Is there commentary in the fact that everyone slowly weans themselves off self-medication as they get closer? Or am I misreading that?
SM: No, you’re not misreading it. It’s definitely in that great argument where Milla confronts her family, and, as sort of the apple of the family, tells them she’s no longer dealing in lies. But then, you know, her mum does say that she hasn’t been taking anything for a while at that point. She’s “off everything,” is what she says. I think there is an attempt, the more lucid Milla becomes about everything in her life, that there is a desire for everybody else to feel that with her. But again, it’s not morally saying, “When these people discover themselves more, then they’ll see their light and therefore stop doing these things.” Because, at the end of the day, we don’t know what happens after this. And I don’t necessarily believe in the version where Moses is just fine for the rest of his life. Because I guess we’re always genuinely trying to explore honesty in the kind of work that this film this is. And that’s what I think does make it, like you were saying earlier, a really dysfunctional, very truthful, funny film because we didn’t shy away from the honesty of how people would behave at that time in their life.
For a film that deals heavily with a terminal illness, it’s very noticeable that we don’t get treatment montages or spend time with Milla throwing up in the hospital or anything like that.
SM: We actually had two scenes in the hospital that we cut, but you were right, they still didn’t show treatment. They were more Anna visiting, and, at one point, Henry came to visit. But we took them out, and we always knew we might, because we didn’t feel like that helped the story at all. Because you know as an audience that’s what’s going on. We’ve seen it a million times. But also, I think, we always said that this film is no more a film about terminal illness as it is a film about a girl learning to play the violin. Like, that’s not actually the crux of the story really.
Yeah, I have to give so many caveats about the film to adjust expectations when I mention the illness aspect. I guess if I was to give it one banner descriptor, it might be coming-of-age?
SM: It’s tricky! We had such trouble coming up with a logline for this film or anything, because all of them fell into a category of films that we think we’ve seen a million times, and, as you said, it’s really different. There’s something really funny that Rita said years ago when describing the play, which she would say about the film, too: “It’s a film about how good it is to not be dead yet.” And I was like, I love that because it captures the tone perfectly.
Wow, that’s so good.
SM: [Laughs] You can have it.
Eliza, could you tell me about your first experience with the script and how you met Shannon?
ES: Yeah, the script was sent through to me in early 2018, and I met with Shannon shortly after. We had some coffee and talked about it, and at that point I was very keen to do it. But I don’t think there wasn’t any set dates. Months later, I go in to audition and don’t hear anything back for quite some time. So, I just assumed that they had found someone else, much to my disappointment. Then, by the end of 2018 I was in Massachusetts filming “Little Women,” and Toby [Wallace] actually was also in Massachusetts shooting a Netflix series called “The Society.” There was one night when I came to Toby’s house because we had a mutual friend that was also there, and we all hung out together that night and I remember talking about “Babyteeth” because he already knew he was playing Moses. We spoke about how wonderful the script was and it got me really excited about the story again. So, I decided to reach out to my agents and ask them where it had gone since I last auditioned and if there was a chance I could audition again. I can do whatever they want, just please let me audition again [laughs]. And I got an email the next day from my agent and she said, “You won’t believe this, but Kirsty McGregor, the casting director, emailed me an hour ago offering the role to you.” That was that, and as soon as I finished working on “Little Women” I came back to work on “Babyteeth.”
SM: It’s kind of interesting because when Eliza started thinking about the film again and wanting to play the role that she thought she hadn’t got, I was thinking “Oh my gosh. Who? Who? It’s got to be Eliza. It’s got to be Eliza!” And when I talked to Kirsty, she was like, “She could be on something else, Shannon. You could have blown this.” And I was like, “Yeah, I know, but let’s try to get in contact with her.” So it’s interesting that both of us, so much later than the original meeting, were thinking at the same time about the film and her being in it, so that was pretty cool.
Eliza, I have to ask, is there any connection between you having terminal illnesses in back-to-back films within a year of each other, or did you just draw the short straw?
[Both laugh] ES: It was not intentional at all. I don’t know why I keep gravitating towards projects about terminal illness and peace. I don’t know if it’s going to be a pattern that keeps continuing. I hope not!
That’s the answer I was expecting, but you never know! Okay, the music in this film is absolutely outstanding. I remember it being one of the main things take took my breath away on so many occasions when I first saw it. Did you have all those song choices in mind early on or did they come about through long deliberation? Are there any you wanted to include that you didn’t get to?
SM: There were no songs I wanted that I didn’t get to include. At one point, at the party, I had a favorite just as temp music, but I knew that was going to be really hard to get. What I really like about having a budget is that it makes you explore music options you might not have because you have to be really clever about funds. But, at the same time, I’ve got an amazing editor, music supervisor, and composer, and we put playlists together before we even start shooting. So, everyone gets those playlists and they can listen to them. And a lot of the songs – like the tUnE-yArDs song [“Bizness”] that is played during the night out – we already had because we played it on the day. And then same with the Sudan Archives song [“Come Meh Way”] that Milla dances to at Gidon’s [Eugene Gilfedder] house. Eliza would send mini music videos to me. She’d dance in her bedroom to different songs so that we could start to explore how Milla moved. And she would record them and put them on Instagram for me on a private Milla account, and then we got to discuss what felt like Milla’s way of expressing herself physically in music. I feel really strongly about finding the music to play on set. I think it makes a huge difference. Just replacing it works sometimes, but not always. I think of Toby when Eliza’s dancing in…oh no, I said “Eliza, what music do you want?” and she said “Let Toby pick,” which I thought was an awesome idea. And then Toby chose “Twist and Shout,” which he always knew was not going to make it because we can’t afford that, but it was brilliant because she moved in one way and then I knew I’d replace it with classical music and when we’d get that juxtaposition it’d be really cool.
“Babyteeth is on VOD and all Digital platforms this weekend, Friday, June 17.
