Sam Hayes Goes into the Deep End of “Pools”
Pools hold a certain type of magic. The shimmering, rippling water. A source of coolness to beat the sweltering summer temperatures. The aptly titled Pools is writer/director Sam Hayes’ feature debut. On its surface, Pools is college-debauchery. Kennedy (Odessa A'zion) is searching for a pool to let her escape the Chicago heat, but she’s also looking for some sort sign about her future. Little does she know, finding a pool will also send her down the path
Sam Hayes sat down with Beyond the Cinerama Dome to discuss the film’s North American premiere, the never-ending need for coming-of-age films, and everything that comes with growing up. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Beyond the Cinerama Dome: My first question is about TIFF Next Wave, even though that was a while ago now. What was it like presenting Pools at that film festival?
Sam Hayes: That was really cool because TIFF Next Wave is a festival designed for films that appeal to 15-to-30-year-olds, which is currently Gen Z. That's exactly who this film is for. All the actors are in their early 20s and it's a coming-of-age story, so it was perfect. We were super-honored to be selected. It's only ten films a year and it really validated that younger people connect with the film and love our actors too. It was a blast. Couldn't have been better.
I want to go back to where the idea for Pools came from. On a very basic level, it's a girl looking for air conditioning, but obviously goes far deeper.
Yeah, I think the air conditioning is an excuse to search for something much deeper. The heat wave is sort of an analogy on the outside to what's going on for her on the inside with crippling panic attacks and a total cognitive dissonance over what she's doing with her life and what she actually wants to be doing with her life. She's still figuring that out along the way.
I think much in the same way that the characters are figuring it out, I was figuring it out as I was writing it. I really didn't know where it was going to go. The initial idea came from this free ride about the girl in the window, the AC man on the lawn, and the heat wave. It just sort of ended up turning into an exploration of my own coming-of-age story compressed into two days and a couple of wild summer nights.
You shot it in your hometown, right? What did that homecoming feel like as a director?
It wasn't actually my hometown. It was a couple towns over, but very close. I was able to stay at my mom's house while I was filming (laughs).
That’s trippy.
That was weird, but it was also super nice because she would come and drop things off on set. It was really cool, though. I grew up in that area, in a different town, and would go to Lake Forest where we shot and do some pool hopping there because that's where the biggest mansions and the best pools exist.
Courtesy of Pools
You mentioned it's a coming-of-age movie and I feel like Pools fills in a bit of a gap. We don't have a lot of movies in the first couple of years of college, and I think it's a really interesting time. Either we get coming-of-age movies of teenagers or it's late 20s trying to figure out their life post-graduation. Can you talk a little bit about why you ended up in Kennedy’s sophomore year?
Honestly, that was the age I was when my dad passed away when I was in college. I was 20, it was right after sophomore year, so I probably just made it that age for that reason.
I totally agree, though. I feel like every coming-of-age movie ends at prom, you know? I think you're still coming of age a lot later than that. I think actually most kids who are in college, myself included, are pretty lost. We have no clue what the fuck we’re doing or what we want. We're just kind of thrown into these systems.
Some colleges are great and you learn a lot. I think I learned a lot in college, but it’s also just like a stage of life. People are partying and trying to figure it out. I think in some ways it's almost more coming-of-age to me than high school. In high school, you're still under your parents’ roof and you have a lot more traditional guidelines going on for you. When you get to college, it's like, okay, you're off on your own. You got to start figuring out, oh, wait, what do I actually want? Who am I actually as a person?
Pools and Cooper Raiff’s Shithouse, to me, are really kindred spirits of that confusion of I'm supposed to be so happy, but I am utterly miserable.
Oh, thank you so much. I'm glad to hear that. I love Shithouse, so that's like music to my ears to hear that comparison.
Courtesy of Pools
What I love about Pools is that you have a visual language that’s different and exciting. I’m thinking in particular of the scene where Kennedy’s in the dorm window and the AC guy’s out on the lawn with all those really intense zooms. Was that built into the script or did that come about as you were in the editing room?
That was built into the script, 100%. The editing room was getting what I had built into the script into reality. That was very difficult because we were working with the biggest zoom lens I've ever seen. The thing was like (gestures with his arms spread wide). It was a 50 to 1500 zoom lens.
Landing that zoom is incredibly difficult because the DP has to land it on a pinpoint just right. That was a lot of takes for those shots. In the edit, I spent way too much time editing that sequence together to try to get it just right.
I'm glad I did, though, because that's one of the most signature stylistic moments I wanted for the movie. I think it's a moment where that style works really well. Like I said, the beginning of the movie was really that scene, so I had to do it justice.
Courtesy of Pools
You did. It's such a fun moment and I feel like it's a great introduction to both of those characters, Michael (Michael Vlamis) and Kennedy. I feel like there’s a version of this movie where their relationship turns romantic, which I think would have not been as strong as what ultimately happens in the film. Did you ever consider that or did you know immediately that they were just going to be weird buddies for two nights?
I didn't know immediately what would happen. When they intersect again at the house, it's such a weird coincidence that they know it's meant to be in some way, right? They know it's bigger than just like, oh, we're going to hookup or something, you know what I mean?
It was never really lending itself toward that romantically. As they talk, it becomes very clear that they're both at a similar place in life and they're both kind of lost. As they talk, Michael very much takes on an older brother role toward her.
I like that the audience hopefully wonders, like, oh, is this going to happen? Then it doesn't, because that's not what this movie is about at all. That's when I realized that it was like, oh, there's no way this is going to happen. This movie's about her personal journey and her personal growth finding herself. I think if there was a romantic plot, that would just be a massive distraction. I think that's cheesy. I think there are so many coming-of-age films where it's like, okay, you've got to have your romantic b-plot. It just wasn't what the movie was about.
Courtesy of Pools
Odessa is such an incredible force in this movie and this was my first introduction to her. Then I was surprised when she popped up in Until Dawn last week. What was it about her in the casting process that made you want to put her in the lead role of Kennedy?
It was just her vibe as a person. I had started doing some free writing with a somewhat vague character in mind. I saw her on somebody's Instagram story and was like, oh, my God, she's perfect for this. That's totally the girl.
She hadn't done a ton of work at the time, not nearly as much as she has now. Now she's really blowing up. I was able to just get a coffee with her and then took her through the story, my general ideas. Even though I didn't fully know where the story was going, I took her through the vision for the movie and she really vibed with it.
We had a good vibe. I was like, all right, I'm going to write this with you in mind. I did that and then eventually, when I finished that, she read the script and liked it. So there we were. There was no specific reason. It was just sort of a feeling.
And she also helped with the music too as well, right?
She did. She wrote an original song that became the climax of the movie. We didn't even really touch that song at all. She just wrote that and we were like, that's the song. It's an amazing song.
Music plays such an important role in the movie. I was so happy to hear Thumpasaurus there. It’s a great soundtrack that you put together. Can you talk a little bit about that side of things?
My music supervisor, Peymon Maskan, brought Thumpasaurus to me. He's just really good at finding these songs that are amazing and feel really big but haven't quite popped off yet. He does a good job of predicting that. He found us a lot of great indie artists that we were able to get for not too much.
Our composer was incredible too. Cody Frye. He's a brilliant composer and also a pop artist with a pretty substantial following, but that was the first movie he composed.
My last question for you. Just a fun one. Which would you prefer? A summer without AC or a winter without heat?
I think…I'm gonna go with the summer without AC, because it's going to force me to get into a lot of pools (laughs).
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