by Anthony Frajman
Loosely inspired by her own childhood, Charlotte Wells’ 2023 film Aftersun is the affecting story of a young girl’s childhood vacation with her father, which earned star Paul Mescal his first Oscar nomination.
Aftersun came from a place that was very close to you. Were you surprised by the reaction to the film globally?
“Yeah, it definitely was a film I’ve been working on for a very long time and I never at any point in the process imagined that it would have that reaction. That was definitely unforeseen.
“It was really lovely speaking to audiences afterward and hearing the ways that people responded to it, and having the opportunity to travel with it and represent everybody who worked on it, in that way. It was a really special experience.”
Two years on from the release, how do you look back on the film?
“I think that in a career you’re lucky if any film connects that way with people and it’s definitely strange because it happened on the first, but ultimately I look back and I feel really grateful to have had that experience, that so many people were able to see the film, that I was able to travel with the film and share that experience with the team, be it, the cast or producers or other crew members. It was a really fun year, and it was something that I don’t anticipate I will have with every film, and if I never have it with another film again, I’ll always be grateful to the experience I had with Aftersun, for sure.”
The film was partly inspired by your own childhood. Can you unpack the process of putting those experiences into the film?
“I think for most writers and directors, giving many years of your life becomes personal regardless of whether the subject matter relates closely to you or not. Obviously, Aftersun was inspired by but not a recreation by any means. It was fiction but certainly rooted in my family and my relationship. I think the part of the process that is more personal, I suppose, and making a personal film for me is really where you’re giving yourself to the page and giving yourself these characters in the story. But I think once you have a script, it’s less about exercising personal feelings or histories and more about serving the characters’ stories you’ve created and everything from that point forward, including rewriting, I think, becomes more about craft than just about yourself.”
What are a couple of really big things that you learned as a filmmaker, from making Aftersun?
“I mean everything, it was my first feature, I learned a huge amount, it was the most time I’ve ever spent on set consecutively as a director. I learned a lot about communication and decision-making and all things that go into directing that aren’t just the creative elements of it. A lot of it is about managing a set in a certain way, making sure that you get what you need. I think in terms of the process, even though there were so many people, so many more people than on the set that had been on the short film, you’re still really engaging with the same number of people every day. So, in sense, production isn’t so different, but I think you obviously have a much stronger support network around you. I think post-production was the most different and where I learned the most, but I had to pace myself and manage that process, which is so consuming and goes on for so much longer than production. I don’t know that I paced myself very well and I think I’d be a little bit more cautious next time to just carve out a bit of space for myself inside of that process because it was just full on every day, all day for seven months.”
Looking back, what would you say was the most difficult part of making Aftersun?
“I think making any film, certainly a first film, isn’t something you take for granted. I’m lucky that I’m British and I had access and managed to receive national support, money and broadcast money from the BBC. But I think just getting to that first day on set and also getting to the point where you have cut and you are ready to share with the world. Once that production train is just moving so fast that it takes care of itself, in that way. So, I think the trickier parts in the process are the beginning and end.”
Would you want to make a bigger film in the future?
“I think it’s just film by film. I do want to continue to write and direct. I’m not as interested in directing without writing, although I never say never generally. It just depends on the project. I think different projects will call for different scale and, I hope I’ll have the opportunity to make things at a smaller scale than Aftersun and a bigger scale than Aftersun. I’m definitely not thinking about being in that budget range for its own sake, I think it depends on the project.”
Did the success of Aftersun change the way you will approach future films?
“Aftersun I wrote without any expectation for myself in terms of what it might accomplish and certainly from anybody else. And that’s a little bit different now. I think there’s a little bit of a question of what I’ll do next from people who did see Aftersun and responded to it. But I can’t really spend too much time worrying about that. And so, it’s just a case of going back to the beginning and making sure that I’m writing for myself and not anybody else, because it is such a long process. It’s many years of your life. And I think for me, I feel like whatever it is that I’m working on, has to be worth that investment of time and energy.”
Is there a genre you’d like to tackle? Would you be interested in making a horror feature?
“Sure, someday. I like the idea of working across lots of genres. I’m not crazy about violence, so maybe it would be more psychological, if I were to delve into that territory, maybe more thriller than horror.
“I find myself drawn to internal conflict more than external conflict. That’s always going to be true. I think it’s going to be rare that I make a film that is about external forces propelling the action forward. I’m just more interested in how people are messy, contradictory and at odds with themselves.
“There are lots of stories I’d like to tackle. I definitely have a working list. Genre wise, I think doing something that is at heart, extremely romantic would be fun. I don’t want to be predictable, and I certainly don’t want every film to be straight drama.”
