Vinaite’s Insta stardom
The leading lady of the hottest indie movie of the year tells James Croot why she hopes it will make people feel more empathy.
Previously famous for her still photos, Bria Vinaite’s acting career has been set in motion by a stunning debut in The Florida Project.
The 24-year-old New Yorker has seemingly traded Instagram fame for Hollywood stardom by playing the vivacious, yet deeply troubled Halley in Sean Baker’s critically-acclaimed movie.
Set in and around a welfare motel in the shadow of Orlando’s Disney World, Florida essays the misadventures of the solo-mum and her six-year-old daughter Moonee (Brooklynn Prince).
A kind of natural successor to the films of Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, it also feels like an interesting counterpoint to the similarly-themed I, Daniel Blake, with its view of poverty on the other side of the Atlantic.
And it’s London from where Vinaite is calling. She’s on her first visit to the British capital and has been struck by the city’s beauty and thankful for her own good fortune to be there.
‘‘I feel like my whole life has changed – I’m literally in London right now,’’ she enthuses. ‘‘It’s crazy. It’s something I would have never have expected. It’s always been a dream, but it always seemed like such an unobtainable thing that it never went past a dream.
‘‘I never pursued it because it was just so unrealistic for it to happen on such a scale and now that it has, I feel so thankful everyday. I’m just so happy.’’
That her dream came true is down to writer-director Baker spotting her Instagram account @Chronic Flowers (which she predominantly used for her cannabis-promoting clothing line Chronical Designs).
Having struck out trying to find a suitable 20 to 24-year-old actress via traditional means, he was captivated by her ‘‘carefree silliness’’. ‘‘She was self-deprecating, she had the physicality and rebellious nature,’’ Baker has stated.
After reaching out to Vinaite, Baker persuaded her to fly to Orlando for an audition alongside Prince. ‘‘Me and her just hit off so well from the moment we met,’’ recounts Vinaite. ‘‘I just feel like that initial connection showed him that I could play her Mom.’’
Within a month, they were shooting, although Vinaite and Prince began bonding by hanging out together every day a fortnight prior. The former also spent that pre-production period meeting the real residents of the film’s Magic Castle Inn & Suites Motel.
‘‘My biggest concern was getting the story right. I made friends with a lot of the women at this motel. They shared shared their struggle with us and just really welcomed us with open arms.
‘‘We really didn’t want to make this a glamorised story of their situation – we wanted it to be as real as possible We wanted to show a situation that isn’t being solved right now.’’
To Vinaite’s delight, the film’s Orlando premiere in October was a big success, with the motel’s inhabitants praising Baker and company for ‘‘getting the story right’’.
‘‘That just made me really happy because I felt like that was the whole goal. For them to all agree that we told it correctly was really important.’’
But despite the movie’s naturalistic, fly-on-the-wall feel, the first-time actress admits most of the situations were already on the page, rather than improvised. ‘‘They researched things for a really long time to get it right. The only thing that hard to be worked into the film were the tourist helicopters – because they were there all the time. They’d turn up right outside the Magic Castle so many times a day that it became kind of impossible to film without them in the background. So rather than not using any of shots, Sean just decided to add it in.’’
So in a film featuring lots of potentially difficult scenes, as Halley resorts to extreme measures to keep her and Moonee together and financial, what was the biggest challenge?
‘‘The fight scene [with Ashley played by Mela Murder] was really rough. I just felt like it was one of the only days that at the end of filming I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t really angry. Those emotions really came out of me and I took it there and it definitely stayed with me.’’
Sharing scenes with seasoned actor Willem Dafoe (who received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance earlier this week) also initially put her on edge, she admits.
‘‘I was definitely nervous – I didn’t know what to expect, especially with someone who is such a household name. I mean, everybody knows who he is – he’s so talented. But he’s really humble and the sweetest guy. He believed in the movie and each of our characters individually and I appreciated the fact that he treated all of us like equals. He didn’t come on set and act like he was better than anybody else.
‘‘Plus, in the past few weeks, while we’ve been travelling and everything, he’s definitely been super, super helpful. He’s always giving me good advice and always makes sure I’m OK going through this process. I really appreciate him for being there through all of this.’’
Vinaite is equally effusive about her director Baker. ‘‘I just liked the fact that he was so open. I asked him a million questions a day and he was just always ready to answer and always there to help. Anytime I wanted to switch up a word or whatever, he would let me do it. He believed in me.
‘‘Even before I went to Florida, I had multiple conversations with him telling him, ‘I’m not a trained actress, I don’t want to mess up your whole movie. I just want to do a good job and make you proud’. And he always believed in me on a level that made me believe in myself.
‘‘He’s changed me and my whole entire life. I’m always going to be thankful to him. Truly, he just gave me the best opportunity I could have asked for. I’m so thankful that he saw in me whatever he saw, because he’s so talented.’’
As for The Florida Project itself, Vinaite hopes it has a lasting impact on those who view it.
‘‘I feel like it’s a film that makes you think of your childhood. I hope people walk away and feel more empathetic to others – that it opens their eyes and makes them less judgmental. I hope people are thankful for their own lives, because it makes you think the things that stress you out and the things that are not going right in your life aren’t necessarily that crazy compared to other people.
❚ The Florida Project
(R13) opens in New Zealand cinemas on December 21.