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Lynn Chen is an actor and filmmaker whose directorial debut I Will Make You Mine was set to premiere at SWSW before the festival’s cancellation. The film serves as the third film of the Surrogate Valentine trilogy first created by Dave Boyle in 2011 with Surrogate Valentine. The film follows indie musician Goh Nakamura who navigates different relationships and friendships on the road. Boyle followed that film up with the sequel, Daylight Savings, in 2012. In 2020, 8 years after Daylight Savings, Chen decided to write, direct, and star in I Will Make You Mine, a poignant and heartfelt finale to the trilogy. I had the pleasure to sit down and talk to Chen about what drove her to tell this finale and what it was like directing her first film.
Note: This Q&A has been edited down from the original transcript.
Q: So it’s been 8 years since Daylight Savings and now you have written the script for I Will Make You Mine. What made you want to revisit these characters again and tell this finale?
A: Honestly, the reason I did it was because I wanted to finish this story. Dave Boyle always said that this was going to be a trilogy, so it was in my head that we were always going to have an ending. The ends of the first two movies were cliffhangers. We never really knew who Goh ended up with, so I wanted to answer that myself. When I saw Dave years later [after Daylight Savings] I asked him when he was going to finish it and he told me never. That just broke my heart. So that was the number one reason. I wanted to finish off what we started and give an ending to the trilogy.
Q: Why was there such a large gap between Daylight Savings and I Will Make You Mine?
A: I think he [Dave Boyle] felt as though he had told the story of Goh Nakamura the way he would have told it both times already. When I decided to take it over, there was a part of me that said I couldn’t tell the story from Goh’s perspective because it’s already been done. I don’t know what there is to say after two movies, that’s why I took the female characters and told it from their perspective.
Q: This is your third time playing the character of Rachel. What is it about this character that you connect with the most?
A: I honestly didn’t really understand Rachel from the first two movies. In the first two movies, it’s like she would appear and say something really smart and eloquent, then just disappear. You didn’t really know what was going through her mind. When I started writing the script I realized that this is not just Rachel’s story. It has to be the story of all these women. I actually saw Ayoka Fujitani [who plays Erika in the film] the same day Dave told me I can take over the series and I asked her, Hey we’re going to make the next movie, will you be in it? and she yes. So I started writing the script around who was available. Yea-Ming and Goh said they were available to do it so once that happened I thought that was great. I have my four main characters so I’ll write around them.
Q: How did it feel to wrap up this trilogy and these characters’ stories?
A: I did not expect myself to be so emotionally invested in these characters. I didn’t know what I was writing when I first started, I thought I was just answering the question of who Goh ends up with in the end. Then I started writing it, and because it has been so many years since the last movie I knew it had to be about aging. It had to be about getting older and reflecting on what your past was. These are themes that I was dealing with personally as an actor getting to the age where Hollywood has traditionally said, you’re done. Personally, it was heavier than I imagined but also therapeutic. I made a movie that I feel like I needed to watch that gives me inspiration. That’s part of why getting into a festival like SXSW was such a huge deal. I’ve worked for a long time in this industry, so to be a first-time filmmaker and have your movie premiere at a festival like that just invigorated me in a way that said it’s never over, and that’s also the message of the movie.
Q: I Will Make You Mine is the third film in the trilogy and it’s also your directorial debut. What was it like directing your first film?
A: I’ve never been behind the camera before, whether it be as a producer, director, or writer. It was scary for sure but at the same time, I just had to remind myself that I’ve actually been on more sets than most directors. It’s still very much like a home feeling to me. The first week we actually filmed most of my scenes and it didn’t feel that different to me except I didn’t really take direction from anybody. So it all felt very normal until the second week when I wasn’t in any of the scenes. When I jumped behind the monitor I really got a sense of what it felt like to direct and I was surprised how much I loved it. By the time we were almost finished, I had one more scene to shoot and I really didn’t want to get back in front of the camera. I love directing so much and I hope I get a chance to do it more because I was surprised how well I took to it.
Q: What advice would you have for young filmmakers who are directing a movie for their first time?
A: I have two things to say and they’re going to contradict one another. The first thing is that you just have to not worry about it being perfect. It’s almost like having a baby, you forget about all the pain and the sweat and everything and you begin living off the joy of what you created. There were times when I thought about giving up. I thought to myself, Well, that was an expensive mistake and we’ll never make it again. But I feel like those are the moments where you have to believe in what you’re doing, and that leads into my second point. On the one hand, you can’t be too precious, and on the other hand, you also have to really believe in it. There’s no way you can keep the motivation going if it’s a half-ass idea. You have to be really passionate but can’t worry about it being perfect.
Q: So what’s next for you?
A: I have three or four feature films that I acted in that will probably hit the festival circuit, but I’m hoping that I will be able to show I Will Make You Mine in front of an audience. Even though it’s great that we will have a VOD release on May 26th, I still hope come fall that we’ll be able to do a little bit of a tour. I don’t know if that means going to some theatres and doing some Q&A’s or bringing it to colleges, but I really want to still have that experience because I will never get that back. I will never get that experience back of having my first movie premiere at a festival like SXSW, so I’m not really to be like the dream is dead. I still want to be able to connect with audiences in the theatre.
Stay tuned for my review of I Will Make You Mine.
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Big Star Wars Nerd. Love all kinds of movies, but my favorites are sci-fi, indies, and superhero films. I created SplittingEdge Reviews with my friend Dakota, because we love expressing our views on the different kind of music and films that are out there. You can give me a follow on Twitter: @CorbinStewart12 or Instagram: corbin_stewart
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