Queens for a Day marks Chris Carter‘s first feature film to not have The X-Files in the title. But he believes the classic sci-fi show’s diehard fans will still like what they see.
“It has horror elements and it has time travel,” he told Gold Derby after a screening and Q&A at the Laemmle Royal Theatre in Los Angeles. “It’s got an X-Files sensibility and humor. X-Files was a funny show. The characters were always cracking wise. Mulder [David Duchovny] is very funny. Scully [Gillian Anderson] is funny, too. I think you’re gonna see that humor is in here as well.”
Queens for a Day is being billed as a “horror fable” that uses Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as inspiration. Chris’ wife Dori Carter wrote the script 30 years ago, and the director recently discovered it while cleaning out his garage. Dori then adapted it to the “political moment we are living in” — namely, Donald Trump’s second administration — but the bulk of the plot remained intact all these decades later.
The story centers around Judge Jerri (played by Erin Boyes), a right-wing newscaster who bears a certain resemblance to Fox News host-turned-Trump ally Jeanine Pirro. After hitting her head, Jerri travels back in time to the 1950s where she is forced to inhabit the life and body of her own mother in Queens, N.Y. — and even “give birth to herself.” Carter said some fans claim the movie “made them want to call their mothers.”
The independently financed film was shot in British Columbia over 32 days, with a cast made up almost entirely of Canadian actors. But Boyes was the standout.
“She’s an acting teacher, so she’s an actor through and through,” Carter told us. Even though Boyes had “very little time to prepare” because she replaced another actress, “She was completely a dream to work with. I didn’t have to instruct her and wedge her into any moments. When you work with a really gifted actress or actor, you’re working with an artist, and she took an artistic approach.”
The director also revealed to Gold Derby that he scaled back on some of the Judge Jerri rants in the opening news segment, explaining, “There was a scene in the control booth where there was some chit chat about her that was kind of dissing her. We took that out. Everything that stalled the forward progress we cut out.”
During a Q&A moderated by The X-Files cast member Annabeth Gish, Carter revealed even more about Queens for a Day. Here are some of the highlights:
ON POLITICS: “We did not want to hit people over the head with it, but that is really the reason we wanted to make this movie. It is not just to tell a good tale, but to raise our fist in the air. We are angry, and we are living in a world we do not want to live in. This is our response to that.”
ON THE THEME: “There was a question the other night about why divide us when you have an opportunity with a movie to unite us. But as harsh, dramatic, and angry as that conversation is, it speaks to the world I want to live in. By the time the movie is over, we have a character who has found her soul. That is what I am looking for in the world — a little more soul.”
ON LAUGHS: “It is a comedy, and there is funny material in it, but we never played it for comedy. My direction to everyone was, ‘Do not play the comedy. Let’s play the horror.’ We call it a horror fable. It is her nightmare to have to live her mother’s life. So, for me, it is more of a horror movie. The score was also very important. We lucked out and found the perfect person to score it, Tracie Turnbull, and that is one of the things I love most about the movie.”
ON CANADA: “It would have been hard to make this in the United States. It probably never would have been made if we had not self-financed it. People would have objected because of the politics. Everyone is scared right now. I am scared, too.”
ON CASTING: “We found our lead actress, Erin Boyes, after initially considering casting someone in her 60s and aging her backward. That was going to be crazily expensive, so we moved on. Erin had read for several other parts, and then we found her. We got very lucky. I do not think there is a weak performance in the picture. We did something people do not do as much now: we cast in person. We brought actors in to audition for us rather than relying entirely on self-tapes.”
ON CINEMATOGRAPHY: “The only person who was not from British Columbia was our director of photography, Craig Wrobleski. I think the movie is beautiful, and Craig nailed it. His choices — the color, texture, lenses, and shots — helped make it a beautiful film. He is a master of the B camera, and I am not, so that really helped.”
ON EDITING: “All of the Donald Trump clips went through a legal process, as you might imagine. Everything had to be approved. We had been editing since April, and Trump kept doing stupid stuff, so we kept having to add to the end of the movie. We destroyed our search histories and internet browsers. So much random material on Instagram was all being surfaced.”
ON DORI: “It was wonderful working with [my wife]. It actually brought us closer together. Dori wrote the script, and we prepped, shot, and edited it together. We sat literally side by side and communicated through her notes and our conversations. And we had a wonderful crew.”
ON THE TITLE: “Jack Bailey hosted Queen for a Day, which was on when I was a kid. My grandmother was on the show, and she won. She was the queen. You had to tell the saddest story to be given the prize of the crown. I have no idea what her sad story must have been. Maybe we lived a much sadder life than I remember.”
ON DISTRIBUTION: “Tell your friends and spread the word. We are trying to get the movie distributed, and it is a dance. It is a business and a courtship, and I am learning it as we go. We did film festivals, and word is out. There is interest. It is a movie that needs somebody who is as passionate about it as we are. I do think social media can be a superpower. If you land properly somewhere, it takes a spark, and that can create a blaze. I am excited about independent film right now.”
ON THE FANS: “I hope they see it as a story of heartache and self-realization. It is political and nonpolitical because it is universal. It is about finding your soul, and I hope people find something in it that makes them want to reach out to somebody they love.”
