Movies

Out actress Mandahla Rose on her starring role in the lesbian road trip romp “All About E”

Since we told you about All About E a few months back, the hype around the film has just continued to grow. The movie focuses on E (played by out actress Mandahla Rose), a former clarinet player and present-day DJ on the run from her dirtbag boss with her gay best friend Matt (Brett Rogers) and a bag full of cash. Oh, and she’s got suffocating Lebanese parents and an ex-lover named Trish (Julia Billington) whose memory continues to haunt her.

We spoke with Mandahla ahead of her trip to New York City for the December 2 screening of All About E. We talked about everything from her own musical talents to how she drew from a past relationship to play the role of E. She also got very detailed about the ins and outs of the film’s noteworthy sex scene. You’re welcome.

AfterEllen.com: Had you ever had any interest in doing a road movie before reading the script for All About E? Obviously Thelma & Louise comes to mind, but were you a fan of the genre?

Mandahla Rose: So I’m a fan of Thelma & Louise, but I really didn’t know that it was such a huge genre. When I actually auditioned for the part, I didn’t audition for it wanting the road movie in particular. It was the story of E herself that I was drawn to. And then the fact that it was a road movie ended up being a hell of a lot of fun anyway. It’s my first one, and I really enjoyed it.

AE: You said it was the story of E that caught your interest. What about it in particular?

MR: The thing that I saw about E was that, yeah, she’s trying really hard to please everyone and she’s really, really lost, but there’s a softness and a gentleness about her that I really wanted to be able to portray and tell her story, so that people wouldn’t just see her as the bad girl. They would see her as someone who had just kind of hit a speed bump in her life and realized that if she didn’t actually take the steps that she needed to then she wouldn’t become that person that she needed to be.

AE: At the beginning of the movie, it’s clear E is living much more for others than she’s living for herself. For example, she wants to make her parents proud and she wants to keep her boss at bay by continuing to bring in the profit. What do you think makes an otherwise charismatic character like her get to that point?

MR: I actually resonate with her about that. A lot of my life I was constantly trying to please everyone else, and not quite sure how to please everyone but do what I wanted to do as well. I think with E it’s just she’s constantly not able to be herself and she’s not able to actually live her life. Because if she lives her life, her parents won’t be happy. If she actually does what she wants to do and play the clarinet, her boss won’t be happy.

AE: It might be hard for people who haven’t watched the movie to understand that we’re still talking about someone who’s very charismatic and isn’t a doormat by any means, but does have this behavior when it comes to some of the authority figures in her life.

MR: Exactly. And I think sometimes it’s easy to make someone happy. I think a lot of people in life can go through their life and do what other people want and convince [themselves] that that is what they actually want to do, but not really sure if it is or not.

AE: Personally speaking, I’m a child of immigrant parents, so I get where E’s coming from in wanting her parents to be proud of her. Just about everyone does want to impress their parents, but for children of immigrants I feel that there’s that added pressure of fitting in and finding yourself while not wanting to reject your parents either. How much do you think that informs E and her actions?

MR: I think for E, being that she is now an only child, it’s really important for her to please her parents. But she knows that whatever she does, she can’t anyway. There’s that want, I think, no matter where you come from, to want to make the people who brought you into this world proud of you.

It’s interesting because I don’t have family. I’m actually a foster kid myself. So that whole Lebanese background or the family strictness that some families have, I’ve not experienced before. But my ex-girlfriend is Russian and we were together for three and a half years. And being a secret was part of that story and it was something that I had to live with. It wasn’t until I started playing E and telling her story that I realized how hard it was for my ex to actually—even the thought of coming out to her parents was incredibly scary because being an only child, because her brother also died at a very young age, it was kind of like it made me realize that it’s not all about me. It was actually just really hard on her to be able to tell her parents about her sexuality.

AE: So for you. the movie was like “All About Empathy.” You could see it from your ex’s side. Were you the Trish in that scenario, or were you a little bit more understanding?

MR: Definitely more understanding. I was always understanding anyway. I’m lucky that I have a lot of empathy, myself. So I always try to put myself in other people’s shoes. Which is a lucky thing when it comes to the career that I’ve chosen. So I was definitely a bit of both, but more of E when it came to my ex. I guess in a way it was like I was able to draw on that experience that I was able to watch her go through to be able to tell E’s story as well.

AE: When E couldn’t land it big as a clarinet player, she called it quits. Even her girlfriend Trish’s encouragement didn’t change that fact. What do you think it is about E that didn’t make her push herself further?

MR: I think it’s that whole fear of failure. I think when you love something so much and you want to put your entire heart and soul into something, that fear of failure is incredibly loud, or it’s like that big elephant in the room. That if you put your entirety into this, for example, the clarinet, and you fail, then what is there else to fall back on?

Yeah she had the support of her girlfriend at the time and stuff, but it would have been so hard still. That if she failed then there’s absolutely nothing that she really could fall back on. And being a DJ is much cooler. The clarinet is not a sexy instrument. I don’t even know if I made it sexy.

AE: I think we do have to give it up for your musical co-star, the clarinet. Had you known how to play before?

MR: I’ve played the flute since I was eight. So I am lucky to be musically talented. For the audition, I did actually tell Louise [Wadley] that I played the flute, so she asked me to bring it along just so she could—you know how some actors are like, “Yeah, yeah, I can play,” but they actually can’t? I think she wanted to see if I could actually be musically inclined, and luckily I was. And I kept trying to drop in subtle hints to maybe just change the clarinet to the flute, but she was so set on the clarinet.

So when I got the part, they actually lent me a clarinet to teach myself how to play. So I taught myself how to play it, and a lovely friend of Jay [Rutovitz] and Louise’s called Kathleen McGuire actually gave me a couple of clarinet lessons as well.

AE: Now I don’t know how fair you think the question is, but is E all about quick and easy highs? Her career as a DJ certainly seems motivated by how easy it comes to her and how much the crowds eat her performances up. And after Trish, her relationships with women seem to come fast and without any emotional attachments. Plus, and this is too easy, there’s that scene where E takes E in the bathroom.

MR: Totally. I think there is that feeling of just being able to let go and not have to worry about relationships, or emotional attachments, or having to please everyone all the time. So I think that is probably what attracted E to that nightlife in particular.

It’s just her life is a complete mask. She’s just constantly wearing a mask and trying to do what everyone else wants her to do, rather than actually do what it is she wants. But the thing is, is that she doesn’t even know what she wants.

AE: Yeah, that complicates matters. So when I first saw the film several months ago, I remember thinking the love scene between E and Trish was incredibly sensuous, but also surprisingly lengthy. Louise told me a lot of thought was put into that scene because you’re not dealing with just two strangers coming together for the first time. These were two women who already knew each other’s body well, and there was still lingering love and resentment there. Knowing all this, as an actress, how did you prepare yourself for a love scene like that?

MR: We actually kind of worked up to it. How we talked about it was we actually just sat down first and had a conversation. The conclusion we came to, before we even attempted to look at the choreography, was: how long had it been since they’d seen each other? So it’s been a year. They were incredibly in love with each other, and when you’ve got that kind of love you forget what it was like to explore each other’s body and that kind of thing. So it was all about reconnecting with each other and re-exploring each other’s body. And they would’ve been together for a while, and they would’ve—you know when you’re in love with someone and you know their body so well that there are parts of it that you remember and that you actually just—it’s kind of imprinted in your mind. So we wanted to bring that across as well.

There are glimpses that I catch, where E runs her hand along Trish’s neck and it’s—that’s the part, I think, that a lot of love scenes forget, is the intimacy and the connection that they have.

To put it into perspective for you, we went to Trundle, which is the country town that we shot in, and we were there for I think two weeks. And the first day that we turned up in Trundle was the day that we had to shoot the sex scene. It was super hot. It got to about 50 degrees Celsius [122 degrees Fahrenheit] in the room. The camera cut out. I have a full back tattoo. Well not a full back, but straight down my spine tattoo. And we had to spend two hours covering that up, but because of the heat it was melting off my back and onto the bed sheets. We couldn’t have any air conditioning because, of course, the sound. And we did it in three hours.

I just remember being in the scene and closing my eyes and we were, you know, doing the thing—like making out, or whatever.

AE: Doing “the thing.”

MR: Doing the thing. And into it and stuff, and then I’d hear Louise be like, “Mandahla, can you just open your mouth a little bit more there, and tilt your head that way?” So it was really awkward as well. And I had to redo my ADR as well because I wasn’t loud enough. How do you prepare for that? I don’t know.

AE: Bringing the conversation back to the whole road movie genre, I noticed that you folks sure did walk around a lot. And despite the super cool cheetah interior, it’s not like they had you driving a sleek muscle car. For your first road movie attempt, any regrets about not totally filling in all the stereotypes?

MR: You know for a road movie, I had a hell of a lot of fun. I got to drive a tractor. I got to hold a rifle. I got to jump into a plane. I mean I would’ve loved a muscle car. I’m such a rev-head. That would’ve been so amazing. But I think the responsibility of driving a muscle car with an expensive camera for my first ever feature film would perhaps have been rather scary. I would’ve done it, but it would have been scary.

AE: So, you’re coming to the States?

MR: I leave for New York on the 1st of December, and I’ll be there for the All About E screening on the 2nd of December. And also it’s the Wolfe release of All About E on DVD as well. And then I fly to LA on the 5th and am shooting a series. I think it is just the pilot to begin with—La Douleur Exquise. I have a feeling 2016 is going to be a very big year.

All About E will be released on iTunes, Vimeo On Demand, WolfeOnDemand and on DVD on Dec. 1.

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