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So, we had a very political idea before it was even conceptualized.
People want to engage in why its important to show sex work in this light.
Its a power play, but for whose benefit?
Her grasp on control then fully slips away when Lola Two brandishes a gun.
When the internet makes us feel bad about ourselves, we dont typically log off.
I wasnt necessarily competitive with them, she says.
But at the same time there was this weird allure.
Its this addictive thing where I would want her to respond to me.
I wanted to make her react.
I couldnt help myself, and often I would find myself spending more money than I wanted to.
The existence of Lola Two is extremely upsetting for Alice in two ways.
Under the handle MrTeapot, Alice engages with Lola Two out of curiosity and desperation.
Are you here for the spectacle of it?
To make her interactions as real as possible, Goldhaber and the team made them actually real.
We basically had to invent tech to do this teeny little indie feature, says the director.
We knew that we wanted to have monitors live as much as possible.
Oh, its a gift!
to have those moments of fun caming.
She also scripted hundreds of pages of chat-room dialogue that would roll during the cam shows.
If you actually pause the movie, all the characters are consistent.
There are conversations and in-jokes that are happening.
During filming, producer Isabelle Link-Levy was administering the pre-written chat logs for Brewer to engage with.
Like they say, write what you know.
Then in this Jazzercise scene shes lost complete autonomy over her body.
Its a fake suicide that, because of the lack of control, is this escalation.
Right before that scene we talked about it.
As I tip her, shes flogging herself, and Im the one who told her to do that.
She listened to me, and thats my tiny bit of control after so much control has been lost.
Whats driving Alice through the whole scene is,Im just going to fucking get this girl.
And then obviously it takes a turn that is so, so out of her control.
That way, whenever possible, it wasnt just empty monitors and improvising.
The audience watches Brewer as Alice break down in whimpering terror because thats exactly what happened.
I ran outside, she says.
That was my genuine reaction.
I was just fucking scared.
Ive seen it like five times, and I cry every time.
Youre watching yourself … kill yourself.
Its so psychologically confusing and fucked up and scary.
My mom was like, That was horrible.
I didnt like that at all.
Both the take that sent Brewer running and the one that immediately followed appear in the final cut.
I hate you, Brewer says to her director.
Danny, move the camera up!
the screenwriter insisted in Brewers retelling.
Stop framing her tits!
We did overanalyze every single thing in this film, says Mazzei.
When is the sex gratuitous?
How do we make this not male-gazey?
Is this scene problematic?
Where are the stakes of the scene deriving their tension from?
Can we make them better?
