#i was looking for a different interview where he was talking about viola's character specifically

[thesweetnessofspring]

The genesis was that I wanted two teen characters who were like the teenagers that I knew, rather than the teen characters that I saw. Cuz--There's always...at the time I was always complaining that there was always a thick but brave, principled, troubled boy and a brainy-but-beautiful-behind-her-glasses girl, and I thought, well, why can't they both be brave and why can't they both be foolish and why can't they both make mistakes and why can't they both make incredibly good decisions? And that's where it really came from and I wanted them to fall in real love. I didn't want it to be cheap. I didn't want it to be in twenty-four hours like they make a joke of in Frozen....I wanted it to really mean something. In terms of the theme they really were against the odds. Different places, different backgrounds, different education levels. They were physically separated for most of the books and I thought well, when it comes, when it finally comes, and when you're a teenager in love it feels as if the entire world has shifted, which is so fantastic and so painful, but so brilliant but so awful but so great. I thought I wanted it to really, really feel like something. I want to take the feeling of teenage love and treat it really seriously. So that's where it came from.

-Patrick Ness on Todd Hewitt and Viola Eade from the Chaos Walking Trilogy.

[brittie-frog]

Haunting of Bly Manor

Right.

I love horror and after spending sometimes days watching video essays on gay history, specifically in (horror) movies and film, I now kinda understand why so with the Haunting series and its gay rep and them not being the villain of the story, I loved it.

(Quick note I have only rewatched the show twice and can only take from my own experience of media)

My phone also knows me so will suggest news stories on things I've recently watched or current murder cases. So it suggested me this story today:

I went in open minded knowing that some people were angry about the ending falling into the 'kill the gays' trope (which I will come back to).

At first it was fine, talking about the ghost story/love story comment and how it relates to the show and has good analysis that I agree with. Then it goes on to basically summarise the show.

It keeps mentioning that all the gay subtext is implied:

why Dani broke up with her fiance

why Jaimie is reluctant to be vulnerable with Dani (before the monologue)

And that there needs to be a “lot of filling in between the lines” to understand their romance despite their practically constant flirting (Jaimie's 'Poppins' for Dani is the cutest nickname) and multiple kissing scenes. However, I digress, it can be sometimes hard to understand certain attitudes to each other at the beginning.

It also states that its like they want on the pat on the back for "making them queer, without making anything about them very queer". I don't know what this means, but I took two interpretations:

That not all queer people need to stereotypically look queer to be and that is a step forward for gay rep (I prefer)

That the creator wants to be celebrated for making gay rep without truely showing their queerness (which I think is pretty false)

Then it talks about the fireside chat and Jaimie's backstory, describing the monologue as "shoehorned" into the scene and "devoid of any mention of her sexuality". This is where the first part of my 10 minute research for context comes in. This is set in 1987 in a small town in England with an American. In charge of England at the time was the famously homophobic Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that implemented Clause 28. No one in this setting and right mind - especially after being ridiculed for most of her life - would come out to any one, flirting or not, that they have known for at most a month or two. Also, this entire scene resolves around Jaimie's attitudes towards people, and why she's reluctant to get close to people, favouring taking care of her flowers over interacting with others.

Then it talks about Owen and Mrs. Grose having "more meaningful screen time and backstories that continue throughout multiple episodes".

First Hannah. We basically get Hannah's entire backstory in episode 5: how she met Owen, scenes of her working at the Manor (in non-chronological order) and how she died in the first episode. Then that continued into the final episode when she finally comes to terms with her death and her love for Owen to save everyone. We don't actually get much backstory in the way of her childhood or even how she met the family (from what I remember, correct me if I'm wrong).

Now Owen. His backstory is that he grew up in Bly, left to go to France and became a Sous Chef, only coming back because his mum got diagnosed with dementia and he needed to take care of her despite her constantly mistaking him for other people. That is also only explored through Hannah's memories of the interview and the bonfire-side chat.

Those are both sad backstories but you can't call them any more or less meaningful than Jaimie's of in depth about how her and her family were ridiculed and bullied throughout her life and even spent time in juvie. They all have points mentioned in their stories that I would love more indepth on: how Hannah met the family/met Sam, either Owen's childhood in Bly or his time in France and why Jaimie spent time in juvie. But I also realise this is a short series that has to make fleshed out characters and tell an entire story in 8 episodes.

The article then talks about how even the ghosts got an entire episode to themselves when they barely show up. If you look in the background of the majority of scenes you'll see them and personally I really enjoy getting their stories of how they died. However, that episode is about more than just finding out about the ghosts and Viola's life, it’s mainly about what led to her being the first ghost and causing other dead people to stay as ghosts and the origin of those specific words that give a ghost access to an alive person’s body, to help explain the majority of the show. If I showed my friend this show and removed that episode I would have more questions asked than when my mum finished it.

Now I don’t know what to say. I agree there is no law on art so it can be anything and I usually think that the haunting series are in a slightly different universe (it’s how sleep at night knowing that someone can’t be so stubborn they become a murdering ghost) but also yes, trans-roles should be given to trans people more often. However they are actors and their job is to play some they aren’t for entertainment so for the most part I agree with Scarlett about being able to play anything. Also yes the self-congratulatory approach after playing an LGBT+ character when you’re cishet is kinda bad unless you have the full support of the community telling you it was a good portrayal and accurate representation. It won’t be enough for minorities if our representation, that people outside the communities are calling great, are just surface level characters that are just there for tokenism but you can’t compare Bly Manor characters to those types of characters. All of them have so much development and are well done that the majority of the community that has watched the show have no problem with and love their representation.

Personally I love both Theo Crain and Jaimie and Dani because they represent different things. Theo Crain is on a basic level. as a lothario, a stereotypical butch lesbian, constantly hooking up and struggles to actually open up and love people. Dani and Jaimie are soft, domestic cottage core lesbians in a flower shop AU. This is not a bad thing and just because they have a “tepid romance” doesn’t mean it’s a step back. Also more context time:

 As said before Thatcher was in charge and heavily homophobic, creating laws to stop people from teaching children about homosexuality since gay sex had been decriminalised recently

 It was the middle of the AIDs epidemic. Dani was coming from a country that was doing nothing about the deaths of thousands and going to a country where hysteria about AIDs was rampant but they were doing more, like the ‘AIDs: don’t die of ignorance’ information leaflet despite it not being as huge with 46 deaths by 1984. (That assumes that the AIDs epidemic happened in this universe)

Dani clearly had some form of internalized homophobia before even coming to England because she spent so long with her fiance hoping to feel the way she’s supposed to (I think the ghost of him is her guilt and internalized issues personified as it constantly appears when she’s trying to move forward.)

Also in the final episode it shows that is probably at least some homophobia in America as they kiss in the shop then look outside and go to the back so no one can see. (This could be interpreted as seeing if anyone is planning on coming in so they can escape without having to stop early for customers but Jaimie had already changed the sign to closed.)

Now onto the ‘kill the gays’ trope. Yes this is a huge trope that is so damaging to the community that we’re constantly the ones killed off for views or when their tokenism is no longer important, that is fucked up! However this doesn’t mean that we should give every gay character plot armour, cause that’s also unrealistic, just to please the select few that will call it out as a damaging trope. There is huge difference between say, The 100 killing Lexa and Bly Manor killing Dani as one has plot relevance and brings the story to a close while the other enraged an entire generation so much they started a brand new convention to celebrate queer relationships/characters in media. It’s also not like she was the only one to die, it’s horror after all, Hannah, Rebecca and Peter, the parents and all those ghosts died or were already dead.

Like many of the comments on the article - If all you got from this show was it falls into kill the gays, you have completely missed the entire point of the show.

[natsthinkitythinkthinkthonk]

ANN Interview: Made in Abyss Composer Kevin Penkin

This is all originally from an Anime News Network interview.

Interview: Made in Abyss Composer Kevin Penkin

Interview Info: October 7th, 2014 By Callum May for Anime News Network

As a person who is aspiring to become a score composer (kind of an unrealistic dream that I can’t seem to let go), I found this really, really interesting. I left a lot of stuff in because I feel like there’s so much to unpack, and most of the information is interesting to me.

I did edit a few things out (mostly not music related), and I put in some square brackets for the sake of explanation and context. 

It appears that all of your anime soundtrack work has been with Kinema Citrus. How did you come to work with them?

I met Kinema Citrus when we were attached to the same project called "Under the Dog"[...] Since then, we've enjoyed a wonderful relationship on other projects such as Norn9 and most recently, Made in Abyss.

Do you expect to be working on anime outside of Kinema Citrus in the future?

That would be lovely. It's not entirely up to me, but that would be lovely. I'm very grateful to get any work in anime, as I'm very, very passionate about this industry. If I do get the opportunity to work on another project from any company, I would consider it to be a great privilege.

What was your first reaction to Made in Abyss when you were approached with the project? How much of it did you get to read?

I was given the first 4 books as source material to read and was immediately taken by the world that Tsukushi Akihito had created. The early stages of production were just me going through the books and finding interesting scenes or artwork to write music to.

Who did you have the most contact with on the Made in Abyss staff? What sort of questions did you ask?

I have a music director named Hiromitsu Iijima, who I would talk to on a daily basis. Every couple of weeks after a large chunk of the soundtrack had been written, we'd set up a meeting with Kojima-san [Director, Storyboard, and Episode Director] and Ogasawara-san [Animation Producer who works with Kinema Citrus] to discuss the current state of the soundtrack. We'd discuss if there were any points of concern or if anything needed to be changed. We essentially repeated that process until we were ready to record, mix, and finalize the music.

What sort of instructions and materials were you given in regards to making tracks for Made in Abyss?

In addition to all the manga books, I got a lot of background and concept art that I could reference. Trying to match the visual colour palette and the musical "colour" palette was really important to me. For example, looking at how the foregrounds and backgrounds were so juxtaposed gave me ideas such as writing for a small ensemble of instruments, but recorded in a large space. This was meant to act as a metaphor for Riko and Reg exploring in this humongous, expansive cave system.

Could you elaborate on the idea of developing a musical "colour" palette? How do colours and music correlate?

It might be best for me to give some examples. Starting more broadly with Reg, he's a character made up of both organic and mechanical body parts. So combining organic and mechanical sound sources when writing for Reg felt perfectly natural.

Talking more specifically about colour correlation, there is a lot of information in colour that allows us to perceive essential things such as relationships and distances between objects. The sound has this as well. Depending on how you combine the essential components of sound (pitch, timbre, harmony, loudness, etc.) and controlling how they either complement or clash against each other is going to result in a specific listening experience.

“Depths of the Abyss” is another example of the musical key slowly “ascending” over time to act as a sonic metaphor for the Abyss rising up to surround and engulf our main characters. There's the flip side to this as well. The title track “Made in Abyss” features descending string passages to represent Riko and Reg's descent into the world of the Abyss. I've personally found that thinking about these sorts of concepts can be very helpful when trying to establish the palette of sounds (colours) that you think will complement and/or enhance what's being displayed on-screen.

How much did you know about how your music would be used? Did you know that Underground River would be used to introduce the world in a montage just six minutes into the first episode?

Syncing music to anime is a slightly different process than what I've experienced [...] In the limited amount of anime that I've done, I've typically been instructed to create music away from the picture, which is then matched to the desired scene(s) at a later stage of production. This might contribute to why a lot of anime music can feel like a music video at times. From what I've experienced and from what I can research, I've seen directors take large chunks of time out of an episode to let the music take over so that the audience can “breathe". Underground River is a good example of this. [In episode one] you're introduced to characters, their motivations, world building, monsters and action all in a very short amount of time. Taking a minute or two to let the viewer digest all this can be very effective, and music can help with that.

You're also known for your work on Necrobarista and Kieru, two Australian indie games. What draws you to working on Aussie games, even after making your debut internationally?

[Being an Aussie], there's a lot of pride in how interesting and unique Australian indie games are. I've always had a connection to games and Australia. So even though I'm currently living in the UK, the fact that I'm still able to work on games with friends who are living back home is something really special.

It's not common to see an Australian in the credits for anime. Do you think musicians from outside of Japan are becoming more common?

I [...] grew up watching Dragon Ball Z on TV. There are actually two scores composed for that series depending on [whether you are watching dub or sub]. So I actually grew up listening to Bruce Faulconer's music for DBZ, not Shunsuke Kikuchi's original score. 

[In regards to other foreign anime score composers] There are also other examples such as Blood+ with Marc Mancina, Gabriele Roberto with Zetman in 2012, and Evan Call has done quite a few things as well [like Violet Evergarden]. So I think while it may be becoming more frequent to see musicians from outside of Japan being attached to anime projects.

How would you say composing for games differs to composing for an anime series like Made in Abyss?

Speaking for myself, composing for games, anime, or whatever typically starts the same. I feel that if you're able to nail the concept and/or tone of the project, that's a big part of the process already completed. Then it's just up to the individual needs of the project. Games are typically approached from an interactive point of view. If it's film or TV, you need to know if you're writing to picture or if you can write with no time contractions like I described before. You sort of go from there really.

How would you describe that concept/tone of Made in Abyss?

Made in Abyss offered the perfect opportunity to get really specific with instrumentation. We had analog synthesizers, field recordings, vocal samples, and much more that were heavily manipulated to create distinct electro-acoustic textures. Deciding where to record was also a really important discussion, and we ended up recording at a studio in Vienna.

[It was] a huge, state of the art recording facility just outside central Vienna. I asked for a custom chamber orchestra comprised of three violins, three violas, two celli, one double bass, two flutes, two clarinets, one bassoon, two french horns, one trumpet, one trombone, and one tuba. Totaling 19 musicians. Each musician had their own “solo" part, meaning that there was up to 19 different “lines” being played at the same time during a piece of music.

The concept behind such a setup was to represent the small company of characters exploring the Abyss. Everyone's in this massive underground cave system, so I felt having a small group of soloists in a space designed to fit over 130 musicians was the perfect sonic metaphor for this. It just so happened that we were also working with some insanely good musicians and an unbelievable technical team as well.

If you were given the chance to collaborate on a soundtrack with one composer working in anime today, who would it be?

That's an interesting question. To be honest, I think I'd rather be an understudy of someone really experienced, rather than write side by side with them. If I could be a fly on the wall while Cornelius was writing Ghost in the Shell Arise, or Yoko Kanno while she was writing Terror in Resonance, that would be so, so informative. That said, Flying Lotus just got announced as the Blade Runner 2022 composer so I'd do anything to get in on that, even though it comes out in a few days (laughs).

Made in Abyss is one of the most highly regarded anime of the year. What do you think about the reaction to it?

I can't tell you how happy I am about the reaction to Made in Abyss. Writing the soundtrack was tough. The music is experimental in nature, and it required a lot of time and effort from many, many people. Everyone came together to make this work, and I'm over the moon with how it turned out.

[archivingspn]

Nerds and Beyond: “Interview: Robbie Thompson Talks ‘Silk’, ‘Supernatural’, ‘Star Wars’ and More! [EXCLUSIVE]”

(...)

Nerds and Beyond: So, starting with San Diego Comic Con. You were on a panel about shipping at San Diego Comic Con.

Robbie: Yes.

Nerds and Beyond: What role do you think shipping has on the viewer experience and on your writing? And also, who is your OTP?

Robbie: My OTP… I was on a shipping panel in San Diego that my friend Sam put together — Sam Maggs. It was an interesting panel to be on because I am an older human being and shipping is very new to me. I didn’t really know anything about it until I got on a show called Supernatural and joined Twitter. And then I was instantly informed by a lot of people what shipping was.

I think my only real brush with shipping before that was probably the original slash, I guess, which is Kirk and Spock. Which I had heard about as, like, a teenager going to Star Trek conventions. I was like, “Oh, that’s cool. That sounds lovely.” As far as shipping goes, I think I have sort of an antiquated point of view, because when they asked me on that panel, “Who’s your OTP?”, for me it was Dave and Maddie on Moonlighting.

Which has the unfortunate portmanteau– is that how you say it? You’re French, you know. Portmanteau? Is that right?

Nerds and Beyond: Portmanteau.

Robbie: Dave and Maddie would be “Daddy”, which is not that great. Or, it’s great. I don’t know. And then that transferred to Herbert Viola’s character and Agnes DiPesto. Herbert being, of course, played by Curtis Armstrong, who played Metatron on Supernatural.

Nerds and Beyond: Yeah. He’s a phenomenal actor.

Robbie: I was invested in those couples getting together, that was my understanding of shipping. So, as an audience member… I was just talking about this with a Supernatural fan yesterday, because she asked me, “Do you ship characters on Supernatural?” And I don’t. And not really on shows in general. I think the lens that I look through it, as both a fan and sometimes as a writer, is just a little bit different.

And it’s — Again, my point of view is probably a little bit antiquated, I don’t know because people seem really tuned into romance or potential for romance. I feel like every show that comes out now, every scene that happens on a show, people are instantly online with “Make them kiss”, or one of those kind of things. And that’s not always the first lens through which I view a lot of content.

But as a fellow fan and as a writer, what I respond to is people’s passion. And people are passionate about romantic entanglements, or potential romantic entanglements. They’re excited about it and that’s getting them to, you know, talk about the show or create their own fiction or create their own fanfiction. I think that is awesome. I think it’s fantastic. Not that anybody needs my approval, or not that anybody needs my acceptance or anything like that, but I certainly welcome it. I think it’s great. As far as it affecting me as a writer, it doesn’t really affect me at all.

To me, I’m telling a story and I know… I have enough of a, I don’t know if this is the right expression, but an understanding of the audience, especially when I was working on a show like Supernatural, that there are gonna be things I write that people are gonna see in a certain light no matter what story I might be telling.

Nerds and Beyond: Mm-hmm.

Robbie: You know, if you take 24 hours in a day, you watch the 42 minutes of the show, if it’s a network show, and then you spend the rest of the 23 hours in your day engaging in fandom, which isn’t always the text of the show. It’s fan fiction, fan art, long discussions and posts online. I think it can create a really interesting relationship where the audience is in much more control of the narrative from their own standpoint than they have been in the past.

But it does sometimes, I think, create a disconnect. The 42 minutes does not always line up with the other 23 hours. And I hear about it because people are not shy online. We were talking about that the other day — where it’s like, you all aren’t hiding it; it’s on the internet. You’re posting it and sometimes tagging me.

So, I saw a lot of that stuff. But it never affected the writing. You know, I had a story I needed to tell. And it’s also almost impossible for me to react in real time, ‘cause I know in advance what’s going to happen in the story. Again, if I was on a network show like Supernatural, the writing you’re seeing air was done sometimes six months, sometimes a year before you guys would watch it. So when people would comment, “Oh, they listened to what we were saying last week and they made adjustments,” it’s like, no, we wrote that story months ago. I’m glad that you expressed yourself online, and you should — you totally should — but there’s really no way to react in real time. And I don’t think it’s always a good thing to try even if you could. You wanna make sure that you’re telling the story you want to tell.

Nerds and Beyond: Without it being, like, molded by whatever you’re hearing.

Robbie: I like to say that I like to engage with fans because I am a fan myself and I like the dialogue. I like to be able to interact with people. But I like to say that I’m listening, but I’m not taking dictation. And ultimately, I couldn’t even if I wanted to. On a show like Supernatural, I’m also not in charge. I don’t get to make all of the decisions. The feedback is important, but it doesn’t change the week to week. The show is months ahead of you guys. I think a new Supernatural’s on next week. That was probably written in April or May of last year. I would imagine they’re probably, let’s see it’s October? They’re probably nearing the end of the season, I think, just ‘cause it’s a shorter order this year – it’s 20.

I bet you they’re probably on 17 or 18 right now. Somewhere around there. ‘Cause they work really fast. That’s always been a very fast show and a very efficient show. So, yeah, it doesn’t really affect me as a writer. I’ve worked on other things like comics, where I know that people have an expectation of certain relationships and sometimes you will lean on that a little bit. But that’s also just me responding to the text. Like, you know, if I was writing X-Men back when I was a kid, Kitty and Colossus were like a thing, so I could respond to that but I’m also responding as a fan as well.

Nerds and Beyond: Mm-hmm.

Robbie: I guess I ship them, too, by the way. I think shipping is fantastic. I just think I come at it from a different perspective because I’m older. And, I think I engage in fandom in a way that doesn’t match the passion of current fandom. I thought I was a fan of stuff. I thought I was like a big, passionate fan and then I met Supernatural fans and was like, “I am remedial at best.” You know, people will tell me episode number, scenes, frame numbers… all this stuff, and again. I am a diehard Star Wars fan. I love Star Trek. I love Marvel comics and DC comics. But there is a level of fandom that I am not able to reach ‘cause I don’t have the skill set. Like, the skill set amongst specifically Supernatural fans and fandom is incredible high level shit. This is AP all the way, and I’m sort of like in third grade math over here. So, yeah in conclusion, I think I come at it from a slightly different perspective, but no, it never really affected my writing.

Nerds and Beyond: Have you heard of the phrase BrOTP?

Robbie: I have. I think broment is another one I heard.  What was the other one….? BrOTP is one. I didn’t know any of these things. Like OT3s I didn’t know.

Nerds and Beyond: Yeah.

Robbie: I didn’t know. I had to look up OTP, I had to look up… I mean, there was a lot of things I had to look up. And I put it into the 200th episode, there was BMs and stuff like that. Internally, we would call them BMs. And I was like, “Uh, that’s kind of gross.”

Nerds and Beyond: Bowel movements.

Robbie: But it was a, you know…

Nerds and Beyond: Broment.  

Robbie: And bromance I hadn’t really heard of before. I know that some people are not fans of that phrase.

Nerds and Beyond: Yeah.

Robbie: But, yeah, Supernatural was extremely educational for me as a writer because I was very inexperienced when I joined that staff, but I was also, I think, very inexperienced as a writer interacting online. I like to think I did okay, but I’m sure I made a lot of mistakes along the way and I’m still learning. I am still learning all these phrases.

Nerds and Beyond: We think you did fabulously.

Robbie: I appreciate that. I tried my best.

(...)

Nerds and Beyond: What character have you written that you most identify with? 

Robbie: (...)When I was writing Dean, I was trying to relate to his perspective. You know, a guy who is deeply dedicated to family. Sam was probably the one I probably, if you wanted to get Psych 101, probably the character on that show I most related to, just because he’s the youngest of two boys and I’m the youngest of two boys. And he rebelled against his dad, I rebelled against my dad, but they ended up very similar people. I ended up like my dad, which I’m grateful for, because my dad was a fucking rockstar. He was a great dude. I’m not an older brother. My brother is very much like Dean. Just as handsome. But also very protective and also looked up to dad as well, but became his own guy, too, and all that good stuff. So, there was a core part of that show that I really, I thought Kripke baked into the Pilot, that really resonated with me in a very emotional level.

But I wouldn’t say that there’s any one character more than the other. If I had to pick one, I guess it would probably be Sam. There’s a great deal to relate to with Castiel. Again, sort of this outsider. He’s a guy that rebelled against his family in a way that I think we all kind of do. No matter how much you love your family, or not, there’s gonna be a little bit of friction there. I just try to find whatever aspect of them that I can relate to, and then I try to defend their point of view, even if it’s, you know, I wrote on shows with demons and monsters. You gotta defend their points of view. Again, it’s kind of a pretentious answer, but I try to, like actors do, I try to inhabit the character as I’m writing them and be their advocate, and be like, “No, no, no, they would say this, they wouldn’t say this, they wouldn’t do that.” I think if you can find that sort of sweet spot, where you’re kind of advocating for them but not just totally taking dictation or whatever, then I think that you’re in a good spot to steer them in the right direction. (...)

[source]

[kevinpolowy]

David Oyelowo Talks 'A United Kingdom,' #OscarSoWhite, and Why He Seeks Out Female Directors

David Oyelowo (Getty Images)

David Oyelowo is one of the most insightful ambassadors for inclusion in the film industry. Oyelowo rose to fame in Ava DuVernay’s 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma (a role many believed deserved an Oscar nomination and helped launch the #OscarsSoWhite backlash); at the same time, he publicly bemoaned the lack of black men in British productions. He is also a vocal advocate for female filmmakers.

As he was breaking through in Selma, the Oxford native born to Nigerian parents was in the lengthy process of developing A United Kingdom. The film is the illuminating true story of King Seretse Khama, a Botswanian royal who married white Briton Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) in the 1940s; their coupling was condemned by both the English government and its small African colony, resulting in his exile from what was then known as Bechuanaland in 1951.

Oyelowo, 41, sought out a female director (Belle‘s Amma Assante). In fact, four of his last five films (A United Kingdom, Queen of Katwe, Five Nights in Maine, and Selma) have been directed by women, and that isn’t a coincidence. He talked to Yahoo Movies about United Kingdom (now on DVD/Blu-ray and Digital HD) and more in the candid interview below.

Yahoo Movies: This is probably a poor comparison, but I couldn’t help thinking A United Kingdom felt like a dramatic counterpart to Coming to America. In the beginning, anyway. David Oyelowo: No, that’s not strange at all. I love Coming to America! But obviously that’s a silly version of the story. I hope Eddie Murphy wouldn’t be offended with me calling it silly. But it’s light fare, whereas this really happened and had a huge impact on Botswana, and was a massive event in U.K. politics post-WWII. And it’s about a true place. Zamunda is fictional [laughs].

But I think, to keep on with that comparison, the great thing about A United Kingdom is that it shows a side of African life that we very rarely get to see. You see a great leader who was genuinely concerned with his people. And it’s a success story. You see a love story that played across two continents and three countries. And you see an African man and an African leader who is in the driving seat of his own destiny. These are things that you rarely see, cinematic speaking.

Is this a story that was largely known in the U.K.? No, it’s not largely known anywhere, even in Botswana. Because as a result of being a colony, that history was kind of buried, as unfortunately can be the case with one country ruling over another for a time that basically can recalibrate the history. So that was one of the pleasures and one of the joys of telling this story, it’s one where when you read about it, when you find about it, you can’t believe you didn’t know about it, let alone the rest of the world. And that was definitely the driver for me in terms of fighting to get the film made.

David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike in ‘A United Kingdom’

Has the response you’ve received to the film been different in the U.S. vs. U.K.? I think there’s a feeling of regret in the U.K. that these things happened to these people. And it’s a great thing because a lot people I’ve spoken to, considering the times we now live in, it’s a reminder of the vigilance we need to continue to have in relation to what governments subject different people to.

How do you think this story does relate to the times we now live in? Well, intolerance — and racial intolerance, specifically — is still very much with us, and that of course was the driver for wanting to keep these two people apart. The fact that something as basic and universal as love ended up being what enabled them to overcome the circumstances they were in, the governmental pressures they were under, and the cultural pressures they were facing as well, is I think a beautiful example of what is possible… It’s going to take a determined attitude of love to overcome some of the really dark and dangerous things we’re seeing happen on our planet right now.

Have you and your wife [Jessica Oyelowo] had to endure the type of intolerance we see portrayed in the film? When my wife, who is white, and I happened upon this story, the overriding effect it had on us was feeling very fortunate that we were living in a different era than they did. Because we haven’t experienced anything the likes of what they have experienced. But we’re not naïve to the fact that there are places we go where the tolerance levels drop in relation to us as a couple. But there’s [been] nothing overt. But there are places that we largely avoid where people have a real problem.

In Britain or— Everywhere. We know for a fact that there are states in the United States where the tolerance levels drop. And there are definitely parts of the U.K. where that is the case as well. And within the hearts of certain individuals — they made not overtly express it, but under given circumstances you can feel it. Certainly, there are instances where it has been expressed vocally and people have had to talk about their awful experiences. But I see Ruth and Seretse as being very ahead of their time in terms of what they were prepared to endure for their love and a great example of how to overcome it.

Jessica is in this film, but she plays more of an antagonist, while your Seretse is head over heels in love with Rosamund Pike’s Ruth. That had to be an odd experience, falling into a romantic screen relationship while your actual wife is right there? Well, not only is it odd, but it’s doubly odd when your real-life wife is playing someone is a racist and who cannot stand the idea of a black man and a white woman being together [laughs]. We had one scene in particular where Rosamund, as written, puts her hand on my hand as an expression of affection that Jessica has to witness. And the camera cuts to her and it looks like she throws up a little bit in her mouth as that happens. And for my money, she does that a little too well. But I like it was because another woman, generally, was touching her husband, not because she had fully embraced the racist qualities of her character [laughs]. No, but we love working together. We met doing youth theater together and it was a real privilege to be a part of a film that means a lot to both of us for obvious reasons.

Jessica Oyelowo and David Oyelowo (Getty Images)

Around the release of Selma you said that was there was a serious shortage of leading roles for black men in British period pieces. This film was produced in Britain. Have you seen any progress since? Well, if I didn’t put the film on my back, and sort of pummel away for six to seven years, A United Kingdom wouldn’t exist. And there are not many films like it in the ether. So I can’t really speak to what’s coming down the pike, pardon the pun, but I know that there isn’t exactly an avalanche of these kind of films and opportunities. But the ability to construct opportunities for yourself has increased. There are many ways of displaying your work now, and it doesn’t just have to be in a movie theater. There are many more avenues. But it’s still a struggle.

Were you as frustrated or upset as a lot of us that Selma was so overlooked by the Oscars? It’s now two years on and I have a lot of hindsight. In many ways I think more people ended up seeing the film because of what it didn’t get than what people it should’ve got. I think that people just got curious. What’s all the noise? What’s #OscarSoWhite? What is this so-called injustice that has happened to this film? And I now can’t go anywhere without people having seen that film. So at the end of the day, you could argue that the film did exactly what it was supposed to do. Me having a trinket on a shelf somewhere doesn’t validate or eviscerate any of that.

And so, look, the byproducts of it continue to go on and on. I don’t think A United Kingdom would’ve gotten made without Selma. What Ava DuVernay is doing by way of her amazing work, Selma was a launch pad for that. Selma gave birth to #OscarsSoWhite, which then had a two-year run, and I think it has brought about discernible change since that black eye, so we shall, on our industry. So there are things that come out of it that far exceed anything that I think nominations or even Oscars would have given us.

Do you feel like Moonlight‘s Oscars win, and other wins by folks like Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis, will help turn the page on #OscarsSoWhite? I think we have for now. I personally think a huge amount of vigilance has to be employed in relation to thinking that that chapter in Hollywood history is over. Because the infrastructure that enabled two years of #OscarsSoWhite — and forget even #OscarsSoWhite, that still allows for such an underrepresentation of women, of Hispanic people, of Asian people, let alone black people — that is very much still in place. We still do not have enough representations on film what society actually looks like. So yes, it was a nice pendulum swing, but we’ve seen that in the past. What we need is more than a moment. We need a true movement that sticks. And only time will tell if that is indeed the case.

David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay on the set of ‘Selma’ (Paramount)

Well speaking of the underrepresentation of women, four of your last five films have been made by female directors. Are you consciously seeking out women behind the camera? Very conscious. I was very keen on Ava DuVernay for Selma and really beat that drum. Amma Assante was someone I targeted for A United Kingdom. I knew Amma, I thought what she did with Belle as a film was truly beautiful and was the kind of voice we needed for A United Kingdom. I did a film called Five Nights in Maine with a filmmaker called Maris Curran. It was a film I produced, and one of the main reasons I wanted to do that film was because I felt that she was a great new female voice. And Mira Nair was just a wonderful invitation to be a part of Queen of Katwe. And yes, not only being a woman but a person of color who has lived in Uganda for 25 years, so she really knows what she’s talking about in relation to that African culture. That was very meaningful to me, because as I say, we’ve had several representations on film of Africa that have been an outsider’s perspective, and it’s not to say that those films aren’t valid, but we need some of the other. We need to see what it feels like from within, because I do that that is a more rich and authentic take than just an outside perspective.

I don’t know yet if we can say it’s a turning point, but it does feel like 2017 is becoming a great year for female directors. You look at Patty Jenkins breaking records with Wonder Woman. Ava Duvernay has A Wrinkle in Time coming out with Disney. Kathryn Bigelow has Detroit on the horizon. And there are some really notable new indies out now, like The Beguiled [Sofia Coppola], The Bad Batch [Ana Lily Amirpour], and Band Aid [Zoe Lister-Jones], which was shot with an all-female crew. I agree. My thing is just vigilance. I remember when Denzel Washington and Halle Berry won Oscars in the same year and there being a feeling that we had turned a corner, historically. And we hadn’t. I remember when 12 Years a Slave, The Butler, Fruitvale Station and Mandela were all films that had black male protagonists at their center. And that feeling like it was a renaissance, as it was being called, and then it was followed by two years of #OscarsSoWhite.

I think that it’s worth acknowledging these moments, but as it pertains to female directors, you’re still running at a catastrophic deficit when you think that the population is 51 percent female, and only 7 percent of the top 250 films shot in 2015 were directed by women. That’s inexcusable. So it’s wonderful that all of those films are happening, and I saw Wonder Woman the other day and you don’t often say this about a superhero movie, but that’s an important movie that I think 10 years, 20 years from now, people are still going to be looking at as hopefully, a corner turned. But not just because it was directed by a woman, but because it’s actually about something as opposed to just being eye candy. You really come away from it having your mental senses tickled. And I think that does partly have to do with that female perspective that isn’t just interested in explosions.

A United Kingdom is now on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital HD. Watch the trailer:

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‘Feud’ star says President Trump has created ‘great unity amongst women’

Alison Wright as Pauline Jameson, a fictional 'Feud' character who is all too real.

Image: Kurt Iswarienko/FX

Shes the one Feud: Bette and Joan character whos largely fictitious but what she represents is truthful today as it was in the 1960s.

Pauline Jameson the capable assistant to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? director Robert Aldrich who harbors ambitions to become a screenwriter and filmmaker herself is not to be confused with a British actress whose career was in full flourish around the same time as the series was set: they share only a name.

But as actress Alison Wright (The Americans, Sneaky Pete) reveals to Mashable, the character a composite of many smart, creative women working in Hollywood at the time represents an untold number of ladies hoping to shatter its many glass ceilings. Pauline herself may not be real, but the creative struggles depicted in her story were and in many ways still are as genuine as it gets.

Aside from what was on the page for you with this character, what did you need to know about her about women in similar positions as her, from that time period to wrap your head around what you wanted to do with your performance?

Wright: I had the good fortunate of Pauline being a composite character. Obviously, Ryan had a couple of guiding lines that he wanted her to be: book smart and cool as a cucumber was the character description. And that he wanted her to have a little feel of Eve Arden, and the ladies of that era and that sort of quirky personality.

So what I did was I started researching Bob Aldrich. We came up with the idea that Pauline had worked with Bob for quite a few years, and that she had worked on the previous project that he had done with Joan Crawford, Autumn Leaves. I came across a really great quote that Bob mentioned, a story that he was interested in telling, and the kind of characters that he was drawn to were characters that prevailed: characters that were struggling against the odds for their self-determination, for what they wanted their life to be. But no matter what the prevailing odds were, they didnt really concern themselves with those odds or focus on them, they just fought through and fought against them.

SEE ALSO: ‘Feud’ star Jessica Lange on the ways Hollywood is still failing women

I thought that was a really great personality trait that would make sense for me to build Pauline around that. I obviously watched all of Joan and Bettes films, the ones that I hadnt seen yet. I read a couple of books about Bob Aldrich. I watched a ton of movies from a little bit earlier than that time, movies from more like the ’40s and ’50s, just because thats a time period that I really like, and something that I could take the opportunity to tip my hat to in my creation of Pauline, since I did have a little leeway.

That was probably where I started from and what my basis was for it. In terms of being a woman, I know how that goes.

Once you solidified your vision for her, what did she begin to mean to you as an individual character, and as a function in this bigger story thats being told?

I like the idea that its 1952 and she was somebody that had a broader scope for the picture of what she wanted her life to be than just being a mother and a wife. I like that shed somehow gotten the gumption in that time period to have those aspirations and dreams, and not really be bogged down with the difficulty of achieving them or how impossible it might seem or how the odds were all stacked against her. That is just what she wanted to do, and that she was going to try and do it.

Shes not in the victim corner, but she was quite proactive and had her head screwed on and sensible, and not living in a dream world. I think its very valuable for women to see characters like that on the screen reflected back at them. So I was very proud of that.

Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford, Alison Wright as Pauline Jameson.

Image: Suzanne Tenner/FX

Of course, the election actually happened right in the middle of shooting episode 4. Literally, the day before the election happened was the time I was shooting a scene with Fred Molina as Bob Aldrich, and I was asking him, Would he read it? Would he read my script? Would he even consider producing it? He said that he would, and kind of laughed and joked a little bit at me. He said, Why are you so surprised that Im going to help you? Shes very able and competent. I had some sort of line like, Well, some men just dont like the idea of a woman in charge.

There was a certain sense of irony in the place in the storytelling, and the time in history that this was set, that I imagined once this was shot and people were watching it, that there would be a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek look back to how things were for women 50, 60 years ago.

Then of course, it turns out that its resonating on a much deeper level, because things are really just exactly the same and really havent changed that much. So it is very timely and important and had something to say. Its great as an artist when you get to be part of something thats more than entertainment.

Is was poignant to see these female characters from all different levels of Hollywood, from Mamacita to Pauline on up to a star of Joan Crawfords caliber, having to conspire together to achieve their dreams and ambitions. Has it changed significantly in your experience in Hollywood? Or is there still sort of a sisterhood alliance thats needed to push things forward?

I think its still needed, and I think we still need to cultivate it more and work on it more. I do think that given the current situation that were now in, women are empowering each other more, and trying to lift each other up more, because a divide and conquer will do just that. Theres not just room for one woman. Theres enough of the pie for everybody. Even for actresses.

When we get that through our head that were not all competing for this one top spot, theres just not just one of these places, there is enough for everybody. Then if we can understand that more, and band together, and lift each other up to support each other more, everybody wins.

SEE ALSO: Meet the woman behind ‘Feud’s’ most fascinating character

I think its something that feels like its a movement thats happening now, in no small part thanks to the person that is the president now. I feel like weve had this great unity amongst women at the moment, in every walk of life. I hope it continues. We need more of it. We need more women to try and shake things up and make room for other women.

Were discriminated against as women for so many different things, in just the casual sexism and misogyny that we accept. Things like Throwing like a girl, all these expressions that we have. If we could all just take a second to actually point a finger at those things, and hold the mirror up, maybe they will change. I feel like were really at a moment in my lifetime where that stuff is very tangible, and hopefully pushing forward in changing things Im sure they said the same thing 40 years ago.

You clearly leaned into your research. What were the great takeaways of studying all those classic era films?

Theres no negative takeaway at all. Its fabulous entertainment. I dont know how many times I watched The Women, the original one the excellent one, not the dreadful remake. The one from 1939, I watched that over and over, just to get an idea. Even if it wasnt for Pauline, just the kind of women that Pauline would have to have been used to being around. Its very specific that she could hold her own against anybody, but she wasnt a wallflower. Shes got her own wit, and cheekiness about her.

I read a lot of their biographies too, I saw all of their interviews. I tried to read anything about any women that worked in the studio system and what it was like to have to shuttle between departments to try and work your way up. I read about what life was like in Hollywood in the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.

Pauline obviously came from somewhere else. Shes not from Hollywood. And obviously Im foreigner, and I live in England. I got to read all about the development of California and Los Angeles, and the business itself as well. Theres no downside to any of that. Thats part of being an actor: the random pockets of knowledge that you get from all the stuff.

It came in really handy when Im doing it, because one day I was with Sarah Paulson and shooting her scene when shes Geraldine Page. She has a phone call with Joan Jessica couldnt be there she was away, so they asked me to step in and be Joan Crawford off camera for Sarah Paulson. So I got to do that, and luckily Ive been watching Joans movies nonstop. So I got to have fun, and sit on a toilet around the corner in the dark and do my best Joan Crawford impression to the bathroom walls all day long. So that was a really awesome moment too. Id like to think I was pretty good, but who knows?

Since Pauline is a composite character, if you could write her ending, what would you love to see happen for her in her ambitious Hollywood career?

As luck would have it, I by no means claim that I got to decide on anything about her, but since she was a composite character, there was a little discussion about what her story may end up being. Tim Minear had a few options, and we talked through them. We had the luxury of deciding what was going to be the most exciting for the end of her storyline.

I had my input, and they took it on board. They chose the ending that I wanted the most, Im sure because they wanted it the most too. But I did happen to have a little luxury to actually do that in this case, which is wild. So of course I want to be a great example for women, and of course wanted her to succeed, and not fail, and not be beaten.

Feud airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on FX.

WATCH: Viola Davis makes Emmys history, dedicates incredible speech to women of color

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