Ilana Glazer’s new film False Positive is a big departure from her work on Broad City, but behind the scenes, it has a lot in common. After the film premiered at Tribeca Festival, The star and co-writer joined her partner on the film, John Lee, who co-wrote and directed the film.
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“John and I met through Broad City,” Ilana revealed about the project’s first origins, feeling a little starstruck because he worked on one of her favorite shows, Wonder Showzen. “John did direct a bunch of Broad City episodes and he mentioned to me this project that was this sort of shorter film.” The ideas shared were the seeds of a story that evolved into False Positive, a psychological thriller. “It was very creepy, it was very unsettling, this piece.” She kept checking in to see what progress had been made, finally getting to see a treatment for the short, which would have played like a fever dream.
“It was like a piece of clothing without structure,” John Lee explained, referring to it as a “Tone poem.” The inspiration came when his wife had a miscarriage shortly after his father passed away. At the same time, he was reading J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Wendy. “I would have dreams about my father and I’d be like yes, I got to spend the day with him, that was a magical feeling to me.” One of the elements in the original Peter Pan novel is often excluded from film and stage adaptations, moments where the parents wait by the window in the nursery for their children to return. “It really made me rethink Peter Pan and ghosts and loss.”
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When Ilana asked John if she could join him in working on the story, he was reluctant. His concern was that she would take this dark and surreal piece that had personal significance and turn it into a comedy, but what he got back retained most of the weird elements of his original treatment, expanding it beyond the dream. But during the conversation, John confessed that there’s a thin line between comedy and horror, the difference being that with horror, you take the joke seriously. “To me, I feel like I’ve been making this genre my whole life,” he added.
However, writing a horror film and starring in it are two different things. “It is genuinely scary and it was a truly scary experience to make,” Ilana shared. “There was this one horrific scene that we were filming and John hugged me and said the next film will just be a straight comedy.” There were also moments that read as funny in the script, but in the hands of her fellow actors, they felt scary. Over a twenty-two day shoot, plus a few reshoots, Ilana had to bring Lucy’s anxiety and fears to life. “The lack of release, unlike comedy, was very difficult to hold.”
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The character of Dr. Hindle was inspired by stories of real doctors who have violated their patient’s trust. “I read a lot about all these doctors,” John explained, “The patterns that existed for them are all throughout the movie.” One compromise he had to make as a filmmaker was giving up his intentions of including pictures of the real doctors that inspired the character during the end credits, which couldn’t be done for legal reasons. As for attracting Pierce Brosnan to the role, the director likened it to having the real James Bond show up to save the day. “He’s the prototype, he’s the ideal,” Ilana added, revealing that he was always in their mind while writing the screenplay. “But to get him for real was such a stunning blessing, it’s wild.”
In addition to Dr. Hindle, the other man in Lucy’s life doesn’t have her best interests at heart, her husband Adrian, plaure by Justin Theroux. “I am very, very grateful to these performers and these white men who will lend themselves to be the symbols of the oppression,” Ilana shared, describing a scene where both men just try to impress each other as the definition of patriarchy. Especially in the case of Pierce Brosnan, who has played some of the most likeable men on film, taking such a sinister role was very brave.
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The big conversation following the screening was about the ending, which some viewers may find shocking. “Support around our film was nervous about that ending image, nervous about how people were going to take it, how audiences would interpret it,” Ilana explained. “I think it is positive,” John added. “I like to show the hope of the thing or give you a little bit of, like, through all the struggle, there is still something.” That ending, by the way, has remained consistent throughout the story’s evolution and he never had any plans to change it. “It’s just so fun and such a privilege to put something out into the world that is able to be interpreted in many ways,” Ilana concluded. “That final image, I really love it.”
False Positive is now streaming exclusively on Hulu.