'Something You Said Last Night' filmmaker on coming up against trans misogyny financing captivating movie

In our eyes, the release of the movie Something You Said Last Night (now in theatres) proves that Luis De Filippis is one of Canada's most exciting and refreshing filmmakers.

A synopsis of the film seems relatively simple on the surface, chronicling a Italian-Canadian family's vacation in cottage country. Renata "Ren" (Carmen Madonia), a trans woman in her mid-twenties, has lost her job, which she hasn't told her parents about yet. While on this family trip with her mother Mona (Ramona Milano), father Guido (Joe Parro) and sister Sienna (Paige Evans), Ren is trying to cope with being a struggling millennial. She's balancing between being an independent adult and still being comforted by her parents supporting her, oftentimes being a bit overbearing.

But the premise of the film is simple in the best way, in a way that allows us to really sink into the dynamics of this family, the fun and joyous points, and the more tense moments in the story, even showing Ren and Sienna sometimes just behaving like brats.

Something You Said Last Night leans into the power of elements of stillness and silence in the film, where it just feels really intimate. Oftentimes various members of the family are just lounging, scrolling on their phones. That's balanced with more frantic moments, like Mona going in and out of her Italian and trying to get her family to do things like sit down for a birthday meal, clean up, and getting frustrated when Sienna doesn't text her when she's gone out for the night.

It's such an appealing away to really explore these characters and their relationships with each other in detail.

'There was just a lot of misogyny and trans misogyny that we came up against'

While the main character in the story is a trans woman, you'll notice that Ren's transition is never discussed in the movie, which initially, as De Filippis revealed, there was some pushback about.

“I feel like a lot of financers really wanted her trans-ness to come out more,” De Filippis told Yahoo Canada. “A lot of them kept being like, ‘well how do we know she's trans? It's not mentioned in the story, no one talks about it.’ And I was like, ‘well you'll know because you'll know. You just know.’”

“I don't think people need to talk about it. It's not like with my family it's a conversation point. We don't talk about me being trans, I just am trans."

The filmmaker added that there were also discussions about the age of the lead character, with concerns about her being "too old."

“It wasn't just the transitioning, there were also conversations about, 'Ren is too old, people aren't interested in watching a 26-year-old, a 27-year-old. But if you make her 16, 17 that's much more marketable, that's much more sellable, people want to see films about girls that age,'” De Filippis recalled. “Who makes these rules?”

“There was just a lot of misogyny and trans misogyny that we came up against. But I think all of the partners that we ultimately ended up working with were people who just said 'yes' and were excited by the vision, and trusted the vision, and gave us free reign to portray Ren and her family in the way that we want to.”

'They're accepted, they're loved, they're supported'

Prior to the release of Something You Said Last Night, De Filippis released her short film For Nonna Anna, which is about a trans woman's relationship with her Italian grandmother.

As De Filippis recalled, the creation of this short film is where Something You Said Last Night started.

“I really just wanted to keep telling stories about trans women where the main plot isn't about them being trans or isn't about them transitioning, or about them coming out, or about their family accepting them,” she said. “In both stories, I think both characters are intrinsic members of their family. They're accepted, they're loved, they're supported.”

The filmmaker explained that her process usually begins with a particular image coming to mind and beginning to create around that image. In this case, the image that came to De Filippis was Ren and her sister Sienna sharing a bed together.

“I've never seen that before, a trans woman and her sister just sleeping in the same bed, doing banal things like typing on their phones," De Filippis said. "That's kind of where the whole thing started.”

Ultimately, when it came to how the filmmaker wanted to translate this family's dynamic on screen, she wanted it to be "very real, very raw, very vulnerable."

“I wanted to go deep with this film, rather than going wide," De Filippis explained.

“Rather than spending resources and time on a bunch of different locations or a bunch of different actors, I really, from the get go, from even the writing stage, just wanting to laser in on … the dynamic of the family. I think that's the heart and soul of the film.”

In fact, in rehearsing for the film, Carmen Madonia and Paige Evans started to, as De Filippis described, "get a little bit annoyed with each other," very much like real sisters.

“I was like, OK this is exactly when we need to start filming," the filmmaker said.

'I'm really pleased that when people watch it ... there's laughter from beginning to end'

De Filippis has been a vocal advocate of trans representation, not just in front of the camera, but in the film crew behind the camera as well, which is absolutely the case with Something You Said Last Night, through the Trans Film Mentorship program, led by De Filippis and Gabrielle Zilkha.

“I think it just makes the project better because it allows for a more comfortable atmosphere,” De Filippis said. “I think part of the reason that Carmen was able to deliver the performance she delivered with no acting experience or on-set experience, or on-screen experience, is because she felt so comfortable.”

“It's quite a vulnerable thing to get on set and have like 30 to 40 people just watching you, especially if you're not used to it. But to know that there are other people on set who have a similar experience to you, and you don't have to do as much advocating for yourself, I think that takes a huge weight off of a performer’s shoulders. It also takes a big weight off of my shoulders, because we're all kind of in it together."

Ultimately, De Filippis stressed that as an industry, entertainment is "stronger when we have more perspectives at the table, telling their own stories."

"This is only one story, it's only one story about one trans woman and it's very specific, it can't be the be all and end all of all trans stories," she said. "But if I can make sure that with my experience and the opportunities that I have, that I am sharing those opportunities with other people, then that means they can hopefully go off and tell their own stories.”

Thinking about the audience watching her movie, De Filippis hopes they can "see themselves and their families in the film" and "walk away feeling seen," while also just having a good time experiencing the dynamics of this family.

“I don't want people to walk away feeling like this was a straight drama," she said. "That's important because a lot of the times when we see stories about trans women, we automatically just make the assumption that it's going to be a drama."

"I think this film offers something a little bit different. It's light, it's fun, it's happy. I'm really pleased that when people watch it in the cinema, there's laughter from beginning to end. I'm really happy that the dynamics of the family are resonating and people are walking away being like, ‘Oh, that was a fun film.’”