“My parents definitely tried to keep me out of the business for as long as they could,” says Ora Duplass, who makes a stellar feature acting debut in Their Town, premiering this weekend at SXSW.
The film is written by her father, Mark Duplass, and directed by her mother, Katie Aselton, who tried through their daughter’s childhood to spare her the near-constant rejection most actors face. But with Their Town, the couple gave her one of the most supportive possible projects in which to shine, and she does.
The 18-year-old is strikingly good as Abby, whose boyfriend drops out of co-starring with her in their high school’s play. His last-minute replacement is a quiet stagehand, Matt (IT star Chosen Jacobs, also fantastic). As Abby and Matt wander around one night in their hometown of Bangor, Maine, they discover unexpected connections. The film’s final moments are especially beautiful.
Aselton and Mark Duplass have worked together many times throughout their marriage, including in the 2005 mumblecore classic The Puffy Chair, which brothers Mark and Jay Duplass wrote and directed together, with Mark and Aselton playing the leads. Since then, all have made and starred in projects big and small, becoming models of indie filmmaking.
Their Town arrives at SXSW 11 years after Mark Duplass gave a much-celebrated speech at the Austin festival in which he advised indie filmmakers that “the cavalry is not coming” and urged them to lead their own projects.
His family’s new film epitomizes that approach.
Katie Aselton, Mark Duplass and Ora Duplass on Making Their Town
Working with family is always hard, and the parents and teenagers of the world aren’t known for getting along. Aselton says she was nervous about working with her daughter, who was 16 during filming. But the family did a lot of logistical and emotional prep.
“It was a lot of conversations with Ora, and my therapist, and with Mark late at night in bed, just being like, ‘It’s going to be so hard’,” says Aselton. “But we did enough of the work in advance that when we got there, everyone was on their best behavior. Everyone knew what needed to be done, and I will credit Ora for being incredibly emotionally intelligent and knowing when she needed to step up.”
She laughs: “And it was also only a 12-day shoot, so we really only had to hold on to these personas for 12 days.”
Austin is an especially apt launchpad for the film because it was inspired in part by the city’s greatest filmmaker, Richard Linklater. Mark Duplass grew up in New Orleans and remembers driving 80 miles to Baton Rouge to see Linklater’s Before Sunrise in 1995, when he was about the age Ora is now. The film follows two young travelers, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, who forge an unforgettable connection over a single night in Vienna.
Mark Duplass remember being struck by “the dignity that I thought that they gave to the thoughts of people in their early 20s, and a sense of humor about it too. It didn’t feel like Linklater was on a mission to, like, show me that these kids were deep. It was loose, it was casual, it was sweet.”
The same is true of Abby and Mike’s unforced dynamic in Their Town. Ora Duplass was struck by the emotionality of scenes that, on the page, seemed straightforward.
“You find these moments when you read the script, that you didn’t think you would feel, when actually acting it out. Through performing, you feel these connections to your real life in a way that I didn’t totally think I would. It really helped the emotion come through, but also personal growth,” she says.
Mark Duplass wrote the script with his daughter in mind, drawing on her friendships and disappointments. Aselton, meanwhile, knew when to ask more of her, and when to back off. She drew on a familiarity that only comes from knowing someone for their entire life.
By keeping Abby and Mike in motion for much of the movie, the film frees them from the addictive doomscroll trap that brings so much anxiety and depression to the modern young. But the realities of modern life are always in the background, along with a nostalgia for the ’90s, when Duplass and Aselton came of age.
“I think it’s really important to show that these kids aren’t clueless,” Ora Duplass says. “They know what’s going on in the world and it affects them.”
When she was growing up with her parents and sister, Molly, Ora always wanted to someday star in a Disney show. But her parents urged her to enjoy childhood.
“I was very eager,” she says. “And at five years old, when you’re watching a show and you’re like, ‘Let me be an actor,’ I think it’s pretty fair for them to be like, ‘Go play.’”
But last summer, she was cast in a project about as different as you can get from a DIY indie: She’ll star in the new series Coven Academy, coming soon to the Disney Channel and Disney+.
“The truth is, Ora said, ‘I’m going to be on a Disney show,’” Aselton laughs. “And the reality is, yeah, he was correct.”
Their Town premieres Saturday at SXSW and plays again during the festival. You can read more of our SXSW coverage here.
Main image: Chosen Jacobs and Ora Duplass in Their Town. Courtesy of Duplass Brothers.
