5 Questions with Grace Rex ("The Voices")

1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?

I came to it through my work as an actor. I work mostly in film and television, generally doing things like guest stars and supporting roles, and my experiences are fun but often fleeting. I was longing to feel more immersed in a creative process, so in my twenties my actor friends and I started making little projects to keep us happy and engaged between gigs. I started with some writing and producing and when I got more confident I tried directing my own scripts. Somewhere in there I fell in love with the medium, with the breadth of the process. I still wear the filmmaker label warily.  It’s a new hat! But I’m attached to it. More so than in the acting work I’ve done, I’m starting to see myself and my worldview reflected back to me through my film projects. Having that kind of agency in my pursuits is thrilling and comforting. I think it’s made me a better actor, too. 

2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?

Last summer I was starting to write a feature script while peddling around this short I’d spent several years making.  It was a slog. And it was so quiet in my little world! Like many people I know, I was spending an obscene amount of time alone. It was quiet in the room but inside my head things were very loud a lot of the time. The project was a simple way of addressing my internal discord which, in lieu of pre-pandemic distractions, has been more prevalent for me this past year. So it both temporarily wrangled my brain and allowed me to complete something during a period of stagnancy. 

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?

I can’t think of anything that was all that difficult. Grace Palmer, the editor, had a hard time finding parking outside of my apartment when we had work hangs. I think that was challenging for her.  It all came together pretty quickly. I developed some ideas and thought up a structure for the movie at home. Then I called up my pal Derrick and said,  “Derrick, I don’t have Covid. Do you want to help me with this thing?”  He said something like, “Yeah sure. I don’t have Covid either.  You can come flop around in my studio while I point a light at you.” He is a one-man filmmaking band, both equipment and skill-wise, so it was a self-contained and efficient shoot. He even made me a Negroni when we wrapped. Grace Palmer is the most pleasant person to be around and a great editor.  Dan Rosato is a pleasure to work with, so talented, and made some time to mix it for us. It was smooth sailing and I was just happy to be collaborating with friends. 

4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

I watched Allan King’s documentary A Married Couple for the first time last spring and watched it again recently. I think it’s so uniquely intimate. I don’t know how they facilitated this couple being unabashedly themselves while cameras were present for the unraveling of their marriage but I really felt like a fly on the wall. They perform for one another but not for us, and they're very entertaining people even when they're abusing one another. So good. So complicated. 

5) What’s next for you?

I made a short called Others that is finishing its festival run, so I’m starting to plan its on-line release. Otherwise, I’m plugging away at that feature script I mentioned. 

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gracerex.com | IG: @ofcatsandmilk | Twitter: @ohgracerex