Interview With Zoe Cassavetes, Writer and Director of "Day Out of Days"

I have said that the entertainment community is no small player in the universal human drama. They are in fact pioneering leaders who can help bring us to a personal encounter with Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. We should support them in their important mission.

As a priest who has a heart for the film industry, especially for those artists who throw themselves into the struggle to create something of value for our viewing experience, I was delighted to have the opportunity to interview Zoe Cassavetes.

What drew me to interview her? A trifecta of reasons. First, I was intrigued by a screening of her soon to be released film Day Out of Days (On HD Digital and VOD 2/23). It is a story about an aging Actress, Mia (Alexia Landeau) who made it in the biz, then lost her way, and is now trying to find her way back. Day Out of Days made me think about the reality of change in our lives – it has something meaningful to say, not just to aging actresses, but all who deal with change brought on by aging, or any other circumstance.

Secondly, I was intrigued by the name behind the making of the film, Zoe Cassavetes. She is the daughter, and youngest child of four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner actress Gena Rowlands and the great pioneer of American independent film, John Cassavetes. The New Yorker once wrote, that John Cassavetes "may be the most influential American director of the last half century."[1]

Most of all, I was intrigued by Zoe, the person behind the making of Day Out of Days. She desires to make films about real people facing the tough questions in life. Zoe is not afraid to base these questions from her own personal experiences and let everyone see it on film. Many believe, including myself, Hollywood filmmaking to be in time of positive transition as more women make a substantial mark in the industry. I believe this will truly broaden the range, provide more depth, and integrate a “feminine spirit” for audiences seeking more truth, beauty, and goodness in film.

THE FILM – Day Out of Days

The film opens with an electro-techno dreamy sound score, as the audience is taken on a visual tour of where fantasies are lived out, Hollywood, California. The film then cuts to an interview with actress, Mia Roarke (Alexia Landaeu), riding high off a starring role in the film, Wild Sunset. The Interviewer asks, “Mia, if you had a magic wand, where would you be 10 years from now?” Mia responds with a glowing smile on her face, “I think I would be living in California with Liam (her popular Actor boyfriend she co-starred with on Wild Sunset), babies, and working with tons of interesting people – having had more amazing experiences like I had on Wild Sunset.” Even the title of Mia’s last film provides a foreshadow to what lies ahead for Mia in 10 years.

The film then cuts to Mia 10 years later, single, Liamless and childless. Mia is now a movie star fallen on hard times drifting through a career at age 40 where she is no longer in demand and she is no longer invested - not in touch with the industry, nor with the social media self-promotion era. The parts she does get an opportunity to audition for come at the expense of losing a bit of self-respect. At one private audition, a self-obsessed director lures her into doing a line of coke and to comply with his sexual advances with the question, “Are you willing to go to Canne? Trust me. You must lose yourself.” Mia does have a part in a low grade slasher film. She is subjected to a young, inexperienced and abusive director who demands that she screams during a scene where a scream seems out of place. When she questions why she needs to scream, he responds, “Because you are screaming for your career which has been left for younger women – your time has passed.” In another audition, while Mia is getting her photo taken, the casting agent says, “Try to look a little prettier.” Day Out of Days has us follow Mia through her struggle to find her balance again.

THE INTERVIEW WITH ZOE CASSAVETES

FR. DON: Thank you, Zoe, for taking this time with me. I appreciate this story about an actress who was riding the road of great success, got lost, and is trying to find her way back on. There is a part in the film where Mia is reflecting on her life and realizes she has been “living an accidental life” – What does that mean?

ZOE: When we are young, we have a tendency to catch a wave and go along with it – life flows easier for a younger person. There is a power that comes with youth. When Mia stops from the current of life she has been on, and looks at her life, she wakes up and realizes the pressure she has been under to be perfect – that the flow of her life has been directed by someone else’s vision of who she should be. We live in a fast food society that feeds us through various social media – In what we are to believe and who we are to be, and we forget to feed ourselves with something more substantial that helps us decide for our own about life and how to deal with it.

FR. DON: Who would you like to see this film?

ZOE: This film is not only for “older” people, but those of all ages – especially young adults who can gain a healthy perspective of an aging future that awaits them.

THE FAMILY: Growing Up as a Daughter of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands

FR. DON: As a Director, I presume there might be a tendency from some people to compare you to your Father. How has your Dad influenced your filmmaking?

ZOE: Actually, both of my parents have. They love film. They loved what they did – they loved the process of making films and making them together. It was important to them. They were dedicated to an intense discipline of making films. It had a family feel surrounded by a spirit of love. I don’t want to make films that don’t feel like family. I enjoy grassroots projects, pulling it together with people you love to work with and trust – and then to do something great – Not do it for the money.

FR. DON: How is your filmmaking unique from your parents?

ZOE: Each auteur brings something very unique and personal. I do personal work that brings a unique part of me into the films I make.

The PERSON, ZOE: Women in Film; and The Great Value & Responsibility of Filmmaking

FR. DON: The late St. Pope John Paul II said in 1987 (Speaking in LA to those in Entertainment Industry at the then Regency Hotel) – “You represent one of the most important American influences in the world today… it is a fact that your smallest decision can have global impact.”

I am intrigued by the wave of women in film and how they can bring more Truth, Beauty, and Goodness to the art of film. Obviously, there generally are many similarities men and women share as being human. Then, there are some differences that complement each other and are to be celebrated. Recognizing that even each woman is different, what in general can women bring to filmmaking that men generally may not?

ZOE: Men, in general, since they are viewed as the providers, do not want to show personal weakness. Women are allowed to have feelings and emotions – they are (so to speak) part of a woman’s arsenal.

[(FR. DON) - Yes! What a very succinct yet profound response by Zoe. Indeed, what appears to be a weakness in a woman can actually be a strength, a power, and especially of great value in filmmaking. The audience is starving for films with stories that impact them with a sense of truth, beauty, and goodness. Art is very personal to the artist because it reflects a part of who they are. True, good, and beautiful art doesn’t hold anything back and is willing to take chances, asking the tough questions many are afraid to ask about life or about themselves, willing to expose the depth of the artist’s soul - This requires an artist to be vulnerable in order to make a human connection with or evoke a response of those who experience their work. Maybe it’s no coincidence that the last two films I have seen that have real stories that impacted me, Day Out of Days and Meadowland, have been directed by women, Zoe Cassavetes and Reed Morano, respectively.]

FR. DON: What are still some of the obstacles for women in filmmaking?

ZOE: For making films in general, there are the challenges to find financing, but especially for those films at middle ground (not the big studio films or very small budget films) - those independent films that explore in depth real people dealing with real issues. There are not many “thrillers” these days, instead we have horror (fantasy).

FR. DON: As a priest who loves and evaluates and promotes films, I am not necessarily against the elements of violence, sexual situations, and profane language in films (I am not out to censor films). There will always be films though that interject gratuitous violence or sexual situations because it’s driven by how much money can be made.

ZOE: It’s okay if a filmmaker decides to make those films (for entertainment purposes).

[(Fr. Don) - I can empathize with Zoe’s comment here because an artist needs freedom of speech to be able to create their work versus drawing boxes around their creative process through censorship.]

FR. DON: I do believe it’s important how and why “those elements” are put in there. It’s better to have an “R-rated truth than a G-rated lie.” I appreciate your desire to make films that have something important to say – even taking on serious films that painfully face the tough questions people are afraid to confront in their lives.

ZOE: With the modern day social media culture, we are losing our humanity from the sense in how we relate to people on a personal level. We do need to get back to middle ground in the types of films being financed.

FR. DON: What do you find most fulfilling in your work as a filmmaker?

ZOE: Pulling together a team (a family) of trusted people to create and do something meaningful. Then, as has happened recently, having someone, who saw it, come up to me and express how it touched them.

FR. DON: What might you say to young and older aspiring filmmakers that might help them realize their call to make meaningful films that will bring more truth, beauty, and goodness into the film industry?

ZOE: Follow your passion (Be true to yourself - your view on life and who you are as a person). Don’t conform to someone else’s. Be in touch with your inner emotion as an artist.

FR. DON: In speaking on celebrities in a previous interview you have done, you recognized the pressure they are under – In trying to stay at a certain level of perfection while under the public eye. Your film has much to say about a person trying to find balance in an unbalanced world. How do you find balance in an unbalanced world?

ZOE: (Laughs) I don’t. Work is important to me. It does consume my life. Also very important to me is spending time with my loving family and friends, and cooking!

[(FR. DON) - I believe all great artists make great cooks who find great satisfaction in sharing what they made with those hungry people they love!]

FR. DON: A lot of young people look to Hollywood or celebrities and envy that lifestyle. For somebody like yourself in and around the industry, what would you share with them about that?

ZOE: Young people today are so entrenched in social media. What is important here as they encounter the entertainment culture (and social media) is that they learn to differentiate what is false from what is real. In living their lives, keep their feet firmly planted on the ground!

FR. DON: Thank you, Zoe, for taking your valuable time with me today. People are starving for more truth, beauty, and goodness in film (and our culture) and I hold great hope for this as more women, like you, get into Writing and Directing – calling the shots. God bless you – and know I will be praying for you!

ZOE: Thank you!

TO all artists, I leave you all with this quote from the late St. Pope John Paul II, an artist himself, “Artists of the world, may your many different paths all lead to that infinite Ocean of beauty, where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy." - Letter to Artists, N. 16

[You can see DAY OUT OF DAYS beginning 2/23 on HD Digital and VOD]

[1] The New Yorker, July 1, 2013, p. 17 "On the Horizon: Movies: Wild Man Blues July 6–31"

#ZoeCassavetes #DayOutofDays #womeninfilm #hollywoodfilms #NewEthos