Erica Tremblay on BAFTA Breakthrough and post-Fancy Dance projects
On Thursday, BAFTA unveiled the members of this year’s BAFTA Breakthrough cohort; 43 creatives in film, TV or games who will receive support, guidance and networking opportunities for a year to help them turn their early success into long and sustainable careers in the industry.
Erica Tremblay, who co-wrote and directed Fancy Dance, is a member of the U.S. cohort alongside Baby Reindeer star Nava Mau, Didi writer/director Sean Wang, and Daughters co-directors Natalie Rae and Angela Walker Patton, among others. You can check out the full list right at the bottom.
In a Zoom interview with Miss Flicks, Erica reflected on the programme, her breakout year, how her career has changed since Fancy Dance came out in June, and what she’s doing next. Read on for that conversation or scroll down for the video.
Congratulations on being part of this year’s BAFTA Breakthrough cohort. Where were you when you found out and how did you react?
I was just sitting here where I’m sitting right now and I was doing some work and I saw my email flip and I saw the heading and it just said ‘BAFTA’ so I knew before opening it, I was like, ‘OK, this is the answer, this is either gonna be the yes or the no.’ You’re sitting there and I’m like, ‘I didn’t get it, I didn’t get it, I know I didn’t get it, it’s OK, I didn’t get it, you know, it’s fine.’ I was already mourning not getting it. And then I opened it and I was like (gasp), ‘I got it! I got it! I got it!’ And I immediately called my reps and I was really really excited. This means a lot. It’s been a whirlwind of a year for me and it’s really thrilling to cap it all off here at the end of the year, to have this recognition and to be a part of this beautiful cohort of extremely talented individuals. It’s an honour, truly.
Did you do anything to celebrate?
I actually had planned to go out to dinner with my nieces that night and so we all went out. My sister and my nieces live in my community with me and one of my favourite things is just to share with my young nieces what I do and how I followed my dreams. I don’t know, the best kind of celebration for me is when I get to be with my nieces and explain to them what’s going on and what it is so we went out to dinner that night and celebrated.
As a filmmaker who has been releasing projects for years, what does it mean to have ‘broken through’ this year?
I have wanted to do this job and to be a filmmaker since I knew it was a job. I moved out to LA when I was when I was a lot younger thinking, ‘Oh, I’m gonna go to LA and I’m become a filmmaker.’ It’s not that easy. You get out there (and) really quickly you realise this is not an industry you just break through. It was a long time in the making for me and I worked in Hollywood for a time and then I transitioned into a completely different career and I built out a career in a totally different sector. I was just making docs and just whatever I could get my hands on on the weekends and like low-budget things to have my creative juices and I kind of felt like that would probably be just that for me. I had kind of meditated myself into the fact that just making things for the sake of making things is worthwhile and I still truly believe that.
And then I made a short film with Lily Gladstone (Little Chief) that premiered at Sundance in 2020 and that started me on my path now where I can confidently sit here and say now that I am a filmmaker. It is my job, I get paid a living to write and direct in the feature and TV space. Breaking through sounds so immediate, like something that you just do and all of a sudden you’re broke through but for me, it was more of a couple of decades sitting there excavating until I finally arrived at a place after years and years of carving myself through a very thick stone. So what a wonderful way to cap off what has been a very long journey that I’m very proud of. To sit here now and be like, ‘I’m through, I’m broken through, I’m on the other side of that, now what’s next, what are we making?’
How has your life and career changed since the release of Fancy Dance?
I am so glad I’ve got my first one out. I’m glad that the first one’s done. It was a long and arduous process. We made the film and you know, we worked really hard to get distribution. I’m so like, ‘Wow, that’s my first movie?!’ Like, forever, for the rest of my life, Fancy Dance is my directorial debut and I’m so proud that that is my first. She’s always gonna be like my firstborn; she holds such a special place in my heart.
Things have changed in a sense that I am so much more confident. I now feel like I can look at a story problem or look at a book or something that’s sent to me to adapt. I’ve had so much imposter syndrome for so much of my life that now I feel like Fancy Dance has at least allowed me to walk up to the blank page with a little bit more confidence. I’m excited to have Fancy Dance kind of be a starting-off place for me to now grow what I hope is a big beautiful career in this space.
What do you have coming up? You’ve done your first one, what’s coming next?
I’m currently adapting a horror novel. I’m really interested in getting into the genre space. Miciana (Alise), who I co-wrote Fancy Dance with, she and I are also working on a thriller together. So there’s lots of stuff. I’m getting ready to head back to LA for a few months to work in a writers’ room there on a show. So just lots of stuff. I’m developing a television series as well. So very busy, trying to find ways to focus that energy across all of these really wonderful projects that I’m excited to be a part of. I hope (there’s) so much more to come.
You got your start in documentaries. Would you ever go back to doing documentaries now that you’re in the narrative fiction space?
I’ve always wanted to write stories. I’ve always wanted to make stories up. When I moved out to LA, it was hard to break through. No one wanted to make the stories that I was trying to tell, no one wanted to give me money to make stories about Native American people, women, queer women, and documentary filmmaking was a way that I could kind of just self-fund a project. Like if I had a camera and a subject, I could record it. I feel like no one should hire me as their doc filmmaker because I just want to make stuff up.
I feel like when you’re a documentary filmmaker you want to tell the truth and you go there and want to analyse. The whole time I’m like, ‘Man, I really wish you would just do this instead of what you just did.’ I think that my doc career really solidified in me that I should be working in the fiction space because I’m not one to like chase the hard solid facts. I want to dream up scenarios to put people in. But I’m very grateful to the doc projects that I was able to make because I feel like they really trained me to search for humanity in characters. I’m grateful for everything that I’ve had the opportunity to make and work on but I think I should stick to fiction for now.
Here is the full list of members of this year’s BAFTA Breakthrough programme, supported by Netflix:
UK BREAKTHROUGHS:
Alice Russell, Director – If the Streets Were on Fire
Beth Park, Lead Performance Director – Black Myth: Wukong
Clair Titley, Director – The Contestant
Cobbie Yates, Costume Designer – Layla
Daf James, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer/Musical Director – Lost Boys & Fairies
Fred Hoffman, Art Director – Paper Trail
Georgina Hurcombe, Creator/Producer/Director – Pop Paper City
Harry Gilbert, Casting Director – G’wed
Jennifer English, Performer – Baldur’s Gate 3
Kyla Harris, Lead Performer/Co-Creator/Co-Writer/Associate Producer – We Might Regret This
Lauren Sequeira, Creator/Writer/Executive Producer – Domino Day
Lee Getty, Co-Creator/Co-Writer/Associate Producer – We Might Regret This
Loran Dunn, Producer – Hoard
Luna Carmoon, Writer/Director – Hoard
Luned Tonderai, Series Director – Miriam: Death Of A Reality Star
Mawaan Rizwan, Performer/Writer/Creator/Executive Producer – Juice
Otto Baxter, Writer/Director/Performer – The Puppet Asylum
Poulomi Basu, Creator/Director/Writer/Art Director – MAYA: The Birth of a Superhero
Rochelle Newman, Producer – White Nanny Black Child
Shahnaz Dulaimy, Editor – Top Boy
Sophie Knowles, Lead Artist – Viewfinder
US BREAKTHROUGHS:
Angela Walker Patton, Director – Daughters
Elaine Gómez, Creative Director – Blink Land
Erica Tremblay, Writer/Director – Fancy Dance
Hanna Park, Editor – Bottoms
Jih-E Peng, Cinematographer – Girls Will Be Girls
Joy Ngiaw, Composer – WondLa
Juliana Hoffpauir, Costume Designer – Hit Man
Karrie Shirou Shao, Game Writer/Lead Designer – Pacific Drive
Nafisa Kaptownwala, Casting Director – Dìdi
Natalie Rae, Director – Daughters
Nava Mau, Performer – Baby Reindeer
Nicole He, Creative Director – The Crush House
Sean Wang, Writer/Director – Dìdi
INDIA BREAKTHROUGHS:
Abhinav Chokhavatia, Game Producer – Down and Out
Christo Tomy, Director – Curry and Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case
Deepa Bhatia, Writer/Director/Producer – First Act
Dhiman Karmakar, Sound Designer/Production Sound Mixer – Amar Singh Chamkila
Jaydeep Sarkar, Showrunner/Series Director/Executive Producer – Rainbow Rishta
Monisha Thyagarajan, Series Producer – The Hunt for Veerappan
Neeraj Kumar, Producer/Lead Developer – Artifice: War Tactics
Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy, Writer/Director/Performer – Aachar & Co.
Varun Grover, Writer/Director – All India Ran
Fancy Dance is now streaming on Apple TV+
This interview has been edited for clarity and length