When an acclaimed music producer goes off his medication for schizophrenia, his friends chase him through the LA music scene to help commit him to a psychiatric hospital, revealing the troubling inadequacies of our mental health care system.
We spoke with the cast on the red carpet of the premiere of Lost Transmissions at the Tribeca Film Festival. Check out our interviews below.
The Knockturnal: Can you talk briefly about what inspired the movie?
Katharine O’Brien: Yes well, mental illness is something that I’ve dealt with in my family, growing up and in different times in my life, and it’s inspired by some events that I went through with a group of friends in Los Angeles where there was a group of people that were trying to help my friend who had gone off his medication. And it really revealed to me the struggle it can be to get somebody help, even when there’s a support network round them, that your hands can be tied. So it’s something that I realized was really important to tell.
The Knockturnal: How did your film school background prepare you for this feature?
Katharine O’Brien: Well, I went to school here in New York. I went to Columbia, so it was a really great place to really further deepen my love for cinema. There’s incredible professors there, for example, Eric Mendelsohn, and Bette Gordon are staples of you know the New York film history. And Columbia specifically really focuses on story, and I feel like that’s my strength, that my it’s is in the narrative storytelling aspect. And that was invaluable because it’s such a special skill to have.
The Knockturnal: Do Simon and Juno both play UK characters?
Katharine O’Brien: Juno uses her impeccable American accent. I didn’t even know that she was British. Simon plays a British character living in Los Angeles. And it’s about how they are trying to get him home to London. So he uses his English accent.
The Knockturnal: How important do you think film festivals are?
Katharine O’Brien: Oh, I think they are so important. As a female filmmaker, these institutions allow the space to really allow women to perform equally.
The Knockturnal: And one last thing, what are you hoping people take away from your film?
Katharine O’Brien: I’m really hoping that it’s going to open up a conversation about mental illness. I really hope that it’s going to help people see that people with mental illness are just a person. Somebody’s friend or daughter, a full human being that just has a certain condition. And just needs certain type of help.
The Knockturnal: Speak about delving into this character?
Simon Pegg: It was important for me to get this portrayal right. It was a priority of mine to actually find out what schizophrenia was. It’s an often misunderstood condition, people think it’s about having multiple personalities or it’s even referred to comedically sometimes, in society we use it in our language, “They’re a bit schizo,” it’s something that’s trivialized quite a lot, but I wanted to get the portrayal right, so I went and spoke to people with the condition who had survived it, who were living with it, and that was a really important part of getting ready to do the movie.
The Knockturnal: How was your collaboration with Juno?
Simon Pegg: Oh I love Juno, we hit it off straight away. We’d never met before we started rehearsing, I knew her through mutual friends, I knew of her, but it was a delight to actually get to work with her. She’s an extraordinary talent and a genuine force of nature, it’s lovely to meet people and have that connection straight away.
The Knockturnal: Can you talk about working with writer/director Katharine some more?
Simon Pegg: Katharine is an amazingly assured and intelligent director, I think it’s probably ’cause she was born in Santa Barbara which is incredibly laid back, she has that sort of beach cool about her when everything’s very zen, and it helps to create a very creative atmosphere on set. She knows exactly what she wants, she’s got an extremely precise vision, and as an actor you really need that, you know. I was impressed and felt very safe when I was working with her, I didn’t feel like this was a first time director that I had to kind of look after in any way, I just sat back and let her direct me and it was a delight.
The Knockturnal: And what was the most challenging part of the role?
Simon Pegg: I think just the subject matter, you know, it was trying to portray a character who’s in such pain and still make him human and also communicate the notion that people who have this are still people, and need to be helped.
The Knockturnal: And what do you have coming next?
Simon Pegg: Dark Crystal’s coming up and I did a little guest spot in The Boys … And got another two Mission Impossibles lined up for next year and a couple of indies in the pipeline, and I’m developing something with Nick Frost, yeah of course, which we’ll hopefully shoot this year.
The Knockturnal: Speak about your role in the film.
Daisy Bishop: I played Frankie in the role, the pregnant woman, I’m friends with Simon’s character.
The Knockturnal: How was working with Simon?
Daisy Bishop: It was incredible, he kept the energy so positive on set, from the second I met him he was just like “let’s all just do our best, put everything out there, and make a great movie”.
The Knockturnal: The subject matter is serious. Can you speak about that?
Daisy Bishop: Sure, I mean, I think the interesting thing is you can actually find some comedy in the darkness, which is what I love about this film, and I think that’s the same thing with real life, you always can find the comedy in those dark moments.
The Knockturnal: Absolutely, and what else do you have coming up that you’d like to talk about?
Daisy Bishop: I have a movie called Mosquito State coming up.
The Knockturnal: How did you get your start in acting?
Daisy Bishop: Well I went to University of Michigan, BFA acting programs, studied at NYU’s CAP21, pre-college Musical Theater program, and this is my debut movie, so I’m really excited to be here!
The Knockturnal: How was collaborating with the director?
Daisy Bishop: Katharine is like my soul sister, she’s just so incredibly kind, and she really listens to everything you have to say about the role, and she wants everyone to do a great job, she really brought the best performance out of everyone, I really truly believe.
