Earlier this month, we chatted with writer and director Wendy Jo Carlton and actress Rachel Paulson to hear about their latest film, Good Kisser, which Carlton describes as a “lesbian ménage à trois that’s full of suspense and surprises.” Here’s what they had to say about the film and LGBTQ media that has impacted them.
Tagg: For those who haven’t seen Good Kisser, how would you describe the film?
Rachel: Good Kisser is a movie that has really never been done before where it’s this polyamory type of thing between three women, and I think that’s such an interesting world to be living in, especially now.
Tagg: Wendy, what was your inspiration for the film?
Wendy Jo: Love and lust. You can probably tell that I love women. And also I love tension and trying to write something believable that many of us, regardless of your identification or orientation, can relate to. We can relate to crushes, attraction, chemistry, and organic chemistry.
Tagg: Rachel, how did you get involved in the project?
Rachel: I met Wendy Jo years ago. At the time she had watched a lesbian television show I had done called Drink Responsibly that was on YouTube. She contacted me, and then we [met] for coffee and she said she had this movie [but she only had written the first] twenty pages. I read it…and I really loved it. And then I think two years went by and I didn’t hear anything, and then suddenly she was done with the film. And then she sent it over to me and it was even better and then I was like “I’m in, let’s do this.”
Tagg: What were some of your favorite parts about making the film?
Wendy Jo: One of my [favorite] things was the script read through. The three main actors, Rachel Paulson, Julia Eringer, and Kari Allison Hodge, they all came up [to Seattle] from LA…and it was just exciting to hear them read together in the same room with me and the rest of the cast and crew.
Rachel: Some of my favorite stuff was really around 2 a.m. on those shoot days, [which lasted from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.]. Everyone on set had been really working hard, and by the sixth or seventh day, we were like: “What day is it? What time is it?” But I think that’s when some of the best work would come out because we would really have to push ourselves to be in these places and in these emotional states.
Tagg: As members of the LGBTQ community, what were some of the first movies or TV shows that helped you feel represented?
Rachel: For me, I grew up on the original L Word so I think that was the first show where I really kind of was like: “Lesbians and queer people can actually live normal lives.” I was born in the 80s, so when I was in my high school years, it was the early 2000s, so it wasn’t quite as accepted in those days. And I think at that point, it was one of the only shows that was really doing it.
Wendy Jo: I would say the movie The Hunger [with] Catherine Deneuve, Susan Sarandon, and David Bowie. That movie, I watched with my boyfriend at the time [and when] he went to bed, I rewound the tape to the scene of [Sarandon] spilling wine on her white T-shirt at the piano, and then Deneuve coming over and basically seducing her. [At that point], I had already been attracted to women, but that was a big one because I was old enough, in my twenties, to be ready to kind of act on it after that. Because I wanted that feeling.
Good Kisser is now available to rent on AppleTV, Amazon Prime Video, GooglePlay, Fandango Now, VUDU, and WolfeOnDemand.com.
