Criminal Emily brings Aubrey Plaza to the big screen like you’ve never seen her before. As Emily, a back-to-the-corner, edgy woman, she brings raw intensity to the role. Debt-ridden and unable to find long-term employment due to a minor criminal record from her past, Emily is an extremely vulnerable character, who finds the power to take control of her life in dangerous and unconventional ways. I had the privilege of speaking with Criminal Emily screenwriter and director, John Patton Ford, on his spectacular feature debut.
The road to do Criminal Emily was long and rocky for John; a twelve-year process that began once he graduated from film school. He worked as a screenwriter, but his dream was always to direct, so he wrote Criminal Emily with himself in mind. John met Aubrey Plaza in the summer of 2018 and he immediately knew she was a perfect fit for the role of Emily.
“It seemed so left field. And then I met her. And I met someone who was so different from what I expected. I met someone so complicated. And so full…all these angles and all these things that are going on in her life, and she is so alive and so present…”
The fact that she was known primarily for her comedy was something that intrigued John. His ability to shed his comedic persona to fully embody Emily’s dark desperation was something that surprised him, and he hoped it might surprise audiences as well. As a character, John based much of Emily on his own life struggles and experiences. Leaving graduate school, he found himself in debt and dealing with feelings of fear, anxiety and anger.
“I know exactly how this person feels. Who has the impression that it is impossible to succeed by respecting the rules. You know? Like me, I understand this deeply.
Emily is an endearing character. She struggles with student loans, struggles to find work, and feels judged and rejected at every turn. These are feelings and difficulties that we have all encountered to some degree throughout our lives. However, keeping Emily relatable is no simple task. As she drifts further down the rabbit hole of organized crime, it could be easy for audiences to become detached and lose the connection. The key, according to John, is to form that strong bond between Emily and the audience early on; to let the audience see Emily for who she is and why she makes the decisions she makes. This is something the film does very well.
The decision to have a female lead came largely from John’s observations of the film’s typical female characters; the representations which, according to him, are generally reductive in nature.
“It’s so often that we have a female character that’s defined by some kind of past trauma that they’ve been through. Like ‘they lost a child’ or something. We even have a hard time allowing a woman to be a woman in a movie unless she’s recovering from trauma I don’t know what that is.
Criminal Emily is a taut, edge-of-your-seat crime thriller with stellar performances from Aubrey Plaza and Theo Rossi. It breathes fresh air into the genre by creating characters that feel authentic. John Patton Ford proved with his directorial debut that he has the vision and talent to be one of Hollywood’s finest new directors, and I can’t wait to see what’s next in his career.
Criminal Emily released in theaters on August 12.
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