In A Lot of Nothing, James (Y’lan Noel) and Vanessa (Cleopatra Coleman) seem to be the perfect couple – happily married, successful, and comfortable. One night, their lives are rocked to the core when, after watching a tragedy play out on the evening news, they realize their neighbor (Justin Hartley) was involved. In a state of shock, and with opposing viewpoints on how to address the issue, they embark on a highly combustible journey to ‘do something’ about it.
This is the feature directorial debut of actor/director Mo McRae (The Flight Attendant, Sons of Anarchy). Highly suspenseful, and cuttingly satirical, A Lot of Nothing stars Y’Ian Noel (Insecure), Cleopatra Coleman (The Last Man on Earth), Lex Scott Davis (Rebel) Shamier Anderson (Invasion), and Justin Hartley (This Is Us). There is no doubt his film is entertaining, with knowing humor. McRae who also wrote the piece alongside Sarah Kelly Kaplan (Perry Mason), is currently continuing directorial and producer duties on the hit CBS drama East New York. He took a break from filming to speak to Cinema Scholars’ Glen Dower about the making of his feature debut.
Y’lan Noel, Cleopatra Coleman, Lex Scott Davis, and Shamier Anderson in a scene from “A Lot of Nothing.” Photo courtesy of RLJE Films.
Interview
Glen Dower:
Sir, thank you for taking the time to speak to Cinema Scholars today about your debut, A Lot of Nothing. We’re a movie site by movie fans, for movie fans, and I watched the film last night for the first time on behalf of the readers, I went into the film thinking this is not going to be for me, as a white, Irish gentleman…
Mo McRae:
Yes.
Glen Dower:
Then when we meet one of the main characters, I think ‘I look like ‘that guy’. But I come out of the film feeling completely different. Throughout the journey of the writing process, did you feel ‘okay, people will see the poster, the two lead characters, this may/will only appeal to a particular audience?’ What can you say to our readers to say, ‘no, this film is genuinely for everybody, and people should go and see it.’
Mo McRae:
I would say ‘this is for everybody and people should go and see it!’ You just said it perfectly! No, no. But seriously, it’s really a scenario where I want it to be true to all the different perspectives and points of view. I’ve been very fortunate in my life to be a person that’s been surrounded by people from so many different walks of life and conflicting ideals and agendas. So, I felt like, in making this film, people might think or expect it to lean one way. In actuality, it doesn’t. And I think all great storytelling is often rooted in the ability to subvert expectations and that’s what this is. Which then makes it all-encompassing in terms of who the audience it can and should be for.
Glen Dower:
Absolutely. I just want to talk about the early stages of the production process to start. You also wrote this piece as well as it being your feature directing debut. How long into the writing process did you say, ‘Actually this is mine. I’m going to direct this! This is going to be my debut’?
Mo McRae:
Oh, the entire time I wrote it with the intention of knowing that I was going to direct it. There was never a version of this where I would’ve just given the script to someone else to direct.
Glen Dower:
That’s really interesting. So you breathed, then lived, the story. We don’t want to reveal too much before the film’s release, so we’ll just go through some points that really stood out. Where better to start than the opening scene? From the arrival of the package, our introduction to our two main characters, and their reactions to the pivotal news story, until we give them some privacy. All one shot, all one take. Am I right?
Mo McRae:
All one single shot. Yes.
Cleopatra Coleman in a scene from “A Lot of Nothing.” Photo courtesy of RLJE Films.
Glen Dower:
That’s so impressive. What was the decision-making behind that?
Mo McRae:
Well, I felt like to really understand the dynamic between the characters, you would have to see it unfold in real-time with no cuts. And I want to get the audience, in their living room, in their home, immersed in their relationship in the most appropriate way. To do that, felt like a single take.
Glen Dower:
And meeting the female lead Vanessa (Coleman), for the first time, and as you say, everything is really explored just in that opening scene. I got a strong Lady Macbeth vibe from her. The idea of the continuing manipulation of the passive male into taking action, questioning his masculinity. And that manipulation plays out throughout the film. Did you bring on your co-writer Sarah Kay Kaplan on board to give the strong female characters, stronger female voices?
Mo McRae:
Yes, very much to be as truthful and respectful as I could to the specificities of the female voice. Then also beyond being a woman, Sarah’s just a really intelligent writer and she’s just like a thought-provoking point of view and she’s insightful. And she’s also somebody…I’m big on accountability, so just an Accountability Partner in the process. If I try to take my foot off the gas I have, somebody that’s like, no, no, we’re going to go, we’re going to make bold choices. We’re going to commit to what this thing is. So that’s where Sarah came in and check all of those boxes.
Glen Dower:
You touched on the house before. The house itself becomes a character throughout the film, I thought.
Mo McRae:
Yes.
Glen Dower:
We see a lot of the action from different viewpoints throughout the house, various framing devices, and the mirror images throughout the film I thought were really interesting and inventive. Did you scout locations for a house you had in mind while writing or was it a specifically built set?
Mo McRae:
No, it’s a practical location. It’s a real house. We very much wanted the house to fill out another character in the film. That was something we set out to do on the production design and the cinematography and the mirror shots, that I always saw the film as a piece of reflection. So a metaphorical reflection, and then I wanted to make it literal as well. And then the overall thing for this whole film itself is a mirror that it’s a Funhouse mirror. So it’s a mirror, but it’s distorted and funny and odd and we can look at it and laugh at certain points, but if you shift the angle, it could also be scary depending on what you’re seeing.
Glen Dower:
The film is released as a thriller. But there are moments of humor, and they pay off. For example, when Shamier Anderson’s character, Jamal opens the laptop, he gives looks away…
Mo McRae:
Oh right!
Cleopatra Coleman and Y’lan Noel in a scene from “A Lot of Nothing.” Photo courtesy of RLJE Films.
Glen Dower:
That was hysterical. Also, when James gets ‘over-excited’ by his virtual exercise instructor. That must have had fun directing that scene with the two actors.
Mo McRae:
Oh man, I just push everybody, and Jade Albany as the bike instructor was great. She’s also just very free and she knows that world. She’s in the fitness world a bit. She just kind of knew what it was that we were getting at and how to just kind of ride that line without being too salacious, but still kind of poking a little fun at what that thing is.
Glen Dower:
There are moments of human comedy as well as farcical elements. But then you have the moments that build and build the tension that is almost Hitchcockian. Act Three is the layering of shattering truths by every character. Were the levity and the humor designed to off-guard the audience for the events that were going to come?
Mo McRae:
Right? Yeah. The levity was a way I think to make all the heavy subject matter more palatable and also just more entertaining. And to avoid it, I think feeling didactic and heavy-handed or preachy, it was like, let’s laugh at all these things. I’m not going what’s right, what’s wrong, or anything, but let’s just laugh at it. Let’s have fun until it’s not. Let’s have fun until this is a good time until it’s over.
Glen Dower:
When it is ‘less fun’ – we notice. Just after the hour mark, there is a moment where the male characters are leaving the female characters alone. The shot is framed in such a way and lingers for a moment too long. It made me sit up and say aloud ‘This CANNOT be foreshadowing!’ But then it does have a more metaphorical payoff later. But the way you left the camera on that shot; I’m guessing was intentional.
Mo McRae:
Wow, I really appreciate how perceptive you are in terms of what you’re taking away from the film. It was all these little subtle things. There was a mantra in the movie: everything is important. My producing partner, Inny Clemons, and I have dear friends and brothers who said that about what they do. And we really adopted that and kept it with us. That everything is important. So every frame what we see, yeah, what we don’t see as best we could, we try to let the story be told every second. What’s to come, what’s in the past? It was a complicated thing to do, but I feel very fortunate to have had a level of freedom in my first featured film to tell the story the way that I wanted to tell the story.
Then knowing that the people that are going to appreciate it are going to really appreciate it. There are people that are not going to get it. It’s a polarizing film, which is fine. But the people that understand the artistry and the point of view and the perspective, I think it’s going to really resonate in a really profound way.
Glen Dower:
One of the points that I took away was how the film turned the phrase ‘You People’ on its head. Before, it had become ‘the’ taboo phrase, and in an interesting piece of counterprogramming is the title of the new ‘race-comedy’ starring Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill. The way film uses it, however, as a way to describe a new culture that has emerged that has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. A sterile elite.
Mo McRae:
It was like taking these high blood things and these triggers and then examining these triggers and subverting what the expectation is or even the meaning and flipping it and just turning it on his head and saying, oh, it could also mean this. Or it could also be that wherever we could, it just, became just interesting food for thought. A lot of this is just, it’s just material and just these textures to digest and see what comes out of it.
Glen Dower:
We know this is your directorial debut, and it coincides with a recent landmark birthday for you. Is there a link between the two?
Mo McRae:
Age is a beautiful thing, man. You get older, you get better, and you just get older and get better. But I honestly wasn’t trying to make the film to beat the landmark of the Big 4-0. I just was compelled to tell the story as fast as I could. And it just happened to be around this point.
Glen Dower:
That’s excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time, Sir. And I will let you get back to set!
Mo McRae:
Thank you!
A Lot of Nothing, from RLJE Films, will be released in theaters, On Demand, and Digital on February 3rd.
