TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival can be dizzying not only for the press but also attendees. When I sit down to talk to Lorene Scafaria, the director of “Hustlers,” she immediately jokes that she hopes she’s awake, “I just finished the movie, so I’m definitely still dreaming about it. Like at school when I graduated, but I still think I have a test so…”
READ MORE: “Hustlers:” Jennifer Lopez’s drama comeback is a welcome surprise [Review]
Scafaria can absolutely breathe easier now. The STX Entertainment release is now one of the most acclaimed films to debut at this year’s festival. At publication, it has a stellar 80 grade on Metacritic (granted just six reviews) and a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Inspired by a true story of two New York City area strippers who took business matters into their own hands after the financial crisis, Destiny (Constance Wu) and Ramona (Jennifer Lopez), the film is tracking for an impressive September opening this Friday and legitimate buzz about Lopez being a potential Oscar nominee has permeated the festival. At the time, however, the “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” and “The Meddler” director was just 24 hours away from what turned out to be a raucous reception for her most accomplished work to date.
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The Playlist: The movie’s marketing has been somewhat of a cheat focusing more on the sexy moments than some the more grounded, dramatic moments. In some ways that’s not a bad thing because it’s tracking to open well, but has that been a strange juxtaposition for you considering the overall film itself?
Lorene Scafaria: Yeah. To be honest, I thought it would be an event movie in a way. I thought it would be like, “Let’s bring the club to the theaters and let’s see these incredible performers and epic stories.” So, it did feel a little larger than life, but it is a bit of a Trojan horse. And it’s a hustle, you know? The movie is hustling the audience the same way [the characters are]. Not to like lure them into the theaters necessarily, but to say like, “Oh, this is a movie that you’re going to think is sexy and fun and hopefully you know, a wild story and you’re going to like the characters and enjoy watching it, but also maybe you’ll think and feel things and yeah, come away with it with it, maybe possibly a different understanding of maybe strippers or women.” That was the hope obviously.
What about the original article made you want to even tackle the project?
Everything. I was so drawn to the idea of telling a story about women as it relates to money and earning money and providing. I thought there was a great story about capitalism that was kind of wrapped up in it. I thought this is a world that we haven’t really seen a lot of even though we’ve seen a scene in a strip club in every movie and TV show and yet we just really have seen so few from their perspective. I was so interested in that. I was really interested in the friendship story that was there. I thought there was something really interesting in the structure of how these two women formed this business together. And then there they are being interviewed separately by this journalist. So, I very immediately wanted to write the journalist into the story. That was part of my pitch for how I would adapt the article into a script.
One of the things I loved about the movie is that focus on the relationship between Destiny and Ramona. It was hinted at in the story, but it’s not front and center. Was it something the original article’s writer gave you a tip about like, “Hey, I think that they were better friends than maybe it may have seemed”?
There was always the idea that these two women might have had different versions of the story. So, the script went through a lot of different iterations, but ultimately it felt like this is Destiny’s story of Ramona. This is the story of like those really powerful friendships that you can make when you’re a preteen to an adult that are the kinds of people that can bail you out of trouble and get you into trouble. And they’re so alluring and they’re so profound. That big sister, little sister relationship to me was really inherent in that, just the dynamics because strippers work together. They work in pairs. The idea that there’s a more seasoned stripper who takes someone under their wing, it felt very interesting to me. But no, it was really just in reading it and I like stories about loneliness. I really like talking about loneliness and isolation. I’m a codependent so I ended up writing codependent movies. But I think that those friendships that really can like save our lives and, yes, can also get us into trouble.
In terms of casting, did J-Lo come on board first? Was there any hesitancy for actors about playing strippers on screen?
The stigma that is around strippers is certainly around stripper characters as well. I think once [people] read this script they realized that my approach to it was with empathy and trying to understand people, but also painting a fuller picture. I don’t really think about actors when I write a script, but once I opened it back up I was like, “Oh, it’s Jennifer Lopez.” Jennifer Lopez as Ramona, obviously. So, we sent the script to her producing partner, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas who fortunately loved it, sent it to Jennifer, who [also] fortunately loved it. And then we met and just talked about all the things we were so excited to talk about. Certainly, Ramona as a character, but all the themes of it. And she knows this time period and New York. Once Jennifer was attached, obviously it’s a lot easier to cast around Jennifer Lopez, but it became a real hunt for who Destiny was going to be because we had the supporting character cast first. And so, we really wanted to hone in on who is this, who is actually telling this story, who are our eyes into this story. It took a longer time to find Constance. And throughout that whole process, I had always envisioned a lot of these other actors and cast members. So, I was writing the roles for Trace Lysette and Jacqueline Francis who goes by Jacq the Stripper, I wanted her to be in the movie. And Mette Towley and Marcy Richardson who goes by Opera Gaga, she’s this opera singing burlesque dancer. Lizzo, Cardi B. Keke Palmer was someone I always wanted to work with. All of these roles were kind of meant for them.
You’ve even got Mercedes Ruehl!
Yeah, I love Mercedes Ruehl. I was obsessed with “Lost In Yonkers” when I was a kid. Having her on set was very intimidating, but she’s so cool. She was really, really, really cool.
Was there anything that surprised while you were researching this world?
So many little things, obviously. I mean, I did a lot of research before writing the script, but when making the movie it became obvious that we need to even talk to more and more strippers and sex workers and strip club employees and just make sure that how these clubs run. What was really affirming was how much the financial crisis had an impact on their industry as a whole. Obviously, it had an impact on all of us, but money changed, and they deal in money. What someone was willing to do for $20 changed, what someone expected for $20 changed. That was a hinge for at least these girls in New York and all their clients were these Wall Street guys. That really did have a profound impact on them. But yeah, it’s a job like anything else. I think what was so enlightening was to see that, yeah, there are good days and bad days and those good days and bad days may not be, “Oh my favorite client came in. Or a nice guy came in. Or a creep came in.” It’s, “Did you go home with what you needed to pay the bills?” But yeah, Jacq the Stripper, she was my comfort consultant and our stripper consultant. And she would tell us things like, “The guys say ‘please’ a lot.” You’d ask, “Well, what’s bad behavior in a strip club? Would a guy crumble up a dollar and throw it at a girl?” And she’d say, “Yes.” And nothing brought me more joy than when [Constance and Jennifer] would call out for Jacq to make sure, like, “O.K, if this guy is being a creep to me, how would I react?” I think what people don’t realize is that they’re in control, that they don’t do anything they don’t want to do. The clubs are designed a certain way that this is an exchange of goods and services. Some clubs are run better than others. Some management is worse than others, but there’s this whole system there. It really is just this like microcosm in a way of our value system.
This might sound like an exaggeration, but I really think this is Jennifer’s best performance since “Out of Sight.” Was there a point where you realized, “Oh wow, she’s bringing it” in a way that maybe you hadn’t expected?
No, I think she has chops. I’ve thought she has chops forever. And like, you could watch “Out Of Sight” and there’s not a false note and you can watch “Shades Of Blue” and there’s not a false note. I just think she’s known for a lot of lighter fare and I love her romantic comedies myself. She’s so gifted, comedically and romantically, but I just think she’s a heavy and for me it was “U-Turn” and “Selena” and “Out Of Sight.” And so I’m a fan of her as an actor in a major way. I knew she’d bring it, but she’s still the most determined actor I’ve ever come across. She really throws herself in like nothing else. She carried that lighter [Ramona uses] around with her all day. She trained on that pole for two and a half months. She had a pole following her from city to city. But, you know, that fur coat scene for me it was the first one I wrote and it was the last thing we shot. For me it was always Constance and Jennifer in this coat. Once Constance was attached and it was the two of them and I just thought they would have this chemistry. I was so excited and I didn’t get to see them together until the camera test. So, when Jennifer had that fur coat and she put her arm around Constance. I felt chills because I was like, “Oh, this is it.” These are the two people I didn’t even realize I was picturing for so long and [it] couldn’t be anyone else. But to have Jennifer Lopez invite you into her fur coat, I think you’d say yes to just about whatever she asked you to do after that.
That was the last scene you shot of the movie?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the first thing I wrote and the last thing we shot
Did you save it last on purpose?
No, no, it’s just when we could get that rooftop, you just do it when you can. And I remember thinking, “Oh wait, we should be doing this a lot earlier.” But it was actually a beautiful thing because it’s kind of the most intimate scene between them in a way. We’ve seen Destiny have contact with men and strangers, but not really in the arms of another woman or and be close to a female friend or anything. And so it was so great that by the end of the shoot they really did have that sisterly relationship the whole time. To end there was actually a really beautiful, beautiful thing.
“Hustlers” opens nationwide on Friday.