The crushing weight of debt and the stress of financial struggle have led many to find creative problem-solving methods. The Sundance crime drama “Emily The Criminal” explores one such story about a character pressed to the limits by a system intent on keeping her in the loop of student debt and marginalized job opportunities. Premiering at Sundance 2022, this entry from filmmaker John Patton Ford offers an intense — but all too authentic — portrait of a dire economic landscape that creates desperation and bad choices.
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Actress Aubrey Plaza leads the film as the beleaguered title character. From the earliest interrupted job interview, it’s clear that if Emily is ever going to survive in a system that has the deck stacked against her, she will have to step outside usual societal conventions. She wanders into a low-stakes crime scam syndicate under the guise of “dummy shopper”: getting paid to make low-level purchases on fake credit cards. However, what begins innocently enough, soon escalates and eventually turns into a dangerous journey for both Emily and Youcef (Theo Rossi), the Lebanese hustler running this fraud and grift racket, who also becomes her lover.
READ MORE: Aubrey Plaza Goes To Extremes As ‘Emily The Criminal’ [Sundance Review]
The movie’s stars, Plaza and Rossi, along with writer/director Ford joined The Playlist to discuss the film, its complex character, and the rigged game around them. It all started with Ford recounting his own fleeting introduction to a scheme much like the one Emily encounters, complete with showing up to a shady meeting for a company selling knives.
John Patton Ford: I just always thought what a cool beginning to a movie that might be. The concept started in terms of the characters. The Emily character, there were a couple of people in college I knew that were a lot like that, and I always wanted to see a female character like that in a movie because I felt I had never seen it. Then the Youcef character — there’s something about immigration in the film — about moving on and taking a risk. It’s so hard to put your finger on. It felt appropriate that the person encouraging her to reach for her dreams, even if those dreams were kind of risky and ambitious, should be someone who also did the same thing himself and came from another place to be here. Something felt thematically right about that, especially when you consider what happens at the end of the movie, which I won’t give away.
No spoilers. One of the central themes of this film is debt, trying to keep your head above water in a ruthless job market. I love the scene where she is speaking about intern labor. You want me to work for six months with no pay?! It does hit on those things. Why did you feel now was the time?
Ford: I guess my honest answer is I didn’t really. I just felt like it was the right time for me; personally, I was struggling with those things. As I began to write, I guess only then did I kind of wrestle with the universalness of these ideas. It felt good to write it; it was kind of a wishful film. So, I thought if that’s what it feels like to me, perhaps it might also feel like that to others. But for the record, I didn’t do this because it felt zeitgeist; “oh, this is good.” Number one, I wrote it four years ago. It was just personal for me at the time, and I got lucky that it was also unique to other people.
It definitely connects right now. Aubrey and Theo, your characters have incredible chemistry between them. Did you spend time together before filming to get to know each other? Was it organically happening on set, or was it the characters, the way they were written?
Aubrey Plaza: Well, I’ll start. In our last interview, Theo reminded me the way we started this movie was with rehearsals. It was just John, me, and Theo a couple of days — maybe a week before we started rolling cameras. We did spend a little time together, which is rare for these kinds of movies because you don’t have the money or the time usually to do that. Directors and producers don’t typically prioritize rehearsals for such small films — don’t have the luxury — but John really prioritized it. I think that was key for the way we started building our relationship chemistry. From the first Zoom meetings where I didn’t show up allegedly, or I was insane, I don’t know, I felt like we had an instant kind of connection. It was very obvious that Theo was the perfect person for this part. I don’t know. Theo, what do you want to say?
Theo Rossi: Do you want me to talk?
Plaza: Yeah.
Rossi: Sure. Everything, the rehearsal. It all started honestly, I was in Atlanta doing this film, and I believe you were in Europe somewhere doing something.
Plaza: Yeah, I was.
Rossi: John was trying to coordinate us on a Zoom. It was 4am for John. Aubrey did not make the first few Zooms. We were really trying to with our schedule, John and I. That was okay because we knew.
Plaza: The time difference.
Rossi: Yeah, it was a time difference, priority-wise, right? Obviously, we knew where we stood on the thing. It was like, okay, when Aubrey’s ready, we’ll be here. Then from the first one on, it was like yeah, it’s going to be us three, and this will work. You’re always trying to trick people. Can we trick them? Is this going to work? Then into the rehearsals and then into whatever it was, we’re going to get it done whatever it was. That was assured, no matter what, if anything came up, we’d do it, whatever John wanted, whatever shot that needed to be done, we’ll do it. That is such a rarity. It sounds strange, but it just is. You don’t usually get people who feel that way. It’s not giving kudos to us in any way; it’s just that we all three really believed in what was going on. It all starts with the people who are at the top. You have a writer, director, producer, star. It’s like, “I’m here for the ride, whatever you guys need” — that immediately puts everybody in a high comfort level. High trust is the greatest thing you can have in any business, especially in film. So, yeah, I felt like that chemistry played well on screen. I can’t wait to watch it for real.
Haven’t you seen it yet?
Rossi: I have, but it was… the first time is not the time for me to watch or judge a film.
Plaza: I know. My eyes glaze over the first time.
Theo: You’re judging too much. You’re judging everything. You, you’re looking at yourself in an egotistical way. Why is this? Why is that? It’s the third viewing where you are, “Oh, but I loved it.”
Are you both uncomfortable with seeing yourself on screen? Some people don’t like to see themselves, and some do.
Plaza: I hate watching myself, but I’ve learned to try to get rid of that approach as a producer. Usually, I would never watch. I don’t even go to the premiere or watch it. I try to let that go now. I just think of it as a character.
Rossi: I disassociate. Once you learn to disassociate, “like that was a person, that’s someone else,” that’s not you.”
Plaza: Yeah.
Rossi: You disassociate from it; there is no benefit in not watching it. There’s no benefit, and I know that was a big thing for a while. “Oh, I don’t watch my own stuff.” If you’re playing a character, you disassociate that was you at the moment.
Aubrey, I wanted to ask you about the harrowing robbery sequence in the film; your character has a razor blade put to her throat. What do you draw on for a scene like that?
Plaza: I mean, those kinds of scenes are the easiest for me because they feel so real. I’ve been saying this, the cast in this film is incredible. That was something I think John nailed. Everybody in the movie is perfect and talented, even if they have a small part or just one line. The guy who plays the robber, Craig Stark, I knew going into it that it would be a scary scene because he really goes for it. He is an incredible actor. I have my ways approaches to shooting films and playing characters. But for that kind of thing, it felt real to me.
“Emily The Criminal” is a Sundance acquisition title looking for distribution, and given all the rave reviews, it shouldn’t be long till we hear where this one lands.
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