Fellow Creatures is a thrilling contemplation of the worth of a single life. The film tells the story of Tom (Jonathan Kerrigan), a struggling and single father, who opens his door to a Stranger (Shelley Conn) with an irresistible proposition. Although their encounter is brief and playful, the exchange ultimately brings Tom to the edge of humanity with chilling consequences.
Written by Kerrigan and directed by Jamie Glover and Jason Merrells—together, the three form The Shotley Collective—Fellow Creatures is a poignant portrait of the tensions that arise when self gain comes at the expense of the other. Kerrigan and Conn are perfection onscreen. As the Stranger, Conn is equal parts charming and sympathetic, yet cool and unrelenting. Meanwhile, Kerrigan is captivating and full-bodied, like a pendulum swinging between the desperation of a father in need of help and the arrogance of a man on a winning streak. Even if you don’t support the choices he makes throughout the film, you at least understand him.
Perhaps that’s what makes the film powerful and resonant. It neither condemns nor praises self-interest, but rather upholds the notion that all choices, good and bad, have consequences. In our email interview below, the creative team discusses the “nuanced territory” of Fellow Creatures, filming during the pandemic, and the “cinematic blessing” of being able to share their work with audiences at the HollyShorts Film Festival.
Before we get into Fellow Creatures, I wonder if you might tell us about your individual / collective filmmaking journeys? Where did it all start for you?
JASON: For me it started with an addiction to cinema, weekend movies, daytime black & whites, late-night Art-house films watched through the bannisters. The 70’s TV schedules in the UK were pretty empty, and films were used as filler, which was a wonderful cultural education – Frank Capra, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Claude Chabrol, Fassbender, Spielberg, Herzog, Kubrick, Lumet, Tarkovsky all of them were seeping in from an early age. At Art school, I began making super 8”s, a habit I still have. But it took a long time, working as an actor before I went further. My first film was “Le Petit Mort”, a kind of ghost story, which starred Jamie and was scored by Jonathan. This led to directing a drama series for the BBC and a music video.
JAMIE: I have of course worked on film as an actor multiple times, but despite being a cinephile, I’d never directed on screen before; my background as a director has been in theatre (in fact I have directed Jason twice before on stage). So, when Fellow Creatures emerged, I didn’t really know where I would ‘fit’, other than very happily in a producing role. Jonathan had written this beautiful script and although he didn’t suggest it, it was clear to Jason and me very early on that he should star in it too. Jason was naturally very keen to direct it, having quite a lot of experience. But then he generously suggested that we co-direct the film, insisting my experience in theatre would be enough to get over any technical ignorance. So, I was very happy to dive in, and with Jason and Richard Mott, our brilliant DOP, I felt immediately at home. There are obviously a lot of transferable skills between theatre and film, and I found it far less scary than I expected. If you’re surrounded by passionate experts as we were, then they are always very happy to supply a technical solution to a creative problem. Our film is very actor led, which was of course an area in which I felt very at home, so I suppose on that score it was a useful script to be a freshman film director on. Any shyness I may have had is gone, and it is definitely an experience I want to repeat.
JONATHAN: As an actor it’s hard not to have a passion for film and its process. It has always fascinated me that the work we do in front of the camera is just a cog the creative machine. How a performance can be elevated (and sometimes the opposite) by the rest of the filmmaking journey. How bad days on set, for an actor, can be edited into something palatable. There’s a magic that happens that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. I enjoy taking on other roles other than acting. As for the soundtrack, I’ve composed a few times now for TV, film and other shorts films including Jason’s first short film Le Petit Mort. I love how music applies yet another filter to the filmmaking journey. Jamie and Jason are very much into their music as well and have ‘good ears’. We had a shared playlist throughout the process which we kept adding to for particular moments or the general vibe of the film. I think all of those influences played their part in finding the ‘sound’ of the soundtrack. It didn’t come as easily as writing the script but by that time we were well into postproduction and the stakes felt much higher, I didn’t want to ruin the work we were so happy with up until that point. In the end I’m very happy with how each part of the process has turned out, a testament to our bond as The Shotley Collective.
How did Fellow Creatures initially come your way? And what about it jumped out at you and sparked a desire to bring it to life onscreen?
JONATHAN: When I wrote Fellow Creatures the initial script took me just a morning, fortunately their voices came quite clearly defined, I just had to listen and take note. We went through several drafts after that of course but it came together quite fluidly, Jason and Jamie expertly at the helm guiding it into more nuanced territory. I’ve never been directed on something I’ve written before and it was fascinating to hear the layers of subtext Jason and Jamie (and Shelley) gave to parts I hadn’t meant intentionally, teasing out a new dynamic here, a question mark there. We all worked very well together. Shelley and I have the benefit of living together as a couple for 20 years so we have a shorthand that speeds up the process.
JASON: We all work as actors but had talked for years since “Le Petit Mort’ about collaborating again but also formalising that into a production company, or a collective with a new determination to make more stuff ourselves. We had a meeting to pitch potential scripts to each other and that’s when Fellow Creatures came into being. Of all the ideas we had, it seemed the best & most manageable as a project to kick things off.
There’s a poignancy to the film’s exploration of the self versus the other, and the tensions that arise between both. It’s sort of emblematic of the larger socio-political conversations going on in the world regarding the pandemic, the vaccines, masking, etc. I’m curious to know if the pandemic informed your approach to directing the film, or if it’s evolved your relationship to the film now that it’s been completed?
JASON: Jonathan had always been interested in the age-old philosophical conundrum posed by Chateubriand’s 1802 quote which opens the film. In short, what is a single life worth? The notion has spawned many interpretations, but in ours Jonathan was interested in how distilled and simple he could make it while still being effective as a story. One location – two characters – was both an aesthetic & a practical decision; how far could we pare things back and still show what we could do?
COVID was huge. For everyone, everywhere of course, but for the Film industry in the UK, it had been a very sudden total shut down. All 3 of us were involved in other
projects as actors, that had suddenly stopped. As we all came blinking tentatively out of that first complete lockdown in the spring of 2020, we knew that this was the window of opportunity we had to make this Film. The pandemic didn’t play a part in the writing but by the time we came to shoot it was the very strong background noise of every activity you could possibly do.
We were among the first productions to try and go back to work in this new environment. As such we had to invent the rules a little, ourselves. We made sure one of the crew was Covid safety officer, we enforced mask wearing, social distancing where possible and regular temperature checks. We were filming in an empty school in London during the 3 hottest days of that summer, so these covid protocols were not easy to stick to! But everyone was SO glad to be back working on a set again after such an uncertain time that the spirit among the crew during the shoot was very positive.
As we sat in the edit (In 4 different rooms via zoom!) it became clear that another thing was happening. The story and mood of the film itself seemed to be almost a strange reflection of the isolating year of lockdown we had all been through. It seemed to speak toward that feeling of re engaging with what humanity is, or should be. I think/hope a good film will always reflect something of its time.
Shelley and Jonathan turn in such enigmatic and captivating performances. The Stranger, in particular, is such a complex character. What was it like to work with the two of them? How did you work together to find the core of these characters and to ultimately bring them out?
JAMIE: The performances are key to our story. So, we are blessed in having two such fine actors as Shelley and Jonathan. We have all known each other for many years and worked together in various roles and capacities in that time. But it was a real joy to watch them work close-up in a director/ actor capacity. Jason and I would often turn to each other, on the floor and in the edit and say, ‘My God, they’re good!’ Not that we were surprised, but I guess when you know someone very well you can become a little… comfortable with how you view them. But they were so alive, so delicate and nuanced, so present….
They are of course real-life partners, so some of the intimacy they have with each other came for free. BUT…. I have certainly seen the opposite happen with couples. The intimacy creates a flatness, a lack of spark. But with Jonathan and Shelley, they just totally bounced off each other. And they clearly respect each other’s talent so much that they delighted in each other’s screen company and spontaneously sparked off each other.
All Jason and I had to do was nudge them gently, to steer them. They took direction brilliantly. You’d give a note and you’d watch it bloom on screen like ink dropped on blotting paper. And that’s what you strive for as a director…
JASON: Not much to add, except I completely agree. I find new things to enjoy in the performances every time I watch the film. It was not easy for them either, the middle of a heatwave and our schedule was very tight so there was pressure too, but they went beyond our hopes. In a sense, we are ALL ‘Tom’. His dilemma is ours, that’s the point. But it’s not easy to play an ‘Everyman’. Of course, the answer, which Jonathan does brilliantly, is to play just ONE man, with all his troubles and idiosyncrasies realised, facing a very stark choice.
But who is the Stranger? What and who does she represent? It became clear very quickly that this was something we didn’t want to define too strongly. For me, David Lynch was a big influence, and it was a strength in the script that this was not ever ‘explained’. Kafka, was a touchstone that was also useful on set. The enormous, often brutal machinations of unseen and often ridiculous governing/controlling structures seen in bureaucratic and sometimes comic detail.
Shelley was brilliant in steering her character away from a kind of “corporate animal” because the dilemma is more than just a critique of business or the “world of money”. She was also fantastic in showing the equality of these two characters, their growing delight in each other, but without ever resorting to ‘seduction’ which would imply a kind of manipulation that isn’t really what’s happening. If anything, you sense she wants to impart to him the idea that the real prize would be NOT continuing to play the game.
HollyShorts is an incredible platform for short films and filmmakers. What does it mean for you to have Fellow Creatures screen here? How will you be celebrating?
JASON: We are absolutely thrilled to have our film showing at this iconic festival! We are quite frustrated that work, family duties (& visas!), make it impossible for any of us to attend the festival in person, but we are so honoured to have our film validated in one of the holy spots of filmmaking! It feels like a cinematic blessing. We are determined to be up in the middle of the night (UK time) to feel as close to our ‘premier’ as we can, answer any questions and raise a glass to all the filmmakers making this year so special.
What’s next for you? And where can viewers follow you and your work?
JASON: As actors we all have projects coming out and work coming up:
SHELLEY is filming Bridgerton series 2 for Netflix,
JONATHAN has been working on Irvine Welch’s Crime for Britbox,
JAMIE has been filming on The Crown, and he and I both star in Agatha Raisin, the 4th season of which airs in December.
JAMIE is also directing Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming In theatre next year.
As the SHOTLEY COLLECTIVE, JONATHAN is working on a TV pilot, and I am developing a feature film screenplay.
