SXSW 2023: Hope Lauren Talks Pure O, the Importance of Creating Visibility on Screen, and the Impact Music Has on Her Creative Process

Making its world premiere at this year’s SXSW, Pure O is a narrative feature that transcends art. The writing, direction, and performances will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on audiences well after the credits have rolled.

It follows Cooper Ganz’s (Daniel Dorr) seemingly perfect life as it quickly unravels when he is diagnosed with a crippling form of OCD called Pure Obsessional. This often misunderstood illness forces him to question his identity and sanity, all while trying to keep it together for his fiancée Emily (Hope Lauren), family, and co-workers. As he learns to accept his disease, and the vulnerability that comes along with it, his world starts to open up. The addiction recovery clients he works with at a high-end Malibu drug rehab return the favor and help Cooper through his darkest hour.

Hope Lauren delivers a layered and nuanced performance as a young woman who is trying to be there for the ones she loves while also dealing with her own battles.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Hope ahead of the premiere of Pure O to learn more about the film, why creating visibility on screen has always been her mission as a storyteller, and the impact music and journaling have on her creative process.

PC: You have a new film premiering at SXSW. Tell us about Pure O and your character in it.
Hope: Pure O is a movie about Cooper, the lead character, discovering that he has a very specific form of OCD and learning his path to recovery and getting help. The movie follows him as well as the community who are supporting him.

I play his fiancée, Emily. They’re both musicians. They play music together. Emily also has her own world and drama in her life that’s unfolding as Cooper’s is also unfolding. It’s about their relationship when they’re both on these paths to try and figure their lives out.

PC: You’ve done it all throughout your career. What was it about this particular project and character that resonated with you?
Hope: I love stories about mental health; they’re incredibly important. All stories are important, but I really loved that this was representing a type of OCD that I hadn’t seen before. There’s a stigma around OCD.

I grew up watching Monk, which was one of my favorites. That character has OCD and it’s very specific. In everything that I’ve ever seen, it was always about keeping things clean or in a specific order, and that is a type of OCD, but learning about this through the script was so fascinating. Even just talking about it with my friends as I was shooting it or people that I was speaking to about what it was, there were so many people who went, “Oh my gosh, I have that.” That resonated with me. One of the reasons that I love acting and fell in love with this script is that we’re representing something that makes a lot of people feel seen.

PC: This is such a personal project for writer-director Dillon Tucker. Did that bring a different weight or pressure to it?
Hope: It didn’t bring pressure because he was so supportive, open, and vulnerable. He was so vulnerable with all of us and shared so much of his story with the whole cast and this really tight, tiny crew. That enabled all of us—and encouraged us—to bring our own vulnerability to it. Because of his bravery, the whole set had this sense of bravery and vulnerability. So, it was almost the opposite. He gave this to us. Everyone felt this permission to come at it with their heart forward.

PC: Is the filming experience different when the person who created this universe is also at the helm directing?
Hope: Totally. Because they become such a resource, especially my character who was based on someone very specific. When you’re an actor, it’s also fun to create your backstory and all of that. But it was also nice to have him as a resource of, “I’m trying to figure something out. Can you help me?” He was a deep well of knowledge when it comes to any of these characters. That was so helpful. Directors are always helpful, but specifically, he had such a deep well of knowledge about every single character in this film.

PC: Like you were saying earlier, this film is bringing much-needed awareness and visibility to OCD, which is often misrepresented in film and television. It also highlights how OCD not only affects those diagnosed with it, but also the people closest to them. What type of research did you have to do for this role? How helpful was it for you to have non-actors as part of this cast who either work in this space or have been diagnosed with OCD themselves?
Hope: When I first met with Dillon about the project, I was so excited because I started looking up all sorts of things about Pure O and the harm of OCD. I was talking to him about it. He was like, “Whoa, whoa. I don’t want you looking anything up. Emily is so in the dark the entire time, not learning about OCD, not learning about the thing that Cooper’s going through. I’d like for you to not learn anything.” That proved to be difficult because my partner is Daniel, who plays Cooper, and so I’d have to leave the living room whenever he was watching documentaries. I didn’t learn a ton about it. I have now since we wrapped, but I didn’t learn a ton about it then.

I got really envious of Daniel because he got to shoot with all these first-time actors, and I didn’t. I heard all of the experiences were so rich and incredible. Honestly, first-time actors, to me, are usually the best actors, because while we’re all in our heads hoping that our work comes across and all these vivid decisions that we’ve made, people who are acting for the first time are being present and listening. They’re doing all the things that actors are trying to do.

PC: Dillion was really intentional about how he cast this project. I know that part of your creative process is journaling, but with Pure O, you’re starring opposite somebody that you know really well. Did that change how you approached this character and that dynamic?
Hope: That’s a great question. Wait, how did you know about journaling?

PC: I did tons of research.

Hope: Oh my goodness. That’s so nice and kind. I was like, “How did he know?” That was so interesting, knowing that we were going to play a couple in a movie and that we are a couple in real life. We talked about it a lot. We talked specifically about the differences of Emily and Cooper versus Hope and Daniel. We made sure that there were some hard boundaries in between those two couples, but we did get to gift certain things of ourselves to these characters. We got to gift our familiarity.

When you’re playing a couple with an actor that you’re just meeting on the day, there are a lot of conversations like, “How do we interact with each other? How are we comfortable with each other?” We had the gift of being so comfortable around each other and lending that comfortability and lending that vulnerability that already existed between the two of us. A lot of that work was already done, and we didn’t have to worry about it. That allowed us to focus on other things. That was a really, really cool part of shooting this.

PC: You’re also known for creating different playlists for your different characters. What was on Emily’s playlist? Why has music been so integral to your process?
Hope: That’s such a good question. Emily’s playlist had a lot of folksy songs and a lot of singer-songwriters. Right now, we’re living in the era of singer-songwriters like Gracie Abrams, Phoebe Bridgers, and Holly Humberstone. There are a lot of female singer-songwriters and also Bob Dylan and Avett Brothers. Dillon also wrote his own music. So a lot of his songs were on the playlist. But it was all very folksy singer-songwriter.

The reason that I use music is that nothing gets me into a feeling or zone more than music. It’s different for everyone as to what grounds them into whatever moment they want to be in or what grounds them into the vibe of a scene or character. For me, it’s always been music. It’s always so nice to have specific songs for specific scenes, specific songs for specific characters. There have been so many times on set where I’m like, “All right, I have to do this really intense thing.” Then, I’ll listen to a song and I’m like, “Here I am. I’m ready to go.”

PC: One of the beautiful themes within this film is the strength in vulnerability. Your character has her own journey throughout which you brought so much nuance to. For those more emotional moments, how were you able to create the space for yourself to dive into that arc? What was that decompression afterwards?
Hope: That’s a really beautiful question. I always like to be really clear or check in with myself about what I’m going to need for that day. Then, I’m also really communicative with the people around me. I’ll talk to the crew and be like, “Hey, I might not be super social today, just an FYI. It’s not personal.” I might be in the corner doing my own thing, journaling, listening to music, and I really like communicating to make sure everyone knows that it’s not personal and also know that I’ve set a boundary for myself of asking for the space that I need and asking for the time.

Dillon was really great whenever we would have scenes that were dramatic and emotional. He would ask, “Who wants to do their coverage first? What order would you like to shoot this scene?” That doesn’t happen often—it’s the fact that he’s an actors’ director. Having that collaboration was so, so helpful so you could plan what you needed to do to take care of yourself. There were scenes, as you know, that were really intense between Daniel and me that we talked about having. Because we’re in a relationship, we talked a lot about how to deal with that on set and then to compress.

We honestly thought it was going to be more intense for us than it was. We were like, “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get in the zone and then afterward we’re going to have to look at each other in the eyes for thirty seconds and come back down.” We drove there separately so we wouldn’t be together before we shot the scene. We shot the scene. We hugged for a long time. Then, I am usually listening to Spice Girls or S Club 7 and dancing it all out after such a scene.

PC: The film is your SXSW debut, and you and Daniel deliver such standout performances. Is there a scene in particular that you’re excited for audiences to see when it premieres?
Hope: There are a few. I’m trying to think of ones that won’t spoil anything. Honestly, I’ve seen the movie and the scenes with all the first-time actors, whether it’s at the rehab or in the support group, those are so beautiful and so vulnerable. This might be a weird thing to say, but we see a lot of men crying. I don’t think we see that enough in films.

As a woman, every audition I get, I have to cry, and I’ve watched Daniel have to do that zero times. There is so much male vulnerability in this that I think it’s incredibly important for everyone to see. But it’s really those scenes; it’s the support group scenes, the rehab scenes, the collaboration of these artists. It really comes through in those scenes. I’m excited for audiences to see that.

PC: This is such a standout film of the festival. You’ve also worked on projects of all sizes. What is it about independent filmmaking that excites you as a creative and storyteller?
Hope: Independent filmmaking is the best. Everyone is there because they’re excited about the project. That happens on bigger scale things, of course, but it’s unavoidable when it comes to indie films. It really is. You’re just there because you love it. Everyone’s problem-solving together. I really love that there is so much more collaboration on an indie set. It’s a time when you really, really feel like this team of artists is doing something to make something bigger.

Daniel and I are actors in it, but we also put together our own costumes, makeup, and all that stuff. Everyone wore so many different hats. It made it to where we all felt like we were such a big part of making this movie. We felt like this big machine rather than individual parts. One of the reasons why I love indie filmmaking is that it’s more punk rock and you have more input and there’s so much more collaboration.

PC: Throughout your career, you’ve always chosen projects that have an impact on audiences, and like you were saying earlier, this was the first time that a lot of people will see themselves reflected on screen. What is your vetting process when you’re deciding what projects you want to go out for?
Hope: This isn’t going to be a helpful thing to say, but sometimes you just know. Sometimes you read a script and it’s either like, “Oh, I know these people and I want the world to see these people.” Or it’s like, “Ah, I’ve never read anything like this. I think this is incredibly important to get made.” But it’s always something different. It’s just you’re reading a script and you get one that just sparks a little excitement inside of you. But I do think my favorite types of movies and storytelling is when you’re telling stories that mean a lot to people and that make them feel less alone. I think that’s always been my favorite thing about movies, is you get to go and sit in a theater or in front of your laptop or wherever and just feel less alone and see yourself, hopefully.

To keep up with Hope, follow her on Instagram. To see when Pure O is screening at SXSW, check out their official website.

Photo Credit: Jonny Marlow