Addison Wylie: Each actor brought their own special gift to their role, ranging from comedic reactions and timing to convincing connections to the emotional heart driving the story.  Do you catch these capabilities at the casting stage, or is it part of the process when you’re making the movie?

Nicole Rose: You absolutely have to catch this at the casting stage — it’s crucial!  However, if you’re lucky with your actors (and I always am), you discover deeper and more profound capacities in them as you go.  There are always surprises, sometimes astonishing ones.

AW: Why did you feel like this story was important to tell?

NR: I wanted to set myself the challenge of depicting synesthesia onscreen;  it seemed like such a natural topic for film or TV!  Neurodiversity in girls and women is underrepresented in the media, and synesthesia itself is surprisingly underrepresented, despite the fact that it’s extremely common.  However, people very often don’t know they have it, so that’s likely why.

I did this as responsibly as I could, interviewing several dozen people with synesthesia and making sure to depict only experiences they had actually had in the movie.  Of course, things will always be condensed and modified for the sake of storytelling.

AW: Magnetosphere co-stars Patrick McKenna, Debra McGrath, Colin Mochrie, and Steven He. These are some heavy-hitters in the world of improvisational comedy. How much improv do you allow on set? What was your favourite part about directing these folks?

NR: Well, I allow improv from these people, that’s for sure.  There wasn’t a lot.  But occasionally I would say, “Pat, can you add something here,” and he would come up with a button on a scene (it’s often the last line) that was just perfect.  It was stuff I’d have never come up with.  I always wished I had.  He’s remarkable.

I don’t recall that Deb does any major improvisation in the movie, but she’s marvelous at it.  I wish I had used her for that.  But she makes Ms. Deering, so much funnier than that character might have been.  Some tell me she is the best character in the movie: empathetic and funny.  Everyone wishes they’d had a teacher like Ms. Deering.

The thing people don’t often realize about Colin (or the rest) is that they’re not just going to throw improv into a scene if not explicitly told, “You should do this.”  His default – and this goes for the others too – is to stick to the script.  And then if you say, “Hey, Colin, let’s make up something for right here,” you’ll again end up with a little spark of genius in your movie;  better than anything you yourself could have come up with.

Steven is famous for being a creator who makes up all his own stuff.  I only wish we’d had a chance to use his humour in the movie.  The thing about his character is that he never really has a chance to be funny, as written.  He’s interesting, empathetic and touching (and we get to hear him sing Gilbert & Sullivan!), but he’s really channelling a dramatic role here.  Honestly, I hope people will go and see it just for that.  There is a really tense scene between him and Maggie (Shayelin Martin), who is in love with him, but she’s 13 and he’s probably 25.  She doesn’t understand the issue and he does, and he handles the scene so beautifully – so does she.  People should see it just for that.  That, and the scene where Tania Webb, as Maggie’s mom, tells her romantic history at the end of the movie.  We don’t realize how funny she is until that moment.  It’s worth waiting for.

I think every single actor in this movie is funny in real life.  It’s a shame we don’t see more of that onscreen — but — the script is what it is.

AW: Magnetosphere incorporates animation into its narrative in some of the best ways I’ve seen lately.  How would you and your post-production team collaborate to bring these vibrant visions to life?

NR: Wow, thank you!  So, I had an excellent collaborator named Tommy Cha, who was my animator on my first feature Goodbye, Petrushka (which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi, and YouTube) and whom I would trust with my life.  I made what meager drawings I could (this is not my forte), ran them by him and said, “do you think we can get the VFX team to do an animation of something like this?” And they did.  But it was a lengthy and elaborate process.

AW: What did you learn about yourself as a filmmaker and as a storyteller from this experience?

NR: That I do my best work when I’m not thinking too hard, or ideally at all.  But I already knew this.  I think with each project, I learn it more.  Scott Hamilton, the great figure skater who later became a commentator, said “sometimes you have to skate stupid,” as in, don’t think about what you’re doing at all – it is the best advice.  So with each project, I feel as if I learn more and more to “direct stupid”.  I’m sure my admirers and detractors alike would agree.

Magnetosphere is now available on VOD and Digital HD.

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