THE MENTAL STATE: An Interview With Alison Thornton And James Camali

Introduction

The Mental State, playwright Josh Adell’s acclaimed play adapted by prolific director James Camali (A Fatal Obsession, The Heavens Must Have Cried), and starring Jance Enslin (First Love, Truth Be Told), Carly Pope (Elysium, The Collector), Alyssa Sutherland (Evil Dead Rise, Vikings), Bryan Greenberg (How To Make It In America, Prime), Alison Thornton (Dare Me, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce), William Popp (Bros, Time After Time), Nathan Wallace (Chicago P.D., The Blacklist), and William R. Moses (NCIS, Mystic Pizza).

Having won best feature, actor, and director at more than half a dozen film festivals and screened at nearly two dozen well-respected festivals, The Mental State is a tense, honest look at so many of the issues plaguing America today, filled with powerful performances and a heartbreaking story. A high school senior from rural Kentucky and his family struggle to cope with his recent severe mental health crisis. A complex character study the film is a cinematic sibling to The Secret Window, A Beautiful Mind, Donnie Darko, and Elephant.

Synopsis

Andy suspects a dangerous town shooter is on the loose in his hometown. Upon learning the shooter’s identity, he uncovers a much darker conspiracy brewing around the girl he loves. As Andy’s behaviors at school become more irrational, his single mother, Angela, struggles to find and afford the professional care he needs.

Interview

Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower recently sat down with writer/director James Camali and actor Alison Thornton to discuss their new feature film, The Mental State. They talked about growing up in a post-Columbine world, having the freedom to play a scene multiple ways, and the importance of having a good casting director, among other topics.

Glen Dower:

James Camali and Alison Thornton, how are you both today?

Alison Thornton:

Good, thank you. How are you?

Glen Dower:

I’m good, thank you. Of course, we are here to talk about your new film, The Mental State. A very intense piece, with a lot of important messages discussed. James, you also wrote the screenplay which is based on a play. Can you tell me the journey from stage to page to screen, and how you decided that this was a play that maybe needed to be seen onscreen?

James Camali:

I think it kind of started with me growing up in a post-Columbine world. Columbine was a big school in a mass shooting that I’m sure even received global attention. Growing up in lockdown drills and rehearsing exit strategies and just a weird vague paranoia if a classmate would be someone I needed to defend myself against, was always very strange. And then when Sandy Hook happened in Connecticut in 2012, that stuck with me coming into age as an adult. My girlfriend at the time, who’s now my wife, introduced me to the play and Josh Adele, who was a friend of hers. After those experiences growing up and Sandy Hook and starting to formulate ideas for a story like this, the play just dealt with so many of the themes and family dynamics that I wanted to see in a story like this.

The play is different from the film in some ways. But Josh and I connected on the intentions of this play. Of trying to talk about teenage mental health, about talking about the lack of resources for so many families in various economic statuses, and talking about gun safety and gun control which is such a difficult conversation here in the United States. I know I always have to give my little piece about how guns are not for me.

But I know a lot of responsible gun owners, hunters, police officers, and that sort of stuff. Bringing all that into play in this conversation was important, and the play just did so much of that legwork to formulate some idea around that. And then after that, it was a matter of me doing all of the extra research I felt like I needed to do to tell this story appropriately and compassionately with the empathy it needed.

Glen Dower:

Absolutely. I’m from Ireland, Northern Ireland, and you may have heard about our troubles growing up. I’m not sure if it’s the same in America where it’s the norm. Where it’s a daily tragedy and becomes almost audible wallpaper, ‘Oh no, there’s a shooting today. Where was it this time? Oh dear.’ Is that what it has become in the US? Obviously in Northern Ireland, it’s calmed down. There’s been calm, there’s been peace. Is that the same in America? Do you think people need to see a film like this to go, ‘No, this is tragic.’ There needs to be, as you say, control and there needs to be a spotlight on it and this is happening day to day and this film is real. It could be a documentary piece even if this is something that you’re trying to end with the film.

James Camali:

Yeah, I mean I think so many of the situations that happen in the US, the tragedies that happen daily are exposed by news outlets and so many of them just become headlines. I think you mentioned just basically kind of becoming wallpaper, which is a really interesting way to do it. It’s just there and you just kind of look at it, you walk past it and you don’t think about the walls that you’re looking at. It’s a really beautiful metaphor and analogy.

But I wanted to bring an audience really down to a story like this. Bring them down to some event. The sort of hurricane of circumstances that lead to a tragedy like this because it’s important for us to actually feel these tragedies and not just see them, and then have a five-minute discussion at the bar and continue with our day. And then they happen again.

We need to sort of sit and think about them. It’s tough to do that as a filmmaker and it’s a hard thing to ask an audience to do as well. But at the end of the day, I just try to make what I feel like I need to make. And I was so blessed by the crew and our wonderful cast. I mean especially Allison and everybody involved who brought their heart and soul to it.

Glen Dower:

Yeah, of course. Let’s talk about the cast. Allison, playing Bethany, how did you approach her as such a sympathetic character? I don’t want to spoil anything, but we do fear for her a great deal. So how did you approach it? And coming from a film like Girl Gone Bad, obviously a bit of a change for you.

Alison Thornton:

Change for sure. Yeah. I mean, I approached Bethany with as much empathy as I could have. I researched what it would be like to grow up in Kentucky, her religious upbringing, the political climate of Kentucky, and just what point of view she would have. A lot of my research was just conversations with James. James was great about giving all the actors a lot of space to discuss the character, discuss the story, and how to approach such a sensitive topic.

I mean, one thing that I appreciated about this role was just that it doesn’t spoonfeed the audience and force a perspective down anyone’s throat. It’s just a story and people can take from it what they want. And even as an actor that’s what we were all able to do and put our spin on it. James was very open to collaborating and hearing our ideas as well, which was amazing.

Glen Dower:

Yeah, for sure. And a special shout of course to Jan who plays Andy. How was he discovered by you, James?

James Camali:

Well, it’s a huge credit to our casting director, Patricia McCorkle, and her associate at the time for those roles. It was kind of a standard casting process in a way. We put it out there and we received thousands of auditions. She, Pat, and their team whittled down all of the auditions, a lot of taped auditions. They showed it to me and then I brought in kind of the top candidates to come in and do in-person auditions. And he was certainly the main focus. Andy’s character was the main focus of who we cast and then built around them, right? Because he’s so pivotal to the entire story and it’s such a difficult subject matter, and for a young actor. We shot this a few years ago, so they’re still young actors and they were even younger then. Who could handle that sort of thing?

And Jan came in and just knocked the audition out of the park. At that point, it was just him and one other person. And then he and I kind of got together and had dinner together at a diner here in LA and just kind of talked for a while. He gave his perspectives on the story and why he wanted to make it, and he just really felt like the right choice and I was so lucky to work with him.

Glen Dower:

And how did you place him with Alison, with the natural pairing?

James Camali:

Yeah, I mean, I think just as you go through the audition process, you see. I think there’s always a vagueness of what I’m trying to look for in a character in an actor. And then when the actors come in that I know I’m going to end up casting, and they give their performance, I’m like, that’s who I have to go with. It just seemed like the two of them were going to pair well because they both, I think, brought a lot of heart and empathy to their characters from minute one. Some scenes were the bigger scenes that were also the audition scenes, which sometimes happens for films, and I felt was necessary for this piece.

And Alison just did a fantastic job of playing some of those final moments of trying to work with Andy in that moment without giving too much away. You know what I mean? She did a great job of trying to be there for him and trying to be as calm as she could be. And she just, everybody, I mean, I love talking about actors. They all did so well! I was so lucky to work with them. So yeah.

Glen Dower:

Again, we don’t want to give too much away, but there are certain scenes of course, where I’m guessing you had to film two versions and certain characters have to give two performances. How did you approach those as a director and also Alison as an actress?

Alison Thornton:

I mean as an actor, it was such a fun exercise. We would talk to James a lot beforehand and just get very clear on the perspective that we were doing at that time. And I mean, it’s such a fun challenge as an actor to have that freedom within a scene. To play it multiple ways. Yeah, it was great. Even as the actor, I walked away not necessarily knowing whose perspective I agreed with, or if there’s some kind of middle ground that isn’t even discussed. Maybe one person’s perspective is just their own bias and the other character’s perspective is their bias. And I mean, there’s no set reality as to what happened, which was just such a fun exercise.

Glen Dower:

James, directing?

James Camali:

And back to being fortunate about working with these actors is that specifically, they’re all very smart. Very kind souls too. So for them to understand the moments when we had to shoot either different perspectives or even just track the perspective throughout the film, especially at the amusement park with Blaine who played, Brian. They did a fantastic job of balancing. Here’s Brian being in this situation, but also, okay, here’s a couple of shots where we’re in Andy’s perspective. And now we need to sort of tune up certain things and what does that mean? So all the actors did a fantastic job of balancing that. And it just came from conversations, like Alison said, throughout the process on set that day. How are we approaching this shot-by-shot?

Glen Dower:

That was great. I also want to talk about Carly Pope because about halfway through the movie, it switches to her movie. It comes all about a mother’s love, and you see that transition and go, oh, she just seemed to be a supporting character for a while there. Now she’s carrying the movie. She must have been really important to cast for you.

James Camali:

Yeah, yeah. She was, again, the other actors, she came in and delivered a fantastic performance. And then some things go into casting like do they look like they could be family members? That’s always a big concern. How do you find great actors who also, we thought, looked the part in that sense? But separate from that, she just did a fantastic job and she just, again, came in and put her heart and soul into it from the start.

I think she recognized that the second half was going to be more her film. And that was a big thing from my perspective. As I said, kind of growing up in this post-Columbine world of feeling like the family members, and specifically the parents, don’t get their story heard as much as they should and deserve to. That’s hard. I don’t think parents come up like, ‘Ooh, can’t wait to parent my kid into this situation’. They’re just trying. And Carly did a fantastic job of that.

Glen Dower:

Yeah, because I’m a teacher as well, and I’m a father of two little boys, and you just see those scenes sometimes and the way you create tension as well. Just those moments when Andy’s going to send out the email in the counselor’s office, and my stomach was churning, ‘Andy, no, what are you doing?’ So as a director, how do you rack up tension? Also when he is going around the house during the party with his video camera, those moments, and you’re just like, ‘Andy, what are you doing?’ So, because he’s been a narrator for you, how do you as a director wrap up that tension, and how do you approach those certain moments?

James Camali:

That’s filmmaking. It’s across all aspects of filmmaking. It starts with writing. I had great co-writers along the way that helped me sort of develop these moments of tension, to begin with. Then getting on set, having the actors play the role, and working with my cinematographer, Ronnie Swinton, who’s a fantastic cinematographer and really kind of like my filmmaking partner in a way. He and I work on everything together and it’s a lot of discussions between him and me about how we’re going to cover it. And then ultimately came down to the edit where he and I were working on the edit together a lot, and then we ended up bringing in Alexis Evelyn Johnson, who’s a fantastic editor.

We wanted to bring her in for her perspective. She’s a fantastic storyteller, first and foremost, but also having a female storyteller on board with us. There are a lot of dudes along that journey and I wanted to make sure that other aspects were emphasized. Especially, the tension in the party for a character like Alison’s, having Alexis come in and kind of give her perspective. Was that scene too much? Are we staying in certain moments too long? So yeah, it’s a blessing that audience members like yourself watch it and feel that tension because so many times you can go through the process and not know what the heck is translating. It’s a credit to everyone involved.