Interview:
Indie Horror Darling
Rachel Amanda Bryant

MTH: Wow, it was very realistic. It felt claustrophobic like you are in an actual cave. After Death Day (Formerly known as The Campus), you produced and starred in The After Party. Would you tell us how you came to be involved in this project and how your experience was?

Rachel: So, we were promoting Jetset LA at the Burbank International Film Festival. We were selected there and we were at some networking party. I started talking to this guy who was eating at the buffet and I said, “Is that pasta good?” That was my intro question.

MTH: I love it!

Rachel: So, we chatted about pasta for a minute and then I asked, “Do you have a film here?” He said, “Yeah, I have this fan film about Harley Quinn and the Joker.” I said, “Oh, that’s interesting.” He continued, “Yeah, with my producing partner and writer Colin Costello.” So, he brings this guy over, and Colin and I chat. We hit it off. We chat on Facebook. I talked to Colin about the budget of Jetset LA and his last movie was $10,000. He asked me how I got so much production value for such little money and I said, “Well, I had my friends work for me and I did a lot of the work myself.” and he said, “Oh, cool. I want to work with you!”

He had this script and Colin thought I’d be perfect for the lead role. I said, “Sure, let’s do it!” So, because I talked to a guy about pasta at a networking event at a film festival I ended up meeting Colin and we started producing Jetset LA and we raised all the money for the film through Seed and Spark. We raised I think it was $18,000 dollars and then we footed the rest of the budget the two of us. 

MTH: Fantastic! That’s also a testament to not being afraid and to really just put yourself out there because you never know who you’re going to meet that could lead to an opportunity, friendship, or some kind of relationship that’s mutually beneficial. 

Rachel: Definitely spend time talking to your friends but it’ll be so cool to see who you connect with when you put yourself out there.

MTH: The After Party is shot in black & white and has a timeless feel to it but it’s very much set in the present time. It feels almost like a Twilight Zone episode. Would you explain the artistic choice and was this something that you and Colin were intentionally trying to go after?

Rachel: So, Colin had pitched it to me as a Twilight Zone episode essentially. The discussion was, “Do we want to make it black and white for this timeless thing?” “Is that going to detract from the story?” Part of me was kind of excited about something in color because I knew we had some diverse women that don’t get shown on screen as much and I wanted to showcase that. Let’s see everybody for what they are but then we decided that making everybody black and white added to that story element of how we’re all in the same purgatory. So, it ended up being this artistic choice to feel more timeless and Twilight Zoney sure, but also to even the playing field for all the characters.

MTH: That’s great! In the beginning, we’re not sure what era this was, and then when you took the phone out we were like, “Okay!” By the way, we loved that you called the bartender Lloyd. That was a nice nod to The Shining.

Rachel: Definitely, he has several nods to The Shining there.

MTH: Colin Costello the writer and director is bi-racial. Towards the end of the film, your character refers to the bouncer as a “King Kong looking mother f**ker.” Was this a choice from him as the director and writer as a comment on white privilege and systemic racism in America?

Rachel: Yes, he wanted Skye to be racist and an entitled privileged biatch who doesn’t care about anybody but herself. It was Colin’s choice as a writer. I remember reading that line in the table read though (hands in her face). I thought, “Tarnue (Massaquoi) has read the script so I’m going to say it.” So, I said it, and then afterward I was like, “Hey, I’m really sorry.” He’s said, “Hey, it’s something that needs to be said because we are called such terrible, awful, and ridiculous names, and then to have this character do that too after she’s so seemingly idolized…you just do it.”

I was also the producer on this so I was also coming at it from that hat. I told him, “Do you think we should take it out? Do you think it’s problematic?” The last thing I want to do is make him feel uncomfortable. He said, “No, I think this really adds to it.” I said, “Okay, I will trust that and I will do it.” Right after the take, we did it three times I think. I said, “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”

At the beginning of the film, Tarnue says to me in character, “You’re going to mumble something deplorable about a wall.” Skye’s racist towards a Hispanic person and then to the African American bouncer guy because she still doesn’t want to leave. So, she’s going to double-down on her racism and that’s when that comes out. She’s a social media star. A lot of people are famous for what they post online and they’re seen as like Gods. They’re idolized. Colin wanted to humanize, sure, but also to show the vile side of her.

Why are we idolizing these people when they have these terrible thoughts? They aren’t good role models for our kids. 

MTH: It was a very powerful performance.

Rachel: You know, I go a little crazy. I get a little angry. Rachel does not like being angry. So, it’s a beautiful challenge when I have to do that in my work because it’s going to feel really unhinged and I think that it came across in that moment. Oh, just one more thing about The After Party. A little trivia. You know the upside-down car? It’s all fake.

MTH: WHAT!

Rachel: We paid this effects company in India. We bought this digital 3D model of a Porsche 911 and we sent them the file and then they destroyed it.

MTH: Wow!

Rachel: So, yeah. Everything’s fake there. I’m walking in this empty alleyway looking at something and glass on the ground.

MTH: I would not have guessed that at all. It looked amazing. Well done on the production value in general too, it’s very beautifully shot.

Rachel: My friend Brook Willard (Director of Photography) made it look amazing.