Toby Wallace (Corey) delivers a stunning performance within Boys in the Trees, authentically conveying the internal conflict so many teenagers experience between standing as an individual and the pervasive desire to be accepted by peers. Mitzi Ruhlmann (Romany) adds a female perspective to the male dominated film. Ruhlmann exquisitely acts as a harmonious counterpart to the themes of isolation and ambition. We talked to these lead actors, about their on-set experiences and connection with their characters.
Interview by Arran and Meg
Meg: What films made an impact on you in your youth?
Toby: Probably something like… oh fuck, that’s a good question.
Mitzi: I loved the Rabbit Proof Fence. That made a huge impact on me. It’s very… influential about how I approached the rest of my life.
Arran: How so?
Mitzi: It just informed me about our history and meant I didn’t take anything for granted, really. And I realised how lucky I was to be in the position I was.
Toby: I watched a film called Paris, Texas which is like an old film. I think it was made in the ‘80s or something. It’s a Wim Wender’s movie, so it’s a two-and-a-half-hour movie. It’s really, really, really long and so I started watching it and was about to go out somewhere but got so into it that I had to cancel all of my plans and like, bawled my eyes out for about an hour.
All laugh.
Arron: How old were you?
Toby: I would have been 16 at the time. It just affected me so much. Like, there’s this scene at the end when the character meets up with the woman that’s been looking for him for the entire film and they have this conversation where you figure out what’s happened. And it’s just the most heartbreaking thing. I was just sitting there and it was like this moment where you watch really, really good cinema and you realise- you kind of get angry that all movies aren’t like that. Like, why can’t all movies move me as much as that one did? It drives your passion for working on films and sets.
Arran: Yeah, definitely.
Toby: Have you seen it? Definitely give it a watch. It’s one of my favourite movies by far.
Arran: Yeah, for sure. When you’re on set, is it difficult to gage what the finished product is going to look like, in terms of the film? Can you kind of tell how it’s going to turn out?Toby: I feel like you’ve got a certain idea just from reading the script. Especially with Nicholas [Verso, the director], his writing is so specific so it draws such a huge picture just when you’re reading his writing. So you already have a fairly good idea of what it’s gonna turn out like.
When we were making it, it was so trippy, because we were doing all these night shoots. So we’d get up at 6 or 7 in the evening, because we’ve been sleeping all day and go to bed at 6 or 7 in the morning. And things just kept on getting more and more trippy, like the night shoots would go on longer and the scenes get more and more bizarre, like we do the tree scene and where we’re climbing up the tree, and toys are everywhere and I feel like you go nuts a little bit.
Meg: So have you guys seen the finished film?
Mitzi and Toby: Yep.
Meg: Is that what you envisioned? Did it come together how you expected or was it surprising how they mixed everything and how it changed what was actually in it?Toby: Yeah, definitely. It 100% changes. I think it changed heaps for me; almost The rhythm of it. Like a ton of scenes got cut in the actual film. It never is like what you think it will turn out and there’s the other aspect of watching your performance and that’s always a hard thing.
Mitzi: Yeah. It’s hard to watch a film that you made than you would any other film. I’ve seen it maybe four times now. The last time was the first time I felt like I could distance myself a little bit from it.
Toby: I think for like, Leonardo Di Caprio recently, said he has a five-year-rule for watching his own films.
Mitzi: Wow, cool.
Toby: He then watches it and that’s the amount of time where he can actually watch any of his films.
Arran: Right, like to actually enjoy it?
Toby: Yeah, to actually enjoy it and to distance himself a little bit from it.
Mitzi: ‘Cause the entire time you’re watching it as well you’re thinking: “oh this happened on that day” and “this is what we did that night” and it’s close, like you need to get taken out of your experience.
Arran: So there’s way more background then…?
Mitzi and Toby: Yeah, exactly.
Arran: That’s cool. Yeah have you had other interviews about the film?
Toby: Yeah, yeah. We’ve just done a big old bloody press week.
Mitzi: Yeah, it’s been full on.
Arran: So what’s a question you wish people would ask?
Mitzi: Oh, cool! That’s a really good point.
Toby: How I am? How I’m doing?
All laugh
Arran: Okay, so how are you?
Toby: That’s a good question. That! That! I wish people would ask me that question more.
MR laughs
Arran: Yeah, so what’s the answer?
Toby: I’ve no idea. Mitzi, what’s your answer?
Mitzi: Ummm, yeah. “How are you?” is a good one.
All laugh
Arran: Why don’t people usually ask it?
Mitzi: I guess they’re asking so many questions like, “how did you relate to character?” and…
Toby: They’re all very, kind of like, film-y/ character-y questions.
Mitzi: Yeah.
Toby: You kind of, you end up with the same answer over and over again. Like if someone asks you a kind of fresh or new question it’s like “oh yeah I can kind of have fun with this again”, you know? Like after a while you have to keep it lively just to keep yourself entertained.
Arran: So what’s something you’d do to keep it lively, then?
Toby: Just some banter.
All laugh
Arran: So do you think there’d be any other job a part from acting that you guys would like to do in the film industry?
Toby: I literally just want to do directing. Like, my entire life I’ve just wanted to be a director.
Mitzi: Yeah, I think about that often. Perhaps I’d write and direct. Even work in the art department and work behind the scenes.
Meg: Through working on set do you find out more about writing and directing and other behind the scenes roles?
Mitzi: Yeah! I guess you learn so much through observing everyone else. Everyone’s so good at their job. I don’t think you could get a better education than being on set and being able to see how everything works.
Toby: First film I did [Dark Frontier, 2009] was when I was 13 years old and the first time I came on there I was like “Man, I’ve always wanted to direct a film.” And the director was super welcoming and accommodating of it and he’d always have me by his side watching it and checking out the scenes and checking out all this information. It was kind of my first experience with it.
Meg: Did you guys play any games like Cocytus, from the film?
Toby: Oh, yeah!
Mitzi: That’s a good question. I haven’t been asked that.
Toby: That was a good question, actually. Yeah we definitely did. Me and Gulliver [McGrath] who played Jonah went around. Nick [Verso] went around in Melbourne and gave us a map and we would shoot it around the place and give us different themes. And actually him and I just went through all the locations and I just got in my car and drove around to all these locations where there were a lot of the scenes and a lot of the games there were in there as well. So it’s kind of an experience to have for the film.
Arran: Yeah, because there wasn’t really any childhood game in my life that I can recall like Cocytus.
Toby: Yeah.
Arran to Mitzi: And so did you play the games as well?
Mitzi: No. I didn’t play the games.
All laugh
Mitzi: But yeah, I didn’t play games like that when I was a kid either. I think that’s kind of really cool and it’s pretty reflective of the ‘90s. Like that happened more then, when they grew up when [the characters] did.
Meg: We really loved the music in the film. We thought that was really amazing and we were just wondering, did you guys have a favourite track or what sort of music do you like?
Toby: I like the scene where Romany takes off all the makeup and- is it Garage? Yeah, Garage is playing.
Mitzi: Garbage.
Toby: Yeah, yeah. Garbage is playing.
Both laugh
Toby: “Garage. Garage!”
Mitzi laughs
Mitzi: Just the way you were like: “Garage?”
Mitzi and Toby laugh
Mitzi: We’re so delirious. I’m sorry.
Arran: No, it’s fine.
Toby laughs
Toby: Yeah, that one. Garbage.
Mitzi: I loved the Yoko Ono song at the end when Toby’s crying on the bench [as Corey in the film]. And just the lyrics were really cool talking about being cool and girls and I don’t know… It’s like a really sexy song but not a sexy situation.
Toby looks mock-offended
Mitzi: I’m not saying you’re not sexy but your friend just died.
Arran: Do you have experiences with bullying? Because it’s a really big theme within the movie.
Toby: Yeah, I think I’ve had my experiences of bullying and I suppose being involved with a bit of bullying as well. I think everyone has had their experiences with it to a certain extent. They’ve had their fair share of it. I grew up in a school out in the suburbs. It was a bit hectic out there and yeah, I think there’s always a hierarchy. And everyone’s real young and like, what’s the line from the film that he says?
Mitzi: “It’s a jungle out there”?
Toby: Yeah.
Mitzi: I didn’t really have experiences with bullying. I think Newtown [Performing Arts]’s so accepting and creative and loving. I have a lot of friends from private and all-girls-schools that talk about it and they say that the structure is very clear cut but that wasn’t my experience at all. I just feel like everyone was my friend. Like, we all went to the same parties and stuff like that.
Arran: That’s really cool. I think that our all-girls-school that we go to isn’t really that structure. Meg: But there are always those people that don’t fit in. Arran: And I think that that was Jonah’s experience that he didn’t fit in quite right with the rest.
Mitzi: Yeah. There was that in Newtown as well. I think that that’s completely inevitable and it’s not anyone’s fault and it’s just kind of how it happens sometimes.
Arran: Yeah because I think that sometimes there aren’t necessarily people who are bullied but people who get left out.
Mitzi and Toby: Yeah
Meg: And often they sort of have that one friend that they’re really close to and with the group situations they don’t work so well.
Mitzi: And then if something like that happens, like with Corey and Jonah, with Corey ending up being that one friend that could be so hurtful… but again, it’s kind of inevitable.
All laugh ‘cause it’s getting real deep
Meg: We’re wondering what did you bring of yourself to your characters?
Toby: I think when you’re acting your own experiences is all you have to work with. So I think that’s pretty much what informs your relationship with the character. I definitely felt that [the film] is everything a guy goes through when he goes to high school. It’s definitely that pinnacle of time when you’re stepping into manhood and you have to decide what you want to be now. And sort of to the point where you grow up as a kid and you go to high school and you’ve got no responsibilities. There might be like an illusion.
Arran: Well, it’s a safety net.
Toby: Totally. It’s a total safety net. You’ve got no worries when you’re not a grown up. Men reach that age of 18/19 where decide now what they want to do with their lives and where they follow what they want to do. It’s that period in time where your parents become a bit more just like people like you.
Meg: Well, they’re not so much like your heroes anymore.
Toby: Totally. They’re kind of just like people. So it’s a really crazy time. I can totally relate to that in terms of what Corey is going through with his dad and whether he wants to leave his friends and go on to form this new life for himself or save his relationships.
Meg: Speaking of that, I thought it was interesting with the adults that the kids didn’t want to become like that, like they had to follow their own dreams and ambitions.
Toby: Yeah. And I find that sort of thing in loads of kids where they see their parents as this sort of thing they don’t want to become a part of and a lot of them actually do become like their parents.
Mitzi: Yeah.
Arran: Yeah, I guess it’s like how your character wanted to go overseas to escape.
Toby: Totally. It’s a form of escapism.
Arran: It’s kind of like “I won’t become like them if I move away.”
Toby: Yeah.
All laugh
Mitzi: Yeah, I think you guys as girls will relate because with a lot of the boys around you, you’re kind of waiting, even physically. I remember in year 10 complaining about all the guys not being the same height as me. And also emotionally you’re waiting for them to mature. Yeah, I think that’s the main thing I could relate to, with it being so frustrating. I really do love the guys but they’re so… young.
Meg: What was your favourite thing to film? What was the thing you enjoyed the most to film and to watch?
Toby: It’s the in-between bits that are the most enjoyable. Like when you get to talk to the actors and the director.
Mitzi: Yeah.
Toby: It’s the bits where you get to play around and stuff. You go onto a film set and you just play a game. You get to go back to being a five-year-old and you’re playing with toys or something. That’s what it feels like to me where you get there and you’re sort of playing.
Meg: Do you ever argue about what your characters should do or how you should act?Toby: Totally. It’s never like an argument, though.
All laugh
Toby: I think you just want to make it as conversational as possible and just make it about always feeling free to give out your ideas. Nick [Verso] is really good at making an environment where you feel safe to throw ideas out where you might think a line is wrong or put something in there.
Arran: So it’s like a creative collaboration?
Toby: Yeah
Mitzi:Yep. It’s very collaborative.
Arran: Thank you for your time.
Mitzi and Toby: Yeah, thank you.
Boys in the Trees opens nationally on the 20th October 2016
