Tribeca 2023 | Somewhere Quiet Interview with Writer-Director Olivia West Lloyd

I recently had the opportunity to interview Olivia West Lloyd, who wrote and directed Somewhere Quiet.

Somewhere Quiet is about Meg (Jennifer Kim) trying to readjust to her life after being involved in a kidnapping. To help, she takes a trip with her husband Scott (Kentucker Audley) to stay at his family's cabin in Cape Code. But when Madeline (Marin Ireland) arrives unannounced, Meg's traumas begin to resurface.

The movie will have its world premiere at Tribeca 2023 and will be screened at the SVA Theatre, Village East by Angelika, and AMC 19th Street.

If you're interested in seeing it, you can purchase tickets at ⁠⁠https://tribecafilm.com/films/somewhere-quiet-2023⁠.

Watch the interview using the YouTube video player above, or scroll below to listen to the audio-only version. If you don’t want to listen to or watch the interview, keep scrolling for the transcript of the interview.

Keep an eye out for my upcoming review!

Chapters:

00:00 Opening

01:16 Dubious figures

03:40 Jennifer Kim's prep

06:03 Mapping out Meg's journey

07:57 Creating the atmosphere

10:33 The sound design

12:33 What's real & imagined

14:42 A cacophony of slights

18:10 Outro

Austin: Hello everyone. I am here with Olivia gosh, Olivia, west Lloyd. She's the director of Somewhere Quiet. It's having its world premiere, I believe June 8th, 9:30 PM Eastern at the s v a theater. And it's also gonna have dual not dual screenings, but post premiere screenings at. Village East by Angelica on the following day at 6:15 PM then the final screen will be June 14th at 5:30 PM and then if you get an award I think you also have that slot too.

Olivia, thank you so much for coming on. I know it's we're a week out from the premiere. It's a hectic time. So I just wanna thank you for that. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get into it. First I want to talk about, there, there's something interesting about this film. Everyone looks like a villain in this film.

I even made a note Maureen Ireland, she's I forget the actress or the character she plays. But Madeline, she just has this like weirdest smiles and I thought that was just an interesting thing. Can you talk a little bit about how you wanted to paint every character besides, Meg Who is recovering from, I believe she got kidnapped I think before the events of this story and how you wanted to portray everyone else in her life as this kind of dubious figure.

Yeah. Honestly, I, I would, I. I would include Meg in that a little bit. I think that the film is very much about this idea that there, there is no such thing as a clear villain or a clear victim of these things. Of course, Meg is our heroine, she's our protagonist and we're aligned with her.

But it was important to me that she makes choices in the film that are, choices that maybe you and I wouldn't make, and that she makes some dubious choices. And that she does enact some violence of her own. And you can, we can talk about whether it's like justified or whatever, but it, to me it was this kind of like idea that, that everybody does have that capacity for For villainous activity, for violence for evil, whatever you wanna call it.

But yeah when you, if you think about it from sort of Meg's perspective, she had, went through this extreme trauma and she's back and everything seems fine, right? Everything seems very quiet. But her sort of like brain, her body, everything about her is geared towards.

Feeling like something bad is going to happen. So that was definitely this sense that like she's constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Everything feels fine. And yet she is like at all times expecting someone to bust down the door and for her, the nightmare to start over.

And so we are very locked in her. Her perspective in this film. And so that idea that everybody around her feels a little bit nefarious is definitely like we're seeing the world colored through, through Meg's perspective. And I think she right now does feel that everybody might be somebody that wants to hurt her.

Yeah.

And I no, I wrote down. And I don't even think this is a spoiler, but there are things where you're questioning, is this real or is this imagined? Yeah. And it's just this interesting thing of horror films do this all the time, but it doesn't, sometimes it doesn't feel authentic, but this, for some reason, this time it felt like, oh no, this makes sense.

This isn't just. Hey, I'm gonna get like a jump scare five minutes from now. That's gonna be that thing that from 20 minutes ago. But yeah. So I wanna talk a bit more about Meg specifically how, Jennifer who plays Meg. How did you prepare her for this process where she has to be so locked into the mindset of you are.

This character who is recovering from a very traumatic experience. Yeah. We,

Olivia: Yeah Meg has a, or Gen Jennifer who plays Meg is a really brilliant actress and she has a very she was very into really digging deep in the development process in the prep process. And we spent a lot of time talking like months in advance of the shoot and.

We exchanged some films, but we mostly wanted to stay away from films so as not to feel like we were like copying any other portrayal of this type of thing. We we read a lot of the same books about The Cleveland, the aerial Castro kidnappings in Cleveland, which to me was always like a a specter in my mind of what sort of what happened to Meg.

And then we did this whole sort of process where we codified in our minds what happened to Meg. So that we had that to draw from when we were talking about how is she feeling in this moment? We could be like what happened to her back then?

And we could like really get into it. And it felt like that really helped to to inform her work in the present. Because I think the challenge of this film is it's a film. Where somebody is very much experiencing what happened to them in the past, in the present, and yet we do not flashback to it.

And that felt important that we were gonna try to really do the thing where you see how the past infects the present and stay in the present. But in doing that, yeah, Jen and I spent a lot of time coming up with a really clear sort of story of what her life was like before and even before the kidnapping, what was her and Scott's relationship and.

Yeah. So we had a lot of fun coming up with that.

Austin: Yeah, it's a really withdrawn way of telling the story where you're learning about it as the story goes along and you really don't get a whole lot of hints. And I'm trying to dodge around some things I know that happen in the movie, but you get like a glimpse or two glimpses and it's just oh.

I'm good. I don't need another glimpse at that because it, in a way, it and I'm dodging spoilers around the film, but it's you talk about the past infecting the present, which by the way should be, if you've got a poster that should be on it that's a good, just headline.

But yeah, so you mapped it out. So did you have a Google doc where you're like, ah this would be cool from this movie and this would be cool from this?

Olivia: Yeah. We really came up with it on our own and then we just put it away, we like wrote the whole thing out and then we just, were like, great.

Now that goes away. And it's not, I think, in terms of not giving too much information in the film about what happened to her, I think. To me in horror in general, I think the unknown is often more effectively scary than when you name something or when you see something. Like the more that you see the monster in a horror movie, the less scary it becomes.

That's not true for every movie, but for many. And it felt like the monster in our case was this past, was this like thing that happened to her and. Letting people come up with their own understanding of it and being able to extrapolate from the way that she interacts with her husband.

The way that she interacts with Madeline, her husband's cousin I think allows people to it becomes even larger of a specter in your own mind when you can't actually put your finger on exactly what it is. It's, I think the unknown is quite terrifying.

Austin: Yeah. And I think it plays into that thing I was talking about earlier where you really don't, aren't clear about should I trust this person?

There's a character who I won't talk about or because he happens to appear, I think in the middle of the film or somewhere around there. Yeah. Where it's okay, here's this guy just outta nowhere. Should I trust him? And it, yeah. It was really interesting to that the past kind of informed the, oh, hey, I don't think we should trust this guy, but maybe we could because he is being nice and, but maybe not at the same time.

If that makes sense.

Olivia: Sure. It makes sense to me cuz I know the film.

Austin: Yeah. And it's that interesting part where there are sections where you're. I'm guessing. And h how did you go about just creating the atmosphere of both un, I know we talked about uncertainty, but moreover, the tension in that room where you're like I don't know what's going on.

And I'm not comfortable. But yeah. How did you go creating the

Olivia: atmosphere? Yeah, definitely. I think that I think it was like, you know what I wanted it to feel like, was that like you're waiting for the jump scare to happen the whole time, right? Yeah. So we could be washing dishes and yet you are somehow waiting for this thing to happen.

And I think a lot of that came I mean it was in every part, but a lot of it we play, we played with that in the sound design of it If we're washing dishes, making sure that sound of the faucet running is this frantic too loud, like this feeling of like things that usually fade into the background, like little things like the sound of somebody tapping, or the sound of somebody's fork on a plate.

Things that usually recede into the background, letting those actually become quite present. I think was this way of infusing these really quiet moments with a sense of just heightened something is wrong here. Vibes. That was the kind of like the overall feeling was just like that in every scene, Meg feels without knowing why that something is distinctly wrong.

And so just finding little ways to communicate that, whether it's through like anachronistic. Production design or strange sound design or, the way that the camera is tilted a little bit too high and a little too close or just these little things to visually compliment what is in its in and of itself, a quite innocuous conversation, I think was the idea.

Yeah.

Austin: I'm so glad you mentioned the sound design because that's actually one of the things I loved about this film. I first noticed it When and if you ever make like a making of documentary I'd love to see it. Because next time, like I know somebody had to get like within two inches of I believe the husband's Scott, that's his name, I believe.

And you can just hear all the individual hairs being scratched on his beard and like all the footsteps throughout the house and yeah. And it's just the thing where, you know, again, we're talking about getting you in that mindset of Meg, it's, she wants somewhere quiet. Roll credits I guess.

But but yeah, it's that sense of unease. And by the way, props the cinematographer for that boot shot where Scott is walking in and there's just an absence of space and then you see boots. And then but yeah, I love that shot. Yeah, there's some great sound design there.

Olivia: Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. Hunter Burke did our post sound and Amelia Palmer was our onset mixer. And I, they both, their work really complimented each other. Amelia did some amazing She was so good at knowing when to say Hey, I really wanna go in, get really close production audio of that, like beard scratching.

And so she was able to give Hunter so much to work with and then he added so much more in the post process.

And their work really complimented each other really beautifully. Amelia was a one person sound team, which is incredibly hard to do and she nailed it and she had a really good ear for when to get in close on those little detail sounds like the beard scratching and whatever, and boots and everything like that.

And so she was able to give to Hunter a really great production sound package. We were able to bring a lot of that a lot of that sort of onset sound into the final mix, which was really great. And then Hunter just added. A whole other level. And yeah, I think sound is such a fun part of the process and it feels like it's make or break and horror.

And I loved that process.

Austin: Yeah it, I would say that's a pretty accurate assessment of horror because I think it, it'll be interesting for people to know this, but I didn't really get into horror movies till don't the movie don't Breathe, came out.

Olivia: Oh, wow. Yeah. That's a great one.

I can understand why that would convert you. Yeah,

Austin: and I was just like, because. Before then, horror movies really didn't do a lot for me. It's, oh, it's just a slasher movie. But then in 2016 we saw that renaissance of, sound design being really important. Especially in a movie like Don't Breathe if anyone knows what that's about.

It's literally about the importance of sound and this guy echo, not echolocating, but using. There's other senses to find these people. So yeah, I'd say sound design is super duper important. Totally. But yeah. But yeah if the sound designers have any tips for me, just let me know. But but yeah I think that part was fascinating.

And I know I mentioned this before with what's real and what's imagined, and I think there's. A combination of almost psychological and almost supernatural elements. I don't know if that's a good assessment. And I'd, so I'd love to hear a little bit about how you balance those sides, because it's a really grounded story when you, at the end of the day when you read the bio the synopsis, that it's just.

This is a woman recovering from a really traumatic thing that happened to her. I'd love to hear what you have to

Olivia: say about that. Yeah, I think about it like, Meg is somebody who is trying to white knuckle her way through her trauma. She is squeezing really tight. She doesn't want to do, the thing with the doctors is she doesn't want to talk about it.

She doesn't want to. Hear about it. She really just wants to close off and shut the door on this feeling. And I think that the harder she tries to push it out, the more things will find a way to creep in around the edges. And that, for me, manifested in this, in these like semi supernatural moments.

And yeah, I think it was to me, I'm very interested in the way that sort of trauma creates. Can create this sort of like surreal time slippage. There's something interesting to me about this idea of a flashback, right? Which is the sort of experience of being in the present moment and your brain is responding to stimuli as if you are in the car crash that you experienced, or wherever this traumatic experience it happened. And that idea of this kind of like slippage in time, that the present moment is literally being overtaken by the past moment to me. I found that as a really inspiring thing in terms of how this, like, How reality would break for this particular type of person who is really trying to keep things out, really trying to close the door and how her, like her brain, the, those little fissures, something is gonna get in and and it's gonna enter and it's gonna enter into her present life, which is going to make it feel quite surreal and and supernatural.

Austin: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And then, it. It's interesting, I made a note of it. The plot of this film almost being like a cacophony of slights against Meg. That's a good way. And Scott and Meg, ha have this relationship where they're trying to find the next step in their relationship as husband and wife, where.

There, there are things that are said that are maybe like, ooh, that kind of cuts a little deep. But I would love there's almost a sense that their relationship, it is almost inequitable at a sense there's a conversation about There's actually a kind of a two-part conversation, so answer either part of the question, which, whichever way you want, but there's a discussion about money and how only rich people don't wanna talk about money.

And then there's this stuff between Megan Scott, where there's the sense of gaslighting. Megan did oh no, that didn't happen. No, this is just. Th that's the past. That's not what currently is happening. Whichever part you'd like to answer, I would love to hear either answer on how you went about e either one of those tones.

Olivia: Yeah. I. Yeah, I think I, I love the idea of calling it a cacophony of slight, so I think it, it definitely is that in many ways, yeah, I think this is somebody whose whole this is, Meg is somebody whose whole world has been upended by this violence. And her sort of sense of, a cohesive plot of her life has been entirely disrupted.

And so I do think, These little moments of Scott not agreeing with her perception of events is really actually like especially destabilizing for her because she is really at this moment in time trying to rebuild a sense of I. Clarity and one thing following another, and like my life isn't gonna get completely disrupted the way that it was before.

And so just trying to have a sort of like an agreement with your husband about what is happening right now and finding that he just will not agree with how you are feeling or how you're seeing what's happening. I think was like this sort of, I, I think she's particularly primed to find that especially destabilizing.

And she does as the film goes on. And yeah and I think that this sort of the family dynamic of it these are people who talk around things. They don't talk directly at issues. They. Say something that means another thing. And I'm always interested in that idea of people who don't say what they mean and trying to read between the lines.

And this was definitely a fun project in terms of that exact feeling of how can we say one particular thing that seems so innocuous, about like Madeline speaking in Korean, for example. You know that there could be two really different interpretations of that same event and that, that.

What actually happened is besides the point to what the perception of it was. And that to me was a very interesting idea. Is the sort of that reality is built through perception? Yeah. Yeah. Or

Austin: even in the opening where Scott's Hey, do you need me to pull off?

Are you hungry? And then he does pull off and she gets angry at him. And he is no, I'm just getting gas. And it's just like that small, it's like a little,

Olivia: yeah. That's the germ of the same thing that grows and grows is supposed, is that sort of first moment of they're just very much not on the same page from moment one.

Austin: Yeah. It was funny because I was reading the sepsis and I was like, oh, they're married. Oh, no. Oh, yeah.

Olivia: Yes,

Austin: they're married. But yeah, I hope people check this out if they're in Tribeca or flying to Tribeca. Again, those showtimes are June 8th at nine 30 at the S v A Theater June 9th at 6:15 PM at the village East by Angelica.

And June 14th at 5:30 PM at AMC 19th Street, east sixth. But Olivia, thank you so much for coming on and joining us for joining me for this interview in this lead up to Tribecca or it, it's, it is been an honor and I hope people react the way you want them to. Me too.

Olivia: Great to meet you.

Thank you for having me.

Austin: Great to meet you too, Olivia. Have a great day.

Olivia: You too. Take care.

Until next time!

Thanks to Shane Conto, Joseph Davis, David Walters, Ambula Bula, and Brian Skuttle for supporting Austin B Media on Patreon!