What to know
- Lunar Sway is a dark comedy that subverts typical Queer movie tropes, no lessons, no tragedy, just real people
- Director Nick Butler based the film on his own story of unrequited love.
- Toronto advanced screenings run August 27, 28, and 30, each with cast Q&As.
- Stars Liza Weil and Kaden Connors open up about playing in a Queer-focused movie.
Think your dating options are scarce? Imagine trying to find love in the middle of nowhere. Actors Liza Weil and Kaden Connors spill the tea to Now Toronto on their experience filming their latest movie in the desert, and how Lunar Sway lets Queer characters be as messy and honest as they want.
The movie premiered at Inside Out Film Festival in Toronto, BFI: Flare in London, and is currently on the festival circuit after securing spots in 15 additional festivals worldwide.
Directed by Canadian filmmaker Nick Butler, Lunar Sway follows a bisexual man’s journey to find love in a desert town, actually filmed in Okanagan, B.C., — and things go awry when a mysterious woman shows up claiming to be his birth mother.
Prominent actors in the cast include Kaden Connors, known for his role as Sasha in Heated Rivalry, as well as Liza Weil, who has been seen on-screen in Gilmore Girls as Paris and Bonnie in How to Get Away with Murder — and both had a conversation with Now Toronto ahead of the movie’s advanced screenings.
What it means to just exist on screen as a Queer person
For Connors, it’s his second most recent project with a Queer storyline, following the beloved Canadian hockey drama Heated Rivalry. The actor couldn’t be prouder of filming Queer storylines in Canadian projects.
“Lunar Sway is such a treat. It’s actually something I shot before Heated Rivalry, and it’s just this precious little Canadian indie film that is just so quirky and weird, and it’s a dark comedy, and it’s beautiful at the same time,” he told Now Toronto.
Connors will be playing the role of Jovi, an artist who clings to muses who come in and out of town, which is similar to his Heated Rivalry role as Sasha.
“He’s a big flirt,” he joked.
“There’s something so wonderful about seeing kind of like Queerness in an environment that is rural and often conservative, like that juxtaposition,” Connors added.
Playing the movie at the Queer Inside Out festival also felt like a full-circle moment, Connors shared.
Actress Liza Weil shared she finds it really cool to be in a Queer movie.
“I think we are so lucky to be in a time where more Queer stories are being told, and that they can just be Queer stories without having some sort of lesson or tragedy attached to it,” Weil told Now Toronto. “We get to represent people that just are and hopefully take audiences along for a ride, which I think is super relatable and compelling.”
Weil plays Marg, whom she calls a “shapeshifter.” Similarly to Weil’s previous roles as Paris Geller in Gilmore Girls and Bonnie Winterbottom in How to Get Away with Murder, Marg also “approaches the world without apology,” she said. However, Weil cautions that Marg might be a bit more dangerous and wants to make people more uncomfortable than Paris.
“She’s not somebody who ever looks backwards, and she is not sentimental about her past. And she’s a bit of a disruptor. She’s sort of the character who enters the movie and lights the match, which is really fun,” Weil said.
What inspired the director toward Lunar Sway?
The director drew inspiration from his personal unrequited love situation, he explained in a press release.
“This is a movie about looking for love in all the wrong places and the chaos, humour, romance and sadness that comes with that,” Butler said in the press release.
He hopes that at the end of the movie, audiences will see themselves reflected in these “strange loners.”
Director Nick Butler is hosting these special screenings, each followed by a cast Q&A in Toronto.
Advanced screening dates are Aug. 27, 28 and 30 at the Paradise Theatre.
