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Helmed by first time feature-length film director Ella Greenwood, Faulty Roots is a coming-of-age drama about Lola, an unassuming and lonely 17-year-old with depression who forges a friendship with a boy named Zach who is grappling with his own mental health conditions.
Adapted from Greenwood’s short of the same name, Faulty Roots marks the US film debut of Kayleigh-Paige Rees. The theatrically-trained British actor has starred in the quirky indie flick Ann Rolls Green, the sumptuous Jane Austen period drama Sanditon, and a smattering of shorts and commercials. Already an outspoken advocate, Rees’s upcoming leading role as Faulty Roots troubled heroine Lola is another stitch in the larger tapestry of activism for mental health awareness and representation that Rees has woven throughout her career.
Last week we had the opportunity to chat with Kayleigh-Paige Rees about what it means to play Lola, what drives her creatively, and where mental health and being a woman fits into the industry. For one, the 23-year-old admits that her youthfulness, English Rose features, and energetic personality have led her to being cast into young roles. It’s a trend that Rees finds “quite restrictive”, especially because those roles are frequently “written by people who were teens years ago” and aren’t very authentic.
She observes how skewed female portrayals in film expand beyond her own experience. “In your early twenties you play the heroine, and then you get to your mid to late twenties and they don’t know where to place you anymore.” And she refuses to be a passive participant in Hollywood’s ageist attitudes towards women and being boxed in. It’s what led her to taking acting and the art of storytelling in film into her own hands. With her close friend, writer-director George Perry, Rees founded her own production company Raspberry Films. Raspberry Films has a crucial role in Faulty Roots it’s one of two studios that’s producing the much-hyped coming-of-age film.
With the lightheartedness and intimacy of catching up with a close friend at a favorite coffee shop, Rees’s witty, insightful, and unflinchingly honest conversation left an indelible impression. Her passionate words paint a portrait of ambition, conviction, and hope for the future. Here’s what Kayleigh-Paige Rees had to say.
So let’s talk a little about Faulty Roots. How did you hear about the film?
Kayleigh-Paige Rees: I was really looking for something to do with mental illness, and eating disorders, and the role kind of just fell into my lap, to be honest! [Director] Ella [Greenwood] was aware of me because I did a tv series last year called Sanditon. After I read her script I was like, ‘This is an amazing script, I love it. . . . Let’s team up! Like we’ve got to team up on this and look up other cast [members].” Literally within a week I emailed Melanie Walters [who is cast as Lola’s mother, Susan] who’s a friend of mine the script on a Friday night and by Saturday morning she was like, ‘I love it.’
What were some of the things about the script that appealed to you?
KR: You know, then tens of hundreds of teen this and that and the other [books, movies, tv shows] that come out? But none of them really explore the intenseness of being that age. Or you know, you’re [at] school, but what about when you’re at home by yourself thinking, and scrolling through Instagram and thinking you’re nothing? Faulty Roots does that. It’s the only script I’ve read in five years where I thought, ‘Yeah, this is a teenager!’
In your own words what is Faulty Roots about?
KR: The film is based over school holidays and it looks at Lola being down and not having many friends. [Faulty Roots] really looks at the mum and daughter relationship and how that can be really complicated at that time in your life, for both parties. And then it looks at friendships and I don’t want to spoil too much but it goes into Lola forming a friendship with a boy called Zach and what that means for her.
So tell us a little about Lola. What’s she like?
KR: So, Lola is very much like me in some ways. She was diagnosed with clinical depression and she kind of keeps herself to herself. Her mum is quite a bit of a workaholic and she has an older sister who’s completely different to her. Lola is always compared to her sister Lizzie. Lizzie is super smart, she lives in London, she’s doing really well for herself. She’s bubbly and charismatic. And Lola is just not that. Lola’s just different. She’s more independent, she really keeps herself to herself. She trusts people when they’re close to her. But because she isn’t Lizzie, I think that [difference] comes down on her. Through school, through teachers, [and] through other people. I think that [sibling dynamic] is really interesting to explore as well. I’m an only child so it’s also something I really wanted to explore because I always found siblings so interesting. I don’t even have cousins! So for me, it’s super interesting!
What went into creating Lola? Did you have any specific intentions or inspirations?
KR: A lot of research! I think it’s something I wanted to be as true as possible. I don’t want to just… it sounds ridiculous, but I hate it when you can just watch a performance and can see that someone has gone, ‘all right, easy, I’ve just got to look moody for an hour and a half,’ you know? I really didn’t want to do that. I want you to see the complexities in Lola.
The best thing is when you watch a film someone is silent and you know exactly what they’re thinking. That’s what I want to come through in this. . . I’ve watched actually quite a few documentaries and just like interviews with people where they’ve done YouTube videos and kind of spoken about their depression and their journey.
In YouTube videos you can really see the emotions in people’s faces when they’re talking about it. You can see them kind of retracting inwards and then opening out. I’m bringing as much my own journey into it too. I want it to be a mix of everything I’ve been able to research you know?
How was preparing for Lola’s role different than preparing for other roles you’ve done like Julia Beaufort in Sanditon and Ann in Ann Rolls Green?
KR: Lola is my youngest role. In Ann Rolls Green I played a 23 year-old and then in Sanditon I played a 19-year-old. The main reason this is different is probably because I’m so passionate about it. It’s led me to doing so much deep diving into myself. There’s a big difference as well in [the storytelling]. Ann Rolls Green was very dialogue heavy [and] I didn’t play the comic role, or the tragic role. I played the role that everyone goes around. And with Sanditon it was an ensemble piece. There were twenty of us who were like the main cast, and obviously that doesn’t lead to massive scenes of dialogue and such like. So, with that one, it was more about my physical presence and kind of making sure when I was in a scene I was seen in the scene. So with this one [Faulty Roots] it kind of feels a lot more personal and I’m looking at every word and every phrase, looking at what I can get out of it because I know that camera is going to be there so I don’t have to worry about getting the attention or keeping the plot moving, or making sure I’m held up for everyone else to be funny. It’s literally about delving as much into the emotion and the truth as I can.
What’s something you hope the audience gets out of watching Faulty Roots and bearing witness to Lola’s story?
KR: I want them to feel numb. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you know that feeling when you come out of a film and you’ve just gone numb? It’s got you to the point where you just feel like, ‘Ah…!’ It kills you a little bit inside! But yeah, numb. I want them to feel like, ‘That’s what I went through! Yeah, I spoke to my mum like that! Yeah, me and my mum had that argument!’ you know, when you watch something and it brings back a memory, and you go, ‘Ooh! Yeah!’
You mentioned the relationship between Susan and Lola is another big part of the film. Can you elaborate on that?
KR: What I really love about Faulty Roots is the relationship between mother and daughter, because I think so much happens in that time! For both parties. Now as a 23-year-old, looking back, mum’s have so much to deal with and understand and go through with kids when they’re teenagers. Ella [Greenwood], Melanie [Walters] and I have spoken [and] what we really love is that we don’t make the parent the bad guy in this. Susan’s not written as the “bad guy”. We see Susan battling too. She doesn’t understand what Lola’s going through. She’s trying her best. And it’s the same as [how] Lola doesn’t understand Susan! Lola’s like, ‘Get off my back! Go away!’ She doesn’t quite understand the idea of motherhood.
It sounds like that dynamic is like the one in 2017’s Lady Bird! Would you say the relationship is similar?
KR: Yeah! Definitely! It really has that, but it doesn’t have arguments of Lady Bird. It has the non-presence of motherhood in some ways. The idea that actually there isn’t always someone there to argue with you 24/7. What do you do when you can’t have that? When you’re in your room by yourself for hours [alone] with just your mind?
Your own production company Raspberry Films has a huge hand in making Faulty Roots. What’s that like?
KR: We’re making sure it’s going to be an all female crew. We want it to be all female, and then with the exception of Zach, it’s pretty much an all female cast as well. We’re really trying to just to give everyone an opportunity. Until [Faulty Roots] I’ve not been directed by a woman. I’ve had one female AD, and maybe two sound operators and I’ve worked professionally for five years. Every other crew member I’ve worked with, except for runners, has been male. So I think that says something. [Representation is] still a battle and [Raspberry Films] is trying to do our bit to help.
What’s it like to produce and act?
KR: It’s nice because what I think what can be really stressful about acting is, for a lot of my friends live in London, is waiting for auditions, and sitting all day waiting for the phone call, putting it all in the laps of their agent if that makes sense.
Whereas I love the idea that I’m producing my own stuff, and if I get a call or I get a script fall in my lap, that’s great, I’ll jump onto that but I’ve always got what I’m doing [with my production company] as well. It kind of alleviates the pressure a bit and means that I get to be creative in a different way. I love it! We’ve got some really great stuff that’s going to come out in the next couple of years and I really enjoy working with [Raspberry co-founder] George [Perry].
Mental Health is a huge theme in Faulty Roots. Do you have personal experiences with mental health?
KR: Eating disorders are a massive thing for me. I started an eating disorder when I was five. It’s mental. I was brought up abroad, so I was born in the UK and when I was four I moved to Portugal, and that’s where I was brought up. And I think the stress as a four-year-old of moving to a completely different country, I think made me feel like I couldn’t control anything in my life. And all I could control was my food.
I think obviously [now] that’s looking back, you know, and kind of assessing myself. But, yeah, it was horrific. It went on till I was twenty-one. It was horrendous. I used sugar just to keep my energy going. There was a sweet shop that was open when I used to walk to school and I used to buy one pound worth of like, chocolate nibbles, they were called, and I’d chuck the rest of my lunch away, and I would eat these chocolate nibbles throughout the day to keep me going, and I would go and I would dance until like, seven o’clock at night, and I’d chuck my tea away, go to bed, and do the same thing again the next day. I did that for like two years. In year six it got horrendous to the point where my parents had the dinner lady watch me eat every day.
It’s hard to get out of it, as people can tell you. When you lose weight, or you are anorexic [and] look a certain way, people actually congratulate you, as if you’ve done something amazing. It can be the unhealthy you’ve ever been in your life and they’ll go, ‘You look amazing. I’d love to look like you.’ and you’re like, ‘What?!’
Have you done anything with any mental health or eating disorder charities or organizations?
KR: I did a short film for Beat [the biggest eating disorder charity in the UK] a couple of years ago and raised money for them. They’re great!
That short, Skinny World, was actually the first film you made with your production company, Raspberry Films, right? What was that like?
KR: I was really nervous about producing it. It’s a very awkward thing that quite a lot of actors do now and I didn’t want to be presumptuous and kind of go straight to features, or go in over my head. So I wanted to start with something I was passionate about. So I funded my own short film, and I did it based on a writer called Agata Zema, an Australian [woman].
[Skinny World] was all about her, it was actually her own story. I felt that kind of telling my own story was a bit too close to home, and I wanted to have that difference of character in me. So I got Agata [Zema] to write it and she wrote it all about her own journey and we actually ended it before her [real] story ended, with her collapsing. It actually led to her being hospitalized and kind of ending her path with eating disorders with the help of her family. But we didn’t quite want to go into that in a short film because it’s very hard [to do] with shorts. And we really wanted to raise money for the charity.
Oh! You did a fundraiser?!
KR: Yes! I funded [Skinny World] and then I did a charity evening. We raised just about £1000 for the charity and we were really happy with it! It was a lovely evening and we really got the message out there!
Have you done anything for eating disorder awareness lately?
KR: For the last six months, I’ve been pitching a documentary about eating disorders in the UK and how COVID has affected that. And that idea that [eating disorder sufferers] don’t just have anorexia or bulimia. I’ve been pitching it to all the big broadcasters in the UK and they keep saying, “this just isn’t a priority for us right now”, there’s so much disengagement. They don’t realize how much food affects us. I want to use my platform to get something like that out.
Speaking of platforms, what inspires you as an actor, filmmaker, writer, or creator?
KR: I just want to tell stories that need to be told. I want to tell stories that aren’t massive blockbuster action [films], I want to tell stories we’ve all seen or heard but need telling…especially with eating disorders. And I’m sure many other issues I’ll come across and want to talk about in years to come that just need more light on them and need more acceptance and openness. I want to take more ownership over what I do. I have a reason for doing this. I didn’t just want the money. Or I didn’t just do it because it’s the only choice I had. I want to do it for a specific reason, to either help females get on set, or give jobs to other people, or tell a story that I think needs telling, I want a reason behind each job I do.
Thank you so much for talking to me all about this!
Thank you for having me! It was a pleasure to talk to you, thank you!
You can follow Kayleigh-Paige Rees and Faulty Roots on Twitter, and on instagram @kayleigh_px and @faultyroots.