ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Parallel director Kourosh Ahari about the sci-fi thriller. The filmmaker discussed working with the Hodge brothers and the nature of the multiversal film’s script. Parallel is now playing in theaters and will release through video-on-demand platforms on February 27.
“Parallel follows the story of Vanessa (Danielle Deadwyler) who takes refuge at her family’s lake house to grieve after suffering the loss of her child,” reads the film‘s official synopsis. “Accompanied by her husband, Alex (Aldis Hodge), and his brother, Martel (Edwin Hodge), Vanessa attempts to regain her sense of normalcy after the tragedy. But soon after their arrival, she experiences an aberration when she is attacked by a parallel universe’s version of herself. Faced with the reality that multiverses exist, she must reconcile the fact that these parallel gates will either hold the key to releasing her grief or trapping her forever.”
Tyler Treese: At what stage did you get on board for Parallel? Obviously, the Hodge Brothers were producing and writing the script. How did you get involved?
Kourosh Ahari: I would say very early on. They approached me when they were at the early stages of the script, and I think we had about a year before we got into production, but we were trying to look for the right location and find out the logistics that needed to happen to get this movie right. But I was on at the fairly early stage,
In the movie, there’s the forest, there’s the house — there are only really two locations here, but I was impressed as the film itself never feels small. How is it keeping everything looking fresh visually despite primarily using two locations?
One of the things that was very appealing for me with this story was that, compared to other parallel universe type movies, it was grounded. But at the same time, it had these elements of nature being a catalyst for the phenomenon. What was fun to play with was bringing more of that into the space of the film. Nature is grand, so it had to be shown in a grand way. I think that that was a big part of it.
This is such an exciting film for Aldis, especially because we really get just a launching point for him to show all of his range here. He is playing different variants of the same character and he co-wrote it and he stars in it. What impressed you about working with him?
Yeah, I mean, my working relationship with him and also Edwin was a little bit different than my work relationship with Danielle. Mainly because they were on from early on. They wrote the script, and they produced it. So, we would have different discussions on different levels. They were both very committed — both Edwin and Aldis — because they put a lot of their time and love and life into this story. It was the first film from their production company, also. They came to set very committed, and I think they had it all planned in their head as they wrote the script. That was already kind of ingrained and ready to go.
Early on, the audience is kind of unsure about what’s happening. Obviously Danielle’s character sees herself, but there’s a bit of an untrustworthy narrator going on. How was it playing with expectations of if this character going insane and what’s really happening? How was it playing with viewer expectations?
There were a lot of early conversations. I had a very specific vision for this film, and I wanted to bring a lot more of the nature as a character. Also Danielle’s character going through what she’s going through where, to a point, you’re unsure if it’s something that she’s experiencing because of all the trauma and what she’s going through and the medication that she’s taking, or is it actually happening? Ultimately, we decided to let the actors show that through their performances instead of visually bringing that into space.
But I’m glad that that still feels that it’s unclear, whether she’s experiencing what is happening to her or it’s the effect of medication and what she’s going through. That’s always a fun thing to do, especially playing with such an idea of parallel universes and alternate realities. The first thing that comes through someone’s mind is, “Is it, is it really happening? Or is it just a hallucination?” Letting the movie and the characters slowly reveal that there is more to it, I think, was fun to play with.
I don’t want to get into spoilers, but I was just curious how you view the ending because there are dark elements to this. There are also happy elements. It’s very conflicted, just like life is. When you look at the ending and the final shot, do you feel happiness? Do you feel sadness? How do you view that?
I have my own view, but I know the writers and the producers were very keen on letting that final moment be whatever experience that the audience experiences or feels. Maybe I’ll hold off on my personal view on that.
When you’re working with Aldis and Edwin and Danielle on playing the very slight variations on themselves, was this a very detail-oriented script where they knew they were playing somethring like Variant Two? Was that more collaborative while filming? How was that kept track of?
It was a combination of both. I mean, there were some hints in the script, but I think really they wanted to do that on set and feel the moment. It’s all about these subtle elements. At some point we talked about little changes in their costume or in their mannerisms or certain things that would make it clear that these are different versions of them. But ultimately, they wanted to keep it all in the performance and have these subtle moments. So we found some of them on set. We found some of them as we were working on the script. But ultimately, I think it was what we kind of explored on set.
I was really impressed by Danielle throughout because she is involved in so many of the heavy emotional moments and she’s amazing. Can you speak to seeing her process? She really pulls it out and she’s who the viewers see the story through.
Yeah, I mean, she was amazing. She came to set more than prepared, and I think she came to set playing the character of Vanessa and you could see that throughout the whole shoot. She knew where this character was coming from and where it’s going and what her goal is and every step at a time. We would have very minimal conversations. We would talk about the scene and where she’s at emotionally in this moment.
But ultimately, she brought all of that into the character herself. Even in the scene where her character and this other version of herself is pointing gun at her, it’s such a subtle difference and the smallest details and specific layers of emotion where you could feel like they’re two different people talking to each other. But yeah, she was so committed and very passionate about bringing that character to life.
You’re always learning and evolving as an artist. What lessons there did you learn from your previous movie The Night that were applicable to doing Parallel?
A couple of things. I think one of the things was that, with The Night, it was like two whole different scenarios. I was involved with the writing of it. I was involved with producing and directing, so I had a lot more control on what the story should be and all the different stages and different elements. This was a little bit different. This was … we had writers and producers that had the story and had a specific vision and it was more of a collaboration. To me, that was kind of an interesting experience, to see how it feels on the other end of it and like how you have to all kind of be in sync to have one unique vision.
But I think the one, the one thing that I did not expect that happened was that, on this project, it was a bigger project, bigger budget, project compared to the night. I was really thinking that I would have more time and space to play with all these great elements. But it ended up being even shorter than The Night. [Laughs]. And then we end up shooting this in, really, about 16 days, which was insane. Honestly, having talents like Aldis, Edwin and Danielle helped us move fast. I was able to get a take, max two, and move on.
