By: debbie lynn elias
Writer/Director Nicole Gomez Fisher is a new voice on the cinematic horizon. With a background as an actress and stand-up comedienne, Gomez-Fisher now jumps behind the camera, making her feature film debut with the delightful, and delightfully funny, SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES.
A film that mirrors the tones of Moonstruck and City Island filled with embraceable characters and relatable familial situations that give a feeling of Ugly Betty for the big screen, FISHES boasts a stand-out cast with everyone from Priscilla Lopez and Gina Rodriguez to Ana Ortiz and Steven Strait, not to mention a breakout performance from the adorable Misha Seo, who makes her feature acting debut.
SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES is the story of Rodriguez-Fish family. 30-something Alexis is divorced and broke and on her own, trying to make ends meet with every job imaginable from playing a walking meatball sandwich to working as a phone sex girl. Her older sister Kayla still lives at home with their mother Estella and Jewish doctor father, Leonard. Obsessed with comic books, Kayla refuses to grow up and still thinks a fun night out is getting drunk, dancing and puking on the nearest object.
Luckily for Alexis, she has managed to stay away from the Latino-Jewish mother’s guilt of Estella and only has to deal with family when she chooses to answer her phone. But all that is about to change when Alexis is summoned home for the funeral of a distant aunt, putting her in the direct line of fire with her mother and her mother’s wishes for her daughter. And as if mom isn’t enough, Kayla gets in on the action pushing Alexis to go back to doing what she loved before her marriage – party planning and, uh, dating. But is a super-hero themed Bat Mitzvah for a 12 year old adopted Asian girl the way to do it?
Filled with laughter and love, SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES had its premiere Friday night at the LA Latino International Film Festival in Hollywood. Hours before she walked the red carpet, I spoke by phone with the exuberant and funny, Nicole Gomez Fisher about writing, directing, streaking mascara and, of course, FISHES.
So how excited are you with the festival and the film?
Incredibly. This is just such a huge opportunity for us. It just couldn’t come at a better time and especially at a better location. I’m just completely honored to have been accepted and invited to be in the festival.
You have this film constructed so well in terms of your emotional beats and your comedic beats that you pulled me in at the very start. Then things start unfolding and the draw deepens. Granted, it helps that Ana Ortiz is there to give the film this feel like a big screen Ugly Betty. That’s what I kept thinking as I was watching FISHES which, for me, is a good thing as I love that show beyond belief.
That’s so funny. I’ve heard that before and I feel the same way! I actually appreciate that. When we were looking for actresses to fill that role [of sister Kayla], there were so many names thrown at me and when they said Ana [Ortiz], I thought, “Uck. That’s a long shot.” But then she read the script and she just connected with it. I’m thrilled to have her on board because she really adds an element that was really needed.
People forget, and now with Devious Maids doing do well on cable, this is a side of Ortiz where she really gets to shine. She’s not as tempered and she also doesn’t have the real snarky sarcasm that she can bring to something. This is out and out, slapstick, Lucille Ball funny.
[laughing] Ooooh. I really wish I could meet you! That’s such a huge compliment.
Your casting is impeccable. And Priscilla Lopez [as Estella]- well, that is just ideal.
Interestingly enough, I went to see In the Heights with my husband years ago when I started writing the script. First thing I said to him, and I had known about her for years, I saw her in A Chorus Line years and years ago, and I remember turning to him and I was like, “If I ever finish the script and we ever get funding, that is the only person that can play this role [the mother].” When I got casting directors on board, that was the first thing I said and she was the first one to sign on. She, to me, just epitomizes who this character is.
The way you’ve integrated Judaism, the ethnic aspects with the little Asian girl and her bimbo blonde botoxed mother. . .All these characters are something that everybody knows; we all know people like this. We all know people in this huge melting pot of a viewing audience.
All characters that I’m familiar with [giggling]. It’s fantastic that you said that. Because, in all honesty, everybody wants to pigeonhole it. It has to be either a Latino film or it has to be a Jewish film and truth be told, it’s a universal film. When I wrote it, I was just writing it from my point of view. Obviously I have a mixed background and that lends itself to a lot of comedy but at the same time I really wanted this to be a film that people could just relate to because they could understand the mother-daughter conflict, they could understand the humor of the culture and being diverse because it is 2013 and there’s a thousand of us out there. It’s just a new voice as far as I see it.
You’ve got the Beverly Hills blonde bimbette, Park Avenue New York woman, you’ve got the botox jokes in there that everybody can relate to, but the mother-daughter and the sister conflicts, and the mother constantly putting Alexis down – “Getting a little bloated in the tummy!”, “You’re going to wear that?” – It’s so hysterical.
Thank you. I’m glad that you were able to relate to it. I’m glad that you really enjoyed it. It’s a hard sell. It’s one of those things where people want to know it, understand it and walk out with one sort of emotion. But with this, to me, you want to talk about a melting pot! I think it’s a melting pot of emotions as well. So many little things that go on and the one thing that is really important to me is that everybody understand that it’s really a slice of life film; it’s not meant to be this really huge [popcorn flick]. It’s not Fast & Furious. It’s more of a Moonstruck. . . It’s one of my favorite films. And My Big Fat Greek Wedding. [SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES] is the kind of film that should be quite relateable as far as family dynamics go.
Very much so. The minute I see Alexis and her mother going at it with comments and snarkiness and the fact that mom never has a good thing to say to her daughter and something is always wrong with the daughter and I’m thinking, “Oh yea. Been there.” I know that person.
[laughing] What I find quite interesting is that I was very very very cautious about [this] – I didn’t want the mother character to come across as super cruel and mean because the truth is, having had the similarities to my own mother, she’s the same exact way but she truly truly truly believes that what she says and does is for the benefit of her children. She doesn’t see her voice as being cruel and mean. It simply is, this is the way it has to be or should be, and that’s why chooses world like “swollen” and not “fat”. To her, that’s the kind way of saying the wrong thing. I really wanted to make sure that I stayed away from making her sort of like the mother in Real Women Have Curves. The mother in that was really cruel. I didn’t want that. That’s why there’s the one mention of “I bought her Real Women Have Curves but she hasn’t watched it.” That was the parallel right there. And what I find is that after the film everyone comes up to me and tells me how much they love Priscilla’s character. I think it’s so interesting.
I think everybody, be it females, males, we all see part of her in our own mothers. To some extent, the characteristics and comments are there. The facial expression and the tonal elocution that Priscilla delivers the dialogue in – we’ve all heard that tone.
Right. Absolutely. [laughing] One of the things that I was directing Priscilla on – she was actually struggling a little bit about not coming across too harsh as well. So we just sat down and I said to her, “When you say the words and when you speak them, you have to be very clear that it’s as if you’re saying ‘You look beautiful today.’ That’s how she sees it. There’s nothing harsh or cruel.” Plus, when we were shooting her in that kitchen scene, I wanted to portray a woman who really was in her own image; she sits a certain way, she’s very clean and perfect even in her pajamas. Everything was very pristine. There’s an agenda to everything. I hope that came across.
I think it definitely did. Another telling and defining scene that epitomizes it and is the cherry on top is with Priscilla’s character is that after mom has finally told Alexis that she looks beautiful, she goes and tries to fuss with her hair, Alexis bats her off, and they’re in the bathroom at the mirror and then the mother turns to the mirror and with her pinky adjusts a side of the lipstick and pulls her jacket down as if to say, “Okay. Now I’m ready to go out.” That sent me into peels of laughter.
Exactly! [laughing] You know what’s so funny? I wanted that scene so badly and my editor and I went back and forth and he was like, “No, because it doesn’t complete the character. You always want to have the character end on a good note.” And I’m like, “But this is her. She’s not changing. Not every story has to end with this big resolve at the end. It’s life. People don’t change.”
That’s just it. You end this film so hopefully. There’s great hope. And I have to tell you – your cinematographer, Raoul Germain, is brilliant. You’ve got some truly beautiful visuals going on.
Thank you. I would love to tell him that. Thank you.
That final shot though, with Dominic [Steven Strait] and Alexis and the sunset and they’re sitting on the benches – that’s your money shot of the film. That shot you should screen capture; that should be the still on the one-sheet poster.
Oh God. Thank you, debbie. I wish could put you on speaker phone so everyone in the room could hear. I’ll make a note to self because the poster we have right now is “no bueno” but we had to put something really fast together so it’s an animated shot of the Brooklyn Bridge with pictures of the main characters. We had to really rush the timing to get it ready for the festival.
I would take that final shot and use as your one-sheet shot. It’s emotion personified, it’s beautiful and there’s great beauty to the emotions that your telling in the way it’s unfolding throughout the film.
Thank you. You’re gonna make me cry.
Don’t cry. You’ll ruin your own mascara. Then somebody’s mother is gonna have to come and spit on a hankie and wipe your cheek and that will be quite embarrassing at the premiere. You’ve got to “maintain” there tonight!
Oh no! [laughing] You’re right.
Were you always intending to direct FISHES or when did you decide, “I’m the one who knows this material. I’m gonna do it.”?
I always wanted to but I just wasn’t sure if I was the right person to do it. The casting director and I had a long conversation about it and he was like, “No one else should do it but you.” Of course there was a part of me that was, “Oh, I don’t know.” But then I thought, “Why not!” I’ve been acting for years. I work well with other actors. I know what kind of direction I like as an actress. This is my story. Who better to tell it than me.
Once you decided that you were going to direct, did the visuals start popping up in your head, did you storyboard, did you just shot list?
Truth be told, when I wrote it all the visuals were there. Usually before I could even get a scene on paper, I have to sort of map it through my brain and then once I have a feeling of the tempo and the feel of the room, I already have an image in my head and then I start writing the dialogue. When we came to pre-production we did storyboard.
When you start having all those visuals in your head, right there, that tells you that you are the one to direct it.
[laughing] That’s true! That’s true! Part of the visuals were me directing. But you never know because it’s a really scary thing because you’re not only putting your story, your writing, but now your directing all on the line. There’s so much about yourself personally that you’re putting out there. Having left the world of acting and stand-up comedy, I felt a lot more comfortable being behind the camera and I thought that maybe putting myself in the director’s chair would actually now be putting myself in the spotlight which I was a little afraid of initially.
You have nothing to fear about putting yourself in the spotlight. Your stand-up comedy background bodes very well for you because you have that sense of timing; be it the quieter, gentler moments of drama or the comedic laugh-out-loud funny. The whole hiring of Alexis to do the Bat Mitzvah scene was just hysterical. And then you bring in a little Asian girl and just watching, we know this is gonna go over the top with humor, this is beyond funny. Then you add in super hero comic book theme for the Bat Mitzvah – you’re bringing in so many different touchstones in the pop culture zeitgeist.
Yea, yea. I hope people appreciate it the way you do. I think the same thing and I feel the same way. Obviously having written it and knowing these characters in and out, I really was hoping that people would have the same reaction and be as touched, finding it as funny and exciting as you are.
What did you find to be the most challenging aspect from a directorial standpoint of bringing SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES to life?
Putting together a shot list was hard. That was one thing I was not prepared for because I didn’t even know about it. That was something that was difficult but I had such a great team between my DP, Raoul Germain, who you mentioned, and my First AD, Inna Braude, they both had so much experience that when the three of us sat down, they both walked me through it. I think that was really the hardest thing. But honestly, and I hope that if I have another experience I can go through the same thing, I had such an amazing team behind me. We shot in 19 days. It was fast. It was furious. We only went overtime, I believe, one or two days, which is unheard of. Everybody was so on point. So, from a director’s standpoint, I had everybody holding my hand, practically. I really felt the support and love. And as far as the actors go, everybody was willing to be a team player. I had a couple of the actors tell me – I guess having been an actress at one point I just knew exactly what I wanted, so when I worded it, it wasn’t really complex, it didn’t come from a director’s book, it was just coming from the guy, coming from the heart and knowing what exactly I wanted them to know about their characters.
Like with Ana [Ortiz], it was very much, yes you might be living at home and maybe you’re in your early 30’s and you have a real estate but you’re truly truly in an arrested development stage; you’re a child at heart, so just play. Whenever you do anything, everything is coming from a playful point. She said to me, “You’re so good. I completely understand what you’re saying.” Same thing with Priscilla [Lopez] when she struggling with not trying to be too cruel as the mother. I said to her, “Everytime you say a line, just think of it as really coming from the most genuine, loving maternal place that you can find.” I think overall, as a first time director, I hope I have an opportunity to direct again, but I think I’ve learned a lot along the way. It’s been a long process but tonight’s gonna hopefully be a good pay-off, just at least to show the film to a vast audience and Gina [Rogriguez] has so many of her friends and family coming. It’s gonna be a different side of her though after coming off Filly Brown where she plays a real hard-ass, this is the absolute opposite character.
That’s one of the beautiful things about the casting that you have. We do get to see this other side of Gina and also, another interesting cast move is Steven Strait as Dominic. I just adored him in City Island with Andy Garcia.
That’s where I fell in love with him! I didn’t even know about him prior to. And I saw that movie and I literally bought it the next day and honestly, and I’ve said this people before, it was my template. It was literally the template for me as far as structure and storyline and family dynamic and I wanted that feel. To me, that movie is exactly how I wanted FISHES to be anyway. I wanted the same feel, for the audience to feel like they’re looking into as the audience is looking into the private life of one day or one week of somebody else’s world.
You definitely have that. You have captured that.
When I met with [Steven Strait] prior to, we had a meeting before he decided to jump on board, when we got down to talk, the one thing that he loved and that he connected to is that he’s a New York boy, he understood the feeling of the family dynamic and just sort of being that guy who’s trying and working really hard to get somewhere and sort of touched that market and come back down again. There’s such a sense – and I hate using this word – but he’s so grounded and so real an individual and I think he brought that to the role.
“Grounded” is the applicable word in a film like this when describing certain characters. This is not an over-the-top action film, this is a film about the human dynamic. There has to be grounding if you’re going to get realism and you’ve got to have actors that can be grounded for that purpose.
Yes! And that was so important. When we were casting, there were so many people on the lead side, most of them were offered. Misha Seo who plays Shari Wasserstein, the Asian girl, it was really really important. I had so many girls that came in that had done Disney shows and had this great resume but to me, I’m all about chemistry and that sense of realism no matter what the movie is. Of course if it’s Fast & Furious, we get it. [laughing] But to me it was really important that we understood and that we also believe the relationship between all the characters.
The problem when you get in so many of the Disney girls that have been doing the Disney family Channel programs, they have this polish to them that is not real.
Yes! Yes! Exactly. And that to me doesn’t work. It depends on the genre and what you’re looking for but not for a film like this. We had a bunch of young girls come in who were absolutely adorable but what caught my attention with Misha was that when she says the one line, “I just don’t want to have to worry about what my mom is worried about” the night of her party, the way she said it, literally the whole room was crying. It was so touching. You just felt so sorry for her and as soon as she did that, I was sold. This girl gets it. The harshness of the mother; and that’s the parallel to Alexis and Shari. I wanted to draw a parallel to the two girls and in some sense, I see it as Alexis coming to save Shari. She saves her from what she’s experienced with her mother and that’s why she goes in to try and plead her case.
Did you have any rehearsal time with the actors?
We did. Not a lot though. I seem to remember doing two days of rehearsal. I spent more time with Priscilla and Gina than anyone else. To me, that was obviously the pivotal relationship and obviously the central theme to the movie. Sitting down with them and getting them to understand each other and know each other, and also the timing of their conversation. The dialogue between them was really important. It’s got to be so familiar. This is any day, every day, been there, done that. We went over the very very first scene when [Alexis] comes home, we actually rehearsed that more than anything. That was when the audience was going to see the two of them for the first time and understand why we open with that dream sequence and why Alexis’ subconscious is going in that direction.
The opening dream sequence is great. The game show host just smacked of Peter Marshall!
That was exactly what I wanted. I have this fascination with game shows by the way, so that’s where that came from.
Now that you’ve stepped behind the camera, what is the greatest gift that filmmaking itself as a writer/director gives to you?
It allows me a voice. When I was acting and doing stand-up comedy, although I had that voice, it was stifling. I was really guarded. A lot of people would tell me what I could talk about, what I couldn’t talk about. I was restricted. I feel like now I have an opportunity to not be restricted and to really just use my voice and my point of view to tell stories that I want to tell that I think people can absolutely relate to, that have a lot of humor and heart, and that’s really important to me. I’m hoping that this is a vehicle.
You definitely have a voice that I want to hear more of.
Oh, thank you so much. Just so you know, I have another script called Good Egg and it’s an action-comedy, totally on a different level and I’m hoping that will be my next project.
#
10/11/2013
