Alice Waddington talks Paradise Hills and how it sticks it to the patriarchy

Alice Waddington speaks with Culturess about her directorial debut, the making of Paradise Hills, and how it strives to oppose societal standards.

In just looking at the attire of the fascinating world that exists in Paradise Hills, one might think they have been transported to the past, where elaborate hats and extravagant clothes were commonplace. But in that very same moment, you would also realize that there is a futuristic edge that almost contradicts the era in a Steampunk sort of way. However, the clothes aren’t the only thing that marvels the eye in this sci-fi fantasy, almost-dystopian future in which a rehabilitation facility for young girls called Paradise Hills exists. The rooms of this center are lavish and modern, and the outdoors is island bliss, cloaking the dark gimmick that lies beneath all of the beauty.

Paradise Hills is about a facility that takes in wealthy girls who aren’t meeting society’s standards and spits them back into the world in an ideal image of perfection and subservience. Uma (Emma Roberts) has been sent to Paradise Hills because she doesn’t want to marry the man that her mother has arranged for her. She meets Chloe (Danielle McDonald), Yu (Awkwafina), and Amarna (Eiza González), who have also been dragged to this place for their own supposed imperfect reasons.

Soon enough, the group discovers that there are some pretty shady things going down in this apparent utopia. The Duchess is hiding the facility’s real goals, and they’re all determined to discover just what those might be.

What Paradise Hills offers that is rare in current times is a story that challenges the unrealistic standards women have been compared to since forever with a twist. Interestingly enough, a story like this could easily flourish in a victorian setting. But this narrative feels much more personal to a broadening group of women because it exists in the science-fiction and fantasy border of every nerd’s dreams.

And what makes the film so intriguing is that it suggests that opposing these unfair standards doesn’t mean that women have to lose their feminity or what makes them beautiful. Paradise Hills manages to be pink, soft, and stunning while still sticking it to the patriarchy.

Watch the trailer for Paradise Hills:

Culturess had the pleasure of speaking with director Alice Waddington on making Paradise Hills and how the film went from a figment in her mind to a movie debuting across the world.

Culturess: Tell me in your own words what Paradise Hills is about.

Alice Waddington: Paradise Hills is an island in the middle of the ocean to which families from all over the world send their daughters to get reformed. Some of these young women have a mental diversity, physical diversity, some others have a sexual diversity, or they don’t want to marry the man or the person that their family has chosen for them. You know, very straightforward, that’s essentially it.

Culturess: What inspired such a fantastical yet relatable original film?

Waddington: I was thinking I have cousins who are 12, 13, 14 years old, and that’s a time in life in which they’re very emotionally, and I guess easily influenced. They have this mirror to the world in their hands that’s essentially telling them that they are never going to be beautiful enough, popular enough, or perfect enough at the end of the day. I just wanted to basically explain to them that I as well, a 29-year-old woman, feel insecure and that it’s normal if they want to feel that way, and they don’t have to compare themselves to others. Specifically, that they don’t have to change for other people. They need to find the group that will love them for who they truly are.

I also made this film for my own teenage self. I loved to escape to this world, a parallel one, like fantasy or science-fiction and genre. I loved The Lord of the Rings and the Neverending Story, but I never truly got to see myself in them. So that was another part of those references. I wanted to see myself and my group of friends included in those narratives.

Culturess: Are the sci-fi and fantasy genres what you really love?

Waddington: Yeah, it is important and irrelevant for me specifically because of the potential for escapism that we were talking about. It is kind of a search for hope in a certain way, something that tells you that you will be able to find your space, no matter what meaning, no matter how strange you are, no matter how different you are. No matter how unique you are at the end of the day. Because these are the differences that make you special. And this definitely was most important for me just emotionally speaking. Also, both of my parents were science-fiction fans, specifically my mother. She was the one that played Bladerunner for the first time. So it was also important to me to honor them.

Culturess: As a female director, what do you hope to express with this film that contributes to the need for more female directors?

Waddington: I would say that I take my responsibility as a female director and as a female leader in general very seriously. I feel like we do have a responsibility to both follow the legacy and path of the great field of directors that have struggled to find a place to find their voice for their stories. But at the same time, I feel like there are wonderful directors in our past going back to the beginning of the 20th century.

It is just a matter of pushing that history forward and empowering other young women — specifically and most importantly women of color — to be able to allow narratives to better authorize them. Because there are so many structural obstacles as it stands for them in the real world, it’s very important to be a figure of mentorship for these young women and people of color — to be a figure of reference. And it’s important as a teacher, it’s important as an author and as journalists, and specifically, as a director. It’s important that we continue to have more female leads, more female teammates, and specifically, to help the young directors of tomorrow.

Culturess: After creating Disco Inferno and Paradise Hills, how important is it for you to have women as your main characters in your films?

Waddington:  You’re absolutely right. It is a very conscious choice, and it’s a choice that I’m proud of. I do strive to keep on working on projects and generating projects that have women at the center of all ages and all races. In this film, it was important as well for me to fight for inclusivity because this is technically a European film and mostly Spanish. The origin of the film is Spain, a European county. It was a fight to explain why was inclusivity within the leads important to me and why it was relevant to the story and the characters. We have this international center, which basically has women from every corner of the world. It was part of the discourse for me.

Culturess: The women in Paradise Hills in this oppressive situation all had an incredible bond. What went into making these bonds between the women?

Waddington: The way that I see it, all the girls in the institution and the “issues” they are supposed to have according to the social standards are what drives them away from the normality idea of perfection that we impose on young women and men. It was important to me that their bonds get along in a natural way, considering that it was a long story to tell. We didn’t really have enough time to develop these relationships as we would have wanted because we knew we wanted to make a 90- to 95-minute film. It’s also an adventurous story, and we basically had just enough time for background.

Female competition is the real monster in this film. It’s the real villain. Of course, it’s personified in the Duchess, and that is the force that unites these girls. This is not a spoiler because we know the Duchess from the trailer. They basically unite against a common enemy that wants to pit them against each other. This is the first thing that brings them together: how they all need to be perfect and how they’re pitted against each other.

And also, they think they’re very different at first when they meet, but as they start getting to know each other’s personal stories and as they start seeing other sides of each other, they understand that they are more similar than they think. And that common element was very important to me, going from individualism to a sense of commonality. The importance of friendship to defeat that beast, that monster was very important to me.

Culturess: As a former fashion photographer, what were the important stylistic elements of the setting and the costumes that you felt were a must?

Waddington: Our direction designer Laia Colet is this wonderful Spanish woman; it was beautiful working with her. But also I wanted to, and it was relevant to the story — because obviously, I’m a female director, I wanted a very feminist aesthetic to go with the story because I don’t think they’re incompatible. I think they complement each other beautifully. So the challenge really was to create a new world from scratch using preexisting locations.

So we had to work with putting together virtualist, modernist, very futuristic 1960s and ’70s locations from all over Barcelona and the Canary Islands. And that was an interesting process because we had to take the horror sci-fi references, such as the prisoner, and then combine them with a soft gauzy ultra-feminine aesthetic. And yeah, it was definitely a challenge. And then for costume design, Alberto Valcárcel, who is our designer who has worked for the opera and ballet, he had a variety of references from Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast to My Fair Lady, Grace Jones also combined with Final Fantasy. It was a very millennial nonjudgemental melting pot of references that we shared, and it makes for a very interesting process for me.

Culturess: One of the things I noticed is that the Duchess is almost maternal. What is her motivation in the film other than that these families are paying her?

Waddington: Interesting. This is a question I have never received before. The Duchess really is a character that has been compared to women in regards to beauty. Without spoilers, at the end of the film, she even talks about who wants her now and who basically appreciates her now that’s she’s a woman that’s 43 or 45. And that it is a very cool thing in many ways. It connects to all the patriarchal characters we used for her. I’m going to say that the character that we were using as a reference for her was the idea of the evil stepmother. What is the motivation of the evil stepmother? She has this toxic masculinity thing where she’s comparing herself to the daughter figure in the father’s life, right? So, the Duchess was essentially doing that on a grand scale.

She’s essentially the embodiment of an internalized toxicity that women have against each other in society. It’s basically a way of establishing fear as a controller for the young ladies knowing that, if necessary, she will betray them in her favor. It’s all a part of a very, very spoilery ending. But I will say it’s definitely related to that element of female competition and how she tries to get ahead in a way. Of course, it’s all apart of the way it ends, and that’s the cool part of it.

I’m also going to say that when you have a group of characters in a film, you have horrible, horrible humans and some that are wonderful and marvelous. Just like it’s a part of having a variety of characters, it was important to me to have a villainous figure that was a woman. Just like it was important to me to have a villainous figure that had this toxicity and was a nurturing sort of mother figure toward the characters.

Culturess: Were any of the actors in the film your first choice?

Waddington: Of course, all the actresses that are in the film are in the shortlist of the 7-8 wonderful preferences that we wanted to have in the film. And it’s such a privileged position to be in, just being in the context of being a director. I was really grateful to be in the position, and every single one of them really brought something special to the story and to their characters. Mila is a rain of sunshine, and as you say, was a mother figure on and off the stage — particularly to me, because, sometimes, as a first-time director, you need that support. Someone that would sit next to you and they’re like, “OK, what exactly are you trying to achieve here?” And she’ll literally try to help you.

For example, Emma, when she signed up, all of the other actresses followed. Emma was the first to sign in to the project, meaning that all the other actresses knew what the emotional tone of the film was going to be like. It basically gave them an idea. I will forever be grateful for that because, again, it definitely was quite a bit of help. Awkwafina was worried about performing a dramatic part, and she was explaining to me. She is such an incredibly talented dramatic performer, but it’s also good that she had multiple comedic roles before that. I was so impressed by Danielle and her performance though I would have loved for her to have a bigger role. And of course, we have Eiza, a professional live singer in Mexico looking for artistic freedom and who wanted to be her true self.

Culturess: What message do you hope that women take from this film?

Waddington: I hope that, particularly, young people who are figuring out their identity who hope to wake up one day and have their entire life figured out realize that they can take their time. I would love for young men and women who watch this film to be as brave as the characters in the story because, in life, the world is filled with monsters. And also the fact that they don’t need to smooth or gloss over what is considered different, which is really what makes them special.

Paradise Hills will be available digitally and on demand on November 5.