Fatherhood shapes script about mom-to-be

Woman gaslit by her in-laws in male writers’ ‘Kindred’

With the gaslighting thriller “Kindred,” writerdirector JoeMarcantonio paints a portrait of an expectantmother manipulated to the brink of insanity by her late boyfriend’s family.

Although the film centers on the experiences of a pregnantwoman, the writingwas heavily informed by the experiences of the male writers.

Whileworking on the first draft of the script with co-writer JasonMcColgan, Marcantonio and his wifewere preparing for the arrival of their second child. Although they had planned for ahome birth, the babywas more than twoweeks late. “The doctors kept trying to force us to go into the hospital to have aC-section,” he recalled.“Wewoke up the day before theywere going to force us to come in andmy wifewent into labor right then and there. We basically deliveredmy daughter ourselves on the bedroomfloor. So thatwas quite a traumatic thing to go through.”

At the same time, McColganwas having the opposite problem. “His wife was having twins, and they were born super premature,” saidMarcantonio. “Like if it’d been a couple ofweeks earlier, they wouldn’t have made it. Theywere in the hospital for two months in incubators. So theweird position thatwewere both in really fed into the themes of what was going on in the film.”

“Kindred” starsTamara Lawrance as Charlotte, a youngwomanwith no worldly attachmentswho becomes unexpectedly pregnant and forced to carry the baby to term.

Tamara Lawrance stars as Charlotte in“Kindred,”whichwas written byJoe Marcantonio andJason McColgan.

She has no designs on being amother, but after the tragic death of her boyfriend, she is taken in by his overbearing mother Margaret (Fiona Shaw) and stepbrother Thomas (Jack Lowden), whohave completely inserted themselves into her pregnancy.

The film draws obvious comparison to “Rosemary’s Baby,” and whileMarcantonio admits itwas on his mind during the writing process, he says “Kindred” was influenced more by films like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Notorious” and SeanDurkin’s “Martha MarcyMayMarlene.”

“There’s a lot ofmy personal experience of having kids in the film,” said Marcantonio of his feature debut. “I found having one kid quite a tricky thing to transition into. And I found having two kids (even harder). I knowpeople say that dads can get postnatal depression. I don’t know if I’d label it thatway, but I definitely found it a very

difficult thing to adjust to mentally for a whole ton of reasons. I think that played a massive part in the writing of the film.”

“You don’t hear about it a lot, but a lot of people really struggle with having children,” said Lawrance. “Somepeople always regret it, actually. I found some forums online of parents talking about howmuch they regret their kids, even to this day.”

“Whenwe first found outwewere having a kid, it’s not that Iwasn’t excited about it,” Marcantonio clarified. “But, and it’s quite hard to admit, there’s a little part of one’s brain that does go, ‘… My life is going to change beyond all recognition.’ Inmovies, people find out they’re pregnant, and it’s like this big celebratory moment. There’s always that overwhelming rush of love that the parent immediately feelswhen seeing the baby for the first time. But that reallywasn’t the case forme.”

The premise of the story first came toMarcantonio 10 years ago, originally imagined fromMargaret’s perspective. “Itwas an idea I almost immediately rejected because at the time, I could only really see it fromthe family’s point of view,” he said. “And it felt like itwas going to be a grisly horror number, and I’m not really into that kind of thing. So I just kind of left it inmy ideas folder.”

Years later, while attending a prenatal baby class in preparation for his first child, he met producer DominicNorris, whom hewent on to collaborate with on the 2017 short “Red Light.” After that experience, the pair set their sights on making a feature.

“All of a sudden, this idea that I had kept for 10 years suddenly jumped out atmebecause Iwas now a parent— my perception of what the story could bewas completely different,” saidMarcantonio. “Nowall of a sudden, I saw

it as an opportunity to tell it fromthe girl’s point of view and tomake it more of a suspenseful gaslighting film rather than a kind of schlocky, lock-a-girl-up movie.”

The idea to approach Shawfor the role ofMargaretwas floated by casting director Alice Searby. “I didn’t think she’d do it,” Marcantonio said. “But we asked her, and she wanted to meet for tea. … Shewas kind of into it after the meeting, and then she invitedme around to her house for tea a couple weeks later. We had a really nice couple of hours chatting it through and then she was in.”

“If anybody asks you to do a film, it’s always a compliment,” said Shaw. “…We talked about the script a lot. Hewas very interested in anything any of the actors had to say about character. But I believe that character is situational. The situation is accurate, the character emerges. So Iwas very taken with it.”

Although Lawrance’s identity as a Blackwoman brings an added shade of symbolism to the story, Marcantonio insists any message about race is unintentional.“We purposely never mentioned race or any kind of ethnicity at all in the writing,” he said.“We justwanted to cast someonewhowas good for the part. And really genuinely not for any kind of ‘woke’ reason, itwas just that I thought it (made the story) more interesting.”

“Iwas always super honest withTamara that I cast her because shewas the best actresswe saw, not that shewas the best Black actresswe saw,” he added. “And I knowas a white middle-class dude, it feels kind of like an eggshell thing to talk about. But I amaware that she is a wonderful, talented, Black womanwhoI admire very much. And I didn’twant to deny her of her Blackness. Iwanted to give her the opportunity for that to be part of the story shewas telling. It’s notmy position to say that it doesn’t matter because it’s part ofwhoshe is as a person.”

“I think it’s really interesting the undertones and overtones of being Black in that environment,” said Lawrance. “But I think what’s interesting about Charlotte is that she’s chosen to be there— she’s chosen to run away from community and familiarity. There’s obviously an argument (to be made) for the reasons she’s treated a certainway and not believed. There’s definitely resonances between being a Black person in awhite institution and recognizing that something is unfair or unjust about the situation, even if you can’t quite put your finger on it. There’s a parallel between that and the experience ofmany Black people around the world.”