Millions of True Blood fans know Carrie Preston from her role as Arlene, the Merlotte's waitress with a history of bad relationships who finally seems to have found love. But Preston's been working steady in feature films since the mid-1990s, has her own production company, and has moved behind the camera to direct. Her latest film project, That's What She Said (an official 2012 Sundance Film Festival selection), is a no-holds-barred comedy starring Anne Heche, Alia Shawkat, and Marcia DeBonis.

That's What She Said started as a play and evolved into a feature film, with Preston guiding the process over an eight year journey.

In our exclusive interview in support of the film's October 19, 2012 release, Preston talked about her cast and the state of female-driven films.

Carrie Preston Interview:

Exclusive Carrie Preston Interview:

As a filmmaker, how important is it to introduce your movie at festivals?

"Well, because it was a completely and truly independent film, not attached to any studio at all, that is certainly where you want to get into - a festival that is going to be a buyer's festival. But also you want to kind of treat that as your theatrical run, in a way, because it’s rare that a movie that’s super small is going to have a huge 50 city run or something like that. You really can take advantage of that as a way to get it out to audiences in different cities."

"And also for publicity, for when the film does come out in the world of indies. A lot of them live in the ancillary market of the video-on-demand and the iTunes and the Netflix and the DVDs and all that stuff, so the more you’re getting the word out and it starts to spread in all these different cities that you go to, then the better it’ll be when it finally becomes available in those markets."

Has video-on-demand as well as other new options of getting the film in front of the public affected the indie market from a filmmaker's point of view? Does having alternative release methods help when you're trying to get backers for a film?

"Absolutely, that's definitely part of this. They sell. When you’re talking to investors about coming on board, you use those numbers and those statistics to prove to them that there’s a life outside of the theatrical run of a film. In most cases, in the indie world, the truth is you don’t make money - it actually costs money to do a theatrical run. But you do it because you get good publicity, you can get a lot of feature placements and articles. If critics get behind it, it’s all very helpful for then when somebody in the middle of the country, when it finally gets to their computer or their television, they have heard about it."

I understand it was an eight-year process of bringing this to the screen. What happened during that time?

"It was a play that my friend Kellie Overbey wrote. She’s an actress too and we were acting in a play, and Mia Farrow was playing our mother and Marcia DeBonis, this wonderful character actress, was in the show with us. And I was talking to Kellie about how I had started to direct. At that point my production company had a couple of features under our belt - or at least one feature and a short - and I was starting to get into that. And she said, 'Well I’m writing,' and she showed me this play. I fell in love with it and I said, 'You’ve got to let me direct this and we’ve got to put Marcia in it.' And so that’s what we did, and I directed it in a very small production in New York. The audience just loved it and loved Marcia. And I said, 'Kellie, let’s turn this into a film and put Marcia on screen because everything that she is and what she represents, Hollywood just is never going to give her this part. And so I want to do this.'"

"I want to start to change, in whatever small way I can, the image of women in films in our country, because it happens in Europe. If I have to watch all these bromance films with the schloppy guys, then I think that we should – and they’re funny and appealing and they’re allowed to be that - I think we should also have the woman’s answer to that and have a womance instead of a bromance. So that was the real drive behind why I wanted to make a film, and then it was just a matter of time."

"Luckily, Kellie and I are both successful actors and we work a lot, so it was just trying to find time and finding the money and then getting other actors attached, and we were able to do all that. We got Anne Heche attached and Alia Shawkat soon followed, and then we were able to do it. And it was an extraordinary experience shooting the thing that we had been dreaming of for seven years and then have it come to fruition, to go from a potential to a definitive was pretty exciting. Then on top of that we got into Sundance, which was probably the greatest moment of my life was getting that phone call." [laughing]

What I don't understand as a female moviegoer is why women haven’t been given our fair share of comedies in the past. Women turn out for good movies. Why aren’t they playing to this audience?

"Absolutely. It’s very disturbing to me how short everybody’s memory seems to be, the decision-makers. They always seem so amazed that Sex and the City made all this money or The Devil Wears Prada. They’re like, 'Oh! Women buy tickets.' It’s like the men forget and I don’t understand why. We were working on our film, we shot it before Bridesmaids even shot theirs, but I was very happy when I saw that film because I thought, 'Oh great, this is paving the way for That’s What She Said.' And That’s What She Said is definitely the indie, sort of older a little bit more crusty, a little more cigarette-smoking version of Bridesmaids. We’re the older sister, you know, so to speak. But the fact that people were turning out for that movie, I found that very encouraging."

"Nonetheless, it’s still a very slick Hollywood comedy in all of its beautiful, big-budget glory. Ours is definitely living more in a bit of it a deeper, edgier place, and that’s important too that the art house indie films can also be extremely funny and not just some dark film about a heroin addict in suburbia or something. So many indie movies go to a really dark place. At Sundance even there were several. They seem to very consciously try to program some films that were by women filmmakers or were featuring a largely female cast. And that was very exciting to me."

It's exciting, but it’s also sad in a way that they feel like they have to feature women filmmakers and women casts. It should just be the norm at this point.

"Absolutely, except there aren’t as many. Check the numbers: most films are made by male or the lead’s a male. It’s just a numbers thing. I don’t want to liken it to affirmative action, but in a weird way, it kind of is. It’s like if we don’t all kind of make room for these things, then it won’t become the norm."

It’s nice to see a movie meant for a female audience made by a female filmmaker. I'm tired of men assuming they know what we want, and it’s refreshing to have a female filmmaker out there showing them how to do it right.

[Laughing] "I know! What’s been quite fun in some of these screenings is how much the men are enjoying the film too. They feel like they’re getting to be a fly on the wall or something. They’re getting a little bit of an insight into - albeit a heightened comedic look at it - what it is to be female. But, still, they’re getting kind of a different perspective of the challenges that we face. And certainly, not just women but women, who are over 40, which that again is an under-represented demographic in the media."

You had such a tiny budget on this. How did you pull it off?

"Well, my production company, Daisy 3 Pictures, we had produced two micro-budget features or what you would even call no-budget. We were able to learn from that experience and know what was needed and what wasn’t. This budget was considerably higher than those, but by standards of moviemaking it was low. I understand the limitations of that, so I was able to create a situation where we weren’t going to be stretching ourselves beyond our means. And, it’s also a small cast. Although they’re all over New York City, there are set pieces that are very confined so you can shoot within those. We shot it in a reasonable amount of days which didn’t cost that much. But, it’s just begging and borrowing and stealing, asking people to work for way less than they are used to getting compensated for."

Is there any particular filmmaker you feel has really influenced how you handle life on the set as a director?

"There are lots of directors that I’ve worked with that I have stolen from. Do you know what I mean?"

Yes.

"Because I’m an actor I get to work with a ton of different people, and I get to see how they are and what they do. I found that Tony Gilroy who directed Duplicity, which was a big-budget film that I was in, he had such care and there was such ease on set. It was really inspiring that you didn’t...sometimes you can feel the pressure of trying to make a huge Hollywood film and there’s a lot of nervous energy around, and that just wasn’t the case. I noticed how much he was treating everybody with equal amount of respect - the crew, the make-up artist, the actors, every single person, and it was a mutual thing. I was like, 'Okay, I want to create that vibe on everything that I’m helming, everything that I get to be in a position of leadership. I want to have that feeling.'"

"I always pay particular attention to the women directors that I’ve gotten to work with over the years. And, sadly, there aren’t nearly as many as the men but I was many, many years ago directed by Audrey Wells. I was in this film called Guinevere and that was a really long time ago; it was certainly before I was doing any directing. And again, the same thing. She just had this real calming vibe, yet she was very invigorating. She invigorated the cast and the crew. It was a sense of camaraderie where everybody was working together towards this one goal. And sometimes that gets lost. If it doesn’t come through the director, it doesn’t happen, in my experience. It’s really important that the director set the tone."

Is that one of the things that appeals to you about directing, being the person who does set that tone and who is over-all in charge? What is it about directing that gives you that special feeling that makes you want to do that in addition to acting and producing?

"I know, I’m always slightly alarmed at how comfortable I am in that position. [Laughing] I think, 'Why have I dragged this huge, huge boulder on my shoulders? Why am I comfortable with that?' And I think it’s because I love to collaborate and I also am someone who’s very quick and decisive about things. And you have to be that, to be a director. You’re having 50 things coming at you at once and some people will crumble under that. I find that very exciting. And then I guess I've spent my life in one way or another in the world of storytelling, whether it be theatre or TV or film or whatever, and I find that I am quick to make a decision and get behind it. And I also enjoy entrusting things to other people and their expertise. I would not go up to a gaffer and say, 'Why are you putting that there? Why is that light that way?' I would not go up to a DP and say, 'Why are you putting that filter there?' I am trusting that he is going to do what he has been training his whole life to be doing. And I just know how to talk to actors because I’m an actor, and I enjoy talking to actors. And that’s why I pick pieces that are very character-based."

Are you more comfortable being directed by someone who has acting in their background?

"I would say I love being directed by those people who know how to talk to actors, just because my work then gets challenged more and it’s more exciting. I get to be more facile with it than just filling on my own instinct. I’m one of those people that actually love to get direction. I love it when someone comes up and says, 'Let’s try it this way.' And I go, 'Great,' because I would love to do that and mess around with it and start to fine-tuning and changing the direction of the dial. That’s thrilling. We have one of our directors on True Blood is David Petrarca and he studied acting at NYU. He carries that with him when he comes in a room, and it’s really nice. That said, when you’re an actor you kind of have to be director-proof. You have to be able to deal with all kinds of directors, even the ones that aren’t giving you any acting notes at all."

When are you going to direct an episode of True Blood?

[Laughing] "So many people ask me that. Stephen Moyer beat me to it first. He directed an episode which I thought was extraordinary. I just thought that he did a phenomenal job. It was a great episode. It was so well-executed. He was so great on set. I’m not sure if True Blood is this type of thing that I would be comfortable directing, just because of the nature of the show. I’m not really sure if an action-type, fantasy show with special effects is really for me. But I’m certainly going to inquire about shadowing one of the directors and just looking at the process from start to finish and then see. But, I have so many of my other projects that I kind of just like being Arlene, you know?"

It must be kind of a break, too, because you know Arlene so well at this point. You can slip into that skin a lot easier and you don’t have the added burden of being in charge of everything at the same time. Do you think Arlene is ever going to be completely happy?

"I know! She’s got so much thrown at her. But television doesn’t really exist with a bunch of happy people. [Laughing] If there’s no conflict, you’re not going to really want to watch. I’m glad that the writers have kept me around so long. I’m also glad that I’m one of the few humans left standing. I think it’s very important for the show to be contextualized in the world of humans. Otherwise, the supernatural are just existing in a vacuum. They have to have something that they’re existing in, which is a small Southern town with narrow-minded views - and Arlene provides that. She’s becoming much more open-minded as the series goes on, but fundamentally she’s a very conservative person. I think it’s very important that she remain that anchor for the rest of the madness that goes on."

I’ve read all the books and I know Arlene’s storyline. Her arc through the books is nothing like the TV series, and I’m really happy about that because I don’t like Arlene in the books.

"I know. She’s terrible! Doesn’t she join the Fellowship of the Sun?"

Yes! You've done a good job of transforming the character and giving her much more humanity. You want to root for her, which is nice.

"That’s great. Thank you."

When you came on board, did you know where this character was going to go?

"Oh my gosh, no. I had no idea. The baby thing alone was...I would have never seen that one coming. It was really fun last season to have all that to react to, because it was so great that Arlene was really doing what most parents do which is worry that your child was going to turn out to be a horrible demon-person. Only the baby was actually being controlled by a ghost, so it was a funny kind of play on that. The perversion of parents’ fears about what their children are going to grow up to be hit home. That’s pretty funny."

Do you have another directing project in mind? Is there something else you want to do?

"Right now it’s very exciting for me because people are starting to consider me as a director for hire. There’s a script that one of the producers that produced That’s What She Said she has attached me as the director. I’ve been in development with the writer on a couple of rewrites, and then we’ll start trying to get funding and attach a cast. That’s very exciting because I don’t have to produce this one. I said, 'Look, I am so excited to just be the director.' It's so thrilling just to work with the writer, to start picturing it and think about what to shoot it and all that stuff. It’s a ways off but that’s definitely in development. And then I’ve got some friend who’s written a web series. I think there’s a lot of exciting things that are happening on the web. We’re just at the point where the web is going to become the biggest network in the entire world. It’s all going to be there. It’s going to connect to our TVs and that’s going to be how you get all your content. My production company is trying to get into that space. So, some friends have written a web series and I’m going to direct the first few episodes. I’ve got that going, too."

* * * * * * *

That's What She Said hits theaters on October 19, 2012.