SXSW 2024 Sew Torn Interview- Director Freddy MacDonald Explains His Incredible Vision, His Amazing Stars, And That Mettler Thread

There are times when you interview someone that you instantly know you are talking to the future. You just know you are witnessing an origin story. My interview with Freddy MacDonald shortly before his feature film Sew Torn debuted at SXSW 2024 was like that. MacDonald is young, exuberant, and wildly talented. He has a unique and clear vision and is the future of storytelling. In a sea of remakes, retools, and sequels, his voice is singular, unique, and very needed.

Sew Torn is a stunning example of creativity and talent. MacDonald took the time to talk with me about making a full-length feature, working with his dad, his talented star, and getting help from one of his heroes.

Tracy Palmer- Tell me. It feels like, oh gosh, like an adult fairy tale. It’s so whimsical. Tell me about that. It feels like it comes from inside you like that’s your signature style.

Freddy MacDonald- Well, first of all, thank you for taking the time to watch it multiple times. That means so much. I’m at this point. I’m tired of watching it because I’ve seen it millions of times because I edit my own work, too. And so I’m like, oh my god, I’m so glad that you enjoyed it. I love that, you know, it’s an adult fairy tale. That feels like the perfect way to describe it. I really love films that are totally bizarre and that kind of lean into weird, weird towns. And so that’s why in this film we kind of went for it’s kind of a dark comedy thriller or with elements of horror in it too.

I don’t know where that comes from inside me. But my dad and I work together very closely. His name is Fred. So we’re the two Freds, and I think we both have very weird tastes for some reason. But I’m glad that you feel that there is a voice in the film that means a lot.

TP- So that, like, it feels like a little bit like a Lanthimos film.

FM- Oh, cool. I love it.

TP- I’m a huge fan of his, so that’s high praise. He’s a cool guy, and he has that weird, I don’t know, weird sensibility. Yeah, yours has that touch of whimsy, though, which just, I mean, it pulls on the heartstrings, which is a weird thing to say about something that’s a thriller and a horror. But you also really truly care.

FM- Oh, yeah, I’m so glad you felt that way. Because that was a big part of the film. Because you know, she is such an intense character. And especially, we start right off the bat with a pretty crazy act that
defines her in a very specific way. And the whole film was like, how do we pull in that emotion, that emotional truth, and core to make you want to stay on that, that journey? So that’s great that you felt that?

TP- Tell me how this movie came about. I know it started as a short. How did it then develop into a full feature?

FM- So this short film was actually my application film for film school. So I was looking at all the
different film schools, and I was like, every school has a different prompt. But I knew the American Film Institute was where I wanted to go. Their prompt was to tell a story about a change of heart. So, my dad and I just started brainstorming this premise. And we love the Coen Brothers work, you know, films like No Country for Old Men, and, you know, the idea of coming upon a drug deal gone bad. And we’re trying to think of like, well, how can we spin this on its head? What’s the most interesting person who could come upon this drug deal and not only see it as like a passerby but actually take advantage of it in an unexpected way?

And that’s when we just got so excited about having a seamstress be at the core of the story. And, you know, the contrast between the red and guns and blood, which, you know, threads very delicate, but we wanted it to be almost her superpower in the film. So we made this short, you know, one day, my mom saw this car in a parking garage in Switzerland, and she asked the person, Hey, can we use that car and, you know, it came together like that. Didn’t think much of it, sent it out to everyone we knew. And it just got passed along.

And it landed in the hands of my hero, Joel Cohen. And, you know, I was terrified because he wanted to meet for a coffee, and I was scared. He was gonna think we were ripping them off. I was like, Oh no, this is I was very, I was very worried. But if he actually was, he was very kind. And he said, You should turn this into a feature. And do it the Blood Simple method, like raise money through friends and family, anyone you can get to give you money, do it that way. And so you have full creative control. And so we spent a long time writing the script. And that’s kind of how it all it all came together. Sorry, there’s a long story.

TP- No, no, no, it wasn’t long at all. Okay, so here you have this movie that you’ve developed into a feature through blood, sweat, and tears, and basically your own money. But that’s a good cast. That’s a heavy-hitting cast. How did that happen?

FM- Yeah, well, one of our producers is really good and had collaborated with our casting director, Sharon Howard Field. And she and Nathan Wiley really helped bring all these people to the project. And luckily, we had this short as a proof of concept. So people understood the tonal world of the film, and you know, what we were trying to do? So it wasn’t like, what is this thread stuff, and because it is very dense on the page with all the thread action, as you can imagine, but they were really intrigued by the short, and luckily, they took a chance on me as a first-time feature director and believed in the originality of the promise and wanted to come to Switzerland to make it in a small town.

Everyone took a lot of risks. Luckily, they really believed in the story. And because it is a bit of an ensemble cast, too, we really hoped that even though some of the characters don’t have equal screen time, they’re all very distinct. We were just hoping that we’d get a lot of great character actors to bring, you know, what they do best to the table. And that’s what I think we got.

TP- It’s very cool. Tell me about Babs. She is so specific. She’s tragic and sad but resourceful and
weirdly powerful. Yeah, tell me about her.

FM- I can tell you about the character. And then I can tell you about Eve kind of smashed into a kind of mesh of one, which is really cool. But yeah, Babs, we wanted her to be like a superhero that’s grounded in reality. And a lot of that kind of stems back to the fact that she’s using thread, which is, you know, something you see all the time and you don’t think much about. And you’re really using that to kind of to her advantage to take advantage of the situation she’s in. But we wanted to make sure that everything she does is, of course, coming from her character and her skill.

So all of those thread contraptions despite how heightened they are, all work practically. So my dad and I really had to get in the mind of Babs and kind of become Babs to figure out, you know, in our backyard with thread and cardboard guns. You know, how we can make these things actually work? See, you set it all up out there. Yeah, we said, oh, that’s so cool. And we also filmed almost shot for shot. All those major sequences in the film where the thread is used are these Rube Goldberg-esque kinds of contraptions. And so we made that, and we sent it out to the whole crew. But my dad and I were still kind of the only people who really knew how these things were going to work. And so Eve came on board, and Eve is just phenomenal.

She just very quickly started watching the videos, and it was a dart gun in the film; as you know, she started shooting the dart gun around her house and scaring her family members and, you know, really practicing to the fullest extent. But going into it, she didn’t even know how to sew a button on the back of the dress. So she really did the hard work to become Babs. And I’m just so proud of how she I mean, her fingers are confident every shot of you know, she became that character.

I remember at the end of the scene she was shooting, I would tell her, okay, you need to create this thread lasso and loop it around this gun trigger, and I was trying to show her how to do it. And it was taking me like 10 minutes to figure out how to show her. And then we start rolling. She does it on the first take. So she’s just such a phenomenal actress, and I can’t say enough good things about her.

TP- Yeah, she’s great. She’s very like young Claire Danes. She’s fantastic. Tell me about that pub scene. The dance. That’s a great scene.

FM- Thank you.

TP- Whose idea was that? Was it dance choreographed, or was that just spontaneous? Tell me everything.

FM- Yeah, so the dance scene, we just love that scene, and you know, in general, and we knew we wanted to have one in this film, but it really made sense as this kind of distraction mechanism that, you know, she’s also laying that thread around the diner. But a big thing early on was we knew we didn’t want it to be choreographed. We didn’t want it to feel, you know like we had a choreographer come in here and do it because it was very character-motivated. We wanted it to feel raw, almost like this emotional catharsis for Barbara.

And so very early on in the audition process, I felt terrible doing it because I hate being on camera. And you know, I can’t imagine I actors just blow me away with the ability but we needed to see if people could do this dance, you know, on their own improvise in like their bedroom. And so we got some interesting we got we got a lot of people sending their stuff. But Eve immediately stood out because she was so original in her performance, and it’s very similar to what she does in the film. That means it’s very raw, but she wasn’t trying to do some polished dance she was she was allowing her choreography to come from the emotional context of the scene, which is really cool.

TP- Oh, yeah. It’s really cool. Weird, dumb question. What thread are you using that wouldn’t break?

FM- So we’re using Mettler thread. And it’s great that you mentioned them because, you know, they’re a sponsor of our film. Bernina, another great sponsor, provided all the sewing machines that you see in the movie, as well as all those portraits and the portraits that, you know, they had, I think it was over like millions of stitches went into the portraits in terms of they were all stitched practically. They have an extra strong thread. That Mettler thread was great. I never snapped on set. And a lot of the times, you know, we were actually pulling that thread behind the car and pulling those guns, and so yeah, it’s a really good thread.

TP- Oh, that’s very cool. I had no idea that thread could be that powerful. What it like working with your dad?

FM- It’s so great. And I know a lot of people I tell people that like I can’t imagine working with my dad. That’s crazy. But it’s really, it’s really cool. Because we have the exact same taste and we co-write so, I direct. We co-write, and he produces. And when we write, it’s the most fun process ever. We’ve never had a disagreement about taste. Of course, we have, you know, we go back and forth on plot and character questions. But we always kind of land on the same direction because we’re united on what we like and what we think would make our best movie possible. So, it’s such a fulfilling process. And my mom is also an artist, and my sister is an artist. We have too many artists in my family. So we’re all kind of helping each other constantly.

TP- Tell me about you. You are the youngest fellow accepted into AFI, right?

FM- Yes.

TP- Tell me about that.

FM- It was all a part of the whirlwind of the short film, and we, like I said, made it, and we just sent it out. And the Joel Cohen thing happened. And then Joel’s agent at UTA repped me. And then Searchlight picked up the short and put it in theaters nationwide. And Joel was kind of like, you know, should go to AFI, and Searchlight was like, You should go to AFI. And so I was able to go to my AFI interview and say, hey, you know, please let me in, you know, the film was it was just about to be in theaters. And luckily, they’ve made an exception, but AFI was just the most; it was the perfect choice. And I learned so much there. It was great.

TP- What are the plans for Sew Torn moving forward? Is it going to get released nationwide?

FM- Yeah, so because we made it independently, now we’re just crossing our fingers to get seen by
the right people and we premiere tonight. So I’m like, I’m very nervous and on edge. It’s the first time you know I’ve ever gotten reviews and so I have no clue really how the process really works. Luckily, my team at UTA has been helpful in guiding the film, and hopefully, it would be a dream to be in theaters or streaming. So that you know my friends in Switzerland can finally see it. They’ve been bugging me about it.

TP- One last final question: what is next for you after this?

FM- My dad and I have started writing again. And it’s so getting into SXSW was huge for us because it kind of gave us the validation we needed to be like, Okay, there’s, hopefully, there’s an audience for these kinds of weird, whimsical worlds that we like to play in. But the feature space I love. I want to dive into TV at some point, too. But we’re planning our next feature now and hope to shoot it in the next year or so. So, yeah, it’s another it’s another crazy story. I can tell you that much.