KCET Cinema Series host Pete Hammond, Julia Hart and Lily Rabe talk about the making of Miss Stevens. | Photo: Liz Ohanesian. The KCET Cinema Series continued its fall season at the historic Aero Theatre in Santa Monica on Tuesday, August, 29 with a screening of Miss Stevens. The feature directorial debut for Julia Hart, Miss Stevens is the story of a teacher whose life intertwines with those of her students on a trip to a drama competition. Lily Rabe (American Horror Story, The Good Wife) stars as Miss Stevens.
Both Hart and Rabe participated in a Q&A session led by Cinema Series host Pete Hammond following the film. Below is a portion of their conversation, edited for length and clarity.
The fall season of the KCET Cinema series is sponsored by the James and Paula Coburn Foundation and runs weekly at the Aero Theatre through October 10. For information on the series go to kcet.org/cinemaseries.
Julia Hart on how her former career as a teacher inspired Miss Stevens.
In spite of the fact that I was an English teacher for many years after college, I had always wanted to write and kind of had that bug in the back of my brain and once I actually became a teacher and I saw how different it was... You think you might know, because we were all students. You really dont know until youre actually in front of a classroom. I was 25 years old teaching 18 and 17-year-olds and youre not, Im 34 now and I only recently felt like I may be an adult now. And so, at 25, I didnt have anything figured out and all these kids are looking to you as the responsible adult in the room and it was really quite upending to discover that the myths that weve been fed by film and television presentations of teachers arent exactly what -- like this saint teacher who saves everyone or theres the disaster teacher whos showing up blackout drunk.
Theres some of me in Miss Stevens, but there was a lot more in between. There are moments where shes incredibly capable and gifted as an advisor to young people and moments when she completely doesnt know what to do. Thats a lot more to what its really like.
I think the inspiration, it was inspired by my days as a teacher. None of this actually happened. This is sort of me if I didnt have boundaries and good judgment, but we love Rachel Stevens very much and she has a big place in our hearts, but she is definitely that kind of imaginary creature, when I was a teacher. What if I was really struggling? How would I get through that with these kids?
Lily Rabe on why she took on the role of Miss Stevens.
At first, it was the writing because I think Julia has, her sensibility is, it just is for me, as an actress, as a viewer, its something that I was very attracted to and then this woman, just like you said, whether its that shes messy or shes blocked in some way.
Theres just such a humanity to her and to the story and to that relationship and the fact that I think when you, when I started flipping pages, or maybe when you start watching the movie, you think, I kind of know where this relationship might be going and I really hope it doesnt go there, but it probably will and it doesnt and it goes somewhere. To me, so much more profound, so much more important and really it is that humanity in that relationship and in this woman that made me want to help tell her story.
Julia Hart on how the cast influenced the script.
For me, what Im most interested in as a writer is people and so, for me, I often say that the movie wasnt really about anything until we cast it.
Jordan [Horowitz, her co-writer and husband] and I completely rewrite once we have actual actors in the roles. I feel like characters prior to casting, a lot of writers feel differently, but I feel that characters prior to casting are blueprints and then you explore and discover and write and rewrite and rehearse and rewrite some more and find the people instead of the characters. Authenticity was kind of our primary target with casting so its very important for me to cast actual teenagers. Timmy [Timoth e Chalamet] was 19 when we shot. Lili [Reinhart] was 18 and Anthony [Quintal] turned 16 while we were shooting. We all spent a lot of time together. We rehearsed. Shooting in L.A. is great because a lot of people are based here. When youre on location, you get maybe a day to rehearse. We all really sat with these characters for a long time and I think, we rehearsed a lot of it like a play.
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On using Julia Harts clothes in Miss Stevens wardrobe.
LR: When we started we had a wonderful costume designer. She was working with not an enormous budget, so we were sitting around in Julias living room and talking about what we wanted her to wear and I was like, what about that sweatshirt, Julia will you get that sweatshirt? She would come in with 20 great sweatshirts and we would try them and were like, We should just wear Julias sweatshirts.
There was a lecture I had watched, a videotape of Julia giving to her students and there was a vest that she was wearing. As soon as I finished watching it, I called her to talk about how wonderful her teaching was, but, also I was wondering if she had that vest so I could wear it in the movie.
JH: You said that you could feel the heart of the movie, which, obviously, makes us so happy because so many people work the amount of hours that the crew works for no money and you just really have to, I feel like these little movies have a lot of heart because they have to, otherwise they cant happen.
Lily Rabe on how she entered acting.
I loved English, actually, in school. I was focused on writing English and I was a ballet dancer and I think those things were my indirect root. My parents were both in the business and I think I was so desperate to feel like I was going to go on my own path and that was my indirect route to go exactly where they had always been. I think tha
