One of the highlights of the Charlotte Film Festival in September was the screening of Your Monster, a genre-bending horror rom-com. But if you missed it, don’t worry. You’ve got another chance to catch this gem on the big screen. The film has returned for a run at The Independent Picture House.
Tommy Dewey, who plays Monster and is an executive producer, came to the festival screening and answered audience questions afterward with Program Director Taylor Montalto. If you want to see the talkback — and many others! — check out IPH’s YouTube page.
An edited excerpt from the transcript:
Taylor Montalto: Where did you draw inspiration from for portraying the monster?
Tommy Dewey: That mask does a lot of work. It’s this guy, Dave Anderson [special effects makeup designer], who’s got a couple of Oscars and waved his fee to do this movie, which is incredible. He’s done Eddie Murphy’s stuff for years, and so he and I started collaborating pretty early. We had a lunch before he officially signed on. I had lunch with him and Caroline [Lindy, the film’s writer and director] and Dave’s wife, who works with him, and Dave sat at the lunch. I ate and talked. Dave said nothing and just sketched the whole time. Just drew me eating and carrying on and whatever the hell I was doing and went away and came back with some ideas.
The feeling was if I tried to act Monster, it would kind of be a hat on a hat. So I just brought all my faculties as a snarky lethario to the part, then the rest kind of synced up. Caroline wanted me to really just play the stakes of the scene and play the romance as if you were a human falling in love with Laura. It was a big swing, but I think it worked.
It did for me. Did you revisit any classical films or texts to help with your performance?
I really didn’t. I don’t like a lot of noise in that way. There’s a book called Rage Becomes Her that Caroline had given me, which was source material for her. And so to an extent I am playing a woman’s rage. I’m not a woman and needed some help. And the book, in terms of getting into the psychology and the corners we paint women into and how terrible a patriarchy can be, did kind of help me find a way through.
But I think once I’m a few months out from something like that, watching anything, doing anything, I’m really afraid that I’ll start regurgitating it as opposed to making it organic to what we’re making. So yeah, I can’t say I watched anything. I mean I like all those movies, but there’s not one thing that comes to mind that I was sort of basing anything on.
How was the transition from short form to long form with the story? You’ve been with it for so long now.
It’s a great question. It was four or five years before we were off and running with the feature version of it. It was developed as a TV show in between the short and the feature, and that dead-ended because I don’t know what Season Two, once Monster is out in the world, I don’t know what you do, and all the markers are in the short.
The feature is way more romantic. I think you saw the short. He’s more of a mentor, sort of monster friend in the closet. He doesn’t get quite as dark. Obviously you’ve got to make it more operatic when you move to the big screen and feature form. I don’t know that we knew it was going to look like that, but once Melissa [Barrera, who plays Laura] and I started reading it with Caroline, it started to feel like this sweeping romance.
My favorite part of this movie is just how oddly romantic it is. It’s almost, there’s more romance stuff in this movie than a movie has any right to bear. There’s Shakespeare and singing and lovemaking and everything in between. “Lovemaking.” Never said that in my life. First time, folks, first time that I uttered the word “lovemaking.” But yeah, that’s the main thing. And then none of Laura out in the world. The short for obvious reasons takes place in the house. There may be one shot outside, I don’t remember, but we had to put her into the larger world and see her operating there. Then at one point I think she was a cellist. That didn’t quite feel grand enough. We wanted that big ending, and luckily we found this incredible theater in New Jersey that would have us.
By the way, they’re releasing the music for this. There’s more music than is in this. So I do want to say, shamelessly, that this thing is in several hundred screens on Oct. 25. It’s kind of a miracle. Please go with your friends. Little movies in movie theaters just doesn’t happen anymore. So we’re really excited about that. …
Audience Member: Did you have a personal favorite scene to film and what do you most hope people take away from the film?
Great questions, and I can talk about this all day. It’s hard to name a personal favorite. I do really like the scene that has the Shakespeare in the middle of it. It was hard work, talk about not improvising, and it really set the stage. We were shooting almost sequentially in the house. So when we got to that and we felt like that was working, it was a sense of like, oh, maybe we have something here. So it was a really satisfying scene. It probably wasn’t the most fun to shoot, but if I had to rank them, it would maybe be that.
Caroline should answer this question, but I think what the team would like people to take away would be that rage is ok. I think society tells women to be polite, be nice, you shouldn’t be mad. We let men be mad. Well, f*ck that. And I think this movie is saying that and hopefully the right way. Don’t go out and kill your boyfriend. You don’t have to take it that far.
I hope people come out of the movie and think you can make an old — it’s not a purely classic movie, obviously it’s got some twists and some darkness in the end — but let’s make big sweeping romantic movies again. It just makes my heart swell. I’ve seen the thing 15 times. I would love people to come out a little lighter on their feet also, which is a weird juxtaposition given the first part of my answer, but that’s what I’m feeling. …