Director Bo Youngblood & Actress Maria Russell Talk 'IN FLIGHT'

[00:00:10] Maria and Bo, thank you all for joining me today on Pop Culture Unplugged.

[00:00:14] Thanks for having us.

[00:00:15] Exciting times. We have In Flight. A couple days ago I texted Pete and I said to him, I love these type of movies with the suspense, the thriller, even the outcome of the endings. I kind of like these movies. I don't want to talk about the ending. I don't want to give it away.

[00:00:29] Man, what a ride. You got to tune in. If you pay attention, you can see a little tip throughout the movie too.

[00:00:36] Yeah. That was our goal was to have these little Easter eggs that you watch at the same time and then you see everything.

[00:00:43] Maria, let's start with you first. Tracy, she's a pivotal character in this journey, I would say, for Claire. How would you describe this journey for Claire and also for you as Tracy?

[00:00:55] Tracy. Well, Tracy is this lovely jet setter. She works a lot. She has her kids and she doesn't spend enough time with her children and she works a lot. So this is quite the trip for her when she starts to see things happening and it's things seem a little bit ominous. And is she? Who knows?

[00:01:23] Well, the story revolves around, like I mentioned earlier, suspense, you know, even like memory loss a little bit away and you don't know what's happening on this plane.

[00:01:32] What inspired you to weave like these elements into flight?

[00:01:38] I just, I think it's, they're movies that I used to love to watch in like the late 90s, early 2000s, and we haven't seen them in a long time. And I feel like people are nostalgic for those.

[00:01:49] And I just, I thought that it would be a really fun sort of cat and mouse sort of film that has a really fun twist and sort of leaves. I really wanted the viewer to have that reaction at the end of like, I really had no idea that was coming.

[00:02:05] And so I think we were really successful at that.

[00:02:10] Maria, what aspects of Tracy resonated with you and how did you shape her role?

[00:02:15] Well, I am a dog mom to Boris and Natasha.

[00:02:20] That's the one thing we have in common and I do love to travel, but the beautiful thing about this script and about my director is that I've known Bo for quite a few years.

[00:02:33] And being able to speak with her prior to, and kind of do a little powwow of where the direction that I kind of saw her and the direction where she saw her.

[00:02:46] And so that we can meet in the middle of sorts.

[00:02:49] That was very special.

[00:02:51] And I felt very comfortable to go places within my character to be able to do that.

[00:02:57] And just to have that freedom, because a lot of times you don't.

[00:03:01] Depends, you know, the writer, they could be like, Nick, that's a strip.

[00:03:05] You know, and the director as well.

[00:03:07] So you just, that's the beauty of an indie also, right?

[00:03:10] So you can kind of, you know, have that freedom as an actor to be able to do those things.

[00:03:17] And the freedom as, you know, as an amazing person also, like Bo and a director, where it was just so, it felt very easy in the sense of being led.

[00:03:30] Of being directed towards a certain way and being like, okay, for this one, we're going to do this.

[00:03:36] For that one, you can play.

[00:03:38] So that was also very lovely.

[00:03:40] That was lovely, lovely, lovely.

[00:03:43] Bo, how did you manage it to balance the suspense of Claire's like emotional journey, would you say, through like the confined space in an airplane?

[00:03:51] Yeah.

[00:03:52] One of the things that I found while we were prepping that I thought would help Tiffany through sort of the A to B, right, of while she was in the plane is shooting it in order.

[00:04:02] That way the build could be natural and could feel very natural.

[00:04:06] And you were never asking someone to like be at a high and then the next day we're being at the lowest low.

[00:04:12] You just, you just got on the plane, you know, there was never that sort of like emotional sort of tug of war that I was ever asking anyone to do.

[00:04:20] So I thought that was really helpful.

[00:04:21] Again, it's what you can do within indie and sort of like without sort of a studio system telling you how to do things.

[00:04:28] So I felt like that, even for all the characters, the ensemble around Tiffany, it was really helpful because they, not saying anything about the twist at the end, they knew what their A to B was.

[00:04:38] And so it was really easy to get them to sort of do their, get to their B points while we were sort of building on this ramp.

[00:04:47] Bo, how did you go about the casting choices for this?

[00:04:50] What were you looking for when you were casting these roles?

[00:04:53] Well, almost everyone is a friend of mine.

[00:04:56] So that was really lovely.

[00:04:58] For every role I was looking, I've been here in LA for almost 20 years.

[00:05:03] And so I think when you're in the business for a long time, you have, and when we've sort of worked in everything, you have these like wonderful relationships.

[00:05:10] And I knew I had some favors that I could call on like Maria.

[00:05:13] But it was really about thinking, who do I know that is down to play and up for long days?

[00:05:23] And that I can really trust and that I can, that I know will understand the assignment really.

[00:05:28] And it was, you know, Maria was the last person I cast, mostly because I didn't think that there was a world in which she would do it because she, jury duty had like just come out.

[00:05:36] And it was like everyone on billboards on sunset, like, and it was like, there's no way she's going to do this.

[00:05:45] And we were, I was speaking to a mutual friend and, and he was like, you're insane.

[00:05:50] Let me call her and just have a conversation.

[00:05:52] And it was a very simple two minute conversation.

[00:05:56] And she said, yes, I'm in.

[00:05:58] And then we had a character conversation and sort of had the whole, explained the character and what we were going for with the whole thing.

[00:06:06] And, you know, a week later we were on set and it was great.

[00:06:11] Maria, how do you, how do you describe like the chemistry between like Tracy and Claire is like, would you say friendship on the plane a little bit?

[00:06:19] Um, of sorts.

[00:06:21] Yeah.

[00:06:21] I think Tracy wants to take care of her in some sort of mystical way of sorts.

[00:06:31] Um, yeah.

[00:06:33] Cause she feels for her cause she's going a little, little cuckoo there at times.

[00:06:38] So I think she, you know, wanted to make her feel comfortable.

[00:06:42] Um, yeah.

[00:06:44] With Claire.

[00:06:46] Oh, Claire.

[00:06:47] Oh, Claire.

[00:06:48] Well, what were some challenges, uh, maintaining a suspense in this environment for this film?

[00:06:56] Um, I think, I mean, I think some of the challenges were reminding all of the, all of us where we were in the script on the day of like, this has happened.

[00:07:10] So now we're sort of in this moment.

[00:07:11] So it has to feel that the stakes have to be at a certain, at a certain level.

[00:07:16] Um, because look, I, I, I did it on purpose.

[00:07:20] We didn't have trailers.

[00:07:21] We had one green room.

[00:07:22] We had a bunch of friends from a bunch of groups that were all talented.

[00:07:26] You, most of them were comedians, which was crazy for it to be an action thriller into a room.

[00:07:32] And everyone became best friends within like two days.

[00:07:34] Um, and so it was such a gift to have that, to have everyone get so close, but you know, it was also reminding people on the day.

[00:07:42] Okay.

[00:07:43] Like we're not, we're all not best friends.

[00:07:45] This is where we are.

[00:07:46] And this is where we need to get to by the end of the day.

[00:07:49] Um, so that was really the only challenge, but it wasn't even, I mean, it was so nice to see.

[00:07:53] Um, become best.

[00:07:56] Uh, this question is for both of you.

[00:07:58] Uh, what was like, what in your favorite moments being on this, you know, you of course, uh, creating this story and Maria, you working on being part of it.

[00:08:09] God, I have so many.

[00:08:12] I'm like, I have so many.

[00:08:14] Um, God, actually overall, I have never worked on a plane before.

[00:08:21] So that was like exhilarating that just that I'm like, Oh my goodness.

[00:08:26] Cause I always wanted to die on camera as an actor, real life.

[00:08:30] Um, and I got to do that quite a few times.

[00:08:33] And then I'm like, okay, universe, I'm good.

[00:08:35] I don't want to die anymore.

[00:08:36] Cause that means I can't come back.

[00:08:38] But I have always, as an actor, I was like, Oh my God, I always want to work on like on a plane.

[00:08:43] That would be amazing.

[00:08:43] And then boom.

[00:08:44] So that was just, you know, and you have to think about it too.

[00:08:48] It's not all.

[00:08:50] Um, it's a real plane in the inside.

[00:08:53] So it is, you know, you can't, you know, you don't miraculously just move the chairs, you know, they're all stuck there.

[00:08:59] So that was, um, so to maneuver that also, just like the physical aspect of everything, but it was so cool.

[00:09:08] I mean, it was so cool because you're in a confined space, right?

[00:09:12] So everything that you have to do has to correlate with your character and what you're doing and with the other actors.

[00:09:18] And I mean, it was, it was challenging in a great way, in a great way.

[00:09:23] Um, and exciting.

[00:09:26] Yeah.

[00:09:28] Um, I would say there were two, but they're all, they're, they're both based on the same thing.

[00:09:32] Um, and it was two improv moments.

[00:09:36] One was with, uh, Daniel Robert and Sandy McCree where they just went off on their own.

[00:09:41] And it was like, it ended up in the cut because I couldn't, I like, I could not not have it in there.

[00:09:46] It was just like the most brilliant sort of improv I've seen.

[00:09:49] And then the second was with Tracy and Frankie, Maria and, uh, Scott Dean, their scene together where we were just watching and we had one in the can.

[00:10:00] We had one take that I, that was a script.

[00:10:02] And then, you know, Marina, Maria and I had an agreement, like after we get one, just, you can play a little.

[00:10:08] And she turned that scene on its head.

[00:10:11] Like the way, like to the point where like, I was like, my mouth was open.

[00:10:15] I like grabbed people next to me because it was so much fun to watch.

[00:10:19] And she had this like whole, like, I saw the entire like romance of this like moment happen.

[00:10:23] And it was just like, so yummy.

[00:10:26] And it was like, those are the things it's like magic, you know, I don't know how to explain it.

[00:10:31] You just like literally watch like this magic happen and you have to like keep it.

[00:10:36] It was just, it was wonderful.

[00:10:38] Amazing.

[00:10:39] Last question.

[00:10:40] Could you see a continuation or like a sequel to this, some kind of storyline?

[00:10:44] Have you thought about something?

[00:10:47] There's been a lot of talk about it.

[00:10:48] We don't have a script yet, but there's been a lot of talk and a lot of story points and continuing sort of all of the characters, you know, you've seen the movie, so you know sort of what happens at the end.

[00:10:59] So there's been a lot of really fun conversations.

[00:11:01] And I think we should do it.

[00:11:06] Hell yeah.

[00:11:07] Yeah.

[00:11:09] Maria Bo, I want to thank you for giving me a few minutes today on In Flight Press Day and good luck with the film.

[00:11:14] And like I said, hopefully we see a continuation.

[00:11:17] Yeah.

[00:11:17] Thank you so much.

[00:11:18] Thank you.

[00:11:18] Thank you.

[00:11:19] Thank you.