After a heated argument leaves Marcus uncertain about the future of his spiralling relationship, his feelings are put to the test when he meets a mysterious woman who understands his situation better than anyone.
Starring Miah Madden (The Sapphires) and Mitchell Bourke (A Royal in Paradise), this romantic-drama is directed by Daniel Bibby, and is currently on the film festival circuit. Nick L’Barrow spoke with the films stars about finding character chemistry, the intimate relationship with the camera, and the nuanced ways their characters differently smoke cigarettes.
Nick: Not only does this short film focus on the romance between the characters, but also the romance of movies and the cinema. This might be a big questions to kick things off with, but do you remember the movie that made you fall in love with cinema and film?
Mitchell Bourke: I haven’t been asked that in so long! I think I have a few actually…
Miah Madden: It’s a hard one, isn’t it? I would say for me, because I started acting really young, it became a passion because I loved physically being on set and telling a story, not necessarily because I hadn’t necessarily seen anything to life changing at eight years old!
But I remember when we were shooting The Sapphires, and on one of my off days, my mum took me to see The Help. It was really to watch at eight years old, especially when I was filming scenes about the Stolen Generation on my workdays. I remember in that moment falling in love with Viola Davis, and she is the reason why I love doing what I do. Having so many Indigenous women, and women of colour, to look up to made me realise there were other people of colour out there doing this. I watch everything that she does, and I’ve read her book a million times. She’s the number one person I want to work with!
Mitchell Bourke: I can’t pinpoint one, so I’m going to say three! I remember as a kid growing up on Disney, and one of my favourite Disney films is Fantasia, where there is not a spoken word in it. I just love that fact that it’s all music and cartoon.
Then there is Forrest Gump and The Godfather. My dad was a massive movie buff, and I noticed as a kid, we would watch Forrest Gump on repeat. Like, at least three times a week, just watching that movie over, and over, and over again. I just love the story and how he literally could do anything when he was told he would do nothing.
And The Godfather is just a classic. It’s such a “boy” answer. But it’s just all-time. It’s a classic.
Nick: I love that you can ask that question and get a million different answers from a million different people! Half Past Midnight is such an intimate film, and not just because of the chemistry between both of your characters, but the way that Daniel Bibby [director] and Julian Panetta [cinematographer] shoot the film uses the camera so intimately as well. I’m curious to know how the relationship between yourself as performers and the camera affects the chemistry between your characters.
Mitchell Bourke: Dan was very, very conscious of that fact, as well as Julian. I think that first shot we see in the cinema, where Marcus sits in the cinema and the position of where Julian had the camera, shows how alone he feels. But then the shot that follows Miah’s character into the cinema had such a different feeling, and the live scoring of that was so amazing. In that shot, you’re just transported into the cinema.
Miah Madden: Maybe this is just more how my technical side of the brain works, but I think the choices you make as an actor are almost irrelevant if you don’t have a relationship with the camera, because that is also the audience. Those are the people we want to be in this uncomfortable, yet intimate zone of two people, that in real life would just be two people. If somebody else was there watching this happen, we wouldn’t be behaving this way.
So, my whole prep for this was making sure that I can basically pull strings on my face that let the audience know how I’m feeling, but also letting Mitch know how I’m feeling, and sometimes, they’re completely different things.
Having a good relationship with the DP and knowing what they’re framing and blocking really informs your choices as an actor. I don’t necessarily want Mitch to know what how I’m playing a feeling towards the camera, but I need the camera and Julian to know how I’m playing a feeling towards Mitch. It’s a great opportunity to have the camera basically be this third person in the relationship.
Nick: And the relationship in the story is a great examination of not just modern-day relationships, and the complexities of that alone, but also how a relationship is affected by an extreme circumstance. Despite this being a story that may differ from your own relationships, how does your personal understanding and experience of the complexities of love connect with characters like this?
Mitchell Bourke: Oh, may. Like Marcus just awkwardly pretending to be cool on a “first date”, that’s so relatable for me, because I was that dude trying to be cool [laughs]. But, I haven’t lived through something this deep or confronting, like what Marcus and Harper had, but I had been in a relationship that had it’s struggles and breakdowns in communication. You’re trying to pull to the strings to make it work. I could relate to that.
I actually went to my diary a lot as I was writing throughout this process, and there was a lot of things that were brought up that I realised I was in the wrong for, and I didn’t take accountability for, but at the time I thought I was right. So, it really revealed for me that was probably how Marcus was feeling. He’s thinking he’s doing the right things, and being patient, and listening, when really he may have not been sometimes.
And I talked to Dan a lot about this too. Dan was super open about the fact that this script was written based on something he went through, and that’s really brave. So, I just hung on to every word that he said, and I sort of studied him a bit as well. I didn’t want to press too much, but he was very open to me asking questions and then taking what he said and play with it.
Miah Madden: Yeah, I feel like a script doesn’t make sense to me unless I read it a million times, and you figure out so many new things because you’re able to get into the room with the people you’re collaborating with. And then things become even more relevant when you speak to the person who wrote it. Speaking to Dan, and hearing what his intentions were behind the script, really helped to understand the journey and the story.
Being able to talk to Dan was a huge help because this was something he had gone through, and being able to hear the motivations behind Marcus helped me understand Harper even more because we see the decisions and emotional complexities trigger something within Harper that only a couple who have been together for a while would understand. It’s not like they’re strangers, even though they’re pretending to be.
That was the foundation, and I build off of that. And that’s when I started to think about my experiences, and other people’s experiences. I might have a friend who had a bit of this in their relationship, or I’ll grab a bit of what this person went through. And because I’m acting, for me it’s mimicking and copying those things in a nuanced way.
Nick: I couldn’t believe when you mentioned earlier that this film was live scored. I think that’s an incredible achievement and really heightens the emotions of the film. How does music affect the way you see your performances?
Mia Madden: I think it’s a huge thing. I feel like most of the emotion’s audiences feel is exacerbated by the score. The beautiful strings and live score of this film just pulls at the heartstrings and has so much yearning to it. I think also as actors, you trust your collaborators and the director to edit the takes you give them together in a way that respects your choices and highlights intention. And for this film, there were times where it felt so uncomfortable to watch myself be in such a vulnerable situation in this relationship. But as those feelings were arising, it made me realise that these were also real feelings that the audience will experience too.
Mitchell Bourke: Honestly, I think Hans Zimmer would be very proud to watch this film. I think the score brings this gravitas to it that the film deserves. I think it elevates it to another level and turns it into something way more than a short film. The score is brilliant, and they are all amazing musicians.
Nick: This might seem like a weird question, but I think this tiny detail in the film is so important. You’ve both spoken about the process of emotional finding your way into these characters, so once you have that understanding, does that in any way influence the way your characters smoke their cigarettes? Which of course is showing in such a cinematic iconographic way in this film!
Mitchell Bourke: I love that question. What a good question.
Miah Madden: It’s hilarious for me, because the BTS story that nobody would know is that I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life. So, I went to set, never having smoked, and we were using these fake herbal cigarettes. We were minutes away from rolling on the scene, and I go, “Oh my god, I don’t know how to smoke a cigarette!” So, Mitch had to quickly show me how to in this alleyway behind the set…
Mitchell Bourke: It did help once she turned the cigarette around to the other end!
Miah Madden: [laughs] I just remember putting it in my mouth, breathing in and going, “Did you see smoke?” And everyone was like, “No.” [laughs] I was meant to make smoking my homework. But I just gotta protect my asthmatic lungs!
Mitchell Bourke: But it’s so funny because we just used that as a pure Marcus and Harper moment. Harper probably wanted to try a cigarette at some point in her life, which in that moment then elevated the adoration Marcus has for her. He really does love her, and that’s what pains him so much.
And at the beginning, when Marcus is smoking, I felt it was to take the edge off. He wants to get it all in as quickly as possible. It’s this erratic smoking, that tobacco hit, and that’s what a cigarette does for someone. But it’s such a cinematic moment too. It sets the tone for Marcus.
Thank you to Miah and Mitchell for their time! Half Past Midnight is currently playing a select film festivals.
