Nicole Pastor and John Balazs talk filming the twisted thriller Freelance

When a down-on-her luck video editor takes on a mysterious, well-paying job cutting snuff films, she is haunted by visions of the people in her videos.

Freelance is now available on VOD in Australia and the US, and Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s star Nicole Pastor and director John Balazs about how much fun they really had making the twisted psychological thriller!

Nick: I’d love to start with Mike Gerbino’s script, and the short film that he also made for Freelance! What iteration of this story came to you both first? Was it the script or the short film?

John Balazs: So, I found the script on a website called Ink Tips, which freelance writers just upload their scripts and hope producers find it. And the logline immediately got me, because I could relate to it as an editor. So, I requested the script, and I read it twice in a night, and that’s when I knew I wanted to do it.

If a script holds me for 10 pages, I know I’m into it. And this script held me for all, you know, 100 pages. I pretty much reached out to the writer saying, “Hey, I want this script. I want the rights to it! What do I need to do to get them from you?” And he asked to see some of my previous work, which I had just released a feature film prior to Freelance.

And he liked it, but his only issue was that he was making the short film version of it for festivals and locally in New York. So, we agreed that he could make the short film, and I would have the rights to the feature film, and it was very quick. He signed it over, like, the next day, and we just went from there.

Nicole Pastor: We have a mutual friend, Adam La Rosa, who was one of the producers on this film as well. And I think Adam reached out to me saying that he had a director who was really interested in meeting with me and wanted to send me a script. And I really trust Adam, so I was like, “Yeah, please connect us!”

And like John, I read the script in the quickest one sitting. It was just a page turner. It was so brilliant. So, straight away, I just wanted to chat with John about it because it kind of hit many different elements for me too. We’ve all experienced some form of casual, freelance work, and that hit a few spots for me because I understand it. And that’s how it came about.

Nick: Those elements that you both connected with, what was the most interesting part about exploring them through a horror lens?

John Balazs:  I mean, look, I was never interested in horror. I never considered myself a horror director. They were the last genre of movie I ever thought I’d end up doing. I’m not too big a fan of the genre. But what I’ve noticed, is that companies like Neon and A24 are doing a lot of artistic, intellectual horror that makes you think. It’s less about the slasher stuff, and more about how we can relate to the everyday person. I’m more of a thriller type of person like Hereditary or Heretic.

I feel comfortable in the thriller scope, but I didn’t see any reason why we could sprinkle a bit of horror in there too. Because after all, Katie is losing her mind. Nicole and I had that discussion early on about how this is kind of a hybrid horror-psychological thriller. There’s a mixture of both that we had to navigate.

Nicole Pastor: There was just so much in the script. There is a bit of sarcasm. There is drama. There is horror. There is thriller. But what keeps it grounded and relatable is how it delves into the human psyche.

I’m a fan of horrors and thrillers. I’ve seen everything, so I’m immune to a lot of it! But it’s a fun genre to make because there’s no boundaries, so you can kind of push it as far as you can.

Nick: Considering you’re not a huge horror fan, John, what was your experience when filming the snuff scenes? Because they’re very intense!

John Balazs: Yeah, we shot those a couple of months before we actually started principal photography, because we had to have the stuff on screen for Nicole to react to. And I called in a lot of favours from friends to come and get like “shot” in a camping tent [laughs].

In terms of filming it, I kept two things in mind. Number one was I couldn’t make them in the tradition of grainy footage that was shot on a video camera because everyone has iPhones now. So, I wanted to keep away from that. The other thing was that I wanted to keep the fact that the person shooting it knew it was going to end up online, so they would hide their identity quite well. No reflections, no shadows. Nothing to give them away.

I put not colour grade on them, or filters. And we shot like five snuff films in one day, but it felt more limiting that the actual feature film because we had so many safety protocols with like the hanging scene, or the plastic bag scene. We obviously had to make sure the bleach bottle we used was completely washed out so it wouldn’t burn the actors. It was easily the most dangerous part of the shoot, and it was about balancing safety without compromising what the script says.

But it was a lot of fun! I just hung out with my mates all day, and had a good laugh!

Nick: What was it like reacting to that raw footage, especially in character?

Nicole Pastor: For me, I was watching it for the first time on that first take. So, my reactions were really fresh, which just gave it that extra authenticity. Even the opening scene where Katie is editing the porno scenes, I was like, “John, just get it on the screen. I’ll watch real porn, that’s fine!” So, yeah, it was a fun shoot!

Nick: The way the digital world is filmed and utilised in this incredible. And I feel like there was a lot of inspiration from David Fincher, especially in the opening credits. What was the process like in capturing the digital aspects of this film in such a visceral way?

John Balazs: Yeah, David Fincher was a huge inspiration. He’s like my number one favourite director of all time. I grew up in the 90s, so I grew up with his films. I mean, I shouldn’t have been watching them in the 90s, I wasn’t old enough! But he had such an impact on me. He still does to this day, down to the colour palette we were using.

We couldn’t afford of lot of CG on this film, so we just got a micro-lens and got it as close to the keyboard and computer screen as we could. And that was fun for me because I’ve never been able to explore that before.

My motto for the opening credits was, “What could we do that David Fincher could do if he had $6?” And the whole film is about editing, so I thought we could be meta with it and really give the audience a flavour of what it is. Because ultimately, the computer is the bad guy of the film. That’s the evil entity that Katie has to contend with. So, I thought we would introduce it right off the bat, give it some really cool music. I had my brother in Las Vegas doing the music for it!

Nick: Nicole, how does your relationship with the camera change when you have to interact with it when it’s playing the character of this “evil computer”, so to say?

Nicole Pastor: It’s definitely more challenging than just working off, you know, a human being. But I mean, I love a challenge, and I know some of the scene, particularly because they were just action driven, like writing on a keyboard, I wasn’t too worried about remember dialogue.

Most of the scenes, John was standing right next to the camera and would cue me on things. I just tried to stay in character, and I think with some of the scenes that become more emotional, I would just think of things to get me to that space.

Nick: Katie has such a specific look with her costuming, and especially her haircut. What were the conversations you both had about how you were going to physically present Katie?

Nicole Pastor: I loved chatting about costume and hairstyles! John originally had some ideas for hairstyles that you sent me, and then we just went back and forth on a few things. But one of the first things you asked me was would I shave my hair with an undercut?!

John Balazs: Yeah, I mean a lot of it was heavily inspired by The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It’s this hybrid between someone who’s got her own style, but also someone who doesn’t really give a shit about what people think of her. And it was wonderful to see because Nicole is so chirpy and lovely and bubbly, and as soon as that costume went on, she switched into that character so easily. I think the wardrobe, the hair, the makeup helped a lot. Even down to the jewellery you wore…

Nicole Pastor: It really changes you. I mean, personally, you throw on clothes and you feel a certain way. But it also felt like Katie… a part of it was a little bit of me as well, so I felt comfortable. I tried to really give the most authentic performance.

Thank you so much to Nicole and John for their time! You can watch an extended and uncut version of the interview on YouTube now. Freelance is available on VOD in Australian and the US now.

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Nick L'Barrow
Nick L'Barrow
Nick is a Brisbane-based film/TV reviewer. He gained his following starting with his 60 second video reviews of all the latest releases on Instagram (@nicksflicksfix), before launching a monthly podcast with Peter Gray called Monthly Movie Marathon. Nick contributes to Novastream with interviews and reviews for the latest blockbusters.