Everyone has had a bad night out: a little too much to drink, said something embarrassing, gotten into a fight with a friend. It happens! But, for most of us, when those bad nights arise, we don’t have to face them with our jaws wired shut.
In “Lockjaw,” a film from writer/director Sabrina Greco, dysfunctional Raina (Blu Hunt) suffers through her first night out post a drunken accident that landed her in the hospital – and with a mouth full of metal rendering it impossible for her to speak normally. Raina is just trying to have fun, but tension from the accident bleeds over into the night, only getting worse when she and her crew run into a manipulative magician (Nick Corirossi) seemingly intent on making her night worse.
“Lockjaw” takes the feelings of embarrassment those bad nights out and magnifies them by a million. Greco’s film premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in February of this year, and played at the Atlanta Film Festival over the weekend. After that screening, Rough Draft Atlanta spoke with Greco about writing the film, editing her own work, her cinematic inspirations, and more.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You talked at the film’s Q&A about wanting to explore these psychological spirals that we go on, particularly during a night out – moments where we’re not able to get out of our own heads. Was there anything specific that spawned that idea, or when did you first start thinking about that as a way into this film?
Sabrina Greco: I maybe noticed more of a repeated pattern in myself that I wanted to explore. I find that the character Raina is very negatively motivated, rather than positively motivated, by embarrassment. And these embarrassing moments center into these crazy mental spirals that I was trying to make a film around. I think that is something that I noticed a version of in myself, and thought that would be interesting to depict in a film.
You also mentioned that you relate to all of the characters in a certain way, or can see versions of yourself in each of them. Is there one that you relate to more than the other? Is that Raina, or someone else?
Greco: I think Raina, probably more directly in certain ways. Obviously, this is not based on an exactly true story. None of these events actually happen. But I would say I channeled some of the worst versions of myself into that character.
How these characters don’t communicate well is something that I’m interested in. I think the movie as a whole, and the tone of the movie, is reflective of my worldview and my personality and my sense of humor, more so than the characters are direct representations for parts of me. But there are parts of Raina in me, and like I said, there’s also Annabelle, where sometimes I feel like I’m removed from a situation, but really trying to be a part of it in whatever way I can be. The Robert thing was mostly a joke [laughs], but there are probably moments in my life where I feel like I want to be the mastermind.
How long did the writing process itself take, and what were some of the challenges you came across as you were writing?
Greco: I originally wrote the movie as a short, but never filmed it as a short. I wrote it and was like, I think this needs a little more time to really get these characters to where I want them to be. I don’t want them to be acting this big without it feeling justified. It needs to get there more organically.
I wrote it a long time ago as a short, kind of put it away for a little bit. And then a year before we shot, I picked it back up and was like, okay – I’m ready to do this. I’m ready to lock in on this. I want to make a feature, and this is the script that it makes the most sense to do it with. I spent a year redoing the script before we shot. In that time, I collaborated a lot with the actors. I’d say I was working on it mostly solo for like, seven months, and then started to bring a lot more people in to get into a much better place.
You’ve also mentioned this all stemmed from the idea of someone having their jaw wired shut, which makes sense with the theme of poor communication. How did that particular prop work? Were Blu Hunt’s teeth clenched the whole time? Was it easy to take in and out?
Greco: It was custom made by this prosthetic dentist, Gary Archer. He’s worked on some of the most famous movies in Hollywood, surprisingly. I emailed him out of the blue one day … I said I was producing the movie, because I didn’t want him to know that I was the director [laughs], because it made it seem way more low budget, that I would be emailing him directly.
[I said] Hey, I’m producing this movie where a girl has her jaw wired shut. I sent him some reference photos. He got back to me, and was like, oh yeah – I’ve done something like this before. It should cost around this amount of money. It was a number that at the time, I was like, okay, I don’t think making a short with this would be getting the most out of it. I think this is another reason to make it into a feature, because within that scale of budget, it’s not very much money. It’s very easy to account for.
Blu and I went to him two or three times for fittings, and then to check to make sure it was good. It’s custom made for her mouth. It’s two Invisaligns basically glued together, and there’s wiring over it. So she just slips her mouth in and puts a little bit of effort into keeping her mouth shut, because it’s very easy to get in and out of. It’s a strangely high-quality prosthetic that we have, for how low budget the movie actually was.
Speaking of Blu, I was listening to an interview with her where she talked about the fact that you both had worked together before. But I wondered what made you think about her for this role specifically?
Greco: I knew that Blu would do a really good job at balancing the drama within the character and the comedy. Blu’s a very talented actress, and we’ve been friends for a long time. When I pitched this character to her and described to her, you’re going to be acting badly but you have to still make it fun – like, you still have to carry it with some levity – she immediately was like, yes. I got that from the script. I know exactly what you’re talking about, and I’m gonna make that work all while having [my] jaw wired shut. I also knew that she would be able to be very expressive.
Something I mentioned in another interview – I don’t know if it’s the same one that you watched – but she’s done a lot of studio work. She’s been in a lot of bigger movies, and she’s a more experienced actress than I am as a director. I thought it would be really useful to have someone like that in this role, where they understand because they have to be so expressive and so emotive, they’re able to track their emotions over the course of a whole shoot and not lose track of them, and know exactly where they are in the story at all times. [Blu is] very good at self-regulating and putting herself right where she needs to be for that scene without me needing to micromanage that.
You mentioned at the screening that you like writing unlikeable characters, and like movies about unlikeable characters. But I think one of the hardest things is writing an unlikeable character who still retains those charming characteristics. Could you talk a little bit about crafting the character of Raina and keeping all of those different aspects in mind?
Greco: Raina’s character on the page read as a lot more unlikable, obviously, because you’re getting the driest version. So in my collaboration with Blu, that was where we were like, okay – let’s bring the best out of her also. In making this movie, I always wanted it to feel fun to watch. Having fun while making the movie and the audience having fun while watching it was a huge part of what I wanted people to get out of it. That was something Blu and I talked about a lot – how do we make sure that Raina’s always feeling fun and exciting to watch even when she’s acting so badly, and even when we’re not rooting for her? A lot of that was Blu figuring out how she was going to handle that. A lot of that discussion came in the performance phase.
Were there any movies you were thinking of for reference? I was thinking of a lot of “one crazy night” movies, but I’m curious as to your references.
Greco: “The Wife,” by Tom Noonan, was a big reference. That’s also a one-night movie in one location with two couples. The movie “Yeast,” by Mary Bronstein, was also a big reference for how the characters are acting. That’s a movie where all the characters are very mean to each other, but you’re still having a lot of fun with the movie. That was a good reference to look back and see how exactly she did that. And then “Faces” by John Cassavetes was also a big reference, because that only has a couple of locations, and the characters are acting very big. It feels very centered around certain themes that they’re touching on, but it also feels very natural. It doesn’t feel super forced.
You edited this movie as well, correct?
Greco: I co-edited it with the cinematographer [Neal Wynne], who’s also my fiance.
How do you navigate a personal/professional partnership like that?
Greco: We’ve worked together for a very long time – our relationship has always also included working together. So it’s always been pretty easy. It also is just very convenient that we both like doing this stuff, and that we both trust each other and can work together. We also live together, so we can talk about the movie any time we want to. In my opinion, it makes it easier. Editing the movie was also nice to do together, because I could take little breaks from it, and he could take it on.
I know you’ve made some shorts before this film – is editing your own movies something you normally do when you direct?
Greco: Yeah. I’m an editor as my job, so even though I don’t love editing for myself as much as I like editing for other people – I find I’m more hard on myself when I’m editing for myself – but it’s just a skill that I have, and it saves money if I edit myself. So it would be silly not to use it. It is something that I do, and I feel like I will always do in some capacity, as I keep making films. But I would like to potentially use other editors down the line as well, so I can take a little bit of a step back.