Today, we are speaking with filmmaker James L Edwards about the recent viral success of his film Her Name Was Christa. In early March, a post was made to the Facebook group Tubi Horror Movies about his 2020 directorial debut. The group, which has just under 200k members, began flocking to the streamer to check out the dark romance.
With the internet being the internet, the film was also turned into meme fodder. Often with images of the lead actors produced by generative AI.
Her Name Was Christa tells the story of Stephen (Edwards), a middle-aged and awkward telemarketer, dealing with the painful realization that he may live the rest of his life alone. When a co-worker suggests he break his dry spell by hiring a sex worker, he’s initially reluctant. Until he hears about “the girlfriend experience.” This leads him to finding Christa (Shianne Daye), and from there, things take some bizarre turns.
Her Name Was Christa Goes Viral
Ada: You’ve recently had your first film, Her Name Was Christa, go viral in a Tubi horror group. Can you tell us a little about that?
James: It was completely bizarre and unplanned. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I’m thrilled about it. But considering the movie’s been out for almost six years, it suddenly got discovered. This Facebook group that I had joined months earlier ended up just going viral with it. Now, with something like that, you’re going to have people who love it and people who hate it. I’m just glad people are watching it.
Ada: It counts as engagement either way. If somebody watches it, somebody watches it.
James: Oh, exactly.
Ada: Since this happened fairly recently, have you seen any metrics on that spike already?
James: Not yet. I don’t expect to see anything really move for another, I’d say, month and a half. But, if the Facebook page is any indication, it should be pretty sizable.
AI Memes
Ada: One of the byproducts of going viral is that you basically become meme fodder. So what was going on is a whole bunch of people started feeding Her Name is Crista into programs to make AI-generated images of the couple from the film. You’re kind of in a unique position because not only did you write and direct Her Name is Crista, you’re also the lead actor. So these AI images are of you, made with your own creation. How do you feel about that?
James: It’s a double-edged sword, and I’m not gonna lie, it’s bittersweet in the sense that I am very anti-AI. I do not like the idea at all. I think that I, especially as of recent, have run into a lot of people trying to do AI screenplays, AI posters. It’s hard enough to get work in this industry without AI taking jobs away from people. Now that said, when I see images of me and Shianne Daye, like, as our characters in an AI image of us getting married or at dinner or something, I gotta admit, it’s kind of cool. I’m not gonna lie. But I immediately remember, “hey, you know, this is taking food away from you,” so maybe not enjoy it so much.
Art Theft
Ada: One of the many issues people have with AI is the fact that it’s trained on stolen art. So, you’re kind of having your art stolen to make images of you. Is that just a surreal feeling?
James: Oh, it’s 100% surreal. I have to assume it’s kind of like the Napster situation in the 90s, where it was like, I’m honored that people are checking out my stuff and enjoying my stuff, but it’s not such a great feeling of having profits taken away because of that. That’s kind of become something with the indie industry anyway, or just the film industry in general. For every one person that is streaming the movie through a legitimate source, 50 people are stealing it. So, I mean, it’s unfortunate, but it’s part of the territory.
The Look of Her Name Was Christa
Ada: You made Her Name is Crista at a low point in your life. Specifically, downplaying your appearance to better match how you envisioned the character.
James: I did set out specifically to be not necessarily ugly or hideous, but very… I don’t know the word to use for that, actually. I was not supposed to look like Brad Pitt in that movie. So, the idea that I wanted to gain 40 pounds for the role, to shave my head so it looked like I had male pattern baldness, that kind of thing. It was very important to kind of immerse myself in that character.
Ada: You looked more like the average Joe, the everyman, instead of the attractive actor you are. So it’s also having the AI images, generated from a point where you didn’t necessarily feel the best about yourself.
James: See, I’ll be honest with you. That’s the problem with being an egomaniac like myself. I don’t care how I look as long as I’m being seen. So no, I don’t mind it. In fact, the only thing that I will say is that there have been a couple of AI-generated images where I think they made me a little more fat than I really was. So that kind of bummed me out.
But even then, it was like, I hate to condone it because I’m well aware that AI is an incredibly dangerous technology for what we do. As I said, it’s hard enough to get your stuff seen or get work in this industry. To have something like this come along, eventually it could reach the point where people in general making films will be obsolete. It’ll all be just fed into a system and just created, which to me is pretty unsettling.
Fighting To Be Seen
Ada: We went from fighting for shelf space in video stores to fighting for having your thumbnail be prominently presented on streaming. It was hard enough to get seen in those algorithms, but now you’re going up against AI slop. So we’re kind of seeing the boom we saw in the 80s, where a whole bunch of fly-by-nights came up and made up a whole bunch of garbage titles, because they didn’t know what they were doing. They weren’t filmmakers. There were some gems in there, but the overwhelming majority of it was garbage.
James: We see the same thing here, only amplified. It’s a shame because, initially, the issue was always getting lost on streaming. Because you’re right. You’re simply a thumbnail among millions of other thumbnails. So getting someone to actually look at your stuff… And not only getting someone to look at your stuff, but actually enjoying it. Because a lot of times, because there are so many options, you need to grab them within the first two or three minutes.
Otherwise, they’re just going to jump to one of the other millions of choices that they have. I have to be honest with you. I mean, I think the independent film industry, much like the regular film industry, at this point, the future is looking very bleak. The future’s looking incredibly bleak. I don’t know. I hope for the best, but I’ve yet to meet the independent filmmaker currently who I can sit down with, and they tell me, “Oh yeah, things are fantastic. Things are great.” You know?
AI & The Indie Market
Ada: From the other end of it, I hear a lot of independent filmmakers say, because they don’t have funding, that’s why they’re doing AI posters, AI this, AI that. Would you ever use AI in your films?
James: It was bad enough in Brimstone Incorporated, where I had a couple of scenes in there that were digitally altered that I did not want to do. I’m a child of the 80s. So, of course, I want everything to be practical. I don’t want there to be any digital effects. I don’t want the use of any AI. If I reach a point where I can’t afford to make a movie unless I’m doing it with AI, I think I’d just quit. It just doesn’t make any sense because at that point, anybody can do it. It’s not that difficult to feed instructions into a program and have it spit out whatever you want. At that point, it’s not even art anymore.
Cutting Costs
Ada: There’s an argument to be made that everything’s been made so cost-prohibitive for indie filmmakers that they use AI to save money. But then you’re cutting out other creators, and it’s affecting other industries.
James: I don’t buy that excuse, though. I’ve seen plenty of people, and I’ve never been able to do this. So I have an immense amount of respect for people who can. But I’ve seen people make very serviceable films for $1,200, $1,500, even $800. Now, are they studio quality? No, of course not. But most of this stuff isn’t. So yeah, I don’t really buy into the excuse as well. “Filmmaking is so cost-prohibitive, I have to use AI.” No, you don’t. Yeah, you really don’t. My main thing is I think every independent filmmaker, myself included, has reached a point in their life where they’re so frustrated with the industry.
They’re like, oh, you know, I’m done making movies. I’m not going to do this anymore. There hasn’t been a single independent filmmaker, actor, or writer that I’ve met who hasn’t gone through that. The bad news for all of us on that is realistically, if we’ve thrown ourselves into this this long, we’re not really qualified for anything else. I mean, I’ve been doing this since I was 12 years old, which is fantastic, except for the fact that if I were to quit tomorrow, I’m 53 years old with no other skills. What the hell am I going to do? So I basically have to make movies. And I think a lot of people that I consider my equals in this are kind of in the same boat.
Passion Vs Profit
Ada: So at some point, it’s not just the creative drive to make movies. It becomes financial.
James: Oh, yeah. And that’s the thing that aggravates me. Until I started directing, it was never financial. If I were counting on making a living acting, up until I started directing, I would have been in the poorhouse a long time ago. The only reason I even started directing was that I was aggravated I wasn’t getting the roles that I wanted. I was always appreciative when somebody wanted to translate my script to film, but it never turned out the way I pictured it.
The fact that, to be quite honest with you, I couldn’t make a career out of this unless I owned my own properties, unless I owned my own films. So that’s the only reason I became a director. Now, it’s again bittersweet because on one hand, I get to do what I love, but on the other hand, having something that you love become more transactional or more money-based is always frustrating. It’s a shame. It really is.
Ada: Then, like you’re affecting other industries, because when you do an AI poster, you’re cutting out a poster artist.
James: It cracks me up, too, because to be quite honest with you, most of the artists that I’ve dealt with making posters for independent films only charge a couple of hundred bucks. If the problem is you don’t want to spend a couple of hundred bucks on a piece of art, then maybe you’re in the wrong industry. Maybe you shouldn’t be doing this.
Fundraising
Ada: Do you have any advice for young filmmakers about fundraising?
James: Oh, I wish I did. I really do. I am horrible with fundraising. I’ve done two Indiegogos now. One was a complete failure, and the other one we met very close to the goal. So, I mean, mostly I do what no one should ever do in making films. I will typically max out my credit cards and hope for the best. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve never lost money making a film. That being said, I’m also not making enough to buy that Porsche I always wanted.
Satan’s Peak
Ada: What upcoming projects do you have that you’re working on next?
James: Within the coming weeks, we are hoping to release my most recent directorial effort. It’s a horror comedy about this whole satanic panic situation years ago called Satan’s Peak. After that, probably next year, I’m hoping to get off the ground a horror film that is very, very… I’m not even going to say loosely based. It’s loosely inspired by Willy Wonka.
Ada: Oh, so it’s like candy-based horror?
James: It’s basically about a disgraced children’s television host who gathers people together whom he feels were involved in his downfall, and basically teaches them a lesson.
Ada: So like Death to Smoochy, just with blood?
James: Exactly. Exactly. I’m hoping to go darker than Death to Smoochy. Let’s put it that way.
Ada: Did you have any closing thoughts you wanted to add?
James: No, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much for having me. And as if I don’t need to say it again, AI sucks.
We’d like to thank James L Ewdards for their thoughts. Her Name Was Christa is currently streaming on Tubi. You can check out the trailer for that below and the trailer for Satan’s Peak here.
