On Jan. 28, the last week of the Sundance Film Festival, directors Mstyslav Chernov and Celine Song joined actors Daniel Kaluuya and Chloë Sevigny to form a panel and share their experiences of working in the film industry.
Stacy Wilson Hunt moderated the discussion with questions to the panelists about the roots of their success, their early inspirations and what it actually means to be successful.
Kaluuya is best known for his leading roles in “Get Out” and “Nope.” He told the audience about his upbringing in the London borough of Camden in a family that was not “artistic,” but “African,” as Wilson Hunt recalled for him.
Despite the orthodox environment at home, Kaluuya said he felt fortunate to have been raised in an area so progressive as to offer play writing courses in school, he said. This is where he could write his first play, inspired by the Nickelodeon TV show "Kenan and Kel." It was after the play’s warm reception by his community that Kaluuya realized the scope of his potential.
“This is a thing,” said Kaluuya. “Not everyone does this. This is a thing.”
Chernov was next to recall his childhood, set in the newly-independent Ukraine of the 1990s. He remembered going on walks around the streets with his father at twilight to gather bottles for cash. During one of these walks, his dad asked him what he wanted to be. Chernov responded with two options: he would become either a detective or a filmmaker.
“Being a detective is a very dirty job, but it’s probably better than being a filmmaker," he remembered his father saying.
Chernov pondered aloud, concluding that perhaps his time as an investigative journalist and his current career as a decorated filmmaker qualifies as success on both of those fronts.
The start of Sevigny’s career began in kindergarten when her mother took her to watch a production of "Annie," she said.
“I was like, ‘If these little kids are doing this, I’m going to do this,’” she said.
The spark emitted from this experience was fed by her desire to work — even as a young child — and her impulse to “hustle,” she said.
“I was really attracted to other kids that were driven and doing local theater," Sevigny said.
The actors and auteurs she befriended were interested cult classics, such as “Out of the Blue,” starring Linda Manz.
“I was like, ‘If I have one performance like that, then that's it. That's good,’" Sevigny said of her career ambitions at the time. “I can do that, and then I'm done.”
Sevigny went on to star in Larry Clark’s “Kids.” But after the applause for this reference subsided, she confessed to the audience that she feels she sold herself short.
“I think that I had so much, like, indie pride. Like, ‘I’m not gonna do that, you know, commercial thing.’ And because I feel like in the 90s, the commercial work was — it was just such a different time, and I wasn't as interested in being that,” said Sevigny. “I was like, ‘The moment I'm in People Magazine, I'm gonna quit being an actress.’”
She expressed gratitude for the career she made for herself, but lamented the career she might have had if she had made different choices and different connections.
For her part, Celine Song described a common occurrence in her career where she would find herself in the company of people whose success she aspired. They would often make efforts to hide how good it is to be successful, she said.
“And I just want to say, it is amazing to be successful,” said Song. “And I think that you should be very cautious of taking advice from people who try to tell you otherwise.”
Song told her audience that in order to get a project made, they need at least ten people — ten "guardian angels" — to believe in them, whether they be one's parents, a producer or a best friend.
“You know, hopefully they have some money,” she said.
Even with those ten advocates in one's court, filmmakers still need to inspire the belief of others by having an even stronger belief in their own projects, Song said.
“I think that at the end of the day, you are the train, right?” said Song. “You are the train that is going and a part of the thing has to be like, ‘Hey, this train is going. Are you getting on?’”