Relentlessly striving to capture a seemingly idealistic destiny is a captivating dream that many people strive to achieve as early as possible in life. While some do successfully capture their goals, which happily fulfill their every fantasy associated with those ambitions, others disappointingly realize that their objectives are overly romanticized and unobtainable. Filmmaker Leah Meyerhoff, who made her feature film directorial and writing debuts, and performer Natalia Dyer, who made her acting introduction, with the intriguing new drama, ‘I Believe in Unicorns,’ joyfully reached their career aspirations with the fantasy movie. But the actress’ character, a vulnerable high school student who instinctively acts on impulses that she does not yet understand, is the perfect example of what it truly means to be a teenage girl. Dyer stunningly plays the relatable and troubled female protagonist in her honest portrayal, which emphasize the complex difficulties of living an at-times oppressed existence.
‘I Believe in Unicorns’ follows Davina (Dyer), a naive teenager who is the sole caretaker of her mother, Toni (Toni Meyerhoff), who suffers from multiple sclerosis. With her father absent from their lives, and Davina’s friend Cassidy (Julia Garner) being her only means of emotional support, she often seeks refuge from her concerns by taking refuge in a fantasy world. Davina imagines that her stuffed animals turn into unicorns and other imaginary figures (which are brought to life by Josh Mahan’s stop-motion animation), while she’s the princess that oversees their world.
Without having much male interaction in her life, Davina is instantly drawn to Sterling (Vack) when she sees him outside of school while she’s talking to Cassidy. Even though her friend is initially apprehensive of the punkish skateboarder, Davina approaches him, and the two strike up a friendship. After she soon has her first sexual encounter with Sterling in the back room of a music club, his initially charming demeanor quickly turns into hurtful indifference the next time they see each other.
While at first she’s heartbroken over Sterling’s quick and hurtful change in demeanor, Davina becomes overjoyed when his attitude towards her changes again. Now acting affectionately towards her, he invites her to go on an impromptu road trip, and leave their San Francisco neighborhood. Although Davina is originally excited to go on the impulsive open-ended road trip that will take them “anywhere but here,” so that she can escape her at-times stressful duties of caring for her mother, she soon changes her mind about Sterling. The longer they spend time together, the more Davina realizes that his drastic mood swings towards her are’’t the only reason why they shouldn’t be together.
Meyerhoff, Dyer and Vack generously took the time recently to talk about filming ‘I Believe In Unicorns’ during a roundtable interview at New York City’s IFC Center, where the drama began its theatrical release before expanding to more theaters and On Demand nationwide. Among other things, the writer-director and actors discussed how the film subjectively shows Davina as a imaginative teenage girl who emotionally takes the audience on her journey with her, as she navigates the complexities of her at-time turbulent new romance with Sterling, as well as caring for her mother, through her escape into fantasy; and how filming at real locations, including Meyerhoff’s teenage home and high school, was really instrumental for the actors to find the authenticity of their performances.
Question (Q): Leah, with your experience as an editor on your short films, you have a lot of different filmmaking techniques. So what were your expectations of your editors on this movie-did your own experiences influence the way you worked with (the film’s editors (Rebecca Laks and Michael Taylor)?
Leah Meyerhoff (LM): An editor is an actor’s best friend, in many ways. With a film like this, both Peter and Natalia were so brave and vulnerable in their performances. Knowing that there’s going to be someone editing your performance really allows you to take risks as an actor. It gives you the opportunity to fail. So performers like these two can then really go the distance, as they know at the end of the day that I’m going to choose their best performances. Someone like Michael is really strong at cutting for performance, which is why I chose to work with him.
Q: How did you approach editing the stop-motion scenes that feature both Davina’s fantasies and reality?
LM: Well, stop-motion is no easy task. (laughs) Most of the animation happened after Peter and Natalia finished their scenes, but you (turns to Dyer) got to see some of it.
Natalia Dyer (ND): Yes, I did, in the scenes with the vines and the backpack.
Peter Vack (PV): I also saw some of it in the scene where the design was being created on (Sterling’s) hand. I think we used my hand in the scene, and I sat through that.
LM: We shot the live-action sequences with the actors like a regular shoot for three weeks. Then we had a week of fantasy shooting with Natalia and a skeleton crew. Then we shot several weeks of stop-motion animation, which was done with a team of animators.
In the terms of the edit, I knew the film would be a balance of fantasy and reality, which is tricky to pull off. We really wanted there to be a fluidity between worlds.
It’s a very subjective film; the story’s told through Davina’s perspective, and she’s this dreamy, imaginative teenage girl. The audience is really going along on this journey with her. Sometimes she’s focused on the realities that are right in front of her, and other times she’s navigating those complexities through her escape into fantasy.
In terms of the production of the film, we approached the story with these two actors (gestures to Dyer and Vack) with a social realism. They were acting from a place of honesty. But I knew that when we got to post (production), we would also be incorporating these more dreamy layers. That’s why we shot the film in the three stages in relative chronological order of their road trip and journey.
It was an extensive edit process, and we had a bunch of assistant editors before Michael came on. As we were editing the film, we knew where all of the animation would be inserted in the final draft, as we were were editing the animation at the same time.
Q: Natalia and Peter, what did you think of the final version of the film when you saw it, since you weren’t really watching the animation as it as being created?
ND: I knew there was going to be an element of surprise when I saw the film, since there were all of these fantastical elements that Peter and I weren’t a part of making. When I first saw the film, the stop-motion blew me away a little. But it felt right, and fit in with the mood, so it was cool to see.
PV: Yes, it was the experience you hoped for when you first read a script like this. On the pages, there are detailed descriptions of the action. When you read them, you wonder what the action’s going to look like in the finished film. The first time I saw the movie, I was like, “Yes!” Scenes like those could be great or not so great, but Leah made them beautiful.
LM: We wanted the fantasy world to feel authentic to the Davina character, as this is a world that can come out of this teenage girl’s mind. So all of the aesthetic decisions in the film, like using 16MM film and the stop-motion animation, were made with that idea in mind.
Q: The film’s soundtrack is reminiscent of such films as ‘Badlands’ and ‘True Romance.’ What was your inspiration in using such light music, as opposed to regular teenage pop songs, in this movie?
LM: I found the music while I was working with the film’s music supervisor, Colby Trane, who was fantastic. I also worked with composer Sasha Gordon, who’s also a filmmaker in her own right. She’s also a member of my film collective, which is a community of feature film directors who get together to support each other every month. We also collaborate with each other, and build a community to make our films.
We wanted to reference ‘Badlands’ and ‘True Romance,’ but this film is playing against those movies. We’ve seen a lot of films that are about two kids on the run, which lead to this ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ shoot-em-up type of plot.
But this film is really about the intensity of (Davina and Sterling’s) love. They’re so engrossed in the drama of their own world that using a soundtrack that’s a bit more in the tone of (such films as ‘Badlands’ and ‘True Romance’) sets the vibe for this movie. It suggests that this story is going to go behind the expectations that the audience has, particularly as compared to similar films.
Sasha did a wonderful job, and did all of the instrumentation herself. She created this initial childlike innocence, which became darker over time. It highlighted the disintegration of their relationship.
Q: Did you hear any of the music while you were working on the set?
ND: Well, there was the unicorn song that Peter played.
LM: I made them both mix tapes, which they listened to while we were filming.
ND: One of the cool things that Leah did was make this music playlist of all these songs that helped us get in the head space. I think music can be a powerful and helpful tool that can help create, and maintain, head space. But I didn’t hear any of the music that was in the film until I saw it. But it worked and felt right.
LM: We also incorporated Natalia’s voice a lot in the soundtrack. We used her voice as an instrument-there was a lot of humming and breathing. She also went in with Sasha and sang with her. The idea behind this film is that this character is finding her voice during this coming-of-age story.
Q: Did you have any rehearsal time together before you began filming the drama, or did you prefer to discover the performances during the filming process?
LM: We worked together individually to create each character’s backstory, and so that we could get to know each other. Then I brought everyone together shortly before shooting began, and hung out a lot. But we didn’t over-rehearse, as we wanted the performances to feel fresh, raw and real. So we would block out some of the more complicated scenes. But in terms of creating their performances, we mainly did that on the set.
ND: We were given a lot of time to get to know each other, inside and outside of the characters. We also tried to shoot the film as chronologically as possible, so that we could make the performances feel very organic and intimate.
PV: Acting and filmmaking are funny things. This didn’t happen on ‘Unicorns,’ but on certain projects, you’re like, everyone’s here and very skilled at what they do. But everyone has the mentality that the film is just a job.
The tone always starts with the filmmaker, and with Leah, this film’s story is a personal one for her. So with this movie, we’d show up and think, we’re in this to find, and really experience, something. If you immediately start with that mentality, amazing things can happen. This wasn’t a job, or a filmmaker making a movie; it was a group of people who were looking for a collective experience, which was cool and unique. You hope to find that experience on every film, but it’s actually quite rare.
LM: That’s nice to hear. It was a real collaboration and journey, and the making of the movie was just as fun as what ends up on screen.
Q: Speaking of the fact that you mainly shot the film chronologically, like you mentioned earlier, how did that process influence your on-screen interactions and chemistry, particularly when you shot Davina and Sterling’s road trip on location?
PV: That’s a good question, particularly about filming on location. For us as actors, the locations were so specific, and were the real deal.
LM: Yes, we shot in real locations. My mother plays the mother character in the film, and we shot in her house. That’s the most autobiographical part of the film. We also shot in the high school that I went to. The car in the film is somewhat similar to the one I had when I was 16.
For Peter’s character, we went to the actual spot where the punks hung out, and he spent some there. He got to know the punk kids there, and really immersed himself in that world. Natalia really hung out with my mom in this teenage bedroom, and immersed herself in that world. So I think being on those real locations was really instrumental for them to find the authenticity of their performances.
Q: Natalia and Peter, how old were you both when you starred in the film?
PV: I was 24, so I was playing a character who was a bit younger than me.
LM: Natalia was a 16-year-old whose character was also 16, which is challenging and rarely done. Often times you see 25-year-olds playing 16-year-old characters. But we wanted the character to be real.
ND: It was crazy to have that time captured in a movie that I could go back and watch again. Obviously the story felt relatable to me when we were filming the movie. Looking back on the film now, it still feels incredibly relatable to my personal experiences as a teenager, in the sense of figuring out who you are, particularly in relation to other people. The film feels like it really captured teens at that age, as they try different personalities on.
Q: Leah, how much does the Davina character represent you as a teenager-is she an autobiographical character?
LM: The film is personal in many ways, and I cast Natalia because I knew she could play this character. Natalia was an authentic 16-year-old girl, but she was also different from the character in some ways. She was acting in the film, but still brought an authenticity and heart to the role, as well as showed how teens view the world at that age.
ND: I think the character of Davina was different enough from me that I could see the separation between us. But I was still able to bring a relatable teenage energy to the role. It was about selecting certain things that I was feeling at the time, and incorporating them into the character. The process is hard to define in some ways.
LM: I wanted to make a film that my 16-year-old self would have died to see. I’m thrilled that some of the strongest reactions we received while we showed the movie on the festival circuit came from 16-18-year-old girls.
Q: What was the overall reception you received towards the movie while you showed it on the festival circuit, and what was the experience like for you?
LM: The film premiered a year ago in competition at SXSW. It then went on to the Atlanta Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. It also won Best Cinematography at Johanna Bennett’s First Time Fest, as well as Best Original Song in a Feature Film for Sasha’s song ‘Davina’ at the Nashville Film Festival. It has also played at dozens of other film festivals around the world.
It’s been a really wonderful journey to travel with the film, and see the audiences’ responses. Seeing teenage girls come out in droves in Denver, and the difference in their reactions from the girls who watched the film in Sarasota, Florida and Sidney, Australia, was great. It’s been delightful to connect with audiences around the world.
Q: Before you made ‘I Believe in Unicorns,’ you wrote, directed, produced and edit a short film, ‘Twitch,’ which the feature is based on. How did the short inspire the feature?
LM: Well, in ‘Twitch,’ I explored some of the same ideas that are showcased in the feature. I also cast my mother in the short, and another 16-year-old girl. I made the short during my studies at NYU, and it was profiled on the show ‘Film School’ on IFC, which was about people making movies while they’re still in film school.
The short did very well, as it won the Grand Jury Prize at Slamdance, and was also nominated for a student Academy Award. It was also shown in over 100 festivals. Through that journey, I connected with a lot of the team who helped me make the feature film.
During the process, I realized that there is an audience that’s eager to see films about teenage girls who are different. It also tapped into their need to see films with female characters who speak to them and feel real, but also live in imaginative worlds. We’ve seen a lot of coming-of-age stories with male characters, but there are very few about female characters. So making the short, which did financially well and connected with audiences, gave me the confidence to make the feature.
PV: For me, particularly as the male lead in this feature, I prefer to work on projects that mean something, and are very important, to the filmmakers. Actors crave that responsibility, because on the flip side, you often have to play something that feels as though it was written by a committee, which you don’t want.
ND: The process of playing such a relatable and important character was a little intimidating, because this was my first feature. But like Peter said, telling this type of story is something you want to do as an actor. From the first time I read the script, I knew it was a story I wanted to help tell.
LM: She gave an incredibly brave performance, especially since this was the first feature film for the both of us. So I think we really bonded over that experience.
Q: Speaking of the fact that this was the first feature for the both of you, were there any lessons that you both learned while you were making the film that you’ll bring with you to your next projects?
LM: One of the most rewarding parts of making this film was working with these two actors. Finding that we could create this safe space for them to do their best work was gratifying. I was so impressed with the honesty of their performances, which is something I hope to bring with me to my future projects. I hope to be a real actor’s, and performance-driven, director.
Written by: Karen Benardello