All Hail Tiffany Rhodes: Director, Filmmaker and Creative Visionary

Tiffany Rhodes is more than just a filmmaker, she is a visionary. She looks outside of herself and examines the world around her, taking inspiration from her life, history and her peers. Her work challenges societal norms and existence as we know it with each piece she releases becoming another puzzle piece on the board used to examine life in a new way - exposing the internal contradiction of the human condition. 

Tiffany is poetic in the way she describes her work - her passion for each project outpours, drawing you into her world, by the end of the interview I was ready to start a Tiffany Rhodes fan club! 

Each one of her projects being exciting - dealing with human issues but with a glint of humour and touch of ennui. 

MR: You wrote your first ever screenplay Naked in the Dog Park in 2016 which received rave reviews and was likened to the work of Dan Gilroy and Woody Allen - what did it feel like to receive such praise from your peers?

TR: You know, at the time I had very mixed feelings because it was the first screenplay I ever wrote. And I had a vision and I just went for it. I knew my formatting and the way I wrote the screenplay was not technical, so I was met with a lot of rejection. Then to also receive laurels and wins for it was like, okay, well, I’ve got the essence of storytelling down and I can work out the technical part later. It was very encouraging.

MR: Yeah, you do often find that when someone has raw talent and they create something it really does stand out more, because it's usually so raw and organic. 

TR: I agree because I think the technical formula has kind of led us to this heavy content world and I’m so bored. I want to watch something engaging, and I want us to move away from the formulaic story where you could just pop into any TV series and quickly identify the antagonist and protagonist right away. I crave real storytelling. 

MR: Yeah, definitely. I feel like they're all slightly more of those stories being told now, and we are beginning to get that variety we’ve all been craving. Like, um, I just finished Genera+ion, which is an HBO Max show and I loved it. It was so good. It’s about a bunch of Gen Z kids, you know, growing up on the west coast and they’re all going through real things. It starts off with one major story that slowly untangles to reveal lots of little stories. There are all these other little pockets of things that are happening and it's just so simple and engaging. It's very pure and true to itself.

TR: I'm going to have to check it out. 

It’s wonderful when you can hear or see a story that, you know, actually came from an experience like it's from the truth, even if it's manipulated in whatever way. You can't really fake that feeling of like, wow, this person really knows what they're talking about. Like if they believe it and they've seen it. 

MR: Yeah. Sometimes when you watch something and it's been written by an “adult” and it sounds like it, you can tell because it sounds so cringe, like some of the things on Nickelodeon. You know, it doesn't sound natural coming out of the actor’s mouth. It feels forced, like when they make a point to use particular slang words or whatever.

TR: And you're like, that's how we spoke 10 years ago, not yesterday and it's so awkward. 

MR: Totally. 

MR: You later went on to become a Director, what inspired you to get into Directing?

TR:  Well, as a kid, I was always making my own movies and I was always writing and Directing and then in High School, I wrote and directed plays and then life sort of happened in a way that took me away from it. And when I wrote Naked in the dog park, I had every intention of Directing that film too. I got an opportunity to go to Sicily and make a short film for 10 days, and I had to write and translate it there. I don’t speak Italian but I can speak Spanish so I found someone there who also spoke Spanish and she helped me out a lot. It was so great how most things worked out pretty well. 

I wanted to tell a story about a family and I had this vision of this mum who was actually a widow when in essence, her husband was alive and kicking, he had just left her. 

We all kind of limit each other and our relationships, if we're not being honest. And so it was sort of a heartfelt story that was also funny.

MR: Yeah. I love that. That sounds so cool. I love that story because it's something that I can totally see happening. It's the same kind of disconnect from the truth and what's authentic or how that affects your family and everybody around you. How you react to something and then how that sort of effects those people in your life. 

TR: And the expectation that you'd have for them to kind of live this lie alongside when you know it was a beautiful experience. And creating art in someplace like Italy, where they're not jaded, they're the opposite. It's the opposite of a tight fist. I really made lifelong friendships that will forever change me.

MR: I love that idea as well, just because it's something that could be told in a comedic way, or you can make it raw and you know, like the movie The Roads Not Taken with Javier Bardem. 

TR: Oh yeah, I haven't watched it yet. 

MR: It's so touching, and it tells the story of this man suffering from Alzheimer’s in such a real way but it also shows you what his ex-wife and daughter are going through as we follow him on this journey reliving, really creating these alternative lives - the roads not taken.

TR: I love those kinds of things. Yeah, it's paused for examination in your own life. And you're like, oh wow. I love it when you can leave a film and it makes you kind of reevaluate yourself and your mindset at that time? 

MR: Definitely. And it was, it was done in such a good way because although they were dealing with such a serious topic, there were moments that were funny where the dad and the daughter were in their own little world, giggling together and communicating almost telepathically because he's at the stage where he kind of zooms in and out of reality. It was amazing. Check it out. 

TR: Okay, I definitely will, that one has been on my list for a while. 

MR: So, what was it like starting out in this industry as a female director and writer?

TR: I went into it knowing the climate and how much we talk about women in film and TV and it's still shocking that you know, while we're half the population we are the least represented. And in my experience it's not just the men who question our ability, it's also the women that perpetuate this kind of cycle - it can really feel like feast or famine. So you have to be OK to step out and do what's right without fear that you may be passed up or that someone may have a better idea than you. 

I think Hollywood is still somehow deciding who gets to tell stories and that's limiting our chance to hear other voices. And I also think that for some reason, it's threatening if women don't want to tell stories about “feminine things,'' whatever feminine means. As a woman, I do feel like I'm held to a different standard, I feel like people expect me to be a caretaker on set and that's not my job as a Director. I’ve noticed even as a cinematographer, you know, I like to jump in and grab the camera and I have no fear of climbing up ladders and hanging off of lights and the men on set will see what I do and be like, oh, check out this blonde chick playing Director, or whatever. And it's kind of funny but there are still a lot of challenges. Hopefully, sometime soon it will be less about gender and more about your talent and the story you want to tell. 

I think as women, we need to help each other, empower each other to tell bigger and bolder stories and not be afraid to tell stories that maybe people don't want to see women tell, for instance, like American Psycho - most people don't even know that was directed by a woman.

MR: I know! I only found out it was directed by a woman a few weeks ago. 

TR: Right! This is why I think we have a lot of work to do and hopefully, you know, the women that are in a place where they can empower other women do that.

MR: Definitely, I really hope so, although I do feel like there's still a sense of competition like we’re still being pitted against each other.

And I feel as long as we keep using titles like “Female Director'' it's going to continue to put them in boxes and the expectations of what they feel a “Female Director” should be. i.e. Romantic Comedies or Dramas. And stepping away from those expectations just confuses them because it makes them question this perfect little fem-box that they’ve built for us. 

TR: Exactly. Matchstick is about a female writer who's having mental health problems and it’s not a Girl Interrupted interpretation of mental illness, it's not sexy - I wanted it to be real. Most of us don’t look our best in the lowest points of our lives which I feel is a common trope in movies - they always portray “crazy” women as the most attractive and she’s always promiscuous and wild. I wanted to explore mental health in a different way, we need to move away from these movie tropes of over sexualising women in film. 

MR: That's why we need more representation behind the camera, we need more women writing and directing stories. What changes need to be made in the industry to encourage more women to get behind the camera and gain the recognition they deserve? 

TR: Yes we do! Because it's hard, it's definitely a grind and I think we have to encourage women to start creating with freedom and not worry about what other people want them to make.  I think there needs to be more mentorship, that's one I think that I learned over time and it really has helped me.

We need to teach women that we don't have to carry other people's appropriate behaviour. We don't have to be subjected to it. And I don’t think it just comes down to education or mentorship, it’s about giving young girls access to cameras and to sound stages where they can learn so that they can compete for these jobs. There’s also a lot of nepotism in this field which is an added hurdle, it can be a “good old boys club” which enables them to get access to learning. 

You’ve got to ask yourself why you want it, why you want to do it because if you don't absolutely love this, then you shouldn’t do it because it will be hard. You're creating something, you're taking really big risks with money and other people who are following you and agreeing to make this universe you want to create come alive - you will be criticised, you will be rejected. 

You have to kind of say, I can be better, but this won't stop me. 

MR: During the course of your career, what have been some of the ups and downs that you have encountered?

TR: I think some of the biggest downs that I've had was picking the right creative partners. A lot of people don't know how to get off the ground and the best advice I have for them is to just do it, just go for it. Just find something, even if it's not your dream project or very high budget - when you're starting out you’ve got to keep creating. You'll be met with challenges, but if you can persevere and take that leap, you’ll learn as you go. I remember when I was just starting out I had such a desire and extreme ambition to create, these are the qualities I now look for in people that I choose to partner with.

Now I have really wonderful people around me and I've learned to trust myself and deal with the rejection - you learn quickly that not everyone is going to want to work with you and that's ok. You may also do a hundred rewrites for a single project and it still not be good enough - I’ve been there but that's just part of the job, it’s a lot of hard work. Also, being a woman in this business will come with its challenges (being a woman in any business really) such as being called bossy and demanding when you’re just doing your job. I absolutely can not stand it when people, guys especially, take positive traits of a woman and then spin them to become negative - a man can have the same traits and it's like, he's a great team leader, he delegates but I’m bossy and demanding. I don't think there's anything wrong with me being demanding at all. I know what I want and I think that's normal.

MR: You were also working on a movie Matilde but it was postponed due to Covid, have you started working on it again? 

TR: I just picked it up again after almost a year of not reading it and I'm going through revisions and sort of getting myself back into that mind frame. I'm really very excited about this project, I think it's going to make people uncomfortable. I think people will find it disturbingly funny too - I always like to add a little humour into whatever I do. 

MR: Can you tell me a little bit about the movie?

TR: Um, yeah, she's kind of a strange character. It's about a fictional female director in the 1990s, who's telling a true story about a mass murder that happened when she was 19. The mass murder actually happened where I lived, I wasn't alive in 1970, but it was the first mass murder in that county. It's a bizarre story. And so the film is about filmmaking, and it goes in and out of telling you this true story, so it's very layered.

MR: If you could reboot or remake any movie what would it be and why?

TR: My son absolutely loves Marvel movies and I was kind of reluctant to watch them because they seemed a little excessive but I love him and, you know what, I had a lot of fun. So we were sitting there watching the movie and he said, mum, well, what if they ever asked you to Direct a Marvel film or redo a superhero film? And I told him that I would do it for him but I would do some things totally different, for instance, I wouldn’t use any special effects at all and that would be my take on it. 

I don't know if that's a direct answer, but I'm not a big remake person because I just like to let things sit. Yeah, I like new takes on things, like I really enjoyed the reboot of the Hitchcock film, Rear Window with Shia LaBeouf.  I can’t remember the name of it. 

MR: Disturbia.

TR: Yes! That’s it. I thought that was a pretty good remake. So yeah, I would do a superhero movie with no special effects. It's interesting what you can do with set design, what you can do with stunts, what you could do with even a simple fan. If you take the time and really think things out, you could do something that is even more engaging for people. Otherwise, you're just watching animation. 

MR: Yeah, totally, I mean look at what Victor Flemming did with The Wizard of Oz. That set design was amazing, they built an entire world. 

TR: And I'm not saying it wouldn't be a challenge. I just feel like we’re living in a world of special effects right now even to the point where we're watching films and there are actors who are talking to animated characters and you know it's like who’s talking to who - what's real? 

MR: I know what you mean but it has its perks, like in Zack Snyder’s last movie he had to cut out one of the main actors and he replaced him with Tig Notaro, the comedian. She was actually never in the room with any of her costars because she had to film everything quickly and they digitally put her in after. I thought that was pretty impressive even though the movie wasn’t very good. 

TR: Absolutely. I mean, I'm all for technology. Especially if it can enhance a story and help tell your story. You could tell a beautiful story through animation. I've seen some animated films that have just brought me to tears, so it's all about the performance and what you feel. As a cinephile, I want to feel something and I just don't feel anything with these long battle scenes in front of a green screen. They just go on and on and on. I sound like someone's grandma, but that's okay. 

MR: No, that's fine. That's why there's something for everybody. You recently directed and acted in the show Harbour Island, what was that experience like?

TR: Well, I have sort of this funny thing going, so when I shot Collision which is currently on Amazon, the actress that was supposed to be in the movie had a family emergency and had to go out to the East Coast so I had to step in and when we shot the Harbour Island pilot in North Carolina we had a situation with an actress during filming that was less than ideal and I was kind if in a pinch and ended up taking up the role due to time constraints. It just meant fewer reshoots and I already knew the character inside and out so it just made sense. 

It was hard to wear two hats, but now I'm at a place where I can compartmentalise actress, Tiffany and director, Tiffany. I've been able to kind of master that to a certain degree, as long as I have the support on the other side of it, which often doesn't happen on independent film sets because you tend to have smaller crews, which presents different challenges. It's surprising what you can do when you push yourself. 

Harbor Island was a story loosely based on my childhood. I took true life crime stories that happened in Ohio and I kind of infused it into the background of the story. We made the TV pilot to pitch during pilot season and then COVID hit and everything stopped - so we had to stop selling the show and so now I'm just kind of revisiting Harbor Island again now that things are opening up.

MR: In a post on your Instagram, you said something that really resonated with me, you said: 

what I feel most don’t talk about... the special powers of the “insane”.

I absolutely loved that because I do feel like the “insane” or the “different” have the ability to see the world in a way the rest cannot even begin to fathom. Can you tell me a little more about your project Match Struck and how it came to be?

TR: Yeah, absolutely. I always joke that I'm almost like a 40-year-old Gen Z because I really relate to them, often more than my generation. I really love the exploration of why we socialise everybody into the same kind of groups because in doing so we almost kind of force everybody into a box. I also think that people who have struggled with legitimate mental health issues who have seen the other side of it realise that maybe it’s more about what's wrong with me, and more about what's wrong with the world and maybe I’m just a little bit more in touch with something that everybody else has forgotten about. It’s innate in all of us, which is why we're here and I really believe we're here to create, we are creators of this existence together. 

I have a lot of energy and for me, I've always taken that as a superpower because I feel like I can get so much more done. I was sitting there thinking, so what's wrong if we do think we have superhero powers, as long as we're not jumping off a building hoping to fly. But if you use it as a metaphor, if you're able to believe in yourself that you can do these extraordinary things, what's wrong with that?

I don't know why we want to squash that in people instead of encouraging it. 

Match Struck is about a novelist whose first novel did really well, whereas her second one failed because she tried to tell a story outside of her normal genre. And now we see her trying to write her third book with a very dysfunctional marriage, unable to have children, which we're not even sure if this character particularly wants it or it feels like she just has to. So we get this kind of snapshot of the end of her life or maybe it's the end of her sanity and now she's totally insane. 

As she's writing, everything is on the line and her life starts to become so intertwined with the novel and I don't think she knows where she is anymore. And oftentimes with mental health, people feel like they’re battling an invisible bad guy. They don't know who the villain is and we're always told, it's yourself, you're battling yourself.

I just don't think that's true. I think it's more than that. I think a lot of people struggle with mental health problems because society is telling us to be one way when we're just not that way. 
MR: Yeah. You're not programmed that way. I feel like people forget that we’re all wired differently, we all have different experiences that make us who we are and I think boxing or grouping people causes more harm than good. Who determines what it means to be normal? Who determines what it means to be “crazy?”

TR: I think that it's because we're all just stuck and don't know what's going on and I think that we need to have more conversations and make sure that we're not just dismissing these feelings and these experiences. I really wanted to tell a story with that in mind and I wanted to tell it in a way that anybody watching the film could relate to it and not feel like it's an agenda-driven movie. It's not political. It's really just about a woman who is using her insanity to “find the story” and is also struggling so hard to grasp on to any type of sanity to save her life. 
MR: What was your motivation for this movie?

TR: My own experiences. I think a lot of people have different methods of creating and going to places, for instance, Stephen King, whom I’m a huge fan of has a particular creative process - he has an alter ego that waits for him in his office and for me, it's always been kind of like going out into the dark forest and you really don't know what's out there but you're going to go because the story's out there and you’re not necessarily on a hunt but you're kind of taking yourself to a different realm, where all things are possible and all stories are possible. And if you really believe that, then you make these really amazing characters that really help you create these stories. So from a writer's perspective, what I just described to you to most people, they would say, you know, you sound insane or you probably shouldn't say that at dinner parties. People just think you're crazy. 

MR: No, I absolutely love it. I think it's so true. I really do believe that people who are classified as insane are sometimes the smartest people in the room. I feel like they can see things other people can't see and view life in a different way. I feel like society's viewpoint of normalcy blinds us from understanding one another - almost like we’re all speaking a different language, unable to take it in. 

TR: Yeah exactly. Life is seen through society's filter of appropriate communication. I just hope this story does it justice and I'm really excited for everyone to see this film. I think there are some really great performances from the actors in the movie and I can’t wait to share it. It definitely touches on the esoteric, but not enough where I think people are going to be really frustrated and question what the movie is about. I think most people will really understand what this woman is going through. 

MR: Do you have any exciting new projects in the works?

TR: Yeah, I have a Western that I’m working on and I'm hoping to do it next year but I need to do a little more because it's based on an actual battle that happened in the 1870s. So I've got a little bit more work to do on that. 

My next plan though is to begin production for Mathilde and then I plan to take some time off to just do some writing for a novel that I’m working on. I've made pretty good progress, and I'm really loving it. At first, I was extremely resistant as I thought, gosh, I could make this into a screenplay but it's the kind of story that has all the different details that you wouldn't get in the film. Things we try to capture as filmmakers, but nothing is more potent and beautiful than that of a person's individual imagination which is why I’m really enjoying this process.

MR: Excellent. I'm really excited to see what you do next. Literally every, every single project you've mentioned sounds amazing! 

TR: Thank you!

MR: Name three things you can’t do without?

TR: Besides people that I love, I would say, coffee and a book. Oh, and a really beautiful sunrise. 

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