{"id":44869,"date":"2024-08-16T13:48:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T17:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=44869"},"modified":"2024-08-16T17:59:01","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T21:59:01","slug":"interviewing-christopher-greenslate-of-bananahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/08\/16\/interviewing-christopher-greenslate-of-bananahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Interviewing Christopher Greenslate of “Bananahead”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For our readers, please introduce yourself.
\n<\/strong>I\u2019m Christopher Greenslate, writer, director and producer of BANANAHEAD as well as a few other projects. It\u2019s a funny thing trying to introduce oneself in an interview, but I\u2019m someone who grew up in the punk and hardcore music scene and I’ve done a bunch of stuff. Toured with bands, put out records, published some work as a writer, but I\u2019ve been working in film and television ever since I graduated from the American Film Institute back in 2016, and it finally seems like I\u2019m hitting my stride. But I\u2019m hopelessly optimistic, so who knows if that\u2019s true?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How did you get involved with this project?
\n<\/strong>I met actor Sally Maersk, the lead of the film, through a colleague I worked with during my year at Anonymous Content. He and I were both writers and kept in touch after moving on from there. One day he connected Sally and I and we sort of hit it off immediately. I know it\u2019s going to sound a bit woo-woo, but sometimes you meet someone and there\u2019s something about their energy that strikes you in a powerful way. That\u2019s how it felt when I met Sally. Over coffee one day her and I talked about this feeling we\u2019d both had in Hollywood about seeing the life you want as if it’s right in front of you, knowing that it\u2019s a fantasy, this golden, hollow thing, and how dangerous it can be to live in that space. Mentally. Emotionally. Even physically. When I recognized we both felt that I knew we had something I could write and direct for her.<\/p>\n

How long did “Bananahead” take to write?
\n<\/strong>From that first meeting it took about two months to have a draft that was worth shooting. Once I know what a thing wants to be, it\u2019s like I can hear it’s scream echoing back from the creative void\u2026 sort of demanding to be written. Once I know the story it\u2019s kind of like having to pee. You can only hold it for so long. Of course there were changes to the script up until the week before shooting, but by that time they were mostly small adjustments. Some bits of dialogue. What\u2019s written on the note she finds. Some of those important finishing touches need time to reveal themselves.<\/p>\n

What is it about impostor syndrome that is such a specter over artists?
\n<\/strong>I\u2019m not sure exactly. I haven\u2019t felt that in a while, but I think that feeling is really about worrying over what other people think, or how they\u2019ll react. But you can\u2019t control any of that, so why waste time on it? Coming up in the punk and hardcore scene I learned to dispense with those feelings pretty early. I\u2019ve learned that doing the thing is what matters.\u00a0You have to let it rip.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Is Andi running from her mother or is she running toward her?
\n<\/strong>That\u2019s a great question. Both. Clearly the film leans into this notion of familial legacy. In a very basic sense she\u2019s trying to star in the adaptation of her mother\u2019s bestselling novel. So, even if Andi only sees that as a way to advance her career, she\u2019s still doing so by tapping into her mother\u2019s work. Getting closer to her. On the other hand, by the end of the film we\u2019ve seen how dangerous it can be engage with a darkness you don\u2019t understand, and by that point Andi is actively trying to escape. So in that way, she\u2019s trying to put distance between the two of them. If you build a house out of legacy, there\u2019s no doubt it will be haunted.<\/p>\n

Who or what inspired your love for the art of filmmaking?
\n<\/strong>I\u2019ve always loved movies. The television adaptation of Stephen King\u2019s IT was huge for me. It was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and starred Tim Curry as Pennywise\u2026 everything about it terrified and fascinated me when I was younger, and it still holds up. The kids are incredible in it. The score is absolutely phenomenal. In fact, the first thing I ever remember writing was a short story in seventh grade where a mime haunts kids in a mirror maze. It was absolutely inspired by that mini-series. For me it was the darker, horror version of E.T. or The Goonies. From there, I found The Exorcist, my favorite film of all time, then The Shining, and Rosemary\u2019s and Psycho\u2026 drinking from that well has proved powerful for me, obviously.<\/p>\n

Are You Working in any other genres or have aspirations to?
\n<\/strong>Absolutely. It\u2019s funny, I actually think of myself as a drama writer who’s addicted to genre. I\u2019ve written and set up straight drama work. The first decent check I got was for a Nikola Tesla biopic, the next was for another one about Jonas Salk. Both scientists. Both fascinating people. I have a short story I\u2019m out with now that\u2019s a sexy melodrama with a twist. The first series I ever sold was about where I grew up, and it was a horror show, because that\u2019s what growing up is. But to be honest what matters to me more than genre is a feeling, whether its a frustration or a fear, that the thing that usually comes first and with it characters begin to pop up and introduce themselves, and by that time the piece has usually told me what genre or genres makes the most sense.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Who are some of the directors or writers that you look up to and who do you want to bring attention to in your field or others?
\n<\/strong>Wow. Far too many to name them all. Most of my heroes are dead and some predictable names loom large. But Jordan Peele has absolutely changed the game. He\u2019s doing something so next level that I\u2019m not sure most people understand or appreciate how genius it is… I absolutely loved Darius Marder\u2019s film Sound of Metal. I think about Celine Song\u2019s Past Lives all the time. Little Marvin\u2019s THEM is the scariest thing on TV over the last couple of years. There\u2019s really an embarrassing amount of talent on display right now.<\/p>\n

What are you currently working on that you can tell us about?
\n<\/strong>I\u2019m in post on another short film right now that also stars Sally Maersk called DRAINOMANIA. It\u2019s a super fun genre bender that we shot on 16mm. Cleaning a bathroom never got so wild. I\u2019m also working on a couple of comic books that I\u2019m very excited about, neither are announced, but will be out in 2025. The other projects I can\u2019t talk about unfortunately, and there\u2019s too many to list. I counted the other day, and I currently have 26 projects in various stages. It\u2019s wild. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve started Weird Kid Workshop, a sort of the umbrella for a lot of the work I\u2019m doing that I\u2019m excited about. I hope one day it can house not just things I\u2019m doing, but the work of other folks I really admire.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers or creators?
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s funny, I watched a panel the other day at a film festival and the moderator asked the same question and I found most of the responses either annoying or condescending, so I\u2019m not sure I want to be in the business of giving anyone advice.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still at the beginning of my work as a filmmaker and hope to keep that mindset in terms of my own learning and my ability to stay excited about making things.\u00a0What I will say is that there is absolutely no substitute for doing the work\u2026 and thank you so much for having me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For our readers, please introduce yourself. I\u2019m Christopher Greenslate, writer, director and producer of BANANAHEAD as well as a few other projects. It\u2019s a funny thing trying to introduce oneself in an interview, but I\u2019m someone who grew up in the punk and hardcore music scene and I’ve done a bunch of stuff. Toured with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[359,501],"class_list":["post-44869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-filmmaking","tag-indie-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44869"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44876,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44869\/revisions\/44876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}