Do you consider yourself more of an analog or digital person? What kind of balance do strike between the two? Is there a disconnect between the technology you make films about and the technology that you make films with?

Definitely analog. I love what digital has to offer but I struggle with it because I'm a person who needs to touch and feel things. I actually shut down mentally if I'm stuck in front of a screen for too long or don't get outside to hear and smell the trees. This is something I worry about for the future and something I'm super interesting in discuss through film. I know I'm not the only one like this and studies have shown how the brain is negatively affected by not experiencing enough body-to-brain connections. We often see these sci-fi worlds of say, people living in a bunker for decades and look! They have everything they need to be super fit, and wow! They are super fit because they just run on a treadmill for hours a day and eat prescribed perfectly nutrient foods! Except science has already told us what would happen if you don't see the sun in 26 years... I'm more interested in the authentic details of that experience in sci-fi worlds, like how it feels to be slowly going crazy from being hyper-sensitive to that soft tapping sound in the airducts because your brain is short-circuiting from lack of sunlight hitting your retinas. So there's definitely an interesting contrast between what we see loads of in sci-fi and what would actually happen. I mean, I get it though too. So many sci-fis have this underlying action-packed adventure, so you have to get to the action. But that's why I like extrapolative sci-fis best, which tend to be those odd, quirky, arthouse-type films that really question the audience's perception of the human condition by throwing it just beyond where we are now. It's exciting to think of worlds we haven't yet seen, and it really speaks to the concept of "the grass is always greener on the other side." It's like we're rushing to get there, but I have no doubt that once we do, we'll miss the paper.

When you’re creating the props and sets that make a new world, where do you look for inspiration? How do you create objects that are relatable but unfamiliar?

My earlier vision for FREYA was this really clean "sleek" world but somewhere in the process I realized I was falling into the trap, that the future has to feel sterile and robotic. But we're human, and we're also like plants in that we're always going to bow toward what we need. When I found the heart of it, the instinct was textures and colours and a certain warmth to balance a society that had become so cold. Lots of discussions with our production designer Jamie Chrest and costume designer Karyna Barros uncovered the truth: there's an undeniable pattern through time, and that pattern says that anything new will be a combination of elements of the past. So then we went the complete opposite way and found a certain nostalgia in the production design and costumes and hair and makeup by pulling inspiration from various decades before. We found a lot of vintage elements and trends from the past, and our DP Alfonso Chin has this almost magical, textured style that brought those elements out even more. One of my favourite shots in the film is when Jade is looking out the window in the bathroom and she asks FREYA to say something nice about her. It's so tragic because Jade is so earnest about it. And for me personally, it hits home further because of Jade's eyeliner, the thin white over black. That was totally a throw to my teens in the early 2000s and I remember feeling like that girl, just utterly unsure and awkward. I still feel like that some days, and every once in a while when I see FREYA again, I'm like, oh yeah. That feeling. To me, it actually feels unrelatable but familiar now. I think that's also because of the core of the story. It's this universal feeling of being a fish out of water. We all feel it sometimes and with Jade, we experience this nagging loneliness through just her because everyone else around her seems to be "fine"--her boss, the hundreds of people on social media liking her posts, Theo--they all seem to not notice while Jade is coming into this new awakening. But you could easily assume that this communal ignorance also brings about this deep emptiness no one can quite put their finger on. And I think that sense of inexplicable longing was really beautifully woven together on screen by Jamie and Karyna and Alfonso and our whole team really. When you blend concepts and then use elements that we have emotional ties to, it creates a world that is an extension of its creators, and that's my favourite kind of art because it's honest and undeniable. I like to look for overlaying concepts like that, then I cross my fingers and hope I'm lucky enough to work with people who are talented and emotionally attuned and able to see those connections and use who they are to make something totally unique.

Lightning round: Star Wars or Star Trek? Philip K. Dick or William S. Burroughs? Practical or CGI? Dystopia or Utopia? Post Apocalypse or Pre Apocalypse?

Star Wars. Philip K. Dick. Practical. Dystopia. How about post post apocalyptic, so like sometime later than today?