WITCHY WAYS: Writer/Director Jane Clark Tells Us About Her Spooky Rom-Com

Witchy Ways

In Witchy Ways, Eve quits the rat race and heads to a remote country cottage to rediscover herself, and once there, begins falling for dynamic property owner, Danni. As they grow close, Danni confesses she is a witch, which is hard enough for Eve to accept, until she learns Danni has a second, ghostly secret hidden in the house that threatens to destroy their magical relationship.

Meet Jane Clark

Jane Clark is an independent filmmaker who has just completed her third feature as writer/director and producer called Witchy Ways. The film stars Diora Baird, Marem Hassler, Candis Cayne, David Fumero, and Marc Price. It is being represented by Storyboard Media and is currently making the rounds on the festival circuit.

Jane’s first feature as a director was Meth Head (2014), starring Lukas Haas and Tom Sizemore, among others. The film played over thirty international festivals, winning twelve awards. Her second feature as director, Crazy Bitches (2015), earned the dubious distinction of being one of the top ten illegally downloaded films during its opening weekend. The series Crazy Bitches, premiered in 2019 on Tubi and other digital platforms. 

Jane also produced, directed, wrote, and edited seven award-winning short films and returned to the short world in 2019 with Dinner for Four. She also took a dip in the Virtual Reality world with Don’t Come Over, a 6-minute VR project pulled from her feature script of the same name and written with Guinevere Turner of American Psycho fame.

Jane began her career as an actor appearing in such successful TV shows as Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, and Grey’s Anatomy. She has spoken on numerous panels covering film production, fundraising, marketing and distribution, and creating films for social change. Jane is currently writing a book on making short films and is a member of the Alliance for Women Directors, Film Fatales, and the Screen Actor’s Guild.

Interview

Cinema Scholars’ own, Glen Dower, sat down with writer/director Jane Clark to talk about her new feature film, Witchy Ways. They discussed ‘witch movies’ and how they’ve never really gone out of style, the research that Jane did in order to prepare for making a film about witches, and the chemistry between actors Marem Hassler and Diora Baird, among other topics.

Glen Dower:

Ms Clark. How are you, ma’am?

Jane Clark:

I’m good, thanks. How are you?

Glen Dower:

I’m really good. Good morning to you. Good evening from me.

Jane Clark:

Where are you?

Glen Dower:

I’m in the Middle East. I’m based in Doha, Qatar.

Jane Clark:

Oh, wow!

Glen Dower:

And it’s just after 7 p.m. and I’ve just put my two boys to sleep, hence the darkness. But witchy…

Jane Clark:

Yes, very witchy!

Glen Dower:

So, let’s start right there. We’re talking Witchy Ways, of course. And I was thinking that witches are having a renaissance right now through your movie and Agatha All Along, for example. But then it hit me…they’ve never gone away. We’ve had them all through our lives, of course, the first villain we ever meet is the Wicked Witch of the West. And we have Hocus Pocus and we have Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the list goes on. Why do you think we still go, as a creator yourself, why do we go back to the witchcraft well, do you think?

Jane Clark:

That’s a really good question. There’s I think there’s just something about the idea that an individual can have a power that controls something in their lives. You know, I mean, it’s one of the things that goes back to there’s a lot of very large witch community that exists. They’re self-identifying. And one of the sort of common themes between them all, you know, because some are wicked, some are not. Some are pagan.

Some just have their own practice. But it goes back to that self-empowerment, that idea that you have the power within you. And I think that that’s attractive to people. We like to have more power in our lives. You know, sometimes we feel helpless or hopeless or out of control. And so the idea that you have something you could harness, you know, and, you know, in past witch movies, there’s a lot of harm that’s done except for maybe like a bewitched or something. Bewitched is a positive image of a witch. But a lot of times it’s not a positive image of a witch, which also goes against what most witches today are.

Part of their philosophy is about, you know, positive change and the earth and treating the earth well and animals well. And it’s just it’s just interesting the way we’ve absorbed it. But I will tell you, I mean, I’ve always had a love of watching anything with witches in it. I had just watched the whole Discovery of Witches series right before I started thinking about what was my next project. So I know it bled into it. I just took it in a different direction.

Glen Dower:

I was going to ask, did the story of Eve and Danni form first or the idea of ‘I want to do something with witches’, or did it just come together perfectly and meld just like Eve and Danni did?

Jane Clark:

It started with a rudimentary idea. I wanted something with witches and something with a ghost. I had just I have another film called Crazy Bitches, which was a horror comedy. And so I was thinking that maybe I should stay in that vein and kind of pursue that. But I was also doing this with my friend Marem Hassler, who plays Danny. And so it all a lot of things came together.

Her mother is a psychic and she grew up in an environment of, you know, tarot and crystal and things like that. And so I was using her for ideas to tell me about your past, tell me about your experience with your mom, tell me what your life was like as a kid. All of that started coming together. And then I just started watching a bunch of movies and I landed on Practical Magic, which I forgot how much I loved. And that’s when it all started clicking for me.

But I had done so much work before that movie. It represented itself. I think it’s just a collection of moments between December – when Marum and I talked about doing something – and, you know, February/March, when I finally clicked into the space that I entered. So I think it was, in the end, a nice meld of moments that came together.

Glen Dower:

One of the things I like about the film is it’s cineliterate. Eve talks about other movies: ‘The stuff we’ve seen in the movies, the banging doors and the lights, those were all real.’ And they call themselves the pet names for each other, Thelma and Louise. You reference The Craft. Was that a conscious decision of yours that this is a real, this could really happen? And these people have seen movies because we’ve all seen these movies.

Jane Clark:

Yeah! I wanted to approach it as a very real thing. I did a lot of research on today’s witch. Danni’s a green witch. That’s a category of which that is practicing right now. And so I did a lot of research on today’s witch, what their philosophies are, what could be possible. And then also a lot of research on ghosts and like what is kind of the commonly accepted tropes of a ghost. It’s that they’re rooted in things that have happened to people. They’re not just made up out of Hollywood.

So I wanted it to feel as absolutely real as it could feel while also layering a little bit of awareness on top of it. So I was aware as I was putting these things into the movie, but at the same time, I wanted the base of it to feel real, absolutely organic. And even though Danni has some powers that may be a little heightened from reality, I was very thoughtful as I was building them into the script and then into the edit. So once I finished the first edit, I started thinking to myself, what do I want? How far do I want to take this? Like, I don’t want it to lose. I don’t want it to lose the sense that this could happen. You know, so I was very aware, very aware through the whole thing. It was a bit was an interesting process.

Glen Dower:

I just want to talk about how the character of Nina is represented as almost like a fairy. And we had those moments with Danni’s powers became manifest. Why did you choose to make them a special effect, as opposed to leaving it up to like the Force of Star Wars where it’s unseen, but you’re aware of its power?

Jane Clark:

I mean, at a general level, I think some of it was influenced by Practical Magic and the way they dealt with their magic. But I also thought, you know, there’s some Nina was a little girl when she died. You know, she’s twelve. And if you leave it up to the audience, there’s a tendency to go to darkness. Right away, there’s a ghost in the house and they’re dangerous and they’re scary. And I wanted to make sure that the audience understood she was still a 12-year-old girl having fun, you know, goofing around, and still had the spirit of a 12-year-old.

The kind my husband likes to call Tinkerbell. That little Tinkerbell effect seemed to lend itself to that. And then I also wanted her to appear as a ghost in more human form because I wanted the audience to feel the attachment of Danny and Nina. Their relationship is incredibly important.

This film is, you know, on the surface, it’s a romcom and there’s a love story and all that stuff. But it’s just as equally important because it’s about family, you know, family love, relationships between parents and children, children, you know, siblings. And it’s also about friendship. And so without showing Nina, I felt like. We would lose the joy she had as a child, even though she’s no longer around, and be the connection between her and Danny, who in the end needs to be there to make the end work.

Glen Dower:

That makes a lot of sense because we have to get that sense of childishness and mischief, for sure. And like you say, if it was all slamming doors, or mind may go to What Lies Beneath.

Jane Clark:

Yeah!

Glen Dower:

Let’s talk about the leads. They’re so perfect in this film. So you knew Maram Hassler before. She was your witchcraft consultant. Is that right?

Jane Clark:

It’s interesting. I originally wrote the role of Eve for Marem because I wanted her to have the lead. And Eve is the larger role. Then we had cast somebody else for the witch. And it was an actress I’m working with on something else. And she’s actually a witch! I loved that symmetry. But she had to drop out at the last minute.

And Maram said to me, you know, Jane, why don’t I take the role of the witch? It’s a smaller role. And then we can open up the other role for maybe more of a named person. And then when we both said, yeah, that’s a great idea. We both realized she was Danni. I mean, I had her all along. And so that moment that happened, which was at first very disappointing when this actress dropped out, became a benefit to me. And then I went back and I did this sort of look-through. I wanted a lesbian to play the lesbian.

I wanted to make sure we were staying true to that. So I looked up, you know, lesbian actresses top 100, whatever. And Diora popped up. I haven’t done that list before. And I’ve never seen her. And as soon as she popped up, I was like, oh, my God, please tell me she can act because this could not be better. Then, you know, we took a little bit of a flyer on whether there was going to be energy there, you know, whether they were going to have chemistry.

Having talked to Diora and spent a little time with her and knowing Marem well, I felt like there was going to be a nice gelling because they’re a little bit different. But also they both come from this very loving space. And then it just really worked. They’re also both very, very good actresses. And we had a very joyous set. And I think that lends itself to actors having a bond or some sort of chemistry together. It feels real. Their relationship feels real.

Glen Dower:

It seems to be very organic, obviously down to your writing and direction as well. But a lot of warmth, and normal things like flirting and awkwardness. So, they’re “older” actresses. Was there ever any thought in your mind to go younger and go for some “hot chicks” and have something like a Wild Things with Neve Campbell and Denise Richards-vibe?

Jane Clark:

Yeah, I didn’t even think twice. That wasn’t even part of my reasoning at all. I started with Marem. We’ve always wanted to work together. I could have written an older role for her and brought two younger girls in. But that’s not my reality. And why does everything have to be young chicks running around? You know what I mean? These women are drop-dead gorgeous. They’re drop-dead gorgeous. The sex scenes are hot. You don’t need to be 20 to have people agree with that, you know?

it was interesting because I was at a festival last week and this 21, 22, or 23-year-old guy came up to me and we were chatting. And he said, you know what I thought was fresh about your movie? I mean, I thought it was really fresh that you had older women. It’s like, OK, I guess it is fresh. And then he kind of felt bad. He said older. And I was like, oh, it’s OK. We’re not blind. But he’s like, but you’re just used to these young girls running around in these movies like this. And I was like, yeah.

It didn’t even occur to me that I should do that. And maybe from a sales point of view, people would say, oh, you’re better off and you’ll sell more. But I think that that’s a sale that’s in the salesperson’s mind. I don’t think that’s in the public mind. I think the public wants to see a good movie and be taken on a ride. And, you know, it’s not like they’re 80 and having sex. You know what I mean? It’s two gorgeous women!

So it felt real because it also gave them history. It made them deeper. They’d been through relationships or felt very alone because they couldn’t have a relationship. In Danni’s case, she was very bound to where she was living. And I think that a long history of experience also lends itself to a deepening of character that you wouldn’t have with a 25-year-old.

Glen Dower:

Finally, just want to touch on how the festival circuit has been treating the movie so far.

Jane Clark:

So far, so good. In all honesty, I hadn’t intended to do the festival circuit. I didn’t make a festival movie if that makes sense. I made everything I did, intending to make a commercial film, you know, sort of a like a general public romcom, something that anybody could go see and enjoy. And festival movies tend to go. They are either looking for a message or they need it skewed toward a, you know, like if it’s LGBTQ, they want it about that community or, you know, it’s it they tend to be more myopic in a way.

Looking for very specific things. And so I was like, no, that’s not what I want to make. But, you know, my sales agent is like you’ve got to get pull quotes. You have to do press. And you want people talking. You want the laurels. You need to know that other people like it and other people care about it. Do you know what I mean? And I thought, OK, fine. So, unfortunately, we were out of money. I just started saying, hey, this is me. Can I get a fee waiver? Hi. You don’t know me, but I could use a fee waiver.

And some people have been kind enough to do that. And some of my regular places have taken us in. So far, the audience reaction has been great. And we’ve had a nice mixed crowd. I mean, men like it as well as women, LGBTQ. We’ve had witches in the audience who are like over the moon about it. So I’m feeling very confident at this point that I think that the majority of people that watch it will enjoy it and get something out of it!

Glen Dower:

Great, and long may it continue, so best of luck with the movie, it’s been a pleasure.

Jane Clark:

Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

Watch the video interview on our YouTube channel, and don’t forget to like and subscribe!

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