However, moderating content is far from glamorous, andAmerican Sweatshopisnt afraid to address the professions dangerous side.
Uta, I’ll give you these wonderful honors.
Can you give us a brief synopsis of your film?
Image via Plaion Pictures
It leaves a mark on them.
It can lead to PTSD, it can lead to sleeplessness, and in some cases, even suicide.
You are directing from Matthew [Nemeth]’s script here.
Image by Photagonist
That also led me to be a cinematographer first before I became a director.
I also wanted to become a painter, and I still paint.
Images always spoke to me and were really, really important.
Image by Photagonist
I’ll throw a question inspired by that to both of you.
LILI REINHART: Oh man, I always need my phone in these interviews to reference.
I end my night with a TikTok scroll, but not a doom scroll.
Image via The CW
It’s always good.
I laugh the most on TikTok than any other social platform.
I have a great time on TikTok.
Where else would I see something like that?
Mine is always TikTok videos of people voicing their pets.
Nothing makes me happier than that.
Image by Zanda Rice
BRIESEWITZ: That sounds awesome.
Now I know what to search for because I think that would very much crack me up.
She has a cockatiel.
Image by Photagonist
It was very cute, and we were laughing and talking about it.
It’s always animals!
REINHART: Or eggs.
Image by Photagonist
REINHART: To be honest, I think this is sort of a good opportunity.
That’s what I was interested in.
You wanna go share.
American Sweatshop follows Daisy Moriarty and her colleagues as they navigate the underbelly of the internet, working to evaluate harmful content for social media. Struggling with her personal life, Daisy becomes dangerously involved after encountering a particularly violent video, leading her into a perilous quest for accountability.
That’s not something that was happening, obviously, before the internet.
Welikewhen people say that the movie left them feeling a bit unnerved.
I think that’s, to us, success because it’s supposed to.
I saw Camila [Mendes] here last year forMusicaandshes coming in this year for another movie.
And then Im watching Madelaine [Petsch] run around and produce a trilogy of horror films.
It’s like, “How are we both here at the same time?”
But it’s lovely, and I’m so glad and happy that I get to still see them.
Uta, this is your first feature, but you’ve had so much TV experience.
BRIESEWITZ: It’s kind of funny.
Then all the other things that followedworking with the Russo Brothers, Brett Anderson, and Jay Cast.
It was just such a great ride.
I always kind of jumped on what presented itself to me at this point.
I feel like if you are in the film business, you have to have an open mind.
Now I really wanna dig into working with actors."
So, I moved into directing.
Now my passion just really goes to, “I wanna tell stories that are important to me.
I didn’t want to tell the story.
It was not about making a good paycheck.
I felt like, especially with my first feature, I wanted to do something that mattered to me.
Your instincts were spot-on.
Uta Briesewitz Came Straight from Severance to American Sweatshop
I have two follow-up questions.
You’ve worked on so many of the very best shows.
SoSeverancedefinitely was on my mind, and it’s a different setting.
In TV, sometimes, there are a lot of rules.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the exact same distance and the exact same lengths.
It doesn’t matter.
Definitely, that feeling I took with me toAmerican Sweatshop.
Because if cinematography or coverage becomes too formulaic, it’s always predictable.
I always want to be curious about what the next shot is.
REINHART: The formula of TV.
What is something about working with Lili that brought something new out of you as an actor’s director?
They understand if a camera is in the right position right now to capture what they are performing.
If you put it in the wrong spot, it can tick them off.
I have to say, I always feel so connected to my actors.
When they suffer, when they go through something, it does affect me.
So, me crying behind the monitor is not a rarity.
That happens quite often.
REINHART: I think I wanted to tap into the obsession that comes.
It’s kind of like a weird obsession, but also disassociation that happens when you see something traumatic.
And I think before Daisy sees this video…
I guess that’s a good question.
I didn’t really think too much about it.
She smokes a lot of weed.
I could have shown all kinds of things.
I could have shown panties slowly being lowered.
I said, “I want none of that.”
That was always my conceptual idea of how I would deal with it.
I have to tell you, shooting that video, we handled it as sensitively as we could.
I told them that even if they were ever uncomfortable at any point, they could take a break.
I had to turn away,” even though we’re just hinting at things.
I’ll squeeze in two more questions.
There’s specifically a dying plant and a stuffed cat.
Can you tell me a little bit about what inspired that set dressing?
But I wanted the dying plantit was just a little bit too dead.
But I love Tim Plester so much.
[Laughs] You see that he suffers with the people there.
He has to go through that checklist, and he knows it’s doing nothing.
He feels like such a fake.
And in a certain way, broken souls always meet there.
I was also dealing with some health issues while we were shooting this movie.
It’s like, “Yay!
“Theres just this sense of camaraderie with indie filmmaking.It’s not just like, “Cut!
I’m going home.”
Its more like, “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I was like, “Oh my gosh, this is the movie!
Its working, its working!”
I remember I was freaking out.
Basically, the answer was “nobody” because there is no studio.
And that was always like, “Oh my gosh, yay!
This is great, this is great!
I can do whatever I want!”
And that was awesome.
