Odessa Young knew right away she wanted to be a part of “ My First Film ,” director Zia Anger’s retelling about her first feature, 2010’s “Always All Ways, Anne Marie,” failing to be accepted to any film festivals. Young plays a fictionalized Anger named Vita. The movie follows Vita making a scrappy independent film in her hometown, and her unraveling as she has to cope with a burdensome boyfriend who wants them to become first-time parents.
Young was first introduced to “My First Film” when Anger toured the story as a performance art piece. “I received an email from [producer] Taylor Shung and there was a script and a very nice letter rom Zia,” Young tells me. “I was already in it at that point because I’d been hearing whispers of the project and that they were interested in me so I was really excited about it.
” A week or two later, Young and Zia had dinner. “I really would have done anything with her at that point,” Young says. “She could have said, ‘I’m making a live action version of the Teletubbies.
Do you want to do it?’ and I would have done it.” Young admits that shooting became a bit chaotic because there was the real crew and then the actors portraying a crew. “We had two versions of ‘action’ and ‘cut’ so the real crew would know when to really roll and cut,” she remembers.
“That did get confusing after awhile. If you’re working on any film, at least I do, you start to get a little crazy. You close your eyes an.