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Co-writer and director James Camali and star Alyssa Sutherland are the creative team behind The Mental State, a thought-provoking narrative featuring poignant performances from the entire ensemble as they address a pressing issue affecting the nation today.

In the gripping thriller, Andy Cady (Jance Enslin), a high school senior from rural Kentucky, attempts to unearth the conspiracy behind a dangerous town shooter after a scare at his local church. As Andy’s fixation grows, his single mother, Angela (Carly Pope), worries about her son’s deteriorating mental health. Angela sets out to find the proper help her son needs before tragedy strikes their small town. Alyssa shines as Dana, Andy’s aunt, who is also dealing with her own internal battles as she tries to protect the ones she loves.

Pop Culturalist had the amazing opportunity to chat with James and Alyssa about The Mental State, delving into how they fostered a collaborative environment on set to tackle the timely subject matter, explore the film’s emotional pillars, and so much more!

PC: James, empathy is such a strong theme throughout the film. You’ve done a brilliant job highlighting how mental health not only affects those who are struggling with it, but everybody around them. I know this narrative was inspired by a play. Did the source material also focus heavily on all these different perspectives, or was that something you added as you brought this project to the screen? Why was that so important for you to highlight?
James: The play completely incorporated all the same topics and emotional pillars throughout that story, as well as the family dynamics. I modified a couple of the family dynamics to execute a few tricks I wanted to see on screen, but it certainly shares the same heart.

For me, I grew up post-Columbine. I grew up doing lockdown drills in middle and high school, rehearsing exit strategies, and having that vague paranoia of could this actually happen. As I was coming of age, still in film school as a young adult, Sandy Hook happened. It affected me and the entire country. Those headlines never went away.

From my perspective and playwright Josh Adell, we felt those headlines weren’t really capturing the full essence of a story like this. We say that with the utmost respect. But it’s these topics of teenage mental health, the lack of resources, especially in rural areas and families that come from lower economic statuses. We felt like it wasn’t really capturing the full breadth of empathy needed for these stories.

I was introduced to the play through my girlfriend at the time, Remington Moses, who’s a fantastic actress and plays counselor Melanie Hansen, and is now my wife. She knew Josh as a drama teacher and introduced me to him and the play. We met and we shared the same heart around the subject matter and took it from there. Here we are.

PC: Alyssa, your character is immensely protective of her family. She always puts them first, particularly her nephew. But internally she’s struggling with her own grief. You brought so much depth and nuance to that contrast. What was your preparation like getting into that mindset and making sure all these different colors and layers were conveyed through your performance?
Alyssa: Thank you. It always comes from building a back story. Her brother has committed suicide. There’s so much to that. You have to create that relationship growing up together and how we went to one another and really make that relationship as rich as possible so that the loss of that is even more devastating. That happens fairly recently when the film opens up. That’s a tough grief if someone has taken their own life and they’ve had mental health issues. I think the very natural question that a lot of people ask themselves is, “Could I have done something to stop it?” Then you see that question play out in real time when it comes to her nephew Andy and her noticing, “Wait a second, there are some similar patterns here. I need to do everything that I can to try and protect him.”

She can’t just kidnap him. That’s not an option. He has a mom and she’s sober. Dana wants to be respectful of that. But at the same time, she’s pretty opinionated with how the parenting is happening. James referred to it earlier that it’s a lack of resources available in that conflict. There’s so much there and that’s what I look for if I’m going to sign on for a role like this. It’s that beautiful complexity that’s a real gift as an actress.

PC: James, you have incredible performances from your entire cast, but this project doesn’t work unless you have the right person playing Andy. What was it about Jance’s original audition that made him stand out among the rest?
James: It’s so hard to describe. Like for Alyssa, when she came in, I just saw that she was a fantastic listener. She was very present and understanding of the character, but also a fantastic listener. For her character Dana, I thought that was so necessary to have, and Alyssa is just so naturally good at that.

With this type of film, I had to give some of the harder scenes as the audition material because I had to see if they could handle that, especially because Jance, Alison [Thornton], Blaine [Maye], and all the younger characters are all young actors. They’re still young actors now, but we shot this quite a few years ago. That’s the way indie films sometimes go. They were younger then. Jance really had great maturity about how to handle those emotional scenes. He understood the depth and the importance of a story like this, but he also knew he didn’t necessarily need to carry that throughout his day.

We’ve all heard of the stories of characters like this and the “method” actors who stay in it for too long. Jance was this really mature actor who was able to jump into these big emotional moments, understand the depth of them, and then take himself out of it. He and I met in person. We had dinner together. We shared some of the stories that he had in relating to a story like this.

PC: Alyssa, one of my favorite techniques in filmmaking is the use of silence. Your character, in particular, says so much without having to use a lot of dialogue. Her body language and facial expressions create so many impactful moments throughout the film. What was it like getting to collaborate with James to find those moments of silence?
Alyssa: Well, one of the things that helps with any silence is the story, writing, and the circumstances that you find yourself in. If those are full and rich, then you don’t really need to push a whole lot. You can sit back and let the audience see it. It is a very smart technique in filmmaking. Me, personally, I don’t have a very good pokerface. I think that’s what makes me a good actor. I’m just not good at that in my real life. I think a lot of people can figure out how I’m feeling by the look on my face. [laughs]

PC: James, there’s also so much vulnerability that you’re asking from your cast with a film like this. As a co-writer and director, how do you create the space and trust with them to tackle this emotional and important narrative?
James: I just tried to be open as possible as far as collaboration. I tried to keep conversation open. Any time that an actor was feeling uncomfortable with a scene or just needed a snack, I just tried to be as open as a collaborator as I could. That’s a really important thing for every director to do, especially in dramas, because so much of that is relying on the characters and the actors themselves.

At the end of the day, I could sit there with the other writers and we can try and think about what the character is going to say or how they’re going to behave in this situation, but it’s the actor who is playing the character and sitting and living with them. If they come up to you and say, “I don’t know if this really works this way.” You have to listen because they’re the ones sitting there with that character. So I tried to stay open and collaborative.

Doing that led to one of my favorite scenes in the film, which happens near the end. There’s this family argument that happens between Alyssa’s character, Carly Pope’s character, and Michael Gladis’ character. That was written very differently. A couple of days before we shot that, I sat down with Alyssa, Carly, and Michael because they all had thoughts about the scene.

We ended up rewriting and devising it as a group. It made the scene so much stronger. It allowed each of those characters to really sit in that moment. It’s such an important moment to see this family break apart, so it’s about being open and collaborative.

PC: Alyssa, you’ve worked on projects of all sizes. What is it about independent filmmaking that excites you as a creative and a storyteller?
Alyssa: For me, there’s even more this feeling of a family on set, which you tend to have anyway. You’re going to work day in and day out. All the crew members are there every morning. You’re spending a lot of time together. But one of the things with independent films is that you’re not as separated. We’re not all in our own trailers. Our holding room is the living room of the house. We’re hanging out together and discussing the scenes ahead of time in a way that we just have more time, contact, and engaging with one another.

It’s one of the things that I love about film in general is that collaboration. Everyone is getting along. You can sit and have your point of view from your character and then another actor has thoughts about theirs. They have this beautiful idea and you’re like, “Oh my God. I never thought about that.” It’s so exciting to me when those things happen. I just love filmmaking and acting.

PC: One of the most beautiful things about filmmaking is that it’s entertaining and provides escapism, but it’s also a medium that sparks a lot of necessary conversations about timely subject matter, which this project undoubtedly does. What do you hope audiences take away after they see it? James, having taken it around the festival circuit and seen firsthand these conversations, what has that meant to you?
James: It’s been fantastic to see audience members react the way that I’ve been hoping and the other storytellers have been hoping, which is this growing sense of empathy and compassion around these stories and these tragic events. There’s a greater understanding that there’s a hurricane of factors that could lead to this and not to generalize it, but to understand that there’s a big scope of issues that lead to these sorts of events and that there are a lot of people involved. We hope that there’s this ongoing communication with the audience and within a community where we can discuss what are some of the ways we can make change or how can we talk to people if they need help, and how can others ask for that help as well. My three big pillars for this have always been growing that empathy, compassion, and communication.

Alyssa: James said that beautifully. This is why I act. It’s to make people think about things and approach it in a different way and to increase empathy. You see someone in a situation that you know nothing about, that’s the beauty of storytelling for me.

Make sure to follow James (Instagram) and Alyssa (Instagram). Watch The Mental State wherever you stream movies.