Alex Coco and Samantha Quan knew they had something special in Still from the very beginning. As long-time producers of Sean Baker, they are accustomed to collaborating with the director from the moment an idea begins to take shape. The concept of Stillwhich follows the brief and intense courtship in Brooklyn between a young Brighton Beach prostitute and the son of a Russian oligarch, initially grew out of stories Baker collected during his work on projects such as mandarin AND Red rocket“When we were working on the script, I thought this was Sean's funniest movie by far,” Coco says. “And then one day on set Sean turned to me and said, 'I think I'm making my best movie yet.' But what we didn't know was that it would get the response it has gotten.”
Still won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Before it hits theaters on October 9, the filmmakers, along with titular star Mikey Madison, will return to the Big Apple for a premiere at the New York Film Festival. Here, they tell DAY how did they do all this.
Can you tell us about the journey this film took, starting from the first initial idea?
Samantha Quan The story is really an amalgamation of a bunch of different things that Sean heard. But we also talked to prostitutes as consultants and went to clubs to talk to dancers. The script changed a lot based on the new information we were getting.
Was it difficult to get local consent to shoot on location in Brighton Beach?
ALEX COCO We lived there for a few months before we even started shooting, because we wanted to ingratiate ourselves with the community. It’s a process that’s consistent with all of Sean’s films.
WHAT We don't want to feel like we're walking in somewhere, taking advantage of it, and then walking out.
COCONUT We also had a lot of help from our actors. Karren Karagulian, who is Armenian and plays Toros in the film, had talked to Sean about shooting a film in Brighton Beach maybe 10, 15 years ago. We took him and Yura Borisov, who is very famous in Russia, to some locations. I remember going to Tatiana [a Brighton Beach boardwalk restaurant] and the waiter there who just got mad because he wanted pictures. And the same with Vache Tovmasyan, who plays Garnick. There were a couple of times when we were shooting and we saw a person we wanted as an extra: they recognized Vache, so we could just say, “You can take a picture with him if you sit in the background of this shot.”
The film opens with a song that is heard again during a crucial scene in the film. How did you choose that track?
Samantha Quan and Alex Coco
Getty Images
COCONUT We had originally chosen two other songs, by very important artists, and we shot the scene twice, timing it for each song. We were still negotiating the costs, and were starting to worry about the bill.
WHAT Then, me and Sean were driving and we were talking about it. We were like, “We need something about what the greatest day is going to be like.” I went on Spotify and started searching for stuff and we found the song “Greatest Day” by Take That. We couldn't stop thinking about it.
COCONUT At first we thought it was too literal, but when we put it in the movie, it was really exciting. It's common for Sean to use pop, mainstream music to open a movie that could be sad with a song that's very happy. Florida Project has “Celebration”, Red rocket has “Bye Bye Bye.” And then when we put it in the scene that we shot, it just came right in like a miracle.
Now that Sean’s films are becoming more and more successful, are the bigger studios courting you?
COCONUT Sean has been very vocal, even recently, that he’s not going down that road. There’s interest. I’ve met with some people at larger companies who would definitely love to collaborate, but I don’t know. We’ll see. We don’t know what the future holds, but obviously we love making films independently and then working with a distributor to acquire the film because that’s what allows us to make the version that we want to make. And no matter what, distributors who embrace the 60-day theatrical window are extremely important to Sean.
Many people are praising this movie. Which feedback is more important?
COCONUT We've had a lot of sex workers reach out to us and say, “You're right.” And that means a lot to us, that people feel valued.
This story originally appeared in the September 19 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.