Pop-Culturalist.com

Director Arthur De Larroche and writer-actress Micaela Wittman are the creative masterminds behind Remy & Arletta.

The coming-of-age drama follows two teenagers who lean on their friendship to get through troubling teenage years.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Arthur and Micaela about Remy & Arletta, the process of bringing the project to life, their ongoing collaboration, and what’s next for each of them.

PC: The two of you have been longtime collaborators. How did this partnership initially form?
Micaela: It started with the first script that we wrote together. It was called I Suck. That was four years ago. We didn’t end up making it because it required too much of a budget, but then we had the idea for Clairevoyant in 2019.

That was something that we could make on our own. It was a mockumentary format. It didn’t require a lot of money. Everyone and their mother knows at this point that it cost like $3,000. [laughs] That was the foray into our partnership. Then we realized that we work really well together and we kept going.

PC: Clairevoyant has made its way around the festival circuit, and it’s been incredibly well received. What do you think is resonating most with audiences? What has that meant to both of you as creatives?
Arthur: Micaela and I have empathy for a lot of people that you end up meeting in your life. It’s the people that most writers in Hollywood don’t give a second to care about. Nobody’s really concerned with the yoga girl who talks too much to you as you’re leaving class and what’s going on in her life or how sad she is. What makes her gears turn? That’s why Clairevoyant has appealed to audiences. It’s this unscratched itch for a lot of people.

PC: In addition to that film, you also recently gave a sneak peek of Remy & Arletta to Outfest. Micaela, this is an incredibly personal story for you. Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration behind the film and the writing process?
Micaela: That’s a big question. It was a story that was bubbling up within me for so long. I wrote it in the middle of quarantine. I was bored. We were all bored. Clairevoyant had already come out and I wanted more. I was like, “What can I give the world that I haven’t given it yet?” I thought it was important to tell this story. I’m a very shy person. No one knows that about me. The inspiration was my entire life.

PC: Arthur, what did you learn from the set of Clairevoyant that you’ve been able to apply to this film?
Arthur: That’s a good question. Clairevoyant taught me most of all that the actor and how they are feeling on the day is more important than the scene or the lines. It’s like having a player on a sports team. As a coach, you have to figure out what they can do on the day. How should we change if we need to? How should we get them to where I need them to be in maybe an untraditional way? That’s really what I learned from Clairevoyant: doing that as fast as possible and getting straight to the meat and potatoes with the cast.

PC: Micaela, during the writing process, did you have these particular actors in mind?
Micaela: Casting is the most exciting part of the process because that’s when it starts to feel real. You write these words and you’re like, “No one is ever going to say this. This might never come to life.” But then you bring talented actors into the room and you start seeing how talented they are. I didn’t have them in mind when I was writing it. It was funny because all the guys in the movie auditioned for the role of Keefer. They were all so good that I started writing them roles. Actually, you’re right. I did write for them. Even if it was just a couple of lines. I was like, “These guys are so talented. I’ve got to get them in here somehow.”

PC: Arthur, in addition to directing and producing, you also have experience in front of the camera as an actor. How has that lent itself as you’ve stepped into the roles of director and producer?
Arthur: Acting is really brave. It’s really scary. At the end of the day, the actors have this energy. The production has an energetic debt to the actors. You need them to perform. The whole thing rides on the actors. I learned that being an actor and making a lot of mistakes. It’s terrifying being an actor.

Micaela: It’s really scary.

Arthur: We’ve all grown desensitized like it’s a normal thing. But to go into a room and cry in front of people, you have to pull every single thing that’s ever happened to you out and vomit it up in front of these strangers so that they can give you the option of coming back to do it again later. [laughs] Actors are incredible. They’re amazing. I learned that.

PC: Perfect segue to this next question. There are so many emotional moments within this film. Micaela, from an acting standpoint, how do you prepare for those scenes?
Micaela: Arthur is an amazing director. How do I create the space for myself? That’s such an interesting question. I stress out about it until it’s time to go for it and hope it goes okay. A lot of the scenes in Remy & Arletta were really dark and intense. You can’t prepare for that because then you’re going to be in a terrible headspace for a longer amount of time than you need to be. You just learn your lines and you hope and pray that it’s going to be okay when it comes time to shoot.

PC: This is such an incredible film. When it comes out, is there a scene in particular that you’re each excited for audiences to see, and what do you hope they take away after?
Micaela: The scene that I love the most is the darkest scene in the movie. I don’t know what that says about me. [laughs] Maybe that’s weird. It was so raw, and we really did it. Amy had to hit me. That was as intense as it sounds. It’s really important in film to display those real-life hardships. People can see that and connect to it and say, “I’m not the only one who went through it. Someone else went through it, and now they’re making a movie about it, so I can get past it.” That’s my greatest hope.

Arthur: Maybe the first scene. I just like the whole movie right now. There’s not a lot of media about taking the slings and arrows and figuring them out and actually making them work for you. That’s what I hope this film can do for so many regular people who have been through things like this. I hope that we can make their days easier. I hope that they connect to it and that it makes the rest of their life easier in a way.

PC: As this partnership has grown, how have you been able to challenge each other as artists and storytellers? What’s next for the two of you?
Arthur: Micaela had to rip me apart and build me back up. That’s what you have to do. We really, really are dedicated to this. This is the only thing we eat, sleep, and breathe. We take all that baggage and all that material and work through it. You can’t have the authority to tell regular people how to live their lives or what to do if you haven’t done that work and figured things out yourself.

Micaela: As far as what’s next, we were in the process of writing a script right before we hopped on this call. We’re writing something called Night on the Town. We have a bunch of completed scripts. We’re trying to shop them around and see what gets funding and see what we want to throw ourselves into the ditches for next.

Arthur: Clairevoyant was a mockumentary, so it was not a real movie in a way, just a camcorder. It’s hard to get Hollywood people excited about that. But this is a real movie. It’s fictional and beautiful and feels like a film. It’s been way easier with way more interest. Dreams came true. But now we don’t know what to do. We’re kicking around three or four ideas.

Make sure to follow Micaela (Instagram) and Arthur (Instagram).