The Starling Girl Director On The Power Of Location & Perspective [SXSW]

Writer-director Laurel Parmet makes her feature film debut with The Starling Girl, which has already received positive reviews on the festival circuit and even had its South By Southwest premiere earlier this month. The film follows teenager Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen), who grew up in a fundamentalist Christian community in Kentucky. Her upbringing can be stifling, given the repressed emotions and strict moral codes, but she finds freedom in her love of dance.

Soon, however, she also begins to find freedom and a little more in her feelings for married youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman, fresh off his success in Top Gun: Maverick). While she finds herself swayed by his warmth, Jem’s mother (For All Mankind‘s Wrenn Schmidt) is more distant than ever, while Jem’s father (Pachinko‘s Jimmi Simpson) is busy drowning in his own demons.

Screen Rant spoke to Parmet while she celebrated the film’s SXSW premiere about how her original vision for the film gave way to its final form in the best way, and what kinds of conversations she had with The Starling Girl cast about helping to center Jem’s perspective.

Laurel Parmet on The Starling Girl at SXSW

The Starling Girl (Credit: Phil Parmet)””>

Screen Rant: This was your feature film debut. What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome there?

Laurel Parmet: Oh, God. The biggest? There were a lot. Production-wise, overcoming the schedule limitations and budget limitations was probably the hardest.

I lucked out. I had a great cast, and I had a great team behind me, so I really didn’t have to make too many compromises in terms of my vision. I got most of what I wanted, which was lovely. I think we had the standard limitations that you’re dealing with when you don’t have tons of time. Big picture, probably the largest thing to overcome was COVID. Of course, every film had to deal with those issues. We were originally supposed to shoot the film in 2020, and we were all ready to go, and then COVID hit. We held onto all of our pieces for about a year, and then everything kind of fell apart, which was a very difficult time.

But ultimately, I’m so glad that it happened that way because those two years really gave me time to develop as an artist. I wrote two screenplays for hire in those two years, so I became a stronger writer. It gave me more time to think about how I wanted to direct the film, so that was really beneficial. And then we brought on new financial partners, and these new people really believed in me and my vision and supported me wholeheartedly. Really, the second time around was the best version of the film that it could have been. Our cast was amazing, our location was amazing, and our partners were amazing.

Speaking of the location, I read that you almost filmed in New Zealand, which was wild to me location is such an important part of the story. How would you say that being in Kentucky influenced the later stages and actual production of the film?

Laurel Parmet: New Zealand was short-lived. New Zealand was the only place that didn’t have any COVID, and we were like, “God, where can we shoot? We could try to shoot there.” But ultimately, Kentucky ended up being the best choice. It was so lush and green and beautiful, and I really wanted that to be the look of the film. And it was a very warm film community too, which was lovely to be welcomed into.

The film is set in a community that is oppressed at the times, but I didn’t want to push that visually so much, because we get it. It’s a difficult place to grow up in for Jem at times, and I didn’t need to hit the audience over the head with that visually. I wanted to offer another side of her world that is beautiful, because there’s a lot that’s really lovely about tight-knit communities and about faith and about growing up in a place outside of a mainstream city. I wanted to show an audience that side of it, and the incredible landscapes of Kentucky really helped to provide that.

Also, Jem is getting swept up in this romance, and she’s feeling a lot of exciting things. I think a really beautiful, lush world helps to express visually what’s going on inside of her and helps bring the audience on that ride.

I also love how complicated the dynamics are with her parents. You see the ways in which they too are being oppressed by their community, but it’s peripheral because the story is told through Jem’s eyes. How do you work with Wrenn and Jimmi on their characters, and that dynamic with Jem?

Laurel Parmet: Everybody understood from the beginning that it was Jem’s story. It’s in the script, and it’s something that I expressed from the beginning, that the film is set entirely from Jem’s perspective. We, the audience, are experiencing what she’s experiencing. I think that is how the film works ultimately, because you are able to be taken on this ride where maybe sometimes you are rooting for this relationship because it’s what Jem wants. I think that would be harder to achieve if it wasn’t through her perspective.

Every decision that we made, and that the actors made too, was really at the service of helping to make sure that the film was set in her headspace. Those were conversations that I had with all the actors really early on and that everyone was very supportive of. But also, Wrenn and Jimmi are incredible actors, and we developed the characters and gave them specific intentions when we rehearsed. And I think what was lovely is that all of the cast were able to see themselves in these characters.

The important thing to all of us was that, especially with the parents, the audience could feel for them too. We don’t want them to feel like they’re villains, or to stand back from afar watching these people judgmentally. I want you to get wrapped up in their stories and see yourself in their struggles. And Wrenn and Jimmi were so good at bringing humanity to these characters. They are people who love their families, and who believe that they are doing what’s right, even if maybe we don’t agree with them at all times. But every decision that they make is out of love. For them, God is love, and they’re interchangeable. It’s not like, “I’m doing this for God” versus “I’m doing this for my daughter.” It’s one and the same.

The shot with the fireflies is one of the most beautiful in the film. How do you find such perfect shots? There’s so much natural beauty in the film, but how much of that is waiting for exactly 7:05pm versus working in the moment however it shakes out?

Laurel Parmet: God, it’s really a combination of both. It’s about prepping as much as you can. First and foremost, it’s finding the right locations, because that’s huge. That informed so much of the look of the film, and we spent a long time trying to find the right locations and really didn’t settle, which I’m really proud of.

Then it’s prepping like hell, working with my cinematographer, shot-listing, and thinking about what we want to say with the camera. And then it’s me going and rehearsing with actors and seeing what they do. I never want to confine their movements to where I want to place the camera; that’s just not really how I work. It’s letting them explore, and if we’re lucky to get into the space beforehand, that’s great. If not, it’s still letting them figure out the blocking, and then just being so prepared that on the day, we’re very clear what our plan is. If something amazing pops up, we’re able to pivot, and it just makes you limber. Or if something comes up where we can’t do what we wanted, prepping lets us be limber.

And with the fireflies, part of it is the schedule too. We knew that we wanted to shoot that scene at a twilight-y time of day. I just love how Kentucky looks in twilight, with all of that green and blue coming through the leaves and reflecting off of the leaves. It gives almost this otherworldly quality. We knew we wanted it to be twilight, and twilight does not last very long. Part of that was also that we chose a location that was completely covered by trees, because that gives you just a little bit of leeway in terms of the changing light. The light changes so fast at that time of day. I was hoping that fireflies would show up, and they did, and that was great. If they didn’t show up, it would’ve been okay, but I’m really glad they did because it just made that scene feel a little bit more otherworldly.

Now that you’ve made Starling Girl, are you looking to direct more, write more, or only direct what you write?

Laurel Parmet: God, all of the above. I think I’ll always be self-generating because I do love to write. I’ve only directed things I’ve written so far, so that’s all I know, and it makes you that much more connected to it. I’m thinking about directing when I’m writing.

But I would love to direct something that I didn’t write if it’s a great script, or to adapt a story would be amazing too. I’d also love to collaborate with other writers. I haven’t found my writing partner yet, but that would be a dream to have a go-to person to write things with. That would be amazing.

I know you’ve said that the film was in part inspired by your own experiences. How did that affect maybe your way of directing Eliza or what you wanted her to bring to the role of Jem?

Laurel Parmet: It’s interesting. I hadn’t thought about that specifically. It’s kind of about wearing different hats. When I was writing the script, that was something that I was thinking about a lot. And when I was visualizing and prepping and looking for references as I was getting ready to direct, that’s something I was thinking about a lot.

But when I was actually directing, I didn’t have time to think about my own past. I took off that hat and put on the directing hat, and it just became about the practicalities of achieving the vision. But I’m sure it informed the direction.

Eliza and I had a lot of conversations about ways into the character, and why she is attracted to Owen. I’m sure my experiences subconsciously influenced our discussions and how we broke down the character, but I didn’t want to bring in my direct experiences to inform how she played Jem. I wanted her to make the character her own and to really give her permission to do what she needed to create the character.

Was there any scene that shifted the most from your vision, even if it’s for the better, in the final result?

Laurel Parmet: Yeah, there were definitely a couple. And I love when that happens too. That’s the magic alchemy of filmmaking, when things change and they turn out for the better.

Actually, the biggest one that comes to mind is the firefly scene. That was written differently. The two characters were connecting in the woods and talking about faith, and then they talk about dancing. It was written that they start dancing together, and he is mirroring her movements. We were rehearsing it, getting ready to shoot it, and it didn’t feel right. It felt twee and too cutesy. It didn’t feel like the tone of the rest of the film.

I had to go off for a second and think about it and talk to my DP, and I also talked to our amazing AD. I was just thinking, “Hmm, I don’t like this. What can I do differently?” I talked with Lewis and Eliza, and we came up with just stripping it back. We didn’t need to have a moment where they were dancing together. We found strength in silent moments instead, which to me made that scene more powerful.

And then Eliza was like, “But I still really love the moment where there’s a little bit of copying of the dancing.” She suggested that we have one moment of that, which we do, where she raises up her arms and he does the same. Then she’s embarrassed, and she slaps herself, and he slaps himself too. That’s so much cuter and specific and such a better idea. That’s one of my favorite scenes in the movie now. I’ll always take the better idea, even if it’s not my own. Ultimately, turned out way better than it was on the page.

I love Austin Abrams, and he’s so much fun in this. How did that casting come about?

Laurel Parmet: Oh my God, I love him. He auditioned the first time back in 2020. I watched him, and I was like, “Who is this weirdo?” And then I realized that he was the cute guy from Euphoria, and I was like, “That’s insane.” Austin is a genius, and he’s really able to take on and inhabit any role.

But it was an amazing audition, so I met with him, and I just knew. He is also just a great guy, and that is really important to me too. I want to surround myself with people who are lovely people and who are passionate about the work, which he really is. He went all out.

Vaseline was always in the script, but he went out to buy his own little Vaseline tub because he wanted to make it his own. The haircut was his suggestion. There was one point where he was talking about getting a hearing aid, and we were like, “No, that’s maybe too much for the character”. But he disappears into every role and is so wonderful; he’s so good at what he does.

About The Starling Girl

Seventeen-year-old Jem Starling struggles to define her place in rural Kentucky’s fundamentalist Christian community. Even her greatest joy of dancing with the church group is tempered by worry that her actions are sinful and she is caught between a burgeoning awareness of her own sexuality and her religious devotion. With the return of Owen, an enigmatic youth pastor, Jem soon finds herself attracted to his worldliness and charm. Slowly, he draws her into a dangerous relationship that could upend their entire community.

Check out our other The Starling Girl interviews here:

• Eliza Scanlen
• Lewis Pullman
• Laurel Parmet
• Jimmi Simpson
• Wrenn Schmidt
• Red Carpet at Sundance

The Starling Girl premiered on March 12 at SXSW, and Bleecker Street will begin releasing it in theaters on May 12.