VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Tom Cullen Discusses His Directorial Debut Film ‘Pink Wall’ At SXSW 2019

Tom Cullen, a Welsh actor known for his roles in his film Weekend and his brief stint on the drama series Downton Abbey sat down with uInterview exclusively at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, this week to discuss his new independent romantic drama film Pink Wall, which he wrote and directed. The film stars Jay Duplass and Cullen’s real-life partner, Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany, and marks his directorial debut.

“The film is called Pink Wall, it’s six scenes and each scene is a year of this couple’s relationship,” Cullen began explaining while fittingly wearing a pink shirt. “It’s told in a a-linear structure, and is designed like memory.”

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“When we look back on our experiences, and especially relationships, I think what we do is juxtapose different moments in order to build our emotional landscape and story,” Cullen continued. “So I wanted to approach the well-trodden path, which is the relationship drama, in a fresh kind of way and I felt that this was the way to do it.”

Cullen added he hopes audiences will leave his film having felt like they truly “lived and experienced” the relationship it depicts.

Cullen also reveled in the experience of working with Maslany, whom he has been dating since 2011. The pair met while filming a Channel 4 miniseries called World Without End. 

“Working with Tatiana was just awesome,” he said. “In that year that we shot Pink Wall, I think we worked with each other on five different projects: we did a short film and a music video together. I just want to work with the best people and she is one of the best actors of her generation, and so the fact that I get to work with her is just joyous.”

Read full interview transcript below:

Q: What’s the plot of Pink Wall?

A: The film’s called pink wall and it is six scenes and each scene is a year of this couple’s relationship and it’s told in an a-linear structure and the film is designed like memory. When we look back on our experiences and especially relationships I think what we do is we juxtapose different moments in order to build our emotional landscape in our emotional story so I wanted to approach the well-trodden path which is the relationship drama in a fresh kind of way and I felt that this was the way to do it and I wanted the film to be experiential that the audience would hopefully leave because fingers cross feeling like they’ve kind of experienced a relationship and witnessed the relationship. And the writing process was very much about me making as honest a movie as I possibly could.

Q: What was it like working with your partner Tatiana Maslany?

A: Yeah you know it was just working with Tatiana was just awesome we’re really lucky in that and that year that we shot Pink Wall I think we worked with each other on five different projects we did a short film together cuz I’m also an actor, and we did a music video together and did a film together, and then I directed her and it’s… I just want to work with the best people and she is one of the best actors I think of her generation and so the fact that I get to work with her is just joyous. When you get to set the relationship is kind of left at the door and it is very much a situation where I just really vibe off her brilliance that’s that’s what it’s like and it’s great that we get to share such an important part of who we are as people you know I think our creativity is very woven in with our identity as human being so it’s great that we get to share that.

Q: Which was your favorite scene to shoot?

A: Every scene had its own kind of difficulties and its own joys there wasn’t one that particularly stood out because it was my first film first time directing so every moment was just thrilling and exciting and the film is experimental I changed the vocabulary and the language of each of the six scenes. And so each scene kind of felt like it was fresh and new and we were playing with that.