Throughout the history of cinema, filmmakers have worn many hats for certain feature films – in addition to directing, they will sometimes write and/or star in the project. We’re looking at you, M. Night Shyamalan and George Clooney. That includes writer-director Scott Friendwhose new movie To the moon also has him in the lead role. From 1091 photos, To the moon premiere on the 2021 Nightstream film festival and had a one-night special screening on September 19 at Nitehawk Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. It is now available to stream on digital platforms.
Both Friend and his co-star Madeleine Morgenweck – a real engaged couple – also appeared together in Kevin Tran’s critically acclaimed film The dark end of the street, while Friend is notably featured in Dan Sallitt’s Gotham Independent Film award-winning feature film Fourteen. To the moon is a feverish mishmash of different themes and succeeds perhaps best through his known family troubles. We recently sat down with Friend to learn more about the project. Read our exclusive interview below.
Inspiration behind the project
MW: What was the inspiration behind To the Moon? Have you used personal experiences?
Scott friend: To the moon is a real amalgamation of so many things. First, a lot of it has to do with my experience with certain loved ones and friends who suffer from addiction and my experience of going through that experience with them. That’s the biggest inspiration behind this movie, especially with where I was in my life, just personal things I went through, failures I experienced, certain aspects of my relationship. Everything kind of came together the moment, [the place] where we shot the movie, that’s my great-aunt and uncle’s mansion in Massachusetts. And my great-aunt, who is now in her 90s, actually told me it’s going to be hard to keep up with the house, and she’s going to get rid of it. And I wrote this script to film at that house.
MW: I understand this was your directorial debut. How did you feel about taking on the role for this project? Was it scary at all?
Scott Friend: I’ve been acting in some degree for the past 10 years [New York City]. I’ve been on countless movie sets. I’d been working on this other script that was kind of a heavy drama, and I’d been working on that for about a year. And I thought that would be my first feature film. And then when my great-aunt told me about the house, things turned a little bit for me, and it dawned on me that I had to take all these elements of this drama I was writing and put it into this kind of fun had to stop genre piece, because that’s exactly the kind of movie you have to make in this house.
So I wrote it really fast, and I guess because I wrote it really fast, I wasn’t that fond of it. So as for feeling daunting as a budding filmmaker, it was a super small crew. We were only eight. We were filming at my family’s mansion, and everything was very comfortable, and I wasn’t super-super precious in making the film. I was specific, but I was not precious. So I feel like it wasn’t discouraging in the sense of, “everything has to be perfect, and if it isn’t, the world is going to burn.” So yes, it was a lot of fun. It was definitely very strange to be in scenes with Will [Brill] and Madeleine and directing them simultaneously. That was a very strange experience. I don’t think I will do that again.
Cast the movie
MW: Will Brill seemed like the perfect choice to play the brother. Can you tell us about the casting process?
Scott Friend: We made this on a really low budget, so that’s also a big reason why I played my character, because I knew we could afford it. My now fiancé Madeleine plays my wife, and so is our dog. He was actually the hardest to get on board, but in the end we got him. We got really lucky.
So with Will, I had been working on a short film with Will about two and a half years before we made this film. So I knew him, not super well, but we got along really well during the shoot. So he was always on my mind. And when I was writing the script, I wrote it for Will, but I didn’t tell him. In my head I thought, “Will would be the perfect person to play this.” And when I finished the script and started to get things going, I sent it to him. He was in the middle of doing it Oklahoma on Broadway. I was like, “There’s no way he’s going to make this very little movie in the middle of nowhere.” But luckily he responded to the script.
About that terrifying score and camera work
MW: There was a unique music score and also unique camera angles. What were your inspirations behind these choices?
Scott Friend: As for the score, I mean, the score for rosemary baby is so iconic. The juxtaposition of these fairytale soft high strings and woodwinds that they used against these horrific things you see on screen, it just works so well, and I’ve always enjoyed it. So I knew when we were making this movie, our movie isn’t set in a specific time frame, but it’s heavily influenced by movies from the late ’60s and early ’70s. So I knew the score had to feel that way.
As for the camera work, my cameraman and I worked a lot beforehand to get the look right. We love how The American Friend by Wim Wenders looks, Robby Müller is the cameraman, and he is just incredible. And the colors he brings out were something we really wanted to hone in on. don’t look now by Nicolas Roeg was also a great reference for us.