Alice Lowe’s advice to women work­ing in the film industry

Fans of British com­e­dy will already be accus­tomed with the array of bizarre and mem­o­rable char­ac­ters Alice Lowe has played over the years. Her first TV role in Garth Marenghi’s Dark­place back in 2004 saw her don a blonde-mul­let wig to play an actress reflect­ing on a failed show. More recent­ly she took on the role of a ser­i­al killer on the run in Sight­seers, direct­ed by Ben Wheat­ley and co-writ­ten by Lowe and Steve Oram.

She has also popped up as a job­sworth tour guide in Chanya Button’s 2015 direc­to­r­i­al debut, Burn Burn Burn and turned the read­ing of a super­mar­ket receipt into hilar­i­ous poet­ry in Jamie Adams’ Black Moun­tain Poets. The hor­ror-com­e­dy Pre­venge marks Lowe’s first film as a direc­tor. She also wrote and stars in the film as Ruth, a preg­nant woman dri­ven to kill by the voice of her unborn child. That Lowe made the film while heav­i­ly preg­nant her­self is an impres­sive feat in itself, but it also speaks to her refresh­ing atti­tude towards defy­ing expec­ta­tions of women in the film industry.

“I’d been try­ing to direct a fea­ture film for years but every­thing was drag­ging in devel­op­ment. I thought Pre­venge could be a good oppor­tu­ni­ty. I want­ed to take a pop at all the things that were irri­tat­ing me about preg­nan­cy, the way you’re con­di­tioned to think and feel. So I came up with this treat­ment and sent it to a direc­tor and he thought it was great but he couldn’t do it because he does rom-coms. I decid­ed there and then I want­ed to do it. Because I was preg­nant, it put this time fac­tor on it. I wrote the script real­ly quick­ly. By sev­en-and-a-half months we were film­ing. We fin­ished film­ing at about eight-and-a-half months and did post-pro­duc­tion with a tiny baby.

“The film is a reflec­tion of the lim­i­ta­tions peo­ple put on women gen­er­al­ly. It’s not just the actu­al preg­nan­cy, it’s the ques­tions about when you’re going to have a baby and if you’re going to have a baby and what you can achieve at what age. As an actress are you allowed to be over 35? Are you allowed to be sexy over 35? Are you allowed to be pow­er­ful? I think most of the stuff I write is in reac­tion to that in some way. I def­i­nite­ly want­ed to flout expec­ta­tions of what the project would be and what direc­tion this par­tic­u­lar character’s nar­ra­tive would take.

“It was kind of in a way a lit­tle bit like Sev­en. I had this idea that each vic­tim has their own indi­vid­ual flaw that she’s respond­ing to. Her reac­tion is her way of stat­ing that they’re weak and she’s strong. It’s that idea that peo­ple ask, ​‘Are you going to be able to do that if you’re preg­nant?’ My response is that my body is incred­i­ble, it’s cre­at­ing a human and I’m going to give birth. That means I’m going to expe­ri­ence shock­ing pain and there will be lots of blood. Where do we get the idea that that is a weak­ness instead of a strength?

You don’t have to emu­late what a man does in the indus­try. When you’re in com­e­dy and on TV peo­ple ask, ​‘Should there be more women in pan­el shows?’ I don’t want that to be the skill I excel in! It’s nice to be able to embrace your skillset as a woman and think about the things you pos­sess that men don’t. Some­one like [The Love Witch] direc­tor Anna Biller, her whole approach is real­ly new and fresh and I feel like it may take a while for that to sink into our cul­ture. That is what I want­ed to do with my film – shock peo­ple out of a stu­por to realise what you’re see­ing is com­plete­ly new.”

Pre­venge is in cin­e­mas 10 Feb­ru­ary. Read the LWLies Rec­om­mends review.