Interview by Best Actor & Director Awards – New York
Interview with the director Aeryn Lee, Outstanding Performance Award Winner for the Short Film ‘Permafrost’
Permafrost is a sci-fi adventure set in a frozen wasteland that used to be Texas. The world’s governments failed to recognize the threat of climate change, instead focusing their efforts on economic growth. The result is an utterly changed planet.
The story takes place 11 generations after The Frost, and follows a small crew on an impossible mission to retrieve an essential artifact from before the earth changed. This is a world without literacy, where people rely on oral tradition and stories told through generations about brave expeditions and attempts to locate “The Artifact”.
But this crew is different. They have a secret weapon. They have a young girl with an uncanny talent for mapmaking; she can see what no one else sees. It’s as if the land speaks to her. Placing their faith in this young cartographer, the crew strives to bend the arc of history toward hope.
Tell us a bit about your background. When did you decide to become a filmmaker?
I am definitely coming into filmmaking later in life. I was a young mom, and I didn’t go back to college until I was 30, so I had a decade or so of regular 9 to 5 working experience under my belt before I made any moves toward a career that I found inspiring. I was a theatre major, and eventually I began working as an actor. After a few years of acting professionally, I felt like it was time to start bringing my own stories to life. Permafrost is my first independently produced film. The experience of seeing something in my mind and making that a reality on screen is unparalleled. While I’m still acting, and I do love it, my real passion is firmly in filmmaking.
The director Aeryn Lee with the official poster of ‘Permafrost’ – www.701productions.co
What are the directors that inspire you the most?
In this past year, I’ve been deeply moved by Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell. It is important for women, especially women of color, to be recognized and valued for their talent and skill in this industry. It is beyond time. I am so grateful to see this happening. I’m in awe of Ms. Zhao’s ability to do so much on her own, really indie film style, and come out with a beautiful piece like Nomadland that receives the honor it deserves.
I love John Carpenter; The Thing is one of my favorite movies of all time. Bill Gunn is a continuing inspiration, I wish I’d learned of him earlier in life. Shaka King directed the hell out of Judas and the Black Messiah, so much intention and specificity.
Where did you get the inspiration from for creating your story? What about your characters?
The story was created together with my producing partner and husband, Gentry. We are both originally from North Dakota, and we travel to visit family every year in the winter. Every year we’d get there and wonder to ourselves why people ever settled in such a harsh environment. It’s not regular winter, it’s apocalyptic. It’s not unusual to have -40F days, you can feel the tears freezing in your eyes when you go outside. So, we’d joke about how brutal it is and how we should make a movie one year when we visit. We kept talking about it and ended up developing it into a series, and Permafrost is really a proof of concept for that series.
Our characters were developed in two stages. We had certain roles they needed to play to drive the story, but we were open as far as who those people would be based on who was cast in the role. We often asked actors to read for multiple roles during their auditions to see who they might fit best. There was no planning as far as gender, race, etc., we just cast the actors who embodied each role most naturally. The actors were encouraged to use their own natural language and improvise within the scenes as they felt the impulse.
Do you have any on set stories you would like to share?
On our last day of filming, the day after we drove up almost to the Canadian border (to get that cool drone shot of the pyramid), we found out our DP’s vehicle was an actual threat to his safety. We were filming outdoors and had brought his vehicle close to set for convenience and to hold equipment. When it needed to be moved, it was stuck. So stuck that a team of North Dakotans couldn’t unstick it. The tires were completely bald, just smooth. It was a miracle he was able to make the drive the day before, across the state in a blizzard and back. Lesson learned, and every time we have talked since filming he has updated me about his new tires.
How did you choose your Cast? Was this your first time working with them? How was it to work with such talented actors?
Our cast was brilliant and talented and so dedicated, we are incredibly grateful for them all. We cast out of ND, we actually held auditions in the theatre classroom where I took my first college acting classes. There were a lot of great actors who auditioned, but the ones we cast just had exactly what the characters needed.
Our leading lady, Meghan McNeil, has a youthfulness and tenacity that played perfectly for her character, Cass. I did know her previously, we were in theatre school together and were occasional scene partners. I knew she was talented and easy to work with, and I asked her to audition for the role. When she read for Cass, her voice is really what got me. She sounded small and strong at the same time, and Cass needed that quality. Cass is the most inexperienced member of the team, and she’s the most valuable member of the team, so Meghan needed to embody both of those qualities simultaneously.
Joni Adahl lends a motherly tenderness and vulnerability to her character, Captain Cooper. I had never met Joni before, but I was not going to forget her after her audition. She transformed the room when she read for Cooper, I could feel the cold because she could, the whole room was in the world of Permafrost with her, and I knew she was our Captain.
Nini Crannell brings spunk and wit to their role as Lex. When Nini auditioned for the role, they really surprised me, I hadn’t known them as an actor before. I didn’t anticipate how they’d just shine on camera, how I couldn’t look away from their eyes and wanted to listen to everything they said. Nini has something special, they’re one of those people that just have some kind of spark on camera.
Gentry Lee brings a playfulness and protectiveness to his character, Sawyer. Since we created the story, we always kind of had him in mind for the role. However, since Gentry was a producer as well, and this was our first independently produced film, we decided to audition for the role and see what came of it. We had some great auditions but Gentry just kind of was Sawyer. He and Meghan also had known each other previously, which was great for their level of comfort with each other. Sawyer and Cass have a special relationship, they understand each other. Gentry and Meghan were able to get there and improvise naturally together, giving a really authentic performance that feels warm and honest in such a cold, brutal environment. Gentry has a tenderness that comes across onscreen, and it works so well within, and contrasting with, the desolate feeling of the film.
We know you also produced ‘Permafrost’, together with Gentry Lee. What did you enjoy the most about working the film? What did you find more challenging?
One of the things we really loved was working with so many talented people. It was great to see our DP, Brandon Veen, bring his unique eye to every shot and make it even better than I had envisioned it. Our HMU, Shaina Hovrud, blew us away with her ability to create the most beautiful frozen bodies I could imagine, even when she was working out of a barn while we were far from town. Jonah Eslinger, our production designer, was instrumental in building the world of Permafrost, from designing and building our props to doing set dec on the day, we could not have made such a cohesive and detailed world without him. Our sound engineer and composer, Cody Read, impressed me with not only his willingness to hold a boom in the cold all day, and perform foley, but with his understanding of my vision for the film and his ability to capture that tone brilliantly in the original score he created for the film.
Of course, the cold was a challenge as we expected, but we were prepared with lots of hand warmers and layers and hot cars where we could warm up. Our biggest challenges were definitely in timing and in capturing clear sound while the wind was howling, and our actors were wearing masks. We had planned to keep eight-hour days, but we ended up going over at least a little bit each day, not enough to kill our budget but every little bit counts. So, in the future I would budget an extra day for reshoots, ADR, etc., and I’d also try to keep my actors a little more isolated from the general on-set pressures of time and technical decision making. Their performances were beautiful in Permafrost, but I’d like to give them the freedom to just be in their characters next time.
When you’re working with your actors, do you like to leave room for improvisation or do you prefer to stick to the script?
I am a huge fan of letting actors play with dialogue and improvise within the scope of their scenes. It’s my favorite way to work. Maybe it comes from my acting background and knowing how it can feel to say dialogue that feels clunky and awkward. It can be beautifully written on paper but not come out of your mouth in a natural way, and that can affect a performance even for the most talented actors. I don’t see the value in adding obstacles to an actor’s work. Actors need to be vulnerable and open to a degree that most people don’t often experience, and they need to be able to do it on command. Why give them restrictions? Why not give them opportunities instead?
What is the message that ‘Permafrost’ conveys?
Permafrost is a cautionary tale about the looming threat of climate change, but it’s primarily a human story. The characters face seemingly insurmountable challenges, and at every turn their humanity shines through. The need for human connection and the boundlessness of the human spirit, these are the things we always have in common. All people throughout all of history have had this common thread, and the characters in Permafrost are no different. They are the same as us, and they are facing what awaits us if we fail to address the climate crisis we are currently living through. It felt like an uncomfortable foreshadowing to see the blizzards in Texas this year. When we filmed in 2019, we could never have anticipated there would be such clear parallels in 2021.
What’s next for you? What are you working on at the moment?
Right now, our company 701 Productions has been hired to co-produce a music video in June, so that’s taking up most of our time at the moment. As far as our own projects, we have several scripts in development. The next one we hope to film is a feature length romantic comedy with the working title Rebound. It’s a romantic comedy for the romantically challenged. We plan to run a loose script beat sheet style set, improvisation encouraged. It’s going to be fun. We are also working on a feature length horror film, and two short films. There’s much more to come from 701 Productions, we can’t wait to share more of our work with you.
Connecting to Aeryn Lee:
