JACQUELINE GODBOUT TALKS THE UNCANNY VALLEY
"Find it exciting to write my own characters"
Daniel John
Memories give colors to our lives, and make us who we are. What is maybe your first, or most important, memories of being drawn to the arts and acting?
Great question! I have a very vivid memory of seeing the musical 'Hello Dolly!' at the Stratford Festival when I was ten years old, and I remember feeling so deeply moved, and I knew that I found what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. There was something so magical about seeing these people create a vibrant new world right in front of my eyes. One that felt more alive than the world I was living in. It felt the closest thing to magic I've ever experienced. And after that, I started getting myself into small community theatre shows in my hometown, until I moved to the city to go to theatre school, and start my career, and here we are!
Since starting out acting you’ve expanded into filmmaking at large, writing, producing and directing. Did you always intend doing so or what was it that got you to take more place behind of the camera?
Discovering myself as a writer, director and producer came a little later. As a young actor, not long out of theatre school, I had a pretty awful experience from a filmmaker in this industry. I then decided that I could likely just do it myself, and do it better than them. And now I find it so exciting to write my own characters, build stories with other wonderful creatives and also create an atmosphere of joyful creativity, and most importantly safety and respect on my sets. I find writing and producing to be the most fulfilling and exciting thing. I'm excited to continue growing as a filmmaker!
'The Uncanny Valley' is a film exactly as such, a film that you wrote, produced and also takes the lead in. Desperate for a clue in a missing woman's case an investigator pushes for a last interview with his only witness, a bot about to have her memory wiped out, having a short amount of time to find out what the A.I. knows. What did this idea for the film come out of?
The idea for 'The Uncanny Valley' came from a few different places. As an actor, I was really excited about the idea of a character starting from no memory, to then regaining deep, emotional, memories in real time in front of the camera. So I was excited to write something on that. Then, I knew my wonderful filmmaking friend Julia Beney, was interested in exploring the sci-fi genre, and more specifically A.I. in film, so we went for coffee and we started chatting ideas and it blossomed from there.
“Uncanny Valley” is a term I think came from video games, when characters started to look very life-like yet other technical limitations made them feel off and unsettling. Your performance as ANDI-7291 is so well done in that way. Both in the way she looks inwards thinking, but also how she externally mimics and adapts to the mannerisms and situations she has in front of her?
Thank you! I had a very special time creating this character. The first thing I wanted to do was fill her up with beautiful, loving, full, heartbreaking, and vivid life memories. So that they are there. Then with the director Julia, we talked about hiding these memories in a tiny cage somewhere in ANDI-7291's body. From there, we just play with not knowing the cage is there, to ANDI-7291 slowly discovering it, to the emotions in the cage being so strong that it breaks open the cage and overtakes the entire body and it all floods from there. That was more or less our process to ANDI.
There are a few details, such as her memory of a piano in the sunlight, that perhaps can be drawn to your own self, that being a place I believe you are quite fond of yourself?
Yes, we wrote the role for me to play. I suppose there are certain similarities, as I play piano, and have fond childhood memories playing alone in the woods.
Being the writer, you obviously know the character, how do you leave room for real director input?
Since I co-wrote 'The Uncanny Valley' with the director Julia, we built ANDI together from the ground up. We both understand her deeply and so the process of playing her, collaborating leading up to the shoot, and on set was natural and fluid. We had a wonderful time creating her together and love the character very much. As a writer and actor, I love collaborating with a director that I trust to co-create the story and character together.
You have acted in many different “spaces”, be that in film, tv, theatre, even musical theatre, and in different genres. Would you, being behind the camera, consider yourself a genre filmmaker or do you, as in acting, have an interest for a whole variety of things?
As a filmmaker, I typically lean more towards dark comedy actually! 'The Uncanny Valley' is the only sci-fi genre that I have written so far. So in terms of genre, I like to stay open to what excites me. Who I'm collaborating with also influences that. Right now, I am writing my first drama. But I do feel like dark comedy is where my instincts usually lead me. Horror is something I have always wanted to do but it seems that whenever I start something dark, it turns comedic and I end up with another dark comedy! So stay tuned for that. I am open and excited to discovering myself more and more as a writer and filmmaker as times goes on.
The piano-playing fingers at the end of 'The Uncanny Valley' might imply her still remembering even after the memory-wipe is completed. One can quite easily see the potential here. Whether continuing the story in a similar way, or perhaps developing it into a feature or even series that adds on to the story at both ends?
Yes, we have discussed making this into a series and have two seasons mapped out. But right now, I am actively working on making my dark comedy play into a series. Just looking for the right producing team right now. I also have several other scripts in various stages of development that I'm looking for the right teams for.
You are actually currently in production of your third short film as a writer and producer?
Yes! My third film as a writer, producer, and actor is just wrapping up post-production as we speak and hopefully will be starting it's festival run this summer, it's a dark comedy called 'First Grade Headache'. I'm very proud of this film, it's a pretty fun and wild ride!
Is that the next project to be released, or do you have any other projects coming up soon?
No also in front of the camera I've completed my first leading role in a feature film, it's currently in post-production and it's called 'Not All Who Wander' with Dystopian Films and I'm pretty excited for this one as well! Recently, I have started my own production company with my partner Anant Singh, where we are in pre-production for my next feature film.
