Pink Wall — A Contemporary Study of Life Defying Gender Expectations
Pink Wall is the directorial debut for actor Tom Cullen which stars Tatiana Maslany and Jay Duplass. The movie is set in six scenes with each one representing a year in the romantic relationship between Maslany and Duplass. What stands out in this film is that it was shot over the course of only 9 days and with a limited budget of $100,000. This meant that the movie had to be made in creative ways.
Cullen noted that the movie is sentimental for him because of the opportunity for his family and close friends to collaborate. They aren’t actors but are featured in several scenes throughout the movie. Despite the lack of acting experience on their part, Cullen’s method made it possible to produce raw and emotional performances.
Cullen mentioned that he wanted the movie to feel as honest and filled with true emotion as possible. During the Q&A, he mentioned he had Maslany and Duplass improvising scenes as much as possible before shooting ever began so that both actors would not only feel comfortable with one another but also have a bank of memories to feed off of each other during their performances.
Although this was Cullen’s directorial debut, having been an actor for over 13 years allowed him a different perspective and approach. He chose to give the actors structured scenes and notes of where different emotions should take place but allowed the actors to have creative freedom and encouraged them to improvise as much as possible. While the actors were improvising, he allowed the cameras to roll continuously to acquire the most vulnerable and honest reactions.
The inspiration of this movie was that Cullen wanted to explore his own successes and failures as a romantic partner and to explore the complexity of women that he knows personally. Maslany’s character Jenna is portrayed as an ambitious producer and comes off strong-headed. Duplass’ character is a more soft-spoken character who is a photographer’s assistant and comes off as eager to please Maslany’s character even though the tone of her character can come off as aggressive.
Maslany confesses that after shooting ended, she was very sad to have to let her character go, saying that Jenna was brave and that she could relate to Jenna very well. When asked what advice she would give to aspiring artists she said that no matter what to keep creating and collaborating with one’s friends.
“When you have a valid story and a creative perspective, you will always make great work,” she said. This movie reminded the viewer of the strength of honesty and empathy while taking us on a journey of partnership that can be all too familiar. Pink Wall defies gender expectations and is a contemporary study of life and our struggles to balance life and our ambitions.
