Director Silas Howard Talks Queer Joy & Ghosts in “Darby and the Dead”
This piece was originally published on Film Obsessive.
The world of high school is never easy, but being able to see dead people certainly makes it worse. Such is the case for Darby and the Dead. The teen comedy premiered on Hulu two years ago and was directed by Silas Howard who has a list of TV directing credits that reads like a greatest hits list of LGBT media. From A League of Their Own to Pose to being the first trans director on Transparent, Howard has made quite the name for himself. For Darby and the Dead, Howard worked for years to refine the script before getting to shoot the film in the Omicron days of COVID. After its run on Hulu, there is now a chance for Los Angeles folks to see Darby and the Dead on the big screen. The film will screen part of the Queer Rhapsody Film Series on July 23 at 7:30pm at Vidiots.
Darby and the Dead centers on Darby (Riele Downs), a high school junior who had a near-death experience as a child that allows her to now see dead people. Darby has taken it upon herself to help dead people, or deados as she calls them, to move on from the natural world. When the queen bee of the school, Capri (Auliʻi Cravalho), dies in a freak accident, she and Darby become reluctant friends as only Darby can see her now. Director Silas Howard sat down with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to chat about his film, Darby and the Dead. The transcript has been edited for clarity and space.
Photo by Shervin Lainez
Film Obsessive: Hey, Silas! I have a quick question before we dive into what we’re here to talk about. When you directed the episode of A League of Their Own, did you shoot in Pittsburgh?
Silas Howard: Yeah, absolutely! I loved it. I actually thought, could I live here? It was such a cool city with beautiful neighborhoods and all those bridges. I had good luck. It’s apparently a very rainy city, so they had a tough time getting the baseball shots. I had a very lucky streak of sunny weather. It’s a really charming city. I really enjoyed spending time there. A League of Their Own was such a great ensemble cast.
As someone living in Pittsburgh, it’s so nice to hear you enjoyed the city! My first question about Darby and the Dead is about how the script came across your radar. What made you interested in directing it?
It was brought to me by the producer who was already attached to it, Adam Saunders. He was really patient because it took me a long time to read. The original writer, Wenonah Wilms, had an amazing first draft. I really was attracted to the supernatural aspect and the ways that it dealt with death. I always think death and comedy are a great combo. I’m always looking for funny and sad in the same scene or as much as possible. That’s a humor that I really connect to. I did some work on the script and we hired a couple of different writers. Together, we developed it for a couple of years and got interest from Hulu and 20th Century Fox and another company. We went with Hulu and 20th Century and it was a really great experience. They were passionate about it and it was my first studio film. As a trans guy directing a teen genre film from a major studio, it was an interesting and privileged experience to get to have.
(L-R): Riele Downs as Darby Harper and Auli’i Cravalho as Capri in 20th Century Studios’ DARBY AND THE DEAD, exclusively on Hulu.
I had a question, but then I deleted it when I saw that you weren’t the writer. Now, it sounds like you had a hand in the script. I wanted to ask about the means of Capri’s death. Were you involved in workshopping that? I imagine you want it to be kind of funny, but then it’s also the death of a teenage girl, so it can’t be too outlandish.
I was very involved in the writing, but not in terms of taking a writer’s credit. Becca Greene did such an amazing job bringing it home. I was very involved in the writing and looking for any tropes that we could upend. Like, there’s a million ways to be mean, body shaming doesn’t need to be one of them. We made sure, talking to actors, does this feel authentic? Making it feel like, custom fit for each character. I do like that the movie could get a chuckle at the funeral and to laugh at the electrocution scene is is a tall order. I wanted to get a little tear at the end and comedy along the way. I felt like that tone was going to be justified by the fact that we did go emotional at the end. It was a tricky thing and it had to be a little bit like ten feet off the ground comedy for a minute. It was really grounded by this story that ultimately is about a female friendship and the transformative power of friendships.
Was she always electrocuted by a hair straightener?
I think that was in the original. Actually, it might have been this candy. They had this vending machine and originally Capri was maybe choking on this one candy. Maybe it did change. It was a couple of years developing it and then once we sold it, it went fast. Maybe that was altered.
There are little moments that push the inclusivity needle forward. Somebody asks for a tampon and Piper in this really funny, monotone voice replies, “Still trans.” That got a good laugh out of me. It sounds like those moments came about on set or after the cast had already been chosen, right?
Yeah, absolutely. Nicole and I talked a lot about that. The studio gave me plenty of room to do this in the way that I felt was organic. With Nicole, I was like, Piper is definitely queer and that’s important, but whether she’s out or not, let’s talk about it. And then, we’re doing the girls locker room scene and that’s such a hot button topic. It was great to have Kylie who becomes the new head of the mean girls after Capri dies has that question like, oh, is it offensive that I forgot that she’s trans Nicole and I were like, no, no, that’s actually just awesome. That conversation that the three of us could have where everybody could ask the questions that they wanted to ask. I think the big win of authentic storytelling is you can be messy and funny in a way that feels like an invitation to laugh with us and not at us. That was one of Nicole’s many brilliant riffs. I just love that simplicity of it.
Riele Downs as Darby Harper in 20th Century Studios’ DARBY AND THE DEAD, exclusively on Hulu.
You talk about the tropes of teen comedies and obviously there are a ton. Did you grow up loving teen comedies? Were you a teen comedy junkie?
I wasn’t a teen comedy junkie, but definitely like Mean Girls, Heathers, and also the lesser known ones like Times Square. I think very few people know about it, but it’s an amazing film. Tim Curry plays a radio announcer and it’s a poor, butch girl off the street and a rich daughter of the mayor who escaped a psychiatric ward. They steal an ambulance and they go running off, and it’s a love story. It’s actually a lesbian love story and the studio made them cut out the kissing and everything. The director actually took his name off the project. When you watch it, you’re like, this is so good, but there’s something missing.
I think teenage years are just so iconic for all of us. There’s a certain way that certain things are said or places we didn’t see ourselves reflected. We still seek it out. I like that age and storytelling. I think no matter what age you are, the teenage years are still a threshold moment.
I’m going to have to look up Times Square because I’ve never heard of it, but it sounds fascinating.
And she’s got this, Nicky (played by Robin Johnson), she was a discovery kind of like Matt Dillon was. She was not an actor. She has this really butch voice and here’s this line where she’s like, you, you’re beautiful, me, I’m a freak of nature. As a young butch, I was just like, I so connect with this character.
You kind of touched on why teen comedies are such an enduring genre, but do you think that there’s a reason why the genre lends itself so well to talking about difficult things through a comedic leans?
I think Darby says it in the beginning in one of her many direct to cameras. She says something like, high school is a great time of individuality, but most are pulled toward conformity. You’re leaving your family, but you’re also then joining society. It’s this real tug of war. In a lot of ways, we all have that imprint of that particular time in our lives. I think because it’s that threshold moment, as I’m calling it, there’s all these rites of passage being individuated from family, but then trying to find yourself in society. I feel like teenagers, they just get talked down to a lot, but they’re very aware of the world. They can’t help but be aware, especially in this era where access to all kinds of media is overwhelming. Then, going through Covid, I think they’ve dealt with a lot of grief. Some of the TikTok videos that we saw young women make about our film, they appreciated that the movie had that kind of gravity even though there’s humor. Darby is talking about death and loss. We can’t heal if we never talk about those things, you know?
The fourth wall breaking is something I wanted to ask about from a director’s point of view. You have Darby break to camera, but then she also exists in this world of people that don’t realize she’s breaking to a camera. From a directing point of view, what is the flow of those and how do you set up these fourth wall breaks?
It was a challenge to do it in a way that felt fresh because what I talked to Riele, who plays Darby, about it is the camera is essentially the audience. We’re like that best friend that makes you feel funny. That’s kind of what that direct to camera was. Darby didn’t have friends in her school, only with the deados. Those rules became complicated. I was like, oh my God, it’s so hard to keep going in terms of like Capri can do or how she can move or where she can sit. It was funny to make these rules and then be trapped by then. The main thing is that looking to camera was the version of ourselves that isn’t inhibited by social pressure and trauma or anything. It’s Darby’s uncomplicated, authentic self.
(L-R): Riele Downs as Darby Harper and Auli’i Cravalho as Capri in 20th Century Studios’ DARBY AND THE DEAD, exclusively on Hulu.
It’s been about two years since the movie release and you’re just about to show it again on the big screen. Will this be your first time seeing it since then? And then, what part of the production process still really sticks out to you as memorable?
We did a test screening that went really well. It was packed, 300 person theater with the target demographic. Then, we had a premiere, so otherwise, I really haven’t gotten to see it on the big screen. I’m really excited for that opportunity. We filmed in Cape Town, so we were very far from home and with an amazing crew and local crew. Our department heads were international, our costume designer was from Cape Town, our production designer was from England, our cinematographer is from Taipei. It was a really, really great international crew and team. It was a little stressful because Covid and Omicron broke out when we were about to fly the cast. I actually got stuck there because of the US travel ban. I was totally safe there. Probably safer than here. But I couldn’t leave. Other than that, there was something really bonding about being away together and focusing on this story. It felt like an extended summer camp. We got to really talk about the characters. Auliʻi was saying she didn’t ever get to play a mean girl and we talked about what that role means. And Tony Danza was really fun to have because I grew up watching him on TV. He was so sweet. He would bring a ukulele to set and play for for the crew and the cast.
The film is going to be screening as part of the Queer Rhapsody film series and it’s a series specifically about queer joy. I wanted to ask, why do you think a film series with that focus needs to exist? And then, what does queer joy mean to you?
First of all, I’m so honored that they included Darby. As a trans and queer identified director doing a genre film, I’m really excited to have that included. I feel like what the film deals with is some of the gifts of the trauma. Darby goes through this intense thing and she has these magical powers. I kind of think all of us queer people have these magical powers that come from difficulties. That’s joyful and that’s actually worthy of celebration. We can’t have trauma without joy. It’s just part of it. You have to find the joyfulness that comes from having experienced difficult things in a way that gives you perspective. You don’t take it for granted. I think there’s certain things that are hard fought for but extra joyful, if that makes sense.
And you get to screen the film at Vidiots, such a beautiful community theater.
I love that theater. I’ve just had so many amazing moments watching films of all varieties. From Speed to Harold and Maude to The Craft, which I had never seen before. The Hunger, which I had seen before. But wow. Amazing. So many blowing curtains in the moonlight. (laughs)
My last question for you is, do you believe in ghosts?
You know, I do. Actually, when we had our premiere, we had a psychic. After the movie screened, he came up and he was like, I really like how you represented psychics. I was like, shit, we gotta vote for representation of mediums, which I felt very proud of. I do talk to psychics. I remember one that was putting me in touch with a relative who apparently had a lot of guilt. I thought, shit, you can bring that to the next life? All the more motivation to deal with that stuff now. Those kind of things really played into the movie. I’m invested in all of it. I do believe in some form of ghost, certainly metaphorical or real.
Thank you so much, Silas! This is great. Have fun at Vidiots!
Thanks, Tina. Have a nice day!
Darby and the Dead will be screening as part of the Queer Rhapsody series on July 23rd @ 7:30pm at Vidiots with a post-screening Q&A with Silas Howard and a Queer Prom themed afterparty to follow.
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