Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
- We’re very happy to have some time today with acclaimed actresses, producers, writers – and sisters, to boot! – Isabella and Olivia Cohen; greetings and salutations, gang and welcome to Vents Magazine! Before we meander down the proverbial Q&A celluloid pathway, how is the freshly-minted New Year treating the both of you?
Thank you for having us! It is so appreciated. Honestly, this new year has been fantastic and has brought so many wonderful and unexpected surprises. Our short film Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch has been doing wonderfully in the festival circuit. In addition, we’re in talks to work on some really great writing projects with some really amazing creative teams, so things are starting to look up since the strike!
- Major congratulations to the both of you for your remarkable short film Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch which is debuting at the Mammoth Film Festival this very month! Isabella, can you explain to our ever-inquisitive readers what Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch is all about and how your character of Kinley and Olivia’s character of Willow figure into the proceedings?
Thank you so much! So happy you enjoyed it. Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch is about two twin sisters who are about to separate for the first time and go to separate colleges, so they decide to take one last adventurous hike together before parting ways. It seems like a really simple story on the surface but it’s incredibly complex and nuanced. Someone would have to watch the film to understand exactly what I mean, but there is a twist at the end and the short definitely requires two rounds of viewing to fully understand the depth of the story. Kinley is the very serious, organized, and straight-laced sister I play, and my sister plays Willow who is bold, funny, spontaneous, impulsive, and emotional. Together, the characters’ opposing dynamics (and our real chemistry as sisters) really shine and make the film what it is. The film is both funny but also very heartbreaking. We hope anybody with siblings, particularly sisters, and particularly twins can watch this film and feel seen. It’s a love story about sisters.
- Olivia, Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch was written by you and Isabella; congrats again! How much of this film flirts with autobiography, things which you drew upon as inspiration from your own lives?
That’s a great question. When my sister and I set out to write this film, we really wanted to make a film that accurately portrayed the complexities of twinhood and sisterhood. In that vein, so much of Kinley and Willow’s dynamic was based off of our own dynamic growing up. Sisters, especially identical twins, have such a deep and unique bond that is really hard to put into words. That bond has been a huge part of our identity, so instead of trying to explain it to people, we thought we would show it to them in a film. In that way, we wanted to show all the parts of our relationship – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Neither of the characters, though, were based strictly off of one of us individually. I would say both characters were rather a mix of both of our traits combined. Also, as someone who has struggled with mental health in the past and has had my twin sister be by my side through it all, we wanted to explore the dynamic of what it means to be a caretaker of a loved one, especially when you feel helpless and out of control. It’s a beautifully loyal, but heartbreaking position to be in and we wanted to explore that on screen in an authentic way.
- Isabella, the director of Never Getting Rid of Me, Bitch is the insanely talented Thanika Jenjesda. What was it like collaborating with Thanika on the film? Is she what some actors might refer to as “an actor’s director”?
Collaborating with Dream (her nickname) was SO fun. We flew her out from Thailand and she stayed with us for the week and it felt like a big sleepover/summer camp. She is 100% an actor’s director. She really wants actors to feel comfortable and heard, and she is incredibly open to collaboration. She steers the ship so well, especially without any sort of ego, so everybody felt like they were in good hands. She really respected and understood our vision as writers and producers and honored that but also made it her own. If Dream could have, she would have swam in the lake with us. She likes to be in the thick of it all. She was crouching in the woods with us. At the edge of the mountain top with us. She’s game for anything and everything. We really wanted this story told through a female lens and she added to the project tremendously.
To be continued in upcoming issue…
Social Media
