Sundance 2020: Bridget Moloney
Bridget Moloney is a 2020 AFI Directing Workshop for Women fellow. Her independent pilot, I Was a Teenage Pillow Queen, premiered at the 2018 Tribeca TV Festival. She is also an actress, qualifying for great health insurance one national commercial at a time. She earned her bachelor’s degree in theatre and creative writing for media at Northwestern, and her master’s in clinical psychology from Pepperdine. Moloney lives in LA with her husband and two children. Here she talks to us about her glamorous moment of finding out she had been selected for the festival in the bathroom, her camera man crouching in her shower for that perfect shot and the female directors she looks up to.
How did you find your way into film making?
Via acting! That old route. I was a playwright and an actor throughout high school and college. My senior year at Northwestern a professor told me, “you’re a young actor until you’re 25 but you’re a young writer until you’re 35.” She does not remember saying this to me. But I took it as gospel and decided to move to New York and begin my career as the next Mary Louise Parker. BUT! Things didn’t work out like that. I moved back to LA after a few years where I’ve had a really nice commercial and TV career. But I kept saying things like “in another life I would have been a director.” And then I realized I could do it now! In this life! So I started making tiny shorts with generous friends and thought “oh yeah, this is what I want.” I’m usually a writer-director although I’m always happy to direct someone else’s work (call me.) I also have a master’s in clinical psychology (how much time do you have) and felt like directing actually accessed ALL of my skills and passions. I made an independent pilot that premiered at the 2018 Tribeca TV Festival and then did AFI’s Directing workshop for women where I made Blocks. And here we are! Premiering at Sundance in the shorts program.
Tell us about your film?
It’s an existential comedy about the mother of two young children who begins spontaneously vomiting plastic toy blocks.
How did you take the news of being accepted into the festival?
I started to tremble! We had just gotten back from camping and I was running a bath for my 2 year old and missed the call. I stepped out of the bathroom (he wasn’t in the tub) to call back and was immediately interrupted by a child needing help off the toilet. It was very glamorous and on brand.
Funding in this industry can always be a challenge, how did you achieve yours?
It really is a challenge. I have fantasies of a day when it’s not. Should we all move to France? Or just get studio deals? I did a crowdfund via Seed & Spark and also had EPs who invested. I was very grateful for every last penny.
What was the most challenging aspect of making your film and how did you overcome this?
Because a lot of the film is about having too much stuff it made sense to shoot it somewhere that was already full of stuff...like my own home. So to save on locations and art department schlepping/budget and allow us lots of time to prep in the space, we decided to shoot it at my house. But I live there! And so does my husband and our two children and our middle aged dog. We all moved out during production. And then the crew and I loaded into my quirky home that is definitely not a set. I will forever treasure the memory of Emilio, our camera operator, crouching in the shower to get a closeup.
If you could have gone into any other role in the industry, which would you be interested in?
I have really enjoyed my acting career so I’ve cheated on this question. And I’m a writer/director so I’m still cheating. I love a double role!
The percentage of female directors at Sundance has increased again this year, a great move for the industry, which female film makers do you look up to?
In no particular order: Marielle Heller, Chloe Zhao, Tamara Jenkins, Lulu Wang, Karyn Kasuma, Julia Hart, Greta Gerwig, Melina Matsoukas, Nicole Holofcener, Penelope Spheeris and my AFI Directing Workshop for Women cohort.
What’s the next project for you?
I’m developing BLOCKS as a series and finishing up a feature script--it’s an astral projection romantic comedy that I want to direct this year.
And finally, what film are you most looking forward to seeing in 2020?
A whole bunch of things! I want to see Save Yourselves!, Shirley, The 40 Year Old Version, Zola (oh no, I’m just listing all of the the U.S. Dramatic Competition.) And so many of the other shorts, including Buck, He’s the One and Meats.
