Picking Up the Pieces: Writer/Director Charlotte Regan Talks ‘Scrapper’

Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson
All images courtesy of Picturehouse

‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ From the moment that opening cliché is scratched out and replaced, writer/director Charlotte Regan secures her introduction as an exciting new voice in British cinema. Not that she’s a stranger to the camera. Her oeuvre includes directing some 200 music videos and over 15 shorts. Her growing list of awards recognition includes a BAFTA nomination and most recently, her debut feature Scrapper was the winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at Sundance.

Releasing in cinemas 25 August from Picturehouse (UK) and Kino Lorber (US), Scrapper tells the story of an estranged father and daughter who need one another more than they realise. Writer/director Charlotte Regan chats with Film Review about her feature debut and the careers she hasn’t had—yet.

In conversation with Scrapper writer/director Charlotte Regan

Film Review (FR): Do you think that we would be talking if you had mad rapping skills?

Charlotte Regan (CR): [Laughs.] I'd hope not. I’m still hoping someone will either scout me to play in the NBA or let me be a rapper. Do you not have one of those secret career dreams that you'd prefer?

(FR): Yeah, for sure! Your career began making music videos for rappers. 

(CR): Yeah, lots of my friends, who I grew up with, were rappers. They were super kind and dragged me with them. As their careers got bigger, they would push me into record label meetings and make me make their videos, even though my videos were terrible. So it's thanks to them for sure. 

(FR): Given your background in music videos, how has your experience and style translated into shorts and now into your feature work? Is the approach different? Or is it the same?

(CR): I don't know really. I guess because I've only ever done it this way, I struggle to think of how it might differ. I guess it's more musical. I like music to be locked in before we get to a shoot, because I like shooting with music, pacing and tempo in mind. It probably also means that I make films way to short and need to learn how to stop cutting things down. Because in music videos, you have to tell stories so quickly. When we were in the edit, I would constantly be like, ‘Just cut it out. Just cut that scene’, you know? There's about 20 scenes that have been deleted, because I'm terrible and impatient.

(FR): When did different aspect ratios, talking spiders, and the various backgrounds imagined by Georgie and Ali for Jason take shape? Was that at the level of the script, or did that come as you were working on the production?

(CR): A bit of both for sure. Even from the first draft, there were very stylized sequences. It used to open in the lift of a tower block and the lift went to every floor in this 12-story tower block. On each floor, there was something weird happening, like just a fox staring down the lens. All very expensive and unachievable, no doubt. So luckily, when Molly [Manning Walker], my DP, came on board and Elena [Muntoni], my production designer, we started to reshape those ideas. They just got better with people who knew how to make them better than my dodgy, expensive ones.

Charlotte Regan, Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson

Lola Campbell

(FR): You work closely with your producer Theo Barrowclough, what is your collaboration like?

(CR): Oh yeah, that's the best, you know? I've worked with other producers, great producers for sure, and still had a good time, but the relationship I have with Theo is totally different. We're not precious and we’re willing to be vulnerable. We share every role from the start of a job. I'll talk to him about broad script ideas, and he will talk to me about budget worries or hiring things. We're just very open in that regard. He lives like two roads away from me now as well. I'm constantly annoying him to go on a walk, or come and play basketball. He's one of my best friends for sure.

(FR): As first-time actors, did Lola and Alin bring a unique perspective to the set that enriched the process? Did you have to guide them through it or was it the other way around, did they end up teaching you something?

(CR): It was for sure the other way around. I mean, me and Theo both say this, but I feel like we learned the most from them. They came to set every day with such a joyful energy, finding everything we were doing so exciting. You kind of forget [that] as you do this work a lot, which is mad, because if we all would have told ourselves as kids that we get to stand around with spiders that are going to be talking and do this for a job, we would have been pretty impressed. I think the kids reminded everyone of that. They really dictated the atmosphere on set. And you do shorter hours with them as well, which was such a massive thing for all the crew, who had families to go home to and never get to spend time with those family members. It just meant the atmosphere on set was totally different. Yeah, they were incredible for sure.

(FR): Speaking of perspective, the film really shows us the world through Georgie's eyes, with the camera coming down to her level. How did you address the relationship between Jason and Georgie? Did Lola and Harris build that bond behind-the-scenes or did it primarily unfold on-camera?

(CR): Lola is quite a suspicious person. She's so mature. She's not one of those kids where you give them a chocolate bar and they're your friend. She's much more like, ‘you have to earn my trust, same way I have to earn yours’. She's very adult in that way. So she was quite suspicious of Harris at first, which really worked, because we were shooting semi-chronologically. Harris is a really kind man, so there's nothing to be suspicious of with Harris, but it kind of worked out that as the script grew, so did their relationship. They got on really great. Harris was super supportive of the kids and would stand around when he didn't have scenes, to help them and teach them about different things in the film. But I think they taught him a lot as well, about being reactive instead of overly prepping. They just go dictated by how they feel and that really changes the energy of the scene.

Lola Campbell and Alin Uzun

Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson

(FR): You mentioned that you cut a lot of scenes, are there moments you would have liked to keep, but perhaps didn't necessarily fit in the story?

(CR): Loads. There was an additional character in the portraits called Henry. He walked around with a fish tank with a walking fish [inside]. They are these massive fish that look a bit like aliens. They're really cool. He walked around the estate with them in a fish tank. The actor who played him was so funny. Almost too funny. When he was in the portrait section, you almost got incredibly distracted by it, if you know what I mean, because he was so compelling to watch. I'm always really sad, I never quite know if that was the right decision or not.

(FR): There’s so much joy at the heart of the film. What cinema experience have you had that left you feeling lighter and full of hope? 

(CR): The best cinema experience I've ever had is, I went to TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) one year, me and my best mate Jack. Neither of us knew what TIFF was really. It was like the first festival we got into with a short, which is incredibly lucky, that. We went to see Arrival and had no idea what it was and hadn't heard anything about it. Jack and I were not really into reading about films at the time. That’s probably up there with the best cinema experience I've ever had, for sure. My nan used to drag me to a cinema near us. She would sneak me in, because we couldn't afford to pay for it at the time. She took me to see all the Lord of the Rings films when I was way too young to be watching them. I remember being terrified, but excited, and how much cinema could control your emotions in a really cool way. 

(FR): Did anything from the films that your nan snuck you into stick with you or even influence your work?

(CR): I don’t know, I think it was more of a feeling. I always have this mad image of the faceless black riders in Lord of the Rings. They’re like Lord of the Rings versions of the dementors, aren't they? I just remember the first time that you meet them in the first film. She had snuck me in when I was way too young. I remember not sleeping for days and days. That has always stuck with me.

(FR): Do you think you'll ever make a really scary horror film?

(CR): Yeah, yeah, me and Theo talk about it quite a lot. We're watching a lot at the minute. We just went to watch Talk to Me the other night, which was incredible. So yeah.

Lola Campbell and Alin Uzun

Lola Campbell, Harris Dickinson and Alin Uzun

Charlotte Regan is a filmmaker from London who grew up making low budget music promos for local rappers and has created over 200 to date. Her first short film, Standby premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to be nominated for a BAFTA and win a Sundance award. Her second short Fry-Up screened at BFI London Film Festival, Sundance and Berlinale, and her third short Dodgy Dave played at both the Toronto International Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival. Her first feature, Scrapper, was developed with BBC Film/BFI, with DMC Film producing. She is a Sundance Ignite Fellow, a BFI Future Film and New Talent award winner and was named as a 2020 Screen International Star of Tomorrow.

Scrapper is in cinemas from 25 August. Get Tickets: UK / US: NY, LA

CHAD KENNERK