Jump, Darling

Feature-length film explores family dynamics

It’s a family drama with a difference. City boy Russell flees to the County to take up his grandmother’s offer of her no longer used car. Grandmother Margaret is aware of her declining mental and physical capability, and also carries the burden of a family secret. Navigating the middle is Ene, who wants her mother to move into a seniors’ residence, and at the same time worries about her son’s trajectory in life. But Margaret is fiercely independent and retains an acerbic wit, while Russell teeters on the precipice of embracing life as a drag queen or falling into oblivion. The film Jump, Darling is director Phil Connell’s first feature-length production.

He had been working on the script since about 2013, and it went through some major revisions as his life circumstances changed. “I always wanted a family drama as the first film I was going to make,” said Connell. “As I was writing the script there were a couple of things converging in my life that inspired the story. There was the end-of-life conversations I was having with my late grandmother, as well as struggling to committing to a full-time life of artistry in the world of film, and the vulnerability associated with writing your own story. That resulted in me bringing in the element of drag into the film as the kind of ultimate expression of queer artistry. It was the collision of ideas that resulted in a queer family drama set in Prince Edward County.”

The road to making this film was not smoothly paved. As a first feature with an untested director, funding was difficult to come by. To get the money, some well-known talent was needed on the billboard; to get the talent, some secure funding was needed up front. Connell wanted an 80- plus Hollywood actress for the role of Margaret. Most of his efforts were in vain until Shirley MacLaine expressed an interest, but still the hurdle of funding was insurmountable. That changed after Telefilm awarded a Connell at Talent- to Watch grant. But by this time MacLaine was unavailable, so the team drafted a list of other suitable actresses. One by one the names declined, some giving the reason they were “too young” to play a woman of such advanced age. Somehow one name had been left off the list: then 93-year-old Cloris Leachman. The team contacted Leachman, and found their marquee star. “The beating heart of this film is the relationship between Russell and Margaret, and family dramas are really exciting when having a really strong matriarchal performer. That did create a challenge for us because we had a very tight budget. There were a lot of folks who said I should just let that dream go, that it would be too difficult to secure a marquee talent. It was a long, hard fight finding people to believe in that possibility, and eventually we got there,” says Connell, who was thrilled to be working with the Hollywood legend. “It was an absolute honour to work with her. She’s a legend for a reason. She was addicted to her craft as an actor, and it was abundantly clear she was having a good time. She was fully present in the moment at all times, and she was also a lot of fun. It was a galvanizing experience for the entire cast.”

In the meantime, casting for the role of Russell had been in progress. There were over 150 actors answering the call for auditions, and Thomas Duplessie stood out as an early favourite. He was actually called back twice for auditions before being awarded the part. “The poor guy had to do two sets of callbacks, each with full drag performances in three different scenes before we ultimately cast him, and he was perfect,” said Connell.

“We were overjoyed with Thomas’s performance. It was a huge range required to be able to pull off classic drama and pull off the poppy aspect of drag. To find someone who could embody all of those things in one performance was a real challenge.” Connell gave Duplessie nearly free rein to create the choreography for his drag sequences, since he wanted to show how the character of Russell develops his craft as the film progresses. Connell said it was also important to incorporate the experience of some reallife drag performers, and he interviewed several of them to ensure an authentic narrative to the film, eventually including a number of them in the cast. “If you are going to have a film about drag, you want to have real drag queens, because they deserve the exposure. For this film, in particular, in choosing the life of a drag artist, so much of the narrative is built around the struggles of making that choice.”

The film was mostly shot in Prince Edward County, a choice that Connell said he made from the very beginning. His grandmother had a place here, and Connell has roots here. Much of the film takes place at a farmhouse at the Red Barns near Picton, with places like Sandbanks, The Green Root and Wellings appearing on film. There is a small but significant role for MacCool’s Re- Use as well, and the façade of the former Portabella restaurant was transformed to the exterior of Hanna’s Hovel, a gay bar. “For me, personally as director, it was wonderful filming here. Shooting in a big city with a large film infrastructure would be easier to some degree, but most of that was dealt with in prep or pre-production. It was always my vision to shoot in the County, because the film is set in the County,” said Connell. “There were extra costs for travel and accommodation, but all of that was secondary because we had a wonderful experience. It was kind of like going to camp—you’re living the story by being there. The County was very welcoming. For two weeks we were heading to this beautiful idyllic farmhouse property every day. It was wonderful.”

Connell says that the audience of this film will primarily be the LGBT community, with an interest from women in general because of the female- forward storyline, as well as interest from Millennials because of the drag aspect. He expects that it will appeal to Cloris Leachman fans as well. He regrets that Leachman, who died in January at the age of 94, did not get a chance to see the theatrical release with a live audience, although she did see the completed film before her death. “I hope that people will be inspired by this film, like they’ve watched a good movie and they want to talk about it and it makes them feel something,” said Connell. “We’ve worked very hard to create a powerful ending that hopefully will provoke people to have some thoughts of taking control of your own destiny and living life on your own terms. I hope it inspires people and that it takes people on a nice entertaining journey.”

Jump, Darling will be released on video on demand services in early March, with a theatrical release at a later date.