“Be gay do crime” That was the motto of the ‘Wild Ones’ and ‘Bound’ red carpet for the Tribeca Film Festival.
The mood with everyone was a celebration of queer joy. As Bound was celebrating its 30th anniversary, director Lilly Wachowski used the celebration to boost another queer filmmaker, Leo DiSantis, and their short film Wild Ones. Executive produced by Lilly Wachowski, Wild Ones is a queer crime short film programmed to precede Bound, as such the cast and crew of Wild Ones got to share the red carpet with the reunited Bound cast.
Writer/director Leo DiSantis, cinematographer Maddy Talias, and composer Kinlaw. DiSantis discussed their influence from films like Goodfellas and Snatch, and their overall dedication to having fun during the filmmaking process and embracing the chaos that comes from collaborating artistically. Their energy was infectious, perfectly matching the tone of both films.
While discussing what motivated them to make the short, DiSantis said, “My friends who are my brilliant collaborators are always looking for work that speak to our true lived experienced as queer people and trans people, and it’s never quite hit, it’s always something didactic [the funny best friend] and that’s the central theme for that person’s reason for being in the story. No, there’s so much else that happens in life to everyone, let’s let this just be a part of the total experience of that character and see how much more fun we can have…and tell a be gay to crime story.” They went on to describe the joy being writing the irreverent dialogue and the fun they had with Maddy Talias shooting the action scenes. Both Talias and Kinlaw built on DiSantis’ energy, discussing embracing the chaotic energy of the short and the goal for the short to act as a proof of concept for the feature.
Regarding Bound, The Knockturnal with Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, both of whom were enthusiastic to share memories of working together. Both Gershon and Tilly discussed their immediate initial chemistry when working together, making it easier for their relationship to bloom in the film.
(By The Knockturnal)
When describing developing their relationship, Gershon said, “Jennifer and I got along from day one. I went to go meet her because I wasn’t sure who was gonna do what, I needed to know we could…as soon as she starting talking like this [as she does an impression of Tilly] and I watched her…she’s easy, our problem is we don’t stop talking…we always have each other’s back.” Tilly also described how working with Gershon felt playful, “I was very lucky to get Gina, she’s very generous as an actress…we had a report right off the bat. We’d hang out in the trailer, eat donuts before our first kissing scene and she’d be like ‘Jennifer I have tequila!’ so we’d do shots of tequila! In between the sex scenes we’d talk about the shoe sales at Barney’s”
Jennifer further described how because she got to work with a female co-star for love scenes, they could have each other’s back during the choreography and come up with playful ideas.
