The Story Behind "Womanhood"

The creation of this film is quite an interesting story - It was definitely a script that took a long time to write and get right. Now as I write this, I am days away from editing this film that quickly became a screenplay I was not only passionate about, but I had also pushed myself outside my writing comfort zone.

In the early stages, I wrote this as part of my Screenwriting Module at university, where I had to write a twenty-five minute drama. Ironically, the first premise for this was vastly different - Unlike the final draft, the script was originally going to feature the three main characters on a night out (Night Out was even the title) and they would hardly interact. My issue with this was that I had three characters who were related and even lived together, but never had a scene together. Instead, I decided to have the family dynamic be the core of the narrative.

When I began writing Womanhood, there were many people who helped and supported me through the writing process. One of these people was my mother, who I have an incredibly close relationship with and was able to really get into in depth discussions. My mother specifically helped with writing Susan and Rebecca and their relationship, the discussions were both insightful and hilarious. Other people were my lecturer Toby, who gave really good critical feedback, which really assisted in developing the script and giving it the maturity that it needed. Others included Scriptwriting students who were immensely helpful throughout the writing process and we were all critical of each other's work.

The style of the film was inspired by John Donally's play "The Pass". More specifically, the claustrophobic feel of the scenes. Having your lead characters stuck in a place or room together, where they are forced to interact despite their feelings toward each other was fascinating to me as a writer. It also made sense in terms of the narrative - it was a family drama, so it felt logical that the family were together in the house they had all been raised in. Plus as this was a very female based drama, I was inspired by the melodramas by Pedro Almodóvar as I had recently studied two of his films - All About My Mother (1990) and Talk to Her (2002) - when I began writing this.

It was a long writing process, but the script did get an A- and I was happy with that grade. I did not have any plans straight away to make this into a film - I especially didn't think I would be directing it a few months later, but as my producer Will Banister was eager to collaborate on another film, Womanhood felt like the perfect piece to bring to screen.

During our very early discussions in pre-production, one of the first things I said to Will was "This is a performance film. If we don't have good actors, it really isn't going to work."

So, no pressure there - but the first priority was getting a crew assembled before we had the cast. Shooting People was an absolutely brilliant asset in getting the people we needed for this film - I would highly recommend the site to any filmmaker or actor who is looking to work with serious and passionate people for film or theatre.

When we were looking for our cinematographer, I had several DOPs contact me with interest but they didn't really capture my interest with their vision for the film - mainly due to the fact they just informed me of their equipment they had for filming. Once Neal Parsons applied for the position, I was impressed by his showreel and when he read the script, he really pitched his vision for the film and included some great film examples (which included stills from 45 Years, Julietta and 20th Century Women). We collaborated well together and he had great thoughts and ideas on how we would film certain scenes. When on set, we worked closely together and I completely trusted his vision, but he always would check with me on certain shots where I physically couldn't get to the set (i.e. upstairs bedroom scenes) and I would give direction to him and the actors before and after the shoots.

When Matt Shaw applied for the position of sound operator, I was confident with his work ethic and experience on previous productions he had worked on. He and Neal were the first two crew members who were confirmed for Womanhood.

Will had recruited our first and second camera assistants, I had recruited two makeup students and our editor Ayesha Seaton - who I had worked with on films in university and was confident in her ability to edit this film. Every crew member was terrific to work with on set.

As for the script, there were changes that it went through. There were flashbacks of younger versions of Rebecca and Susan, but the actresses who auditioned really weren't right for the respective roles and I decided to cut those scenes and instead write a scene between Rebecca and Alexis which explored their relationship as mother and daughter. There were other scenes that were rewritten or changed, which was mostly due to practical and technical issues.

The casting was a long process and we had many actors express an interest in the roles, but I was mainly interested in the performance and what the actors could bring to the characters.

Rebecca - played by Aurora Fearnley

An emotionally complex woman. Rebecca has lived a very unfulfilled life, harbouring resentment towards her mother from her childhood and struggles to bond with her daughter. As she has multiple affairs to stop herself from feeling numb, one of these encounters comes back to haunt her.

Rebecca was the anti-heroine of the story and finding the right actress to play such a flawed but empathetic character was very important to me. There were a number of actresses who applied for this role who either dropped out, were not right for the role or didn't respond at all, so I began to worry that we would not find the lead actress. Aurora Fearnley applied for the role while she was in Sydney for a film festival where her own short film "Struck" (which she directed) was being screened and our main conversations were via email while she travelled from festivals in Sydney to Edinburgh.

Once Aurora and I got a chance to Skype, I was very impressed with how much she understood the character and her ideas to express who she was and why Rebecca was so damaged. We had spoken in depth about the role and the plans for the shoot, the main issue was availability as she had been cast in a feature film the week we were filming. When her agent gave his approval of the script and we were given days Aurora was available, we were fortunate enough to be able to book her for the role.

Aurora gave an absolutely terrific performance on set. She really captured the vulnerability of the character and she rarely needed direction and was a delight to work with on set.

Susan - played by Pat Garrett

The matriarch of the family. Kind and caring, she has raised both her daughter and granddaughter. A very independent and together woman, she takes no nonsense. However, she can turn nasty if someone hurts someone she cares about and she is hiding a devastating secret.

Finding the perfect actress for Susan was a similar challenge when casting Rebecca. We had a fair few actresses who applied for the role and even auditioned. When Pat first submitted her audition tape, I noticed that she had a quiet anger in how she performed an emotionally charged scene which I thought was surprisingly effective.

There were three actresses who were seriously under consideration for the role, Pat was chosen for the role and I was very happy with that casting. Pat and I had a long phone call where we discussed the role of Susan and the script, where she was absolutely lovely to speak with and very passionate about the project.

As she had a theatre production where she was playing one of the leading roles, Pat was given a rest day on the first day of filming as her last show was on the Sunday. When Pat arrived on set, she was so warm and nice to everyone, but surprised many people as soon as the camera started rolling and she embodied the fiery grandmother Susan.

Pat was another great casting, she was a pleasure to work with and was genuinely one of the nicest actors I've worked with.

Alexis - played by Anastasia Drew

The brains of the family, a compassionate and determined young woman. She is the exact opposite of her mother, preferring books over boys. She sees her grandmother as a mother figure and her mother as more of a sister.

When we began our search for Alexis, there were many girls who auditioned for the role, but from early on Anastasia Drew was one of the favourites for the part. Her audition tape captured the authenticity of the character and gave her the underlying emotion and vulnerability of such a strong character.

Working with Anastasia on developing the character was a great process. We had detailed discussions through email where we discussed the relationships within the Cooper family and the romance between Alexis and Jake. She also researched the books that her character reads to get a greater understanding of Alexis's character. Anastasia gave Alexis a strength in her performance, going from happy and compassionate to heartbroken and furious with complete ease and confidence in her acting.

Working on set with her was brilliant, she took direction really well (although she rarely needed it) and was a great addition to the cast. We had a lovely conversation at the end of the shoot about how much the script spoke to her, especially with the women being the leads and how they were complex humans rather than objects in the story. That was one of the nicest compliments I had received as a writer.

All three women were a joy to work with, both on set and off. The way they brought these characters to life was terrific and they had amazing chemistry together.

Jake - played by Jonathan Jude

A rare combination of looks and brains. He's a happy go-lucky type of lad and is smitten with his new girlfriend. He's originally excited about meeting her family, but when he discovers a previous connection to the family, his new relationship is suddenly in jeopardy.

While we were casting the three female leads, finding the right actor to play the male love interest was the hardest casting of all the roles. When I wrote Jake's character, I really wanted to avoid the "jock stereotype" and get the emotional layers of the character.

However, the actors who auditioned for the part were really not right for the role - either they were too old for the role, unreliable or gave very poor performances in their audition tapes. Admittedly, this became more disheartening as the weeks progressed and none of the actors were capturing what I envisioned for the role. A consistent issue with these actors was their nerves and how apparent they were in their auditions. This was truly problematic as one of the key characteristics for Jake was his confidence and charisma, but there were undertones of darkness to him.

We reached a breakthrough when we had an audition from an actor who did a great audition and we later cast after a detailed Skype talk about the character. The downside was two weeks later he was cast in a TV pilot and the schedules conflicted with our shoot, which was totally understandable and he was sincerely apologetic. He will definitely be someone I will hopefully work with on a future production.

There were two actors after this who were really promising and good actors, but one was abroad at the time we wanted to finalise casting and the other didn't feel right for this role but would be ideal for a different character in another film.

I was put in contact with Jonathan Jude once we had cast Aurora, who she recommended as she had worked with him in workshops in the past. Jon and I spoke on the phone after he read the script and he was extremely passionate about the character and was very excited about the prospect of working on this film.

After a successful audition, Jon was officially cast. He was very keen to develop ideas and had notes for every scene he was in. Working with Jon was also great, especially when we were able to play around with different styles of acting in scenes.

Jonathan was a fantastic addition to the cast and brought a real depth and maturity to Jake's character. Since we wrapped, I have kept in touch with the cast and crew on a personal level and I've had the absolute pleasure to review Jon's award-wining LGBTQ short Him & Her and his Lockdown series - Happy Epidemic - set during the pandemic.

Mark and Mark's Wife - played by Paul Dewdney & Nicola Wright

Finding these actors was a challenge, especially considering one character only had two lines of dialogue and the other was a non-speaking roles.

Mark's character is Rebecca's married lover. She has no emotional connection to him, which intentionally flipped the role of the mistress. This scene was the most visual in terms of storytelling, so finding the right actor to convey such emotion in a short space of time was vital.

A lot of actors were not keen on the character Mark, especially considering the part was so small. When Paul came onto the production, we had probably the longest Skype conversation I have had with an actor. His passion and interest in the script was great to hear and he was very much intrigued by how the final shooting script would turn out - he thought the story and relationships in the screenplay was perfectly written and he felt that Mark was relevant in his own way. As he said "There are no small roles in films" and he was excited about the prospect of working on the film.

Although I only worked with Paul's character Mark on one scene, it was a great privilege to work with an actor who was so involved. Before we filmed their scene, I discussed Rebecca and Mark's history with Aurora and Paul where we developed the dynamic and how they should play it on screen. As Paul has worked on many films, it was wonderful to have him on set and despite it being a small role, he showed real focus and dedication to the role.

Nicola Wright originally was in talks for playing Susan after Paul recommended her and she did really like the script. However, we had just cast Pat for the role and as Nicola had such passion for the project, I offered her the cameo role of Mark's Wife as it was still a role that was crucial to the narrative. Nicola was more than happy to make an appearance in the film and with some very talented editing, we were able to create a photo of Nicola and Mark as a "happy couple".

It was great to make contact with these actors, who were both excited and passionate about their roles within the film. I would definitely love to work with these actors again in future productions.

Writing a script is one thing, but directing it is a completely different experience. From early on, it was agreed I would solely be directing this film. This was a first for me, as I had only co-directed or just written the screenplay in previous productions. This was the first professional production I had worked on, which I knew would be very different from films I had worked on in university or college - the quality of work and focus would be much higher.

I was slightly nervous to be honest, but by the time we began filming I had spoken with and gotten to know the cast and crew well. I worked well with everyone (as previously said, but everyone did a fantastic job) and the dynamic with the cast and crew was a very comfortable working environment.

In the past, I had learned that writing dialogue and actors speaking the words don't always flow as naturally when reading the words at first. However, the dialogue in this film worked extremely well for the actors (However, Jonathan did struggle with "English Literature Lecture" which was changed to English Language Lecture). The actors worked extremely well together and had natural chemistry on set and built genuine friendships off camera.

With directing, I was very hands on, but there were scenes that I could not be on set for - this was mainly due to being unable to get my wheelchair upstairs. We worked around this extremely well, the cinematographer and actors would film some shots and get my feedback and direction before continuing. I wanted to give the actors the freedom to bring their own take on their characters, but we would always have discussions on the narrative and characters' relationships in that particular scene.

My disability was never made an issue and people were comfortable enough to ask about it. This was something that was very reassuring and I was able to work effectively with a cast and crew who not only had faith and trust in my opinion on a professional level, but were completely at ease with me on a personal level. I never see my disability as a negative - which is why I'm speaking about this experience in a positive way and working with everyone on this film was a brilliant learning experience both as a screenwriter and director.

In 2019, WOMANHOOD received terrific feedback at its debut in the Watford Short Film Festival - praised for its feminist portrayal of women and the ambiguity of the narrative similar to Virginia Andrews’ “Flowers in the Attic”, many critics were eager for a sequel or feature length version.

I was pleased with the response from our first festival and thankful once again to the talented cast and crew. Later that year, WOMANHOOD was officially been nominated for Best Ensemble with our superb cast Aurora Fearnley, Pat Garrett, Ana Drew, Jonathan Jude and Paul Dewdney at the Prodigy 2019 Film Festival.

This has definitely been an insane year, but I have used the opportunity to write more and I am optimistic that I'll be able to document my writing chronicles in 2021 and onwards.