‘The Wrath of Becky’ Cinematographer and Production Designer Discuss Creating The Look Of The New Revenge Thriller [SXSW 2023 Interview]
The 2020 action thriller Becky introduced the world to the titular Becky and, more importantly, the badass actor behind the character, Lulu Wilson. Now, Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote are taking the reigns for a new entry in Becky’s violent world, The Wrath of Becky. Angel and Coote put together an incredible team to bring their vision to life, including cinematographer Julia Swain and production designer Allie Leone.
Dread Central spoke with Swain and Leone about the film’s color palette, their favorite shot, and more.
Dread Central: This is a question for both of you, but starting with Julia, how did you get involved in The Wrath of Becky?
Julia Swain: My agent sent me the script and I hadn’t seen the first film. So I watched the first film and thought, “I gotta work on this franchise.” <laugh> It’s so much fun. I’ve been wanting a genre [project], too. I had just done a movie that was in modern-day LA, so I wanted to do something that was not of this world in a way. I mean, [The Wrath of Becky] obviously speaks to many themes in our world that are currently threatening our society. But, it was something fun and crazy and different. Then I met Suzanne [Coote] and Matt [Angel], I think we hit it off, and it worked out.
DC: What about you Allie?
Allie Leone: I had worked with Derek Rubin, who was the line producer on another project, and he said, “I think you would really like this, and I think you would really love the directors.” And I did and it was great. I had watched Becky during quarantine one night and I thought, “I know Becky.” <laugh> Then when I was rereading the script and thinking of the flashbacks of the boat kills and all those things, I was thinking, “This is gonna be good.” And it was. I loved it.
DC: Julia, did the first film inform any of your choices in filming The Wrath of Becky?
JS: It definitely was a new team, so, and there was no “Hey, you guys need to do something specifically tied to Becky.” I think all we really knew was we wanted to obviously explain enough of the first film so that viewers could really catch on and dive into the current state of Becky and where she is now. But visually, it was kind of a free for all. There were things we knew we didn’t wanna do. Like we didn’t want a super crazy handheld movie, regardless of the first film, which does have a lot of handheld and running through the woods.
So we leaned into Matt and Suzanne’s favorite references, which are Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright, very slick camera movements, and lots of steady cam as opposed to handheld running. We just wanted to be slick with the camera and make it feel a little bit bigger than it is.
DC: Similar question for you, Allie. Did you look to the original at all to inform your choices in the production design?
AL: I guess it was definitely a reference at first. But I think with Matt and Suzanne, we really knew what we wanted to do in terms of building a very different world that was very saturated and very colorful. We used color very purposefully, always trying to save red for Becky’s hero look and for all the blood and the gore. We thought about color a lot for all the different characters. So I think we really created that world. Yeah. And with Julia, too, of course.
DC: I love daytime horror, it’s bright and there’s not a lot of hiding and shadows. Julia, in working on a genre film with a lot of light and a lot of colors, what was that experience like for you?
JS: I always try to shape as much as possible. So when, you know, Lulu’s outside, we’re trying to take away light. I always want contrast on actors’ faces and I never wanted anything to feel flat. Obviously, some of that comes with the territory. We’re running outside, it’s a wide-open space, and there’s nothing you can do to add any shape. And we were definitely fighting like weather and clouds. When you’re shooting in LA you get a consistent sky, and clouds don’t change your sun. But in New Jersey, they screw you over and they’re moving through the sky all the time. <laugh>
So trying to balance that and then inside the cabin, I think we definitely like supplemented that daylight and really gave it direction and pushed it through those windows. But you know, we’re lucky to have the darkness and the warmth of the cabin to contrast that. So we still got to add a lot of drama in the light and shape scenes, even though it was full of daylight.
DC: Allie, in working with the cabin and the barn, what was that like approaching the design of those locations?
AL: That’s a good question. I mean, yeah, I think that the cabin was very appropriate for Daryl and everything that went down there. It was such a huge property that we were able to play with. That was again a lot of planning with Matt and Suzanne. I also have the most incredible art team. They were all so amazing. Shopping for [The Wrath of Becky] and setting everything up, was really fun and I feel like everything just worked really well for who everyone was. So I think it was really good.
JS: I just wanna add, too, I think Allie and I were both really excited when we got to scout, which doesn’t always happen. To us, locations are our cast. You can only do so much with a bad location, you know, so it was really nice to be able to see that cabin. That was really exciting.
DC: Did you both help find the location or it was already picked out when you guys came on to the project?
JS: Yeah, we did. I wasn’t on the ground until two weeks before, so I was remotely prepping and seeing photos of locations. So I kind of had to say yes without physically going there, which is scary. But other things like the diner we got to pick. But for the most part, it was, “Here’s this big property, here are the areas we’re going, let’s go see them because they’re locked in.”
AL: And it’s interesting because when you have locations versus building worlds, it is more confining. So it was very fortunate that we have locations that we really liked and that worked so well for us.
DC: So the subject matter is neo-Nazis, which is obviously a challenging subject matter, especially with production design. I was curious, were there challenges for you there?
AL: We wanted to be coming up with our own version of things, so we didn’t wanna actually allude to any specific existing group. So [the Noble Men] was something that we created. With the snakes and the logo and coming up with all of that, we wanted to just create this world. And I think Darryl is such an interesting character because they’re all awful people, but <laugh> [Darryl’s] educated. We wanted to be like, “This is not some stereotypical character.” So we had to really think about who he was. And I think his space did really reflect that.
DC: Julia, I wanted to hear from you about what it was like specifically working with Lulu. What was that like to work with that little incredible badass of an actor?
JS: Lulu is a star. She’s a pro. She knows exactly what I wanna say to her before I even say it in terms of a mark or just hitting that light. It was a joy and so easy. She just elevates the frame, you know what I mean? Super pro, super fun. She does a lot of running in this movie so she was always down to keep going and push it and really do crazy shit. So it was very easy.
DC: This is for both of you, but starting with Allie, what was the most challenging aspect of working on this project for you?
AL: The things that took a lot of preparation were the stunts and the special effects. But we were very fortunate to have a really, really great team. They were so knowledgeable and I think it was putting our heads together, with obviously Matt and Suzanne and our prop master Taylor Robinson and working with them to figure everything out because there is so much gore and so many stunts. The most preparation and thought went into that, but I think it all worked out. Honestly, the blocking with Julia, too, for everything and where things made sense, and how it looked on camera. So yeah, that was the most prep.
JS: Should we talk about our most challenging shot?
AL: We should talk about it.
JS: Some of the challenges we had were brought on by ourselves wanting to do cool shit. <laugh> Allie and my favorite shot is when we see Lulu across a lake looking at the cabin and the camera. We said, “The camera’s gonna pull back from Lulu and pan 270 degrees and land to reveal our main antagonist at a certain line in a monologue”. It’s shooting a bright exterior with a dark interior. So we’re bouncing and they’re all sitting at a table, so the camera had to be in the middle of the table. But, you know, this was a tiny movie, so we didn’t have a remote to remote control the pan. This is me pulling [the camera] back, ducking as it pans, and landing it during a specific line. So Allie had to, I mean she could speak to this, cut a table in half. And it had to, you know, again, money, be the same table for the rest of the movie where they’re all sitting and it doesn’t look cut in half.
When the table was cut in half, it looks longer. So lens wise we had to figure out how do we make it look like there’s no gap in the table. They’re all sitting in a space away from each other that looks real. So that was the scariest, most intimidating shot that we had to figure out, with limited resources. But I think it’s pretty cool.
DC: So cool. Movie magic is awesome. Julia, what it’s like shooting gore. Like what is that like to film Gore and like that whole experience of just capturing nastiness on camera and making it look disgusting and pretty and cool all at the same time?
JS: I still have blood on some of my jackets a year later. <laugh> Honestly, you wanna backlight blood and do certain things to help the team enhance it. But really, Brian and everyone, the department heads did such a good job bringing the blood and the gore to the screen. When the technicians are that amazing, they’re really just telling the DP what they need from us to help enhance that. It wasn’t like, “Oh let’s make this little tiny pool look bigger”. It was, “Here’s buckets of blood and all you gotta do is point the camera”. So it was not difficult at all. Super fun.
DC: Are you both, are you horror fans? Either of you? Both of you?
AL: I am. I get scared easily, but I like it. I enjoy the ride. Yeah. It’s after the fact that I’m trying to fall asleep.
DC: As someone who only exclusively watches horror movies and terrible reality television, I know the exact feeling <laugh> Do you remember the first horror movie that you ever watched?
AL: I remember <laugh> when I was a kid being at Blockbuster with my dad and just seeing the box for Night of the Living Dead and having nightmares just from the box cover. But I did actually watch Night of the Living Dead in a face-my-fears sort of situation. I really did enjoy it a lot.
DC: That’s amazing. And then Julia, do you remember your first horror movie?
JS: I’m trying to remember the first horror movie, <laugh> My dad was a big cinema guy and would always show me his favorites. And so I just remember being mad at him for showing me The Shining and The Thing.
DC: My final question for both of you is, what draws you to working on horror projects? You both work on all different kinds of projects and all different genres, but is there something about horror that draws you to it?
JS: Yeah, I think it’s just fantastical. We get to break the rules and do things that really speak to our psychology and our fears. We’re asking ourselves questions in terms of how to really capture that. It’s not just two people in the modern day in a cafe having a conversation. It becomes so much bigger. What we do is already so magical. So being able to go into a location and capture things that are just of the imagination is such a joy, I think.
AL: I just feel like on this project particularly, I just felt drawn to it, and Lulu is such a little badass. She was so amazing and I love that she’s like the star. She’s a 16-year-old girl, just killing all the neo-Nazis. It was just such a wonderful project and script. It was a very exciting one to be on.
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