- Hi, I'm Kate and I'm studio with a Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you for having me.
So, we're here to talk about your new movie, called Nona.
You have the supporting acting role in it,
and you are also a producer on the film.
Can you just give me a quick sort of
tell me about the premise.
How you see it, cuz I know it can be easily
labeled a certain way, but how would you
sort of describe it?
- Nona is about a woman that we find in San Pedro Sula
in Honduras and she obviously lives in a
very destitute part of the world.
She's very lonely.
She doesn't have much in her life.
But she has dreams, she has things that she wants to do.
And this very cute, young, charming boy
meets her and he says, hey I have a better life for you
in America. I have an aunt you can live with. Come with me.
So, they kind of go on this epic road trip
across Honduras, through Guatemala, and all through Mexico
and ultimately crossing the border into the United States.
That's sort of where the twist happens,
where for 65 percent of the movie,
we're in this beautiful coming of age love story in a way.
At that point in the film, you realize something's
not quite right, just as Nona realizes something's
not quite right and we realize at that moment,
that she is being sold into sex trafficking.
So, it's yeah.
- It's a heavy movie.
It really stayed with me for several days to be honest.
Which is always great when a film can do that.
- Yeah.
- So we should also say for anyone who might be watching
who doesn't know, it's written and directed by
your husband, Michael Polish.
- [Kate] He shot it as well actually.
- He shot it, that's right. I saw that.
So, it seems like it was all hands on deck for you two.
But, at what point, because I know you guys
sort of collaborate pretty frequently,
I think this is the first time that you're
a producer though.
I've seen you executive produce several things.
I'm not sure where that line is.
- Well, this was definitely an executive produced
film, because I paid for it.
Number one thing, executive producer paid for the movie.
Okay, you get that credit. That's it.
You've earned it just by that.
But it is a self financed movie.
This is definitely the most homegrown labor of love
that we have ever collaborated together.
And certainly, I don't think individually
either one of us has ever did anything like this either.
He's pretty running gun.
Like if you know Michael's work,
he's done for lovers only.
He's done amazing movies that he's gone like this
guerrilla style, very Indie filmmaking.
But this one was a crew of six people,
across four different countries,
and it was all financed.
The idea of a truly independently made feature,
this is it.
Michael's half Mexican.
His mother crossed the border when she was four from Mexico.
So, he knew he wanted it to be in Spanish.
He knew that he wanted it to be...
- I was going to ask if the script is in Spanish too.
- Yep. He knew that he wanted it to be in San Pedro Sula.
The reason why is because he said,
'I want to know where the most dangerous place
in the world is.'
So, through his research, this city kept coming up
over and over, because it was known as
the murder capital of the world.
So, he kind of started putting these pieces down
that were important to him.
Honestly, so much of this has to do with
why we self financed it.
Because, first of all, the subject matter is a top sale.
Period. It's heavy, you know.
The fact that he was adamant about it being
in Spanish, because he said that if there's a
young girl in San Pedro Sula, Honduras
with very little to no education,
she's not going to be fluently speaking English
at that point in her life.
And he wanted to cast an unknown Latino girl.
So, all these things were elements where
people were like, but could you cast so and so.
And Michael was well, I really want her to be faceless
and nameless, because it's the point of the movie. No Name.
You don't know her name, you don't know her face,
and then ultimately by the end you do.
That's sort of the whole point of the movie.
So, there were things people wanted from us in order
to green light it and he was pretty adamant
about the authenticity of it.
So, there was these kind of pillars of things
that he put down to kind of create this story.
I know from obviously being married to him,
and knowing him so well.
He feels much more influenced by his Mexican heritage,
than almost his father's side who is from Montana.
So, I think for him it was a real kind of
stroke, a real homage to that part of his culture.
So many of the stories that are in the movie are personal.
This is a funny one, but there's a moment
on the top of the bus where Pedro says to Nona
'You know what the worst name for a dog is? Happy.
He's always happy, you know.'
Our dog's name is happy.
He's always happy.
So, it was like this kind of funny little anecdote
where he'll put in randomly throughout the movie
that he has in his own life or
something that his family remembers or done
or whatever that's he's kind of picked up
and scattered throughout the film.
But, I'm lucky. We're in a wonderful time of,
as we know, as we all know,
of being in a moment of very female forward topics,
very female forward films, tv shows,
wanting to put women at the center of their stories.
And I'm lucky that I'm married to someone who,
we have a production company together,
that's an equal focus for him as it is for me.
And it always has been.
He's always said to me, 'Women are so much
more interesting than men.'
I'm like, 'I will not disagree with you.'
- A little more complex maybe.
You know that it's great that we could speak to a need.
We can talk to each other as women all day long
and we can preach to the choir but
we do also need men on our side.
We need men championing and standing up
and being more part of that voice for us,
because also whenever men are behind closed doors
we're not always in those conversations,
so if you know he can also be a voice and
a good ally, that's also very important.
- Absolutely. Ultimately, I think as artists
and people watching movies or television shows,
you want to see dynamic characters.
Ultimately, you can really think about almost
like a sexless quality at a certain point.
Obviously, there's going to be very female informed things
and very male informed things,
but ultimately, we're all looking for our
multidimensional interesting characters in the world.
And those are the ones that are iconic
and those are the ones that everyone wants to be a part of.
So, I don't think Mike sees in any way
oh this has to be a male character.
I think he's someone who's always thinking
Oh if we, he'll get a script and
he's the type of filmmaker that will say,
I really love it, but don't you think it
would be more interesting if it was a female
as if that all of the sudden makes
everything more interesting.
So, I think if we can have that kind of dialog
in terms of equaling the playing field that way
with both men and women, it's really sort of
the important part of the movie and the dial really.
- It looks almost very Dockey style, sort of Vertae.
How much was in the script?
I mean, obviously you can't pinpoint an exact number,
but I'm just wondering how many shots
or were you constantly sort of looking as you're there
filming, are you looking for oh this is interesting,
let's shoot some of this.
Because there's a lot of locals and a lot of local color
and that kind of thing.
- We didn't have the money and the ability to
location scout for example.
So, the script was totally developed in terms of
the scenes and the dialog.
It wasn't like an improv movie.
It was all very scripted.
But what was left up to determination of
getting to a place was location.
Like, for example, Michael would have in the scripts
a whole scene between Pedro and Nona,
and it would just be like location unknown.
So, he would land in San Pedro Sula and
he would so, 'oh wow, there's a great church.
We can do that. This scene is going to be in the church.'
and I knew that he was really adamant about the Coca-Cola
sign, because that is a very famous kind of fixture there.
So, I remember he told they kind of trekked up and
Jessie like sat in the sea or something.
But the locations were the thing that he
really left up to finding.
Usually, he'd location scout the day of or
maybe the day before if he was lucky.
- Wow.
- Then, like the cemetery scene,
when she's talking to him about how you prepare a body,
when they're talking about his ex-wife.
That, I know, he found the cemetery he loved so much.
He was like, are you both prepared to do this scene,
because I don't think it was scheduled
until a few days later, so they were like yeah.
I don't know if they were totally prepared,
but they just launched into it.
I think being a part of this movie and
knowing Michael, and knowing his work,
and just knowing you will not fail when you work with him.
He won't let you.
It's such an amazing, immersive, creative experience.
This was Sulem's first movie.
- Yeah, I was going to get into also the actors.
I know, Jessie, who plays Hedge, he's had some credits,
but she's basically, you know, I think maybe one
short film from what I can tell and
then this film.
- It's heavy. It's a full on lead. It's a dramatic lead.
I've, obviously, done it before,
so I know what it takes.
It's a lot of pressure and it's just a lot to process
as you're doing it and before you're doing it.
And certainly, doing like this that's unconventional.
- It's nice that they trusted, you know,
I assume actors just always want to
always get a say in what you do
if someone's making a film or whatever it is.
You're like, cool I want to act so yeah, I'll do it.
I'll do what you want me to do.
But those two actors, they really are just perfect
for those roles.
- They are. Jessie is so charming,
and so much of the reasoning behind...
- It's frustrating how much.
- Right. Like thank you so much, but you're terrible.
So much of the reason that we wanted to make this movie
was to inform the how this happens and why it happens,
because so often we get the result.
Like, this massage parlor was busted
and that's the result.
Or this sex house was busted and that's the result.
There's these girls and that is the things that
you hear about but so often,
it's not explained how does this happen or
why does someone decide to do it
or how does this person end up in this situation.
So that was a huge reason why we made the movie.
These young cute guys, young cute coyotes, they're charming.
You don't know. You fall in love with them.
These young girls or boys who are thinking,
oh I can trust this person, they're great, they're friendly.
It's not this twirly mustache villain.
They're these very safe looking, charming people.
- Were you having conversations with Michael
that maybe the structure or anything like that
and were you also having any, as a producer,
and as someone who acted in the film and
you've been acting for a long time,
- A long time.
- Which is great. Good for you.
- Can't get rid of me.
- There's a lot of women here who would probably
kill to be you, to have such a career,
so that's great, but...
- You just have to cling.
You have to be like you can't let go.
It's a white knuckle adventure.
- Were you having any conversations,
whether it's about the structure or the logistics
or any of the creative,
how did you find yourself as the producer on this film
and what was your acting brain telling your creative brain
versus your logistical brain?
- I can pretty easily turn off the acting part of things
with, especially someone like Mike,
because he's just a visionary.
So, it's like it's exciting, because
you're just on that train with him.
For me, I wasn't able to go to Honduras or Guatemala
or even Mexico, because they were shooting
in such rural parts.
There was truly so much cartel that a lot
of our money went to security.
We had an ex-Navy SEAL that traveled with
them at all times and he could from a satellite
image see where cartel activity was happening.
And I would be in LA and so I was available at all times,
usually booking everything that they needed,
whether it was like we need another armed vehicle.
Okay, so I'd call and I'd pay for it or whatever.
We need to stop at this hotel and
this is a hotel that we know is safe,
so okay, I'd book the hotel.
So, it was kind of the logistics on the ground
in Los Angeles, kind of constantly communicating.
I didn't do anything else during that time.
I had my station that I had set up,
so that I could be available at all times.
- Did that make you nervous?
I mean, this is your husband.
If my husband was out in Honduras being like,
I need an armed vehicle, I'd worry.
Were you ever nervous for him, his safety?
- To know Michael is to know that you're with
and dedicated to a real cowboy.
I mean that.
There's no controlling the situation.
There's just trying to support and
protect someone who has a real vision.
So, to sort of fight it is almost going to
put more energy into something that is a lost cause.
You know what he's going to do.
So, there was one moment I ended up speaking
at the Kennedy Center with an organization
called Vital Voices.
It was on International Women's Day.
Vital Voices put literally a vital voice
of different incredible females around the world
that are doing things you wouldn't ordinarily hear about.
There's these two ladies from Guatemala and
they were going on stage to talk about the efforts
they were doing in Guatemala.
They came off stage and I was going on stage
a few people later and I was like,
Oh I really want to talk to you,
because my husband is actually in Guatemala right now.
And they said, where is he?
And I told them and they said, is he okay?
And I said, what do you mean?
And they said, there was just basically
all these women were protesting human trafficking
and they were basically slaughtered there.
It was absolutely a horrendous crime
for them using their voice to say enough is enough.
And Michael had seen those women,
but had driven by and continued on.
So, there was like this really bizarre,
his world and my world place sort of passing.
I remember calling him to see if he was okay.
And he said, oh I remember I saw those women yesterday.
That was the one moment when I said,
'I just need for you to tell me that
the decision you're making there, that you're okay.
And that you know the barometer of
Please I know there's a line that you want to dance on
and sort of think about, but please, please,
don't cross it over too far.'
And he was like, no I won't.
And that was literally the one moment
that was a real, real moment between
husband and wife than producer filmmaker.
But, it's just knowing that, for Mike,
he needs to tell this story.
Every single person actually involved in the movie,
even Sulem, Jessie, we had another camera operator Aiden,
Michael, a small group of people,
everyone kept saying this is to tell
the story of these people.
We're telling the fictionalized story,
but these people are actually in danger
of being held against their will,
going through absolute Hell.
So, I think having that in your mind almost overtakes
your own reality.
It was kind of amazing to
just put it all with that intention.
- Yeah. The film is great. It's very impactful.
I hope everyone sees it.
When can everyone see it?
- You can see it now. You can see it on Amazon,
on Demand, in Demand.
We set up a website called Nonamovie.com
that will show all the live links of where
you can see the movie and also a call to action
of how you can join the fight to end human trafficking.
So, if you want to go to nonamovie.com,
that would be wonderful.
- Okay. Great.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you for giving us this film.
And everyone, thank you for watching.
(loud bang)