Jay Rohr
Hekla is an indie film set to soon burn up Chicago screens. It comes courtesy of writer-director Michael Glover Smith and stars Elizabeth Stam. Thanks to a small handful of festival showings, the feature is already generating buzz and earning awards, especially for its lead performer.
The movie is about a stressful day in the life of a young aspiring actress. Besides breaking up with a long-term lover, she’s got four auditions all over the city, never mind a live show she’s performing in that evening. It’s a hectic mess cinematically captured by Michael Glover Smith and brought to life by Elizabeth Stam.
The Chicago filmmaker and award-winning lead recently sat down to discuss their indie treat. They shared productions stories as well as delightful details about the movie’s inspirations. The conversation is a look into the feature while giving a solid sense of crafting an indie film.
Below is an abridged transcript of that chat. Farther down, there’s a link to the YouTube recording which expands the topics with amusing anecdotes, talk regarding inspirations from French cinema, and a plethora of entertaining extras.
JAY ROHR: What is Hekla about?
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: Hekla is my fifth feature film as a writer-director. I’m a Chicago-based filmmaker. And this is a comedy about a day in the life of an actress. It’s the busiest day of her life, and she also has to contend with a breakup with her on-again, off-again girlfriend.
This is a character returning from a previous film you did called Relative. What was so interesting about this individual that you felt like exploring their story more?
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: You don’t need to have seen Relative to understand this movie, but the reason why I wanted to bring Hekla back is because I wanted to work with Elizabeth Stam again. She was really phenomenal in Relative. A lot of people who watched that movie felt like she was the high point of the film.
Was it easier to get into the character on this occasion because you had a hand in helping write the script?
ELIZABETH STAM: It was very easy to get into this character, not only because I relate to her so much, but I had a hold of the script for two years. Mike just handed the script over to me and he was like, have fun, rewrite whatever you think needs to be reworked.
I’m from Chicago, but at the same time, it doesn’t really feel like we’re doing the tourist tour of the town.
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: Oh, absolutely. In my previous films, I kind of deviated from showing downtown at all because I really think the only time a lot of Chicagoans go downtown and spend time in the Loop is when they’re showing it to family and friends who are visiting from out of town. I’m not a fan of the tourist eye view of the city. But having said all that, I kind of wanted to travel all over and show how Hekla had to traverse the entire city.
I’m familiar with Cunnen’s, where Hekla ends up doing a production of the Scottish play. It felt very real to me, but at the same time, this is the worst location to do this. Were you trying to get that sense off to people that these are performers desperate for a place to perform?
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: That space is tiny and it’s not conducive to putting on a play. But yeah, that was kind of the thought was this is a theater troupe that likes putting on Shakespeare in bars and not charging admission and bringing Shakespeare to the people, instead of trying to get people to come to the play. And we had a lot of fun shooting that scene because the bar was open. Some of the people sitting at the bar are extras who we asked to come, but some of the people sitting there were just bystanders, just people who happened to come in and have a drink that night.
ELIZABETH STAM: Also, I think it’s based off of a real troupe in Chicago. Mike and I went to one of their performances at Paulie Gee’s in Logan Square. It was just packed. They were performing on the tables, and we were like looking from the window. I think we wanted to make it a tribute to them and show that it is something that Chicago is doing and making any space a space where they can perform.
The first time we encounter [Hekla’s] romantic partner, I initially thought the performance was a little bit flat, but then as the movie went on, I started to think backwards and thought Mary Tilden’s performance is actually somebody who’s deflated by the relationship she’s in. Was that an intentional situation?
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: You got it 100% and that makes me really happy because I love Mary. She’s a really dynamic performer. And believe it or not, what she’s most known for is comedy. She’s a member of an improv troupe called the Devil’s Daughter at Improv Olympic. I was kind of asking her to do something that’s very different from what she’s known for. What I basically told her was, you have kind of a tricky task because we need to see the arc of an entire relationship in your scenes with Hekla. The first time we see you, you’re at your lowest point, so I think deflated is a perfect word to describe her in that scene.
Elizabeth, when you were helping punch up the script, did you ever find it difficult to restrain the character?
ELIZABETH STAM: I did not have that instinct just because I think, as an actor, you’re getting rejected all the time and just putting on a face. I think Hekla is the master at putting on a face when maybe things aren’t going well and just everything is fine, everything is okay. That’s also the thing I think that Mary Tilden brings to this film that really completes it is those are the moments where you see Hekla and like that is who she really is. She really brings Hekla down to being a real person, but I think Hekla loves to dominate a conversation.
I think she maybe could use a couple social cues in life, but I think that’s her charm is she does dominate. I think she’s also a great listener and really takes in what each person she’s talking to throughout the film is going through as well. Then immediately relates it back to herself.
One of the things that’s very interesting in this film are the different types of auditions that we see, because they aren’t just revealing about our central character, they’re also kind of revealing about the industry. Were you trying to explore that?
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: Yeah, that’s exactly right. I really wanted it to be ambiguous as to whether or not Hekla was going to get any of these parts. I have so much sympathy for actors and so much respect for them because they do give everything and they don’t get paid to audition, yet that’s an important part of their job. It’s a tribute to actors and all the different kinds of things that they have to do on auditions.
Have you been on this horror tour of hectic auditions yourself?
ELIZABETH STAM: Oh, absolutely. I’ve never included a breakup in that day, but I have had four in a row, especially before COVID, when you had to physically get yourself to these auditions.
Was there anything that didn’t make it into the film that you kind of wish had or you’re glad hadn’t?
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: No, to be honest with you, this film had such a long gestation process. I mean, I started writing it in 2016, a decade ago. By the time we got around to shooting, it was a tight 10-day shooting schedule, but we knew exactly what we were going to get. We do always find things, while we’re shooting that are kind of unexpected, but we never run out of time.
ELIZABETH STAM: You never know what the city of Chicago is going to throw at you. The day that we had the most like surprises like the scene where [Hekla’s] on the train, the lady next to me was just some lady on the train. And her and Mike became friends. And he was like, “Do you want to be in this scene?” And she was like, “OK, I’ll try not to look at the camera.” And she was so excited and so cute. That’s one of my favorite moments, just because she was so encouraging and sweet.
Hekla is premiering at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago on May 10th, but you’ve already taken it to a couple of festivals.
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: Yeah, we’ve had three festival screenings, all of which were out of state. We were really lucky to premiere where we did. Liz won an award and then she won an acting award in Butte, Montana. I think Liz and I were both really happy to see that people in other parts of the country got the film and also found Hekla to be a really relatable character. But as we’ve been showing it, it’s insane how many people have related to this.
How are people supposed to get the best opportunity to see this film?
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: I’m a firm believer in the big screen experience. My last film, Relative, I self-distributed theatrically, and we kept it in theaters for two years. I think a lot of people are too quick to kind of dump their films onto streaming services. Relative was picked up for distribution by Music Box Films, which is amazing because they’re a huge indie distributor. They’ve got us on Amazon and Tubi and Apple Plus. But Hekla, I think there’s a good chance we could get theatrical distribution through a distributor. I would love to partner with a distributor to get this into, you know, theaters in New York, L.A., and Chicago for like a week-long run before it becomes available to stream. Even if that doesn’t happen, I’ll self-distribute theatrically, and then after we’ve taken it around the country, and played as many places as I can get to show it, then I’ll think about trying to license it to a distributor for streaming.
And if anyone is curious about where to find out info about this film, my website is the best place (michaelgloversmith.com).
What is down the road for you?
ELIZABETH STAM: Honestly, I have a project coming up in September, but currently I’m trying to balance festivals and my day job right now, but very excited for this short that I’m gonna be doing with Trey Manchester in September. I did a film with Jacob Greger. It was a dream. He doesn’t have a release date yet, but we finished shooting and he’s in the editing process.
MICHAEL GLOVER SMITH: Yeah, I have a script ready to go for another feature. The name of the film is Promenade, and hopefully we’ll shoot it next year once the festival life of Hekla has kind of died out.
