Person to Person, directed by Dustin Guy Defa follows the lives of New York city youth over a one-day period as they navigate through their relationship problems and personal lives.
The film made its theatrical debut on the closing day of the MoMa’s New Directors/New Films 2017 screening at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. We caught up with the cast to find out more on the film and set life below:
Tavi Gevinson, Wendy:
On What attracted her to join the cast:
“I really liked the script and I had met with Dustin and we talked more about the character and I could relate to her and he could too. Like in some ways it might be the stand-in for Dustin in the movie (jokingly), and that kind of feeling of really wanting to experience things in the right way and feeling like ‘am I feeling it yet’ or ‘is this how it’s supposed to feel?’ ad really wanting it because you’re so craving something that is meaningful. So, I just really liked that story and then I loved the way its presented with all these little vignettes.
Stand out moments on set:
“Well one day I got really sick and I threw up and they had to move everything around (laughs.) I’m sorry that was the first thing I thought of. Just shooting around the park and Harlem and the upper west side in the fall like it was just consistently beautiful and Dustin was so easy going and I totally trusted him, just overall warmth.”
You started off writing then moved to on-camera, do you feel more attached to either medium?
“That’s interesting. I mean, they both kind of feed a different thing. I mean the thing with acting is it’s not really up to me when I get to do it because I need people to hire me. So whenever I can, and it’s a project I like then I’m very happy, but it’s nice to have both outlets.”
Dustin Guy Defa, Director:
What was the inspiration behind the conception of Person to Person:
“A lot of it was my relationship was the main actor, well one of the main actors, Bene Coopersmith, who’s an old friends of mine. A lot of it is coming from that, I learned a lot about what it’s like to be a friend and friendship from Benny so I think that’s where it started stemming from and then a lot of it’s just like living in New York and the inner connectedness I feel about people in New York City.”
On whether it was challenging filming in New York City:
“This was a really hard production. I mean it’s ambitious for the budget we had. There were so many different characters. So many different locations it was really hard.”
Okieriete Onaodowan
On what attracted him to ‘Person to Person’:
“I just kind of liked the interweaving of the story and the fact that they’re so different. As well as the fact that it’s sort of like a slice of life for each one, they talk about different people, different things and it sort of reminds you that there’s always someone next to you going through something even if it’s not as connected as you think.”
Stand out moments on set:
“There was one really cool moment in this scene where we had to shoot a basketball and get it into the hoop. And we’re shooting and shooting and I don’t know if they used the tape but there’s one tape where I shot it and it hit the rim, went all the way up, hit a tree, and the actually went into the hoop. It was crazy.”
Ben Rosenfield:
On what attracted him to the project:
“I saw Dustin’s short film, with the same title, ‘Person to Person’, I loved it and then I read the script since that’s always where I start and it was a really excellent script, he was a great writer. Then I met with him, and thought he was a really cool guy.”
On working with Dustin on set:
“It was great, he’s super collaborative. Has a strong voice as a writer and as a director so it was great.”
Stand out moments on set:
“It was pretty fun, there was a scene where we were stuck on the subway and it was pretty fun it was during rush hour.”