Exclusive Interview: Adam Leader and Richard Oakes Chat Feed Me

Adam Leader and Richard Oakes are the visionaries behind the must-see film, Feed Me.

Following the death of his wife, a broken man spirals into an abyss of night tremors and depression and finds himself in the home of a deranged cannibal who convinces him to take his own life in the most horrific way imaginable.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Adam and Richard about the film, their ongoing collaboration, and more.

PC: The two of you have collaborated in the past. How did this partnership initially form and how has that trust grown over time and allowed you to create projects like Feed Me?
Richard: It goes back to 2014, 2015. I have been directing music videos since 2012. Adam is in an incredible band called In Search of Sun. They have a new single coming out soon. I thought I’d plug that. It’s actually the end-credit music for Feed Me. That single is coming out soon, so check that out. But Adam hired me to do the music video for one of his first singles and we hit it off. Then I did a short film called Exit Plan. Please don’t watch it! He applied to act in it, which was funny because I didn’t know any actors because I was in the music scene. All the actors in it are vocalists from bands because they all wanted a bit of the limelight. [laughs]

So Adam came down and we hit it off. We became best friends and started talking about potentially making movies together. We began writing scripts. In 2018, we wrote and directed our first film, Hosts, and never looked back.

Actually, a year before that, we started a YouTube channel about filmmaking, cinematography tips, and things like that. It was all very tongue-in-cheek and stupid. But we built a little bit of a following and that’s how we funded our first film. We asked our subscribers if they wanted to become investors, which was quite an interesting idea, and they all got their money back from the movie, which was great. That’s how we’ve progressed, but we’ve worked on things together since 2015.

Adam: The interesting thing about it is that the two of us, like Rich said, we hit it off straight away. We very much bonded over this strange sense of humor. Arguably, maybe it isn’t the greatest at times to some people, but it’s our sense of humor and we love it.

In terms of growing as filmmakers, Feed Me was the first film where we decided to wear our hearts on our sleeves, not only with the serious tone of the stories but also with our sense of humor. We said, “Screw it. Let’s not write something that we feel others would like.” Don’t get us wrong, we hope people like what we do, but more importantly, we wanted to write something that we like. Dark comedy is something we love. We did what we wanted to do and we’re super proud.

I feel like we’ve grown since doing something where we were a little bit afraid to come out of our shell completely to going to the opposite end of the spectrum with Feed Me and being ourselves and saying, “This is who we are.”

PC: You both co-wrote and co-directed this film. What is that process like? Was it a challenge to find that balance between tackling this serious subject matter with humor?
Richard: I’m more on the story side, and Adam is more on the script side. We tend to meet up and decide, “This is what we’re going to do.” We start with a seed. Adam brought the seed of the Armin Meiwes story about this German cannibal that managed to convince someone to sign a contract to willingly be eaten. We thought that was a crazy idea. We thought, “Let’s do it. Let’s go for it. Let’s try and write a story.”

From there, we were like, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if it became a bit of a buddy story and there was this bonding experience during this horrific process?” We sat down and over a few days we built the story structure, the beats, and the scenes and then fleshed it out.

Once we’ve got something that you can read from beginning to end as a story, Adam takes it away and pens the script with all the dialogue and fleshs out the characters. Adam’s very good with that depth. He’s very knowledgeable. I’ll let Adam speak a bit on that, but he adds in all that flavor and all those layers on top of that.

I’m very visual with the direction. I take the lead with the set design, costumes, and anything that’s visual. Adam’s dealing with the dialogue and how the characters emote on screen because he’s written the script and he really knows those characters. That’s how we divide it, and it stops us from stepping on each other’s toes and telling the actors two different things that confuse them. It tends to work pretty well.

Adam: I can’t put it any better than Rich. That’s literally how we work. Sometimes we cross over, and one might make a suggestion for someone else’s domain. Like Rich might have a really good idea for a dialogue delivery. I might have an idea about the way someone moves or framing or whatever. Generally, for a lot of it, not only does the friendship help but also the fact that we’ve had a lot of experiences of working together, doing other projects for other people. It’s a really good working and personal relationship, and I feel that it’s matured and grown over time and developed into something that I feel more so now than ever is as healthy as it could be, which is great. You have your bumps in the road. You learn from each other. You learn what does and doesn’t work. I feel like we’ve fine-tuned it over time. We’re looking forward to what comes next for us as a duo.

PC: As part of the process of putting this film together, you both brainstormed about the scenes that you wanted to see in the film. Which were you the most excited about bringing from the page to the screen?
Adam: It’s tough. We’re story-driven people, but we love stupidity as well. There’s a hell of a lot of depth to the story and real serious things in terms of mental health, grief, and eating disorders. But then there’s also this ridiculous batsh*t crazy side to it, which we love. I feel like I can’t speak for Rich, but for me, I was so excited to see how everything played out. You’ve got the seriousness of the real, no pun intended, meat and potatoes of the drama going on. But you’ve also got the funniness. You could be at a funeral for example, but you can’t help but laugh because it’s awkward. You know what I mean?

Richard: I don’t know about my favorite scene. It’s all one thing. There are a couple of little bits, especially near the end of the film, when things get more and more bonkers. The painting scene was one thing that I wanted to see that worked out. Obviously, the main set pieces are always exciting to get into but also the most daunting. Will this sell? Is this going to work out well? How do we do this and make it look convincing? But above all, we were just excited to be on set and working on every scene and moment.

PC: You’ve known and worked with the lead actors in the past. As you were both writing this script, did you have these particular actors in mind? What was that process like?
Richard: Neal [Ward] for sure. The script was written for Neal. He was one of the two lead bad guys on our previous film. But in that film, they were possessed and emotionless. He was like, “I loved being part of that film, but I want to be able to show some range, which I couldn’t do. I was held in this box,” which was what it needed to be. So we were like, “We want to write you something that you can really get your teeth into, excuse the pun.” That’s what we did. We gave Neal something that we knew he would love and could shine in. He’s a very serious actor in pretty much every film he’s been in, but we know him on a personal level, and he’s one of the funniest guys I know.

Adam: Rich has worked with Chris [Mulvin] in particular. Rich has shot films for other people in the past that Chris acted in, and that’s how I knew of Chris and got to see his work. Rich showed me, and we both thought of Chris for this role. But I’m going to get a bit personal here, and I hope Chris doesn’t mind, but when his name came about for Feed Me in terms of playing Jed, who is this grief-stricken character, I knew that there’s a slightly funny side to the character as the film goes on a bit but there’s also a very serious tone of sadness and pain and that’s something that you could see in his eyes. There’s a lot of emotion there for him to give. Boy, did that guy dig deep for those scenes. He’s an incredible actor. They both are. They had to go to certain places at certain points in the movie.

Make sure to follow Adam (Twitter/Instagram) and Richard (Twitter/Instagram). Feed Me is available on Demand and on digital.

About Daphne
Daphne Yeh is a producer living in NYC who specializes in large-scale festival and live entertainment events. With 15+ years of experience building strategic partnerships, best-in-class integrated marketing programs, branded content initiatives, and experiential brand activations, Daphne keeps her finger on the pulse of the latest in media, culture and entertainment.