SXSW 2024 Interview- Joy Wilkinson Talks 7 Keys, Male Orgasms As Metaphors, And Badass Women

Sometimes, when you talk with someone, things just click. You feel like you are talking to a kindred spirit. Not every interview is like that for me. This one was. Joy Wilkinson, whose high-octane thriller 7 Keys subverts tired expectations, is premiering at SXSW 2024, and I got the chance to chat with this gifted writer who has done just about everything there is to do in the field. Her impressive career spans decades and includes journalistic pursuits, plays, books, television, and movies. She is one of the strongest voices in genre entertainment, and understands exactly her vision and how to take us along on that wild ride. With her generous time, she talked all things, badass women, earning her success and making 7 Keys her way.

Tracy Palmer- Thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me today. I sincerely appreciate it. I have to say, I feel like I’m a little in over my head. Because, in my opinion, you are writing royalty. I mean, you have written some of the very best things, everything, you know, from journalism to plays. And, of course, Doctor Who, I mean, we cannot forget that.

Joy Wilkinson- Are you a Doctor Who fan?

TP- Oh, well, I mean, who isn’t? So tell me why, after all of your storied career, now you’re doing a full feature-length thriller movie. How did that happen?

JW- I think it’s what I wanted to do all along. But you know, as a girl from Lancashire, which is in the northwest of England, who doesn’t have any connections to the film industry, it’s taken this path to get to it. And I always wanted to tell stories; I did a film at college and really loved it so much, and I directed things then, but I just didn’t think directing was a job. I don’t know who I thought directed things, but certainly not girls like me.

So, then, I went into journalism and scriptwriting. Finally, after many years of earning my stripes and doing plays on those shows, I managed to start directing again and did some short films. Then, at the point at which I was ready to make a feature, this script that I’d already done kind of came back to me, and I managed to retool it in a way that I could do it.

And from that moment, I just felt like this is what I’ve been here to do. And I’m developing this, this theory of sort of women’s careers in filmmaking being sort of like, you’ve got sort of the male orgasm, where they go to film school and get big in their 20s and explode and then go to sleep. Whereas women, you know, it takes us a lot longer, but we’re just getting better and getting better and getting better and just can keep going, you know, so, so that’s where I find myself.

Having done all this, pulling it all together, putting it into a film, and actually feeling like I’m ready to do the next one, you know. And so, yeah, it’s my first feature, but it’s, you know, I’ve been around the block a bit and earned my stripes, and I think that’s a nice model for people to adapt to sort of, rather than thinking you have to always be young and hardened, fully formed genius straight out of the gate.

TP- So you mentioned that the story was something that was written some time ago.

JW- Yeah, yeah. So, sort of, I have been obsessed with the keys idea for quite some time. Then I got this idea about the couple that would have them because a friend who’s a psychotherapist was telling me about people at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum being kind of perfect for each other. So empaths and sociopaths fitting together quite well. And that clicked with the keys idea. I thought, I know who these are. And I develop that as a script. But because it’s such a high-concept idea, it became this quite big movie that was sort of set in the States and would have cost 10 million, and somebody else would have directed it.

And that was that classic thing where it was a great script for opening doors for me, and it did do, and I’m forever grateful for that. But actually, I realized that in order to get it made, I had to take it back and retool it to be what it was always supposed to be to set it in London and in some of my friend’s houses, you know, and flats and, and do it with actors that I knew and trusted and could work with. And that feels like it was always meant to be that way now. So sometimes these things, you know, you start off with an idea that you think is one thing, and it turns out to be another, and that’s one of the kind of pleasures of this journey we’re on.

TP- On speaking of the characters, you go in thinking you’re going to get one thing, and they are the polar opposite of what you then. I mean, Lena, you think, is a walking red flag, but she is actually, you know, just a girl trying her very best. And Daniel, oh my gosh, he has a very like Bobby Briggs from Twin Peaks vibe at the beginning. He’s this tortured little soul, all, but he’s a bad man; I feel like you’re on a roller coaster. Tell me about your character writing process.

JW- Well, I mean, I love feeling like I’m a roller coaster. And I love that feeling with movies, you know.
That quote, I think, is Hitchcock’s about how movies should be plugged into your spine and experience sort of beyond words, really. So, I always knew I wanted them to go on those journeys. And some of it is to do with, you know, how society can be really polarized now, and particularly online, where you have kind of incels on one side, and bleeding heart, liberals on the other, and never the twain shall meet. We need to talk to each other somehow, you know, and find our humanity that we’ve got in common. I felt like this was a way to explore that, bring these people together, and make them understand each other and crossover.

So that was really important to me. Also, we did a bunch of work, Emma, Billy, and a movement coach, to sort of put the script aside, even when it had been hardwired into the script, but then to explore it on a physical level. And to explore particularly Daniel’s transformation from being that character that you really nailed it with that, that Twin Peaks idea. Yeah, that’s also very sort of sweet guy, who’s, you know, we did this work to sort of bottle up Billy’s energy, really, and keep it locked down, and then let it out and let it out and let it out and take it to this other place. And that was a really exciting way to explore it.

And I’m fascinated with how, in some ways, what is it about guys that kind of the wilder they are, the hotter they get. Isn’t that interesting? You know, so to kind of explore that and explore her journey from that side of us as girls, sometimes we feel we have to be a certain way to attract men and impress men and then actually hide our vulnerability, in some ways. I just think this crucible of this crazy weekend that this couple goes on allows us to explore lots of things that go on in much less tumultuous relationships but in a similar way.

TP– Hopefully, a much healthier way. Right.

JW- But we’ve all gone out with, you know, crazy. What have we got? Yeah.

TP- Tell me about your female characters. I’ve seen several of the characters that you’ve written for, and like everything a woman actually is. You don’t get as much as I’d love the Ripley’s of the world. There are not that many Ripleys that are just that big badass, as most of us start out a little wimpier and then become a Ripley, and your characters seem to find that perfect nuance between vulnerability and power and the process. Tell me, is that just something that unconsciously comes to you?

JW- it’s because I love those characters, and Ripley and Sarah Connor mean the world to me. They absolutely changed my life when I first saw them on screen. But the thing is, they became these archetypes that they were sort of photocopies on photocopies of and morphed into this sort of vest-wearing kickass girl who’s in many action films, and I think that having been in a lot of writers rooms with really switched-on guys who are very liberal and want to do the right thing, but actually, fundamentally, as writers we’re more interested in our own stories, really.

So even if you’re trying to write those female characters, you can find out sometimes you’re more interested in the guys, you know, if you are a guy, so, for me, I think it’s it’s just that I fundamentally have lived the life I’ve lived. I am more interested in those women and in finding those contradictions that we have, those mood shifts and flaws, and how flaws can end up being strengths, you know? So how feeling too much can be a problem, but then that can be a sort of superpower as well. And I think then the strength and the Ripleyness of it just feels more achievable. You know, in day-to-day London, that we can sort of kick-ass in our own ways, lives, and in our relationships.

TP- Who were your biggest influences, kind of any time, from the beginning to now?

JW- Gosh, so those characters of Sarah Connor and Ripley and, you know, all those kinds of genre, strong women, I sort of hate the word strong women, but, but you know, like Gina Davis in the fly, who’s sort of vulnerable, but also and loves, but also sort of finds a strength in her. Absolutely love that film, and Thelma and Louise, you know, all these movies that just kind of take you to unexpected and more interesting places.

The Last Seduction was actually probably one of those ’90s thrillers that spoke to me the most. And again, I think you can sort of tell it’s directed by a guy, but she still comes in. She roars onto the screen and really flips your expectations. So, that was another one. But really, I think I’m just sort of steeped in genre at this point. And it all floods into it. And I don’t even notice sometimes. But, like, and again, without spoilers, I realized that the last scene, my God, this, has got sort of elements of Terminator 2. And I didn’t even intend to, but it’s there on a balcony.

So yes, I think I’ve imbibed it all and then very much filtered it through my own northern female British eye. And so this is what you come out with. And I just love the fact that you said a roller coaster because that’s what I think people should go out to the cinema for.

7 Keys is premiering at SXSW 2024 on March 9th, 2024. Find all our SXSW coverage here.