Making his directorial debut with 'The Little Death', actor, writer and funny-man, the handsome Josh Lawson is the whole package – and he's a Brisbane boy!
Bringing together an ensemble of Australia's finest talent to explore the strange, hilarious and sometimes disastrous places that desire can take us, Josh's comedy about sex, love, relationships and the taboo casts a fresh eye on sex. A laugh-out-loud, honest and ultimately moving look at the sex lives of five ordinary couples, 'The Little Death' – a moment the French call 'la petite mort' (because French is sexy and romantic) – is the pursuit of that fleeting moment of sexual ecstasy.
Influenced by characters like Woody Allen, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Altman, Josh says his cheeky, yet kinky idea came from his own twisted mind. “I’d never really seen a movie about sex in a funny and moving and romantic way in Australia before. So I think there was a bit of a gap in the market. I remember sitting around a dinner table years ago with friends, and we were talking about sex and we were laughing so hard. I thought if I could get an audience to feel the way we felt at that dinner table just then, then I think we’ll be onto something.”
Damon Herriman and Kate MulvanyHaving always been comfortable talking about sex, Josh thinks that Australians are a little bit conservative, but that his film brings out the cheekiness in audiences. By refining the storyline and script over a number of years, the tone was developed and matured to become the tasteful yet comedic brilliance it is now – which can't be easy when you're touching on touchy subjects about touching.
Speaking of touching – the taboo fetishes that feature in the film are unlike most that have been used in mainstream films before. A woman's rape fantasy, role-play for a couple who have lost their flare in the bedroom, arousal over seeing someone upset and crying, a husband who creates an affair with his own wife without her knowing anything about it and a sexually explicit phone call that needs translating by a third person – all can be left up to the imagination.
Patrick Brammall and Kate BoxConducting all the research himself, Josh looked at case studies, chat forums and community groups, and spoke to therapists and sexologists. “[I looked at] all sorts of stuff to get an inside view of the world of fetishes. But ultimately that was just the key into the real stories, which was relationships and how sex fetishes take a toll on relationships.
“I really wanted to explore that comedy in [some of the fetishes], and the tragedy and the darkness. There was so much to explore in every fetish, it was so much fun to write, and then when we got that actors cast, it was fun to watch them play and bring those characters to life.
“I just wanted to make a film we’d never seen before, and in doing that if you want to be really original and daring, you have to tackle issues that other filmmakers won't tackle. So obviously I knew this was a really risky area and that it needed to be handled in a delicate way, I spent a lot of time making sure I got the tone just right to handle that. And I’m glad that I took that risk because in order to get a reward, you have to take a risk.”
{youtube}BnnhesQ8Rxc{/youtube}
Learning quite a lot about himself as a person as well as a filmmaker from having written, directed and starred in the film that dabbles in such a personal subject, Josh says the more he talked about sex, the more he explored it. “I was able to explore the outer limits for me – what was too far, or not far enough.
“Normal is sort of all relative isn’t it? ‘Cause what’s normal for one person can be really abnormal for somebody else. They’re all normal in their own way... or they want to be normal and they want to try and achieve normal intimacy and normal passion but I think they’re a little misguided, and they stray off the path a little bit.”
Currently working on a new script for something very different, Josh still has a lot more stories to tell and thinks he'll stick with the writing-directing thing (hopefully he stars in them too). His love of making people laugh leads him to hope for a sequel so he can explore the futures of some of the characters as well as developing new ones. “But first thing's first, this movie needs to be a success, ‘cause we’re not going to make a sequel to a movie that no one watches. We've just got to get as many people to watch it as possible. If that happens, then a sequel is very much possible.”
