Filmmaker and Winston-Salem native Angus MacLachlan’s new movie, A Little Prayer, will screen at theaters across the country beginning Friday. Like some previous films that he’s written or directed, including Junebug and Goodbye to All That, it was filmed in MacLachlan’s hometown.
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts alumnus recently spoke with WFDD’s David Ford.
Interview Highlights
On why MacLachlan makes films in Winston-Salem:
"Well, one of the things is that people are very amenable for me to shoot here, which is great. You know, my other two films that I shot, one was in Pfafftown, and one was in East Bend. So, it's great to have the verisimilitude and the feeling of something that I truly know. And I really love when I bring actors who are not from here, and they get the feeling of people in this area, not just the accents — which is very important to me, because a lot of southern films have really terrible accents — but they get the feeling of it."
On MacLachlan's ongoing connection with UNCSA:
"Three of my main actors are School of the Arts alumni: Celia Weston and Anna Camp, and Steve Coulter. One of my producers is a faculty member, Lauren Vilchik, at the film school. And we had, I think, 27 at that time, current and now alumni film students working on the crew."
On working with David Strathairn:
"He's great at what he does. He's such a sweet man. He was so open and involved with everybody there. And he has this quality which I had not experienced before. I've worked with a lot of good actors. We shot a scene in particular that I'm thinking of, and he was great. But it wasn't until I watched the footage that I saw all these other things going on in his mind and in his heart. And it's like the camera picks it up even more than when I was in the room with him. And he's a wonderful man."
On his film opening at theaters across the country:
"I am excited, and mostly I'm relieved, because it's been so long, you know. I will believe it when I'm sitting there, and people are enjoying it. Yes, I'm very happy, mostly, that people will get to see the performances because they're so good, and locally, I think people will just enjoy seeing the locations and seeing a portrait of life in Winston-Salem or the south or America that is not pejorative or limiting."
A Little Prayer, starring David Strathairn, Jane Levy, Anna Camp and Celia Weston, by director, writer and producer Angus MacLachlan, opens at movie theaters on August 29.
Q&As will follow some local screenings at a/perture cinema in Winston-Salem.
