate you all on just sort of a mind-blowing little movie that you've made here. [SPEAKER_00]: And Isabelle, I should really congratulate you, too, because I know the long road of an independent film is nothing short of what do you say, a herkily in task, so a big congrats there.

[SPEAKER_04]: You yes, that's what exactly what it feels like it's the long road. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with the back story on the movie, too, because because just to set this up right like here's a movie about I'm going to my notes here women being looked at judged followed desired dismissed and threatened and I'm I understand that this is based on a real incident is that right?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, yes, yes. [SPEAKER_04]: It was me, my best friends took a fun girl's trip to Joshua Tree and it was our first time in Joshua Tree and it went terribly wrong. [SPEAKER_04]: For the moment we got there, something fell off. [SPEAKER_04]: We had like a weird neighbor who kept coming by.

[SPEAKER_04]: we were having these strange interactions with some of the local men there and then it ended up leading into this crazy car chase in the middle of the night on the Joshua Tree Freeway where this man was trying to crash into my car and drive me off the road and we were trying to call the police and we had no service and we couldn't get in touch with the police and it was really just like terrifying like I had never been in real real danger like that before you know um obviously [SPEAKER_04]: And then, you know, after that experience, I was like, whoa, like that really kind of shook me in some way.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like I don't, it just did something to me. [SPEAKER_04]: And I got inspired to write this movie. [SPEAKER_04]: And then I, you know, I went to like a crazy party school. [SPEAKER_04]: And I was just like, [SPEAKER_04]: Thinking about where me, my friends were at that time in our lives and we kind of just graduated but we were still kind of stuck in the old behavior and weird party rituals and I wanted to find a way to like marry those two things because I felt like they did work hand in hand and they were connected in some weird way so That's the origin story.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's the short version of the origin story. [SPEAKER_04]: I could go on about that, but it would be too long. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, you find genres, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like you landed on sort of a horror thriller, it could have been drama, like what did that path allow you to say that maybe the other ones wouldn't have?

[SPEAKER_04]: I just love genre movies and I love, I love thrillers. [SPEAKER_04]: So, but also like the incident in the car on the road, like that was like horrifying. [SPEAKER_04]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_04]: That was the seat of the idea. [SPEAKER_04]: It was right there. [SPEAKER_04]: So like, that's where it all kind of stemmed from.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then I was like, I really, because in my mind, this movie isn't, [SPEAKER_04]: straight horror. [SPEAKER_04]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_04]: Like it starts as something and it turns into something else. [SPEAKER_04]: So I never really thought about it like it's got to be this, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: But I knew we would eventually go to that place because I wanted to show that real brush with danger and like how women have that real brush with danger all the time. [SPEAKER_04]: And that it maybe the movie isn't traditionally [SPEAKER_04]: Scary in the sense that there's all these jumpscares, but that it actually is coming from a real place of like what's fucking scary for women and how a party you can turn into dangers so fucking quickly.

[SPEAKER_04]: So that was sort of where my head was at with all of that. [SPEAKER_00]: Bill it, Chloe, you know, I'll throw this to both of you all too because [SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm sure you get something out of reading this script as well, enacting it. [SPEAKER_00]: I do find it interesting, like you're not the opposition, but sort of obstacle sometimes, but do you all find yourself processing through this movie as well?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who wants to take that first, Chloe? [SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, I think for me, there definitely was like a lot of processing of kind of getting to know like, you know, the script and like, all these stories we tell and just kind of like realizing just how horribly women are like, [SPEAKER_02]: how horribly women like pretend women's sexuality is like I feel like society likes to pretend like women are like these sexist creatures that like only want to have sex to like have a baby like with her husband and they never want to have sex ever and I guess I just really like to kind of [SPEAKER_02]: like talk about like, I don't know like what girls like actually feel about these things, you know, because it's like my character is like so driven to go out and hook up with a guy, you know, that she like leads to her demise and things and, um,

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I guess I just loved the fact that this movie had like zero, like slouching into it. [SPEAKER_02]: It was actually the opposite. [SPEAKER_02]: It's how we were like slouching the men, you know? [SPEAKER_02]: And I just really liked that. [SPEAKER_02]: Then we managed to be like sexual, but there wasn't all this like, oh, this person's a horror, whatever, and like I just, I'm so tired of that stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I just love how this movie shows. [SPEAKER_02]: It's like, yeah, why aren't guys allowed to be like, [SPEAKER_02]: So open and so available with their sexuality at any given moment like a guy could say I had sex with 10 women in one day And it's from a go y'all. [SPEAKER_02]: We're out.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's fucking dope I'm gonna do that tomorrow, but if a woman says that everyone's like our society is gonna fall apart the world's gonna end and it doesn't make any sense to me Melanie what's your take on that [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think one of the things I really took away from was the female dynamics and and and and characteristics, you know, I think women are scared of each other because we've been told to be scared of each other.

[SPEAKER_03]: We've been told that that girl talk shit and this one does that and blah blah blah you know. [SPEAKER_03]: And it was nice to kind of break down those walls a little bit. [SPEAKER_03]: I've definitely, I think, had sometimes more guy friends. [SPEAKER_03]: And I've always thought that that was weird.

[SPEAKER_03]: And [SPEAKER_03]: I think sometimes for women, it's really hard to get on the same page and to get all of that yuckiness out of there just to have a real conversation and it felt like we had all those dynamics at work in the movie and I and I really appreciate it that from from Isabelle's writing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and that's I think kind of I feel like Bella kind of just explained like what I was saying where they're like, wasn't like the slut shaming aspect like her sexuality because it's like coming from a female perspective which I really liked. [SPEAKER_00]: and we'll be right back right after this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back. [SPEAKER_00]: It's Kyle Manus with Bellithore and Chloe Cheerian is a Bellipoxod. [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that is, when you hear those lines, the lines you all are delivering, I mean, it can be jarring. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's supposed to be jarring because it's not something that we get to see on the screen the entire time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know as actors, like maybe, you guys are professionals, you deliver the lines, you do the job, say the line hit the mark as the old saying goes. [SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, I guess, like, do you find that there's a challenge in finding the way to push these through your characters?

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't like I really like to just kind of like go for it and then a director says that was bad I just take it and change my performance and they just try to go for it I would give it is a bill like a little bit and I would be like and then I think look at her and then I kind of wait for her to be like Okay, I was feeling not like go for it go for it.

[SPEAKER_03]: Do more of that. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I was always sick So you like a little bit of this is this way you want to go? [SPEAKER_03]: You know what about this guy like this thing? [SPEAKER_03]: And so it was always nice to see as well what Isabelle was picking up on what she was asking more of and it helped me shape the rest of my performance because the more you hear the director talk about what they see, the more you can be their instrument.

[SPEAKER_00]: to play. [SPEAKER_00]: Isabel, I do want to hit a little bit on that, but also some of the stuff that they brought up a second ago, because there is that belief woman thing here, and it's not, you know, it's with the guys and the girls in this movie. [SPEAKER_00]: What interested you about, how do I say this about that gap?

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess between loyalty and actual understanding. [SPEAKER_02]: I think that, you know, by the end of the movie, we kind of see that like Lovina is actually like an incredibly loyal friend that she's like actually willing to like basically, you know, die for a friend like she's willing to like cut this guy's dick off and like [SPEAKER_02]: You know, torture her into death because she knows like what this guy did to her friends and she's not about to just be like, oh, yeah, that was their fault for being stupid.

[SPEAKER_02]: She's like, no, that's his fucking fault for being a weirdo. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to kill him. [SPEAKER_02]: And that's loyalty. [SPEAKER_04]: Well, okay, go, you know, I've got your back. [SPEAKER_04]: I think I understand what your question is. [SPEAKER_04]: I think Chloe sort of answered in her own words, but I think [SPEAKER_04]: I think really what it comes down to is we all, you know, I think as women we have a certain way that we're told to think about things and sometimes we lack the understanding because we've been told.

[SPEAKER_04]: to behave a certain way and that in my mind, Levinia's character is projecting it on to Amber's character. [SPEAKER_04]: Like, I suck it up, I dealt with it. [SPEAKER_04]: You know, because she had to suck it up because no one gave her the option to fucking have her honest conversation.

[SPEAKER_04]: And now she's projecting it on to Amber. [SPEAKER_04]: I think if that's what we're talking about, I think there is something really deep about that. [SPEAKER_04]: You know what I mean, really think about it, like how we are wired to think and how we are wired to talk with each other. [SPEAKER_04]: And I think especially when you're in an environment like this, you're in an ecology environment, you know, when there's drinking and parting and drugs and like no one's thinking clearly.

[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, I think there's so many layers to that, to that conversation. [SPEAKER_00]: And it is, that's what I'm getting at. [SPEAKER_00]: It is those, it's the complicated relationships and how you deal with all of them in this. [SPEAKER_00]: and even going back to that party side like like that was the like my first favorite thing I should say about the movie is for a long time because I didn't read this anopsis going into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I did go into a blind on purpose and you know something's gonna happen but like oh is the party the monster are the drugs the monster you know at one point I was like maybe there's gonna be vampires. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know you know it's [SPEAKER_04]: Where's this going? [SPEAKER_00]: But you know, it's so great seeing those dynamics because because I guess, and I want to put words in your mouth, but it feels to me like the party is the monster before the monsters arrive.

[SPEAKER_04]: That is exactly right. [SPEAKER_04]: Because [SPEAKER_04]: the movie is that for the first 30 minutes or so and people and I feel like it's like what's happening here but like actually it's it's really to show you how it how this can create the monster of like not thinking clearly and just feeling like you're on this ride or not how to get off the ride you know like that is really intentional like it almost you don't [SPEAKER_04]: It goes on for too long, but I'd like that the party goes on for too long.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's exactly what it should feel like. [SPEAKER_04]: It should feel like get me out of here. [SPEAKER_04]: Like how are these girls doing this? [SPEAKER_04]: But it means it happens. [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I wasn't wrapped up in that, you know, in partying like crazy. [SPEAKER_04]: and not knowing another way.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know what I mean? [SPEAKER_04]: But then when you step outside of it, you're like, whoa, what the fuck was that? [SPEAKER_04]: Like that was crazy. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: And Baylor and Chloe, by the way, props are not overplaying, you know, being high and drunk. [SPEAKER_00]: Like that's so easy to do as an actor to make it cartoonish.

[SPEAKER_03]: I hate acting higher, drunk and scenes and always like, God damn, this is so hard. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, oh, it's so difficult. [SPEAKER_03]: So thank you for saying that. [SPEAKER_00]: and we'll be right back right after this. [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back. [SPEAKER_00]: It's Kyle, Mayor's with Belithore and Chloe Cheerian, is a Belithox ad.

[SPEAKER_00]: Since only got a couple minutes left and it was already brought up, thank you, Chloe. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna ask, what was it like to shoot that scene? [SPEAKER_00]: You cut a guy's dick off in the film. [SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's about, like, you went there, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Like, you went there and then think it's because what, what, the great shocking moment in the movie?

[SPEAKER_04]: It was weirdly fun, like, it's really crazy when I watched, you know, I've seen the movie hundreds of times now obviously with the editing or whatever, but like when I watch it, it's a really intense moment, it's not funny in any way, it's actually really, it hits exactly how I wanted it to hit.

[SPEAKER_04]: But when I just think about the experience of filming it, there was some, there was like a lightness in the air. [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I don't know if there was, I was, I walked on set. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, we're cutting a dick off today, ladies. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, let's go. [SPEAKER_03]: Guns are a blazing.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was stoked. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, something we never see. [SPEAKER_03]: I think, [SPEAKER_03]: It's ultimately the revenge we needed for what they do to these women and what the experience is like. [SPEAKER_03]: It's also years of trauma and abuse coming out at one moment.

[SPEAKER_03]: You know what mother fucker you just kill my best friend and now you push to too far. [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so now I'm gonna have a little bit of fun. [SPEAKER_03]: And that is how I feel like the energy felt on set as well. [SPEAKER_03]: And Isabelle kept to really light-hearted for everyone.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it was important to have that for Jake as well. [SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, it's never fun being tied up. [SPEAKER_03]: Well, everyone gets to not be tied up. [SPEAKER_03]: And you're like that for hours. [SPEAKER_03]: So I've been there, done it. [SPEAKER_03]: So I understood and I think the the levity also helped in in in that way, except for them when we were like, okay, but now I need to get serious.

[SPEAKER_03]: Like, your penis is being cut off and it's not it's not a clean cut, right? [SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's like, you know, we're just getting in there, man. [SPEAKER_03]: Like, it's gurgling. [SPEAKER_03]: Gurgling. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, my god, fuck. [SPEAKER_03]: Um, see, I was one. [SPEAKER_00]: as a viewer as a guy and I was going oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, seriously, um, this was such a powerful film, uh, congrats to all three of you all, um, on what you've done, and I so appreciate getting to talk to you all about it. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for having us. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much. [SPEAKER_00]: My thanks to Bella. [SPEAKER_00]: Chloe is a bell.

[SPEAKER_00]: Find your friends on shutter. [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks to you for checking out the episode. [SPEAKER_00]: Do hit that subscribe button before you get out of here to keep up with all the interviews that I put out every single week at Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere.

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Bella Thorne, Chloe Cherry, & Izabel Pakzad on Find Your Friends, Female Rage, and Turning a Real-Life Nightmare Into Horror

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