Hey. Hey, guys.
How you doing?
Good. How are you?
Thank you. Yeah, very good. Thank you.
I just want to say congratulations on such an incredible film.
I watched it last night, and I can't stop thinking about it.
So well done.
Where did you see it?
On a computer.
I yeah.
Well, I did get a screening for it,
and even then I watched it in my bed and I was at home and I was like,
I don't think I'm going to sleep with the lights on today.
I'm going to.
Oh, there's all these images just kind of stick in your mind.
I want to start initially with you Charlotte,
Where did the idea come from and the premise and
and and the script
was originally written by Kitty Percy and then we developed it together
and you know, it
sort of yeah, it was had like added it's at its heart
the, the, the sort of the story of Veronica and Desi
and that sort of mother daughter relationship that sort of develops
and going to the Highlands and tapping into the,
the sort of trauma buried in the land of the classic
women past.
And I guess we brought in was there a lot of the stories
that nature brings and the power of
of the of the land as well
as amazing.
And there's a wonder I was just right with you and it's a wonderful like comparison
because it was the MeToo era, people calling that witch trials.
And then you've got the actual witch trials in this movie,
and obviously you've got that threaded with her like childhood story.
How did you combine those things
and. Well,
it's interesting how you how you say it's true.
I think there was something quite interesting in the idea
of of someone
sort of reclaiming something that hurt them and making it
their sort of strength.
And whether it be like in this case, this physical operation
and this this childhood trauma and and and connecting it as well
to to the history within the land and reinterpreting
that history as well.
And again,
reclaiming, I guess, these stories in a way.
Absolutely. And
there were a lot of witches work there up in Scotland.
Yeah, it's really weird as a
like Scotland seems to have
had the highest rate of of of women and men actually,
but mostly women who were prosecuted for
for witchcraft is it's really interesting.
Obviously, people who don't fit in, who don't like
conforming to sex and we like and
sort of get crushed them
and yeah
wow that's that's amazing and obviously
you both have the lead characters you don't fit in in their own right.
You've got, you know, even Desi.
She's a strong, androgynous female character.
And then she starts like the only, like, hopeful character.
For me, she's like the hope of, like, a non-binary, amazing,
sort of different way of, like, progressing these issues.
She feels like this sort of hope to cling on to.
Yeah.
Did you just say the unicorn character?
Yeah, absolutely.
And then when she starts to experience visions,
it's like, oh, she's going to pass the witchcraft on.
She's going to, like, leave the Highlands more powerful than ever. So.
So, Malcolm, you have to then play a character who's not that nice
with the end
credits.
On your point of view.
I mean, he's not.
No, he's not a cuddly kind of character, that's for sure.
And what drew you to the project in the first place?
Well, I like the whole idea
of the script, you know, and
so where he fits in, it is rather interesting.
You know, it's yeah, he's he's a bit of a narcissist, you know,
but I've met people like this a lot.
And what I do tend to make a lot of them
and, you know, I've always found them
sort of fascinating to talk to, interestingly enough.
And and they've always
had amazing experiences, seems to me.
But, you know,
I rather like the way this fitted in with
what Charlotte was trying to do and Alice Krige, you know, and that,
you know, he
does have these guilts about what he did.
I mean,
they're hidden somewhat
and he would deny them
and and, of course, you know, he did
you know, he did sort of seducer in a way in there
because because of what he was doing,
I needed her to deliver for his movie.
And that really was the prime
reason that this happened.
Whatever happened, I'm not even sure myself
whether it was a physical thing or not.
I really I'm not sure even now.
But it doesn't really matter because if it's mental, then it happened, you know?
And I guess Malcolm exactly was like hovering between that line of,
you know, where, where the sort of reality lies, you know, is his guilt sort of,
you know, from his perspective, are we in the world where his guilt is,
what's haunting him or is it or is it actually
Veronica?
And I guess in some ways I see them as something that
to tie in to what you were saying before as well
of this thing of someone who's slightly older
and is coming back at something that that that perhaps happened in their childhood.
And, you know, often seems to be some questioning as to
why now why wait so long and there is will stay
these issues of will say one has to wait for the time
when is strong enough and will say one is able to to confront that.
So I think that was something that was interesting in developing
Veronica's character and absolutely that
there's a line that he says when it's and it always comes up all the time.
It's it's it was a different era back then.
It was a different time.
So does that make it acceptable no matter what he did?
Yeah.
Well, yeah, it is complicated that it is complicated.
And also, you know, you can talk about, you know, Black Lives Matter
or any of these things that want to pull down statues of this, that and the other.
And of course, it was a different era.
And where do you stop?
You know, where do you stop? And
Malcolm, staying in character?
No, I'm.
What are you going to pull down the statue of Winston Churchill?
You know, because he talked about, you know,
whatever it is he talked about as far as empire and stuff.
And of course, it is a different era.
You're going to put Mary Wollstonecraft instead.
And so don't talk to me about
ripping down statues of Winston Churchill.
I get very style of
no, you know,
I don't
think
he'll be holding up impressing Winston Churchill.
Sorry, ganging up on
it's the wet ship.
How is that coming true?
It's like she thinks, you know,
it's a somewhat reminiscent of the interview you do in the film you
gosh so
so the everything always talk about is this beautiful language
that you have with mother earth and mother nature in the film
and women's bodies and like that is I just find it really beautiful.
And I wondered if you could just talk a bit more about using Mother Nature
physically to express her,
her kind of acceptance of her new body.
It's really interesting that you tap on that.
There's actually a whole school of thought that that ties
feminism and environmentalism together.
And actually even the way that agriculture is carried out in a very sort of
like you have been carried out in specific ways like food like
and and all sorts of stuff.
And now is obviously being reinvented.
Is that different way of saying no, it is
not. I mean,
right now we're getting in the land of cocooning
over and flowering really for
meals.
But I'm really thinking of my wife as I'm doing, you know, no more of it.
But as in Mike, as in
as in them, as in actually, you know, in traditional cultures.
And it's just like the relationship to the land and the respect
of like the relationship to the land
and how it's not it's not so much that there's like a misogynistic really,
you know, relationship to plowing or whatever.
It's like, I'm
glad to hear that, but it is a really interesting
relationship of that then
because yeah, if you look back at sort of, you know, different societies
I guess, and their evolution of the relationship to nature, it's
quite interesting that in our societies, which I guess since like
the beginning of the Christianity have evolved in quite patriarchal system,
you know, it has developed with a system
where the land is there to give us and us to take.
And it's kind of interesting
how if you look back at sort of some traditional cultures, that relationship
is more of a give, give or like, you know, it's a more of an exchange.
So there's something kind of interesting, you know, I guess traditionally within
that definitely feel that in the things that we touch on, I guess.
And it's I mean, it's really nice that you picked up on that.
Yeah.
Well, I love the shot of her feet in the piece.
You know,
that whole thing
of going out, you know, and then the
the burning at the stake,
the imagery is very powerful, really.
Is. Yeah, really is.
And like I said, it's been on my mind since I watched it last night
of the movie that yeah.
Because
and it's not just a horror movie in fact that would be the last
the least way I would describe this movie as being a horror movie.
It's not I don't know how you describe it,
giving it the name dream.
You describe it begs the character driven nightmare.
I like that this that is a great what a great way to end this.
You guys have been great. Thank you so much.