SIX QUESTIONS WITH AMBER SEALEY

Director of NO MAN OF GOD
FOFIF Filmmaker (grant awarded for her short HOW DOES IT START in 2019)

In 1980, Ted Bundy was sentenced to death by electrocution. In the years that followed, he agreed to disclose the details of his crimes, but only to one man. NO MAN OF GOD is based on the true story of the strange and complicated relationship that developed between FBI agent Bill Hagmaier and an incarcerated Ted Bundy in the years leading to Bundy's execution.

Available this in cinemas, on-demand (Amazon Prime), & digital this Friday, August 27th!

How did you approach having NO MAN OF GOD provide a different narrative about Ted Bundy?

Well a lot of it was in the script, which is based on the real conversations that Ted Bundy and Bill Hagmaier had with each other. Those conversations show what an insecure narcissist he was, so it was easy in some ways to translate who he really was into the film — it was right there in the recordings. I also felt like a bit of an outsider to the genre and couldn’t help but approach the story as someone who knows what it’s like to walk down a dark alley and hear footsteps behind you and get scared, every woman knows that feeling, so that infused the way I looked at the narrative for sure.

In all the films about Ted Bundy, the victims (women) often get overlooked. Why was is importance to look at him, and even FBI agent Bill Hagmaier, through a female-lens?

Well, to me when you look at this sort of horrible situation, where so many women had their lives taken away, there are so many parts to it. We have a fascination, and some would say an obligation, to try to understand the murderer so that we can stop this sort of crime from happening again. But there is also the piece of this story that the victim has been forced into — she didn’t want this and yet part of the story is hers to tell. I was always interested in that part of the story, even in the smallest way. Right down to, what does the woman in the room who is just there doing her job, holding the folder of her boss while he interviews Bundy, what does she think? What is this like for her? This film was never about telling the victim’s story, but they had to be present in some way that wasn’t saccharine and had real weight to it. So I put them there in the film, essentially reminding us that they existed and that they have thoughts and feelings that they never got to express because their lives were cut short. They are asking the question of us, “why are you so interested in him?"

Can you talk about your collaboration with DP Karina Silva on visually establishing the feeling of intimacy in the film, including the space that Luke Kirby and Elijah Wood share?

Of course we were worried at first with so much of the movie taking place in an interrogation room — those rooms are notoriously empty and bland and it was important to me that that room be authentic. But then once we settled into the endless beauty of the human face and body and all the options we had with camera angles and movement, it all fell into place. It was about having the visual style represent what was happening in the relationship between the two men, so the camera language changes as their relationship changes. So when we first meet Ted that scene is about Bill trying to figure him out, trying to understand him, to seek him out and we had the camera language mimic that. As their relationship grows and the concerns in Bill’s head start to be “am I like him?” then we move to the sliders and track where they start to ‘merge’ almost. And at the end when they really know each other we are finally in intimate close ups, stark, it’s the end. We were really surprised by how many options we actually had in that one boxy room, and a lot credit also has to be given to Michael Fitzgerald who created this room for us with walls that still had lines and slight depth to them, he made an interrogation room be grim but also as lively as it can be.

Casting for NO MAN OF GOD is perfect. How did Luke Kirby and Elijah Wood come on board?

Elijah was on board as Bill when I came onto the project and I loved that. I’ve long been a fan of his and was excited to work with him and felt that he had the perfect inner empathetic soul that Bill has, he knows how to listen and be present, and that’s how Bill works. So I was really excited about Elijah being Bill. When it came to the casting of Bundy I felt like this film would be made or broken based on that role, it’s so iconic and everyone was going to be curious as to who and how it was portrayed. Luke is also someone I’ve long been a fan of and he just popped into my head and then I couldn’t get him out. We also had wonderful casting directors, Danielle Aufiero and Amber Horn with Steven Tylor O'Connor, who came up with such wonderful actors and really have a great eye, they’re fabulous partners and we were able to round out the world so it felt very authentic to the time period and I love every one of our actors.

What were some of your challenges in making/completing this film during the pandemic?

The biggest worry we all had was the pandemic for sure! We did not want to have anyone come down with Covid. This was well before the vaccines were out and people were still unsure how to film safely. There was also a big earthquake in LA the week we started filming. And it was also the two weeks when the air quality was hazardous due to the fires in California, everyone was being told to stay indoors and not go outside or breathe the air. But for Covid we were told to go outside and not be inside together. So, it was an odd and confusing time, for sure. There are always filming challenges, on any project, but to me the biggest concern was keeping everyone safe — both from Covid and from the hazardous air. So we did a lot of work with air specialists!

What are you excited about for the future?

I’m attached to direct a really fun and politically relevant comedy called THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX and I’m also finishing writing a few new things of my own that I’m excited to get out there. There always have to be many irons in the fire in this business. But I’m excited that the next thing I’ll do will be a comedy, I think audiences really need to feel joy and human connection right now, or at least I do!