In a movie where the female protagonist finds her inner strength after joining an army of girls, it was only right the cast and crew reflected its story.
“The idea of working with all women, I’ve never done that before and I hope to do that forever and way more because it was the best way to work,” Grace Van Patten said, who plays the main character in “Mayday.”
The cast and director Karen Cinorre sat down with senior culture and events editor Marc Malkin in the Variety Studio presented by AT&T TV at Sundance Film Festival. They discussed Cinorre’s feature debut, which sees Van Patten’s Ana transported to a dreamlike, dangerous land engaged in a never-ending war along a rugged coast.
Even as a new mother, Soko felt at ease while they were shooting. She traveled to the Croatia set with her family because she was still breastfeeding at the time.
“Being in that zone of being a mother and being surrounded by women who really deeply understand that and make room for that and very highly supported me in that transition into motherhood and working as a mother,” she said.
Not only were they a harmonious cast, but shooting in Croatia was enchanting.
“It was gorgeous,” Soko said. “Everywhere we looked at was cinematic.”
Cinorre had been to Croatia before with her husband for a job. She always thought about how she would love to bring a project to the Eastern Europe country. Fifteen years later, she felt honored to have a cast travel so far to shoot her “crazy script.”
Cinorre said, “These actresses had such an intelligent, sensitive, heartfelt, gut-reaction to the script.”