A lot of people started asking me about this woman director thing, which I never thought about before. And I'd never really thought about how there aren't really many female directors. I knew it, but I'd never really sat down and thought about the implications of that, and what it meant for a woman to make a movie, and how it's viewed differently when a woman makes a movie about women.

Sophia Takal

Categorized in : People Female Sat

There are a lot of movies about women's psychology, I think almost all of them are directed by men. I mean they all really spoke to me and are amazing movies, but I feel like there's something that they don't understand even if they do a great job.

men mean thinking

I just think it's a really unique thing to women, this weird psychotic jealousy.

psychotic unique thinking

Definitely in movies, girls talk about boys all the time. And even in real life, I feel like a lot of my conversations revolved around - or maybe not now because I'm getting a little older - obsessing over boys.

girl real-life real

All my friends make really small, naturalistic, dialogue-heavy movies, so I'm kind of used to that. I didn't want my movie to be rambly and I didn't want it to be cutesy, or quirky, or clever.

quirky kind clever

I love editing, and I don't mind when things are edited and you can see the editing.

mind

I think a fear of portraying something negatively ends up creating more stereotypes. Like a fear of going into these negative feelings that I have had and a lot of women that I've spoken to have had creates these sort of plasticky women.

feelings negative thinking

I really like Woody Allen, I really like John Cassavetes, and I really like movies that are super-naturalistic. I studied film studies in college, but I slept through all the movies, and I love film but I don't have a lot to reference. And so I don't know what my influences are and I don't know where this came from at all.

influence study college

Growing up and applying to college, I just imagined that I would study acting. But then, once I went to college, I realized I was more interested in all the aspects of filmmaking as opposed to all the aspects of theater, which is what you would have to do if you studied acting at a liberal arts school. And so I thought, "Oh, I'll meet directors and filmmakers, and I'm an actress, so I'll become friends with them and hopefully be in their movies." And then It worked!

growing-up art school