Walking a Tightrope: Quinn Shephard on Not Okay | Interviews

How long was the writing process to fully develop the screenplay?

It’s a fairly long development. I wrote the first draft in 2018. And we shot the film in 2021. So it was a bit of a process in that we wrote the first draft, it kind of came out of me pretty quickly, I think some films are really hard to write the very first draft up and some are very hard to develop. I think this was more of I kind of knew what I wanted to say with the film early on and then it was a lot of fine-tuning. Largely, I think that’s because ending Danni’s story is quite tricky because of what she does in the film, and also how to strike the tonal balance of critique of her character while also having her be human enough that the audience relates to her. And like not stepping over a line where you’re putting the audience off of the film, but making sure you’re putting them off of Danni enough that they understand that the film was not on her side. Walking that tightrope was always the game, in development. It was something that we drilled in on and once Zoey came on board, we honed even more. It was a bit of a process. But I’m really happy with how it turned out.

What kind of research did you do to make sure you found that authentic, fine line of depicting real trauma with survivors while balancing the satire?

So I worked with a trauma consultant on the final drafts of the script. I wanted to make sure that we were being accurate and respectful to real trauma survivors. It was always so important to me that though the film has a lot of humor. It never pokes fun at or drives humor from real trauma because it is intended to shift the tone of the film when Rowan’s character comes in, and we’re faced with the realities of the trauma that Danny is co-opting in the film. I’ve always been fascinated by films that can do this. I think one of the best examples is “Do the Right Thing,” where it’s really funny, you’re just with a cast of characters, and you’re having a great time. And then like the film delves into much darker and deeper topics by the end. You go on a journey tonally. I was inspired by projects that were able to do that. You always knew when you were supposed to laugh and when you were not supposed to laugh. And talking about gun violence and real trauma, it’s something I’m very politically passionate about. I’m extremely anti-gun and it is something I was very angry about when I was writing the script, just watching our country get brutalized by school shootings every day. It was crucial to me to be able to depict that with empathy. Honestly, a lot of my research was just reading up on trauma and watching interviews with and speeches from school shooting survivors, talking to people who really could understand and speak to that experience.

Why did you think NYC was the perfect playground for this particular story?

At the time when I was writing it, I sort of felt like New York was directly reflecting the exact cultural stuff that was happening online that I won’t talk about. The fact that the internet was constantly showing real ingredient headlines next to the most glossy, ridiculous clickbait was something that I felt you could see just like walking down the street in New York. You’d be walking through a neighborhood that was in the middle of getting gentrified, and you would just see authentic, old school, New York next to, like, a selfie café or whatever. And you’re just going, “ah,” it was really weird. You’re seeing New York change before your eyes. It felt like the perfect location for this because it reflected the world that Danni glamorized. I always imagined it was like she grew up watching “The Devil Wears Prada” and thinking, that’s the New York she wants to live in, where she’s like, this cool magazine girl, and she’s gonna have a makeover and her life’s gonna be amazing. But I also wanted to show that when we get to the support group with Rowan and her activism, that’s a real side of New York. A side of New York that’s not designed to be viewed on Instagram, but it’s real and real people. And it’s that cultural mashup that I think is very interesting about New York right now.