Pariah is the story of Alike, a young woman coming to grips with her sexual identity, but unable to seek out her family for support during this confusing time in her life.  First time writer/director Dee Rees spoke with Medium Rare’s Kristine Gerolaga about the making of her film and her journey as a filmmaker.

Kristine Gerolaga: How and why did you become a filmmaker?

Dee Rees: I really took the long way around honestly, but I guess I could say that the thing that led me into it was the writing. I love to write, but I didn’t always know that this was what I wanted to be. I went to business school because I thought that was a practical career and I was working in marketing because I thought I could be creative and still make money. But, you know, three jobs, three cubicles later, I realized that I wasn’t happy and that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do. And so, for me, I saw filmmaking as a way to still be a writer and still have control over bringing these stories to life. So, it was the long way around but, I think, because the journey took so long, I appreciate being here more.

KG: Each character was three dimensional. They were unpredictable and not stereotypical in any way. How did you develop each of these characters?

DR: Thanks. So after I got a couple of drafts in for the script, we were invited to the Sundance screenwriting lab and that really helped and one of the things I took away from that was writing the story from each character’s point of view. So from each character’s point of view, I did a stream of consciousness blob. Because in real life, no one is a supporting character in anyone’s life. You’re the lead character in your life. I’m the lead character of my life. So everyone thinks that they’re the lead. So I went through and did a pass of, you know, how does this character see it? Everyone has fears, dreams, wants and needs. And by identifying what each character fears, needs, wants, I was able to bring to the script their full being and let them be flawed and let them want, and let them navigate the world for themselves. With Audrey (Kim Wayans), this is especially important because her character could have come off as really harsh and two dimensional so for her character I had to work hard to find that vulnerability and loneliness. You know, here’s a woman who just wants to connect. She’s socially awkward at work. Her relationship with her husband is rocky because they’re resenting each other. So they each have their own backstory that brought them to this point. Same thing with Arthur (Charles Parnell), he’s a guy who never wanted to be a cop. He’s being told by his community that he has to love his daughters differently and he doesn’t. Everybody had their own pressures. So, yes, I think writing everybody’s story from their own point of view is what allowed them to become whole characters.

KG:  How did you have the actors prepare for their roles?

DR: I don’t do traditional readings for rehearsals. I had them do exercises. So for the two best friends Alike (Adepero Oduye) and Laura (Pernell Walker), I had them go in costume to Dave and Buster’s in Times Square so they can feel what it means to be a gay woman in a straight environment. People were looking at them crazy and on the subway they had experiences where they might not have felt safe and they definitely felt people receiving them differently. I also had them go in costume to a lesbian club or to a gay environment where they could figure out how it felt to identify as butch. Pernell Walker was instantly getting phone numbers and waving dollar bills and fell right into it and Adepero Oduye was a wallflower and she was totally not comfortable so it’s great because in the story, Alike is someone who is in this tug-of-war with her best friend who is more butch and wants her to be like her but it’s not Alike’s personality. And she’s torn between her mother who wants her to be more feminine but that’s not her either. By immersing them in experiences and having them build a shared history together is how I prepped them for it. And for the family, I had a psychotherapist friend come in and hold a mock family therapy session. That was their rehearsal. They sat on a couch together and hashed it out. Then they’d bring those arguments, dynamics, and those passive-aggressive beefs to the material.

KG: What are your thoughts on straight actors playing gay and lesbian parts?

DR: I saw a lot of actors for the role, but I picked the best ones. For me, it was more important that they had an outsider experience, and so for Adepero, who’s second generation Nigerian, she definitely had experiences growing up where she felt like she couldn’t fit in with some of her classmates. She had experiences where she felt like people treated her differently. And that’s what Alike’s kind of thing is. She doesn’t fit in any of the worlds that she moves in. And [Adepero] brought that to the role and that’s what was most important for me. And with Pernell, she grew up as a tom boy. She grew up seeing these women and feeling the same pressures that Laura felt. It was important for me that the actors had something personal to touch on that they could bring to the role and that they had the character in them some way. They both did. So, it was more important to get the best actor who could really relate to the role than get the actor who, may be a lesbian, but may not be able to connect to the material in the same way. There’s definitely queer actors in the film but the two main girls just happened to be straight.

KG: Who wrote the poetry for the film?

DR: I wrote it. I wrote it as part of the film in the screenwriting process. It was like a way to get into Alike’s inner journey and see where she is.

KG: How long did it take you guys to film Pariah?

DR: It was 19 days total. (Laughs) Yeah, it was crazy. It was 18 days principal photography and then we had one day pick-up. There’s a rooftop scene with Alike and her dad, but we were shooting in December so it snowed, and we ended up having to come back the next year to shoot that scene.

KG: A year later?

DR: Yes, a whole year later we shot that scene. But everybody really stayed in and everybody was really committed to it. And honestly, at the time it felt frustrating that it was taking so long to raise money to shoot and then we had to come back again for the one day, but I feel like that time made it better because we all matured as artists in that time frame and it was in the time frame that I ended up writing that last poem. Originally, I wasn’t going to do another poem for it. And the producer, Nekisa Cooper, and the editor, Mako Kamitsuna, kept on pushing, saying ‘Oh, I feel like we need to bookend it,’ so I said, ‘Fine, I’ll write something and then we can shoot it and if I like it then we can keep it and if I don’t like it then we can leave it.’ If we didn’t get snowed out, I might not have gone back and written that.

KG: So, how did Spike Lee get involved with Pariah?

DR: I first met Spike Lee as a professor at NYU. He teaches the master directing classes for the second and third year. And basically, I was a student in his class and I would sign up every week for his office hours and try to talk to him about the script and material, you know, just find something to talk about because he’s a master director. I just wanted to be in his presence (laughs). He also had internship opportunities. So the summer of 2005, he was shooting Inside Man, so I got the chance to intern on that. And luckily I was with the script supervisor so I was like, right by the camera. I got to really observe and act in different departments. And then I interned with him again on When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, so being on a professional set was really helpful for me in terms of professional development and learning how to be clear about your vision and how to run a set. So, he was reading drafts of Pariah and giving us feedback. He was going through the budget with Nekisa and giving us notes on that. So it finally got to the point where Nekisa needed to formalize his role because he was basically acting as an executive producer but without the credit. We asked him to come on board officially and he said yes. It was great. And after we cut the film, he would watch edits of the film and give us notes. So he was really creatively there and giving us feedback and being brutally honest throughout the whole process with us.

KG: What’s next for you?

DR: I just finished a script for Focus Features and it’s a crime thriller. I’m excited about that. And I’m working with Viola Davis on a TV series for HBO. She’s an amazing actress so it’s an honor to work with her. I’m just really excited to write a character for her. So, we’ll see how it goes!

KG: What do you hope people take away from Pariah?

DR: The fact that it’s okay to be themselves. And for the gay community, a couple of things, I hope that people see that there’s a spectrum of gender identification and sexual expression and that Alike is a woman who doesn’t necessarily identify as butch or femme. She’s somewhere in between, you know, and she learns that that’s okay. And for teenagers who know who they are but don’t have the courage to be who they are, that life gets better. The more comfortable you are with yourself, the more comfortable others will be with you, and just that it’s okay to be yourself.