Exclusive Interview: Ruben Russo Talks ‘Arlo and the Sea,’ the Evolution of Representation in Media, and the Importance of Being Open to Love

Ruben Russo stands out as one of the most promising talents in the industry. As a versatile storyteller, he has enraptured both festival circuits and audiences alike with his nuanced and intricate portrayal of the titular character in Arlo and the Sea.

The impressive short film follows Arlo, a young man who wears his heart on his sleeves and lives by the sea. He spends most of his time alone, that is until he meets a boy named Finn. The compelling drama takes place in the aftermath of their post-love story.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Ruben about Arlo and the Sea, his approach to the character, the evolution of representation in media, and the importance of being open to love.

PC: Your short film, Arlo and the Sea, is currently on the festival circuit and has been incredibly well received. How did this partnership with Damian [Overton] initially come about? What inspired this short-form narrative?
Ruben: Damian and I met years ago at a short-film festival during the awards night of the Australian Screen Industry Network Awards. I was introduced to him by another very supportive person in the film industry named Brenda Papworth. She introduced me to Damian, and we ended up going out for coffee and have been talking ever since. Eventually, a couple of years went by, and we reconvened for coffee again, and that’s how the idea for the film was born.

PC: Your character goes through such a wave of emotions after having his heart broken and really needs to discover self-love again. You brought so much nuance to that journey. As an actor, how did you create the space for yourself to tackle that vulnerability without the use of dialogue?
Ruben: That was one of the most challenging parts of the role. This was the first time I was cast in a lead role, so there was a lot of pressure that I put on myself. Given the nature of the plot, there was so much that you have to try and nail to sell people on what you’re feeling. Luckily, I was in a very similar headspace at the time, so that did help. But essentially, without dialogue and not being able to talk about how you felt, it was all about internalizing all the emotions and struggles that he was going through and everything that was happening inside his head.

There were all these little things that I had to try and focus on, whether it was him pressing his lips together because he’s thinking about a kiss and things like that. I wanted everything to be as subtle as possible so that when you’re watching it as an audience member, it’s not like I’m trying to overstate how the character is feeling. It’s more so that you can see it without me overtly doing it. That was a very challenging part in terms of nailing that. But I think we got there.

PC: You definitely did. It’s such a challenging role where you don’t have the use of dialogue, which feels like such a huge mechanism for actors to express themselves. Like you were saying, this is your first time leading a role. Did anything surprise you about the experience? What was the biggest takeaway?
Ruben: That’s a good question. This was such a freeing experience in terms of the filmmaking process. It didn’t work like any other film that I’ve worked on before. It was a very emotionally collaborative time between me and Damian. Stepping into the lead role, it was really nice because it was what I had in mind for the character and then what Damian had in mind for the character. We would discuss it, work everything out.

When it came to shooting it, I was surprised by how much I was able to put myself into the role. That was really cool. It was very different because you have to make every single moment engaging even when theoretically nothing is happening. That was a tricky one. It caught me off guard because it’s a lot more pressure.

PC: You’re also a multifaceted storyteller. In addition to the work that you’ve done on screen, you’ve also written, produced, and edited. How have those experiences behind the camera impacted your work as an actor and vice versa, especially on a project like this where you’re wearing multiple hats and editing your own performance?
Ruben: I stepped into this film from an acting perspective and then went into cinematography with Damian, working on all the shots. After that, I entered the editing suite and had my entire performance on film. I quickly got tired of seeing myself as I was stitching everything together. [laughs] It was such a different experience, and I really enjoyed it. It allowed me to look at the entire film from a higher bird’s eye view. I could see where everything fit together.

Regarding my performance, I had no idea what that looked like until I got into the editing suite. I was like, “Alright, cool.” Then it was about figuring out everything I tried to do with the story beats and how I was feeling with those rollercoaster of emotions. I tried to figure out how that all fit in the editing suite. That was something I’ve never done before because now you’re looking at yourself critically and thinking, “What’s going to work best?”

When it comes to coloring the film, that was interesting because I came up with a bunch of color theories for each shot so I could refer back to them. This process allowed me to look at everything holistically, and that was a really sick, fun journey. I enjoyed it a lot.

PC: We’re living in such an exciting time in this industry where we have storytellers taking their careers into their own hands and creating their own content, and then we get short films like this one. I was really shocked when the credits were rolling that this was shot on an iPhone, which is a testament to the work that you did with the cinematography and coloring, making it feel so cinematic. What were some of those early conversations and considerations that you had with Damian about how to really lean in on the visuals and make it grander in scale?
Ruben: Yeah, originally, we were thinking about how to make this film as cheap as possible, but we still wanted to maintain that cinematic feeling. We thought, “We can film this on an iPhone, no worries.” However, Damian and I agreed that we didn’t want it to look like it was shot on an iPhone. From the beginning, we aimed to make this film look as cinematic as possible, so we wouldn’t limit ourselves.

There’s a stigma attached to shooting things on iPhones, especially among many younger people in the industry who might question, “Why are you shooting on an iPhone?” I initially had the same reaction. I genuinely thought, “We’re going to shoot this on an iPhone? This is not a good idea.” But as I delved into the capabilities of an iPhone, I realized there are many different facets to consider. It’s a lot simpler than using a giant ARRI.

But, yeah, Damian and I discussed it. We just had to ensure that every shot was naturally lit, which was a major consideration during location scouting. This was crucial because iPhones perform well in certain conditions and poorly in others. That was something we kept a close eye on.

Color theory played a massive role in the film, making sure that all the clothing and locations were gradable so that we could hide the aesthetic of the iPhone shots in its default settings. Most photos reveal whether they were shot on an iPhone or a Samsung because they have distinct ways of capturing things. Therefore, our goal was to take the original footage and make it seem like it was shot on something else—perhaps adding a bit of grain to make it less crispy and a little more gritty. I focused on these aspects to mask the fact that it was shot on an iPhone.

PC: You definitely accomplished that. Damian co-wrote and directed this. How different is the filming experience when the person who created this universe and these characters is also at the helm directing?
Ruben: It was bloody brilliant. He started off with a very strong script to begin with. I loved the concept initially, and then we were able to flesh it out and develop it more, bringing our own personal experiences into the film.

When we were shooting the scenes between Finn and Arlo and delving into all these emotions afterwards, Damian had a very clear understanding of where he wanted to go with the characters. Then it was about figuring out that ending.

Damian, having written Arlo, had a very clear direction in his head where he wanted to go, but he never limited me in terms of making this character my own. We kind of met in the middle, and it really worked out because the performance came out a lot more genuine with how he was coaching it and how he nurtured it. I think that’s because he related to Arlo, and I related to Arlo in very similar ways. It was about bringing that performance out in a truthful way, and he got that out of me beautifully.

PC: You and Paris [Moletti] have incredible chemistry. I believe he was only part of the filming experience for a very short time. How were you able to build that bond so quickly? Was there a moment while you were filming when you realized that you had the bond necessary to bring this dynamic to life?
Ruben: The film was written in two weeks, and we had a week to film it. We were like, “This has to go perfectly straight away.” We spoke to Paris, and he was like, “I’m down to come.” But he only had one day to give us. We ended up shooting all of the scenes with Paris in a day. There’s a lot that didn’t make it into the film, and there was a lot that did. It was really in the editing process where we found all the moments that did work. What I found was that a lot of the more candid, in-between takes were the ones that were getting used.

As soon as Paris came to set, he and I basically sat down, and we spoke about the relationship between these two characters from the beginning to where it’s at now, and how it fell apart, how it came to be, and everything. We fleshed it all out. That allowed us to both understand where the characters were coming from. We spoke about the situation-ship, today’s landscape, and going out and seeing how people are just in it for themselves and they’re not really interested in finding out anything about anyone. It’s more sex-orientated. There were a lot of these deep things that we were talking about where it’s an impossible landscape to navigate, especially in certain situations. That aided our performances coming into both of these characters with a lot of preemptive knowledge. Then when we came to shooting, we had natural, good chemistry to start with. We just got along so well. I’m so glad it was him. No complaints at all. I had the best time working with him.

PC: That’s so smart to use those candid moments. With this being your debut as a lead, is there a scene in particular that you’re excited for audiences to see?
Ruben: Oh, that’s a good one. In terms of the scene that I’m most excited for people to see, it’s between two. There is the one at the end with the waves at the beach. That was interesting because I held that shot for as long as I could in the editing suite for a multitude of different reasons. The other one is anything with the bathtub. That’s why we’ve promoted that one so much in the ad campaigns. I think you get a lot of different emotions from those scenes, tying the water with the water. In the bathtub, it’s claustrophobic, and then in contrast, you have this giant open beach and how those two things work together. That’s probably the most captivating part of the film and what that means symbolically as well. I found that pretty moving when I saw it in the final edit. Damian wrote that ending, and I was like, “He’s done it again. It was brilliant.”

PC: That final scene is really powerful. There’s something really beautiful about the stillness and the subtlety in that scene. As I was saying earlier, the film has made its way around the festival circuit and it’s been incredibly well received. What do you hope audiences take away after they see it? It also tackles so many universal themes. Was there one in particular that resonated with you?
Ruben: Going into the film, there were elements and themes that I was really passionate about and that I found would be the most impactful for people. This is a post-love story. You have these two people, and they’ve met up. There is clearly some misalignment of intent between them and their relationship. From the beginning, you can tell that one of them was never really in it. When you see the film, you know which one it is. I loved the message that Damian wrote about the fact that you will always find someone again. There will always be someone who will come along. If you’re too busy closing yourself off, keeping your walls up, staying in the bathtub and isolating yourself in a place of solitude because you’re afraid of getting hurt, then all these wonderful things that come along with the pain don’t come. It’s about being open to the human experience of love, the good and the bad that comes with it. Love is inevitable, but it comes along to those who are open to it as opposed to those who are closed off, which is something that I had to learn because there were definitely points when I’ve been in relationships, and I’m like, “This isn’t working out at all,” and I put all my walls up. It’s like the next time you meet someone and they’re like, “Tell me something about yourself,” and you’re like, “My favorite color is blue,” and that’s about as much as you’re willing to give.

Then also the way that the film tackles LGBTQ+ representation because we were very open at the start of the film that we did not want to have that be the focus. It’s not a coming-out story because that’s been done before and it’s been done brilliantly. It’s a story about two people that are in a relationship who happen to be the same sex, which I thought was a beautiful notion because there are too many times where that’s made such a big deal and I feel like that’s counterintuitive. If you’re trying to be progressive with it, it needs to just be normalized. Don’t comment on it. It is what it is. That was handled beautifully by Damian in the film because it’s such a beautiful love story that was tragically disrupted, but it never goes into the LGBTQ+ aspects of it in an overt way.

PC: That’s the next step in terms of the evolution of representation where we can have queer storylines and characters, and the focal point isn’t their coming-out experience or that trauma, and they can exist in a narrative as beautiful as this one. So often when you’re working on a short film, it’s a proof of concept. Have there been early conversations with Damian about potentially extending this out to a full-length feature?
Ruben: There have definitely been conversations about it. They’ve been optimistic conversations. I think it would be sick as a feature film. It’s a character study in a way. I’m sure if it became a feature, it would be a character study on Arlo, and maybe you can delve into a series of flashbacks or something along those lines where it explores Finn and Arlo’s relationship. We could really flesh out the character more because that was one of the difficult things with the performance aspect because you have to indicate that there was this huge history that no one in the film sees. There are a couple of short snippets, and then the rest of it is this sad dude who is like, “That was sucky.” That was difficult. But in a feature film, you could really flesh all of that out. You can flesh out his journey from being at the absolute rock bottom to finally rising up again. You can flesh all of that out really beautifully, and you can bring his family and his friends into it. Then it could be this beautiful coming-of-age story. It could be sick if it was done well and right, which I trust that Damian would be able to smash that out.

PC: Outside of this project, what’s next for you? You’re such an exciting voice in this industry, is there a dream role that you’d love to play?
Ruben: That’s a really good question. We’ll see how next year goes. The strikes have just ended, so I’m pretty sure every actor has had this issue where nothing is coming through. We’ll see how next year goes. As far as a dream role, I would love to be a part of any coming-of-age story that tackles deep themes that the youth faces. I’m very passionate about the way that time has changed and the way that the youth has been raised. One of my favorite films is Stand By Me. I grew up watching that and it’s such a beautiful representation of kids growing up into their teenage years. I would love to do something like that but an older demographic. It would be such a different type of film if you were to make it today because every kid is completely different. We live in a completely different landscape. Everything is messed up. I would love to do something like that. That would be really cool.

To keep up with Ruben, follow him on Instagram.