“I wanted to start with an intensely personal story”, says Stacie Passon, a talented filmmaker presenting her debut feature feature film Concussion. And personal it certainly is, as a poignant, intimate exploration of a middle-aged woman’s lust for something new, something exciting, to remove her from the tedium of a middle class suburbia.
When speaking to the director, Passon speaks candidly about the project, and what inspired her to tackle such themes. She also tells us how she can relate to the lead role, and her joy working with the actress Robin Wiegert. She also talks about her portrayal of lesbian sex in the movie, and compares it to the contentious display in Blue is the Warmest Colour, claiming that female directors perhaps have more licence in such an area.
What inspired you to make Concussion?
There was a certain, ‘what the heck am I doing with life?’ feeling about it, and I was really excited about the concept of a lesbian hooker, I thought that was a classic character. Not in the conventional sense, but a classic character, like a superhero, or whatever.
There is a Stepford Wives feel about this modern suburbia – is it a world you know well yourself?
I know a lot of people in that world, and I’m one of those people myself. When I think about the subject matter I’m taking on, there has to be some sort of personal aspect to it, and I wanted to start with an intensely personal story. The best place to start is always with yourself, so yes, I do know a lot of lesbian housewives.
Abby is a fascinating lead, and given her age there’s a sense of urgency, a feeling of everything being a last chance. Like that line where she says, “I’m 42 – something has to be me by now.” Was it always the intention for the lead to be middle-aged?
That was one of the first lines I had written. The whole concept is that she has limited time in this beautiful body, and the other thing I thought that was interesting, is that women in their 40s have never looked as good as they do now. Or they’re at least keeping themselves up in a certain way. Some people may disagree with me, but women in their 40s are exceptionally hot right now, and it used to be that no hooker could never pass a certain age, and nobody would dispute the fact that Abby could have been a high-class hooker, you know? That hasn’t always been the case for 42 year olds. So she limited time in this beautiful body of hers, and that was always the intention of the piece.
Robin Weigert turns in a fantastic performance – how did she come to be involved?
I didn’t know anything about Robin beforehand. I said I didn’t want anybody who was very well known because I felt like they wouldn’t be able to disappear within the role. Robin was known, but for doing things other than being that. Her face was not recognisable because she really does disappear into roles, like Calamity Jane and Deadwood, you wouldn’t be able to recognise her if she was walking down the street. So I felt very fortunate to have her, and she was so incredibly on board. She has a really major process, and that’s hard to come by in this day and age. I was delighted by her process because it meant that she was going to make my film good [laughs]. As I watched her work I was stunned, quite frankly. When you’re making your first film you want to go deeply, but you don’t know how to go deeply, and when you have actors around you who know how to do that, or are trained to do that, it’s nice to have that expertise, because it allows you to feel things you’ve never felt before, when you were writing. It’s amazing to see it come to life with her.
Abby remains empathetic throughout, which is important, as there is the worry that it won’t be the case, given her tendencies to disregard her family – that could make her dislikeable. How did you go about ensuring this not be the case?
Robin is incredibly empathetic because she’s so nondescript, but I also think it’s important that Abby doesn’t complain at all. She’s not a complain machine. As a matter of fact, when she does complain, she is told to shut up by her wife. I think by that moment because she’s never complained in the entire film, people generally look at the wife and think, what a terrible partner. You know, maybe Abby has been complaining for 20 years, but in this film she doesn’t – and that helps us empathise with this privileged, white, rich housewife.
Do you think it helps that when we’re first introduced to her she has a cut on the side of her face – that does portray her vulnerability?
Yeah, I think showing blood is a great way to portray vulnerability, absolutely. The fact she’s hurt explains a lot, it shows her pain, her inner pain coming out, and how that little trickle ends up being a big flow in a way.
Did you find that it was quite difficult to get a film financed with a middle-aged, lesbian lead role?
It’s interesting because this concept feels so contained that I felt I could handle it when I started. I knew that if Robin was on board, I knew I had talented friends who could make up the other roles, and I knew that for instance, my son’s school would let me shoot there, and I knew I could use a house of a person I knew. I just knew I could do this for not a lot of money, so I just started doing it. That’s not the most responsible way to make a movie, but in this day and age when making your first film, you can’t expect financiers to come in. The DNA of the concept was very cheap to begin with, and so it was something that was just doable, so we just did it. Plus I had a lot of help from a lot of friends.
I was interested as well by the portrayal of sex within the movie. Of course Blue is the Warmest Colour had a fair amount of criticism for the exploitative sex sequences – how cautious were you about portraying the sex in a naturalistic way and never wanting to see titillating?
I’ve been thinking about this. You have to take the licence that you have as the person that you are in the world. It’s so much easier for me to do it than for the director of Blue is the Warmest Colour to do it. If I had been a man doing this film I think people would have probably gone after me too. You know, there are ways that I shot it to not objectify women, certainly, absolutely. While there are ways that he shot his film that did objectify women, because of the process he used to do that, and all the stuff that has come out about it, which doesn’t have anything to do with Concussion, quite frankly, but what I will say is that I’m a woman, you know? I think that I had more licence to do it that way. I’m glad that I made the film that I did, sometimes I feel like I should have gone a little further with it, and maybe in my second, third or fourth film, which was his I think, you can just go much, much further. Who knows what I would do in my fourth film? You might see a lot of objectification, you never know!
I loved the juxtaposition between Abby’s somewhat illicit, sexual encounters and then her life at home. Was that something you were always aware of? To create that stark difference between the two alternate lifestyles.
Yeah. It was the story I wanted to tell, I wanted to be really approachable to people, I wanted people to go, oh, look at that house, it’s beautiful, look at the family, they could be the Cosbys. It wasn’t a hard family to watch, they are an easy family to watch, an approachable family. But it became her prison. Even the loft, there’s nothing seedy about where she is. I love that juxtaposition.
She’s almost maternal with her younger clients, too.
I think that’s just because it’s how I would do it, you know what I mean? [Laughs] I knew it was ridiculous thinking about how I would do it, but I guess I just thought that this woman would have made it on her terms because she’s so used to making things all on her terms anyway, she has the licence to do things like that. So she would say that she’s meeting the clients first, she had rules, she wanted coffee or tea with them, to talk to them, to see what they want and they needed from her, what she could give them. Her pimp is looking at her like she’s completely out of her mind, and she is, she is completely out of her mind, and maybe that wouldn’t happen in the real world. A lot of people have said I didn’t research sex work, and I just think that’s so funny, because she’s not doing it right, but who knows? The idea wasn’t to get it right, the idea was just to have this character go on a pretty simple journey. I thought about what I’d do in those situations… Probably talk my way out of it!
So what’s next for you now? Are you working on anything at the moment?
Yeah, I’m working on a film called Strange Things Started Happening. I’m casting now and working with Sundance, and also with the Tribeca film institute her in the States. It’s going to be another small film, but with hopefully another stella cast. I feel very fortunate to be able to work in this way, let’s put it that way. There’s a bunch of other things too, but this is the favourite child right now. I pretty much can’t wait for it, I can’t wait to start shooting. So hopefully that will be soon, we’ll see.
Is it one you’ve written yourself as well?
Yeah, and I really value other people’s writing, but to write something takes a very long time and it becomes very special. If you’re a singer/songwriter you love it because you know it comes from a special place, and it’s the same thing with writing your own film, it’s coming from such a special place. So I’m just excited to do it, I never thought I would be super excited. I thought Concussion was a once in a lifetime experience when I got in to it, but it’s addictive, I have to say.
Concussion is out in cinemas now, and you can read our review of the film here.
