Interview: Leah Wildman (Actress, “Clare”)
The following interview was conducted by Kevin Scott (Exclaim, Torontoist) for the purposes of this press kit. Please free to re-publish excerpts from this interview, but we ask that the entire text not be re-published elsewhere, please.
Kevin Scott:
So how did you become involved in the film?
Leah Wildman (LW):
Actually that’s kind of interesting, how Pavan and I ended up meeting, is that somehow his phone number ended up in my phone. My phone number ended up in his phone, and I accidentally face-timed him one day – and we both didn’t know who each other were, so we spent a good couple months trying to figure it out. We would run into each other at bars and eventually he asked me if I I wanted to be involved in this film. And that’s how it happened. It was destiny.
KS:
So what attracted you to the project?
LW:
Well, I read the script – I finally met with Pavan, I saw that he had great vision. I wanted to be a part of something creative, and fresh and new. I thought it would be a great thing to be involved in.
KS:
What was it about the script and your character?
LW:
I thought I could do a good job of playing Claire. You know she’s a young, likeable individual, young actress full of energy, kind of like your best friend kind of thing. I really liked how her character extenuated, one of Claire’s roles was sort of how to extenuate how terrible Edith was by being just a great friend to her. I also liked the role of Edith, I thought she was a very unlikeable character, but having seen the film and having watched her character perform, I felt that I could actually relate parts of myself to Edith, like there’s that darkness, that little bit of evilness in a lot of young women so, yes.
KS:
And so when you’re shooting, what were some of the more memorable moments of the shoot?
LW:
Spending time with Leah was fantastic. Actually getting to know her was really good. Nick Flanagan, absolutely hilarious. Huge crush on Nick Flanagan actually [laughs]. Absolutely. No I mean, overall it was good to just be part of a project like this, getting to know the cast and crew. Working with Nick was fantastic, someone I respect from the past, then getting to know everyone else. It was a memorable experience, just the whole thing.
KS:
How did it compare to your expectations going into the project?
LW:
I really didn’t know what to expect going into the film. It was the first time I’ve done anything of this level, of this caliber, you know coming out of it, it was a really challenging experience and something I really enjoyed was the challenge of it.
KS:
Did you ever figure out how you and Pavan ended up with each others numbers in your phone?
LW:
No we didn’t actually! We never figured that out. We went through a bunch of different scenarios in our heads but I don’t think any of them rang true. He might have gotten it off a friend of mine named Julia Kennedy when he was looking for a caterer [Leah is also a chef]. I don’t know, we never actually figured that out.
KS:
Serendipity.
LW:
Serendipity, absolutely.
