This is part two of three where I interview the director, screenwriter and producer of the indie horror film, 30 Miles From Nowhere.
Seana Kofoed is an award-winning actress. She is best known for her role on Men in Trees. She starred in American Princess (Lifetime) and also has a recurring role on TNT’s series Claws. Also a writer, Kofoed wrote and starred in Donna’s Revenge: Confessions of an Ex-Contestant, a comedy for the web about the aftermath of Reality TV Fame.
30 Miles From Nowhere stars Emmy-winner Carrie Preston and Supernatural fan-favorite, Rob Benedict, the film has an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes, was a ‘Popular Pick’ on Amazon Prime U.S., landed on several Halloween Must-Watch New Releases lists this season, and is a recipient of the ReFrame stamp for its diversity and gender-balance, with a female writer, director, and producing team and a diverse and 50% female cast and crew.
The film is currently available in the US on DVD at Walmart & Amazon, and digital on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play. In the UK it’s available at Tesco on DVD, and on
SkyStore, Amazon, iTunes. Here is the premise of the film:
When five college pals return to rural Wisconsin for their estranged friend’s funeral, what begins as an uneasy reunion becomes a terrifying fight for survival.
How did you begin your career as an actor?
After getting a degree in theatre from Northwestern University in the U.S. and studying for a bit at The Royal National in the U.K., I worked on stage in Chicago for a few years before moving to New York City. In New York, I worked both On and Off-Broadway, and did television, before finally moving to Los Angeles. Coming up in the theatre, I developed an appreciation for great dialogue, and for great female characters, which playwrights have always written, even if screenwriters sometimes didn’t. I’m very much an actor’s writer when I’m writing a script. I try to make every role one I’d be willing to play. Not literally, of course, but just that every character, down to the smallest of roles, has something unique to it, something for the actor playing her/him to latch onto and enjoy.
What made you want to pursue producing and screenwriting and do you want to continue doing these roles in the future?
I decided to pursue producing/writing as a way to address what I felt was an imbalance in story telling. Too few women’s stories were being told. There was too little diversity reflected on screen. I was tired of watching films featuring 15 male characters and 2 women, at some point they just stopped speaking to me. I’m a firm believer that the more diverse the voices we bring to the storytelling table, the more engaging and exciting and world-expanding those stories will be.
I fully believe in entertainment as a way to expand horizons, to encourage understanding between people who wouldn’t normally co-mingle. What we can’t always achieve through politics, we can often achieve through the reach of entertainment. Take the TV show, Will & Grace, and how it opened the eyes, hearts, and minds of so many. It did it with humor and smarts, highlighting our shared humanity. Which is why it’s essential to have under-represented voices represented! To show us life experiences beyond our own. It’ll continue to be my personal mission, as well as that of our production company, to aim for a diverse and gender-balanced cast and crew on each of the films we produce.
What have been the greatest acting and screenwriting tips you have ever received?
The greatest acting tip is really a life tip, too — and my favorite quote from the amazing playwright, John Patrick Shanley.
“I am not a courageous person by nature. I have simply discovered that, at certain key moments in this life, you must find courage in yourself, in order to move forward and live. It is like a muscle and it must be exercised, first a little, and then more and more. All the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. A deep breath and a leap.”
And the best screenwriting tip I’ve gotten recently was from a Ms. In The Biz interview with the writer, Alison Peck.
“Be very specific and intentional in your writing. Push yourself. I spent a lot of years writing “safe” projects—projects that were just pleasant and funny and fine. But once I started really pushing myself to tap into my own unique voice, to be more outrageous, to be more specific and clear in what I was trying to say and why I was telling this story, things started happening for me career-wise.”
What inspired you to write “30 Miles from Nowhere” and what was the writing process like?
I started writing 30 MILES FROM NOWHERE to have a limited location horror/thriller that I could shoot with friends — a way to tell a (hopefully) entertaining story without breaking the bank!
I love the thriller/mystery genre, and prefer my horror with a bit of a release valve built into it. I like the more subtle horror-comedies in particular, because these situations often ARE absurd and if they weren’t so terrifying, they’d be hilarious. So films that straddle that line, those darker comedies, I really enjoy. And the great thing about the horror community, and what usually makes it so cool and inclusive, is that what’s terrifying for me may not be terrifying for you — but we can all play in that genre’s sandbox and respect one another’s ‘terror threshold’. I like to be scared, but I don’t necessarily want to lose three months of sleep over it, if you know what I mean.
And as for obstacles, I think the tricky parts were writing plot turns and events that our budget could sustain. At one point I entertained the idea of the entire cabin suddenly seeping blood — from the walls, ceiling, etc — as a manifestation of one character’s out-sized fear of it — and then I remembered that we didn’t have two million dollars, a full sprinkler system, and the cabin was a rental.
How did you assert your authority on set as a screenwriter, producer and actress all whilst working with your actor friends? What were the challenges and what tips can you give for leadership, especially for women?
My producing partner, Kelly, and I went into the crewing-up and casting process with a no A-holes rule. To which we adhered as best we could! I wasn’t concerned about the power dynamic because we had an amazing female director, Caitlin Koller, who we knew would lead the set with kindness and respect. If I was filming a scene, I was available to the actors for any script questions of course — and when something producer-esque came up in the moment — running short on time, needing to move to the next scene to keep on schedule etc — those moments would be covered by Kelly if I was working in the scene.
That’s the joy of two producers, we could tag in and out as needed. If there was a producer/actor decision that might have been stickier because of my personal relationships, Kelly would take that one. If there was an ask that I had more leverage to ask — I’d take it. I think we can be kind and strong simultaneously. Kind doesn’t mean pushover, it means you treat other people as you’d want to be treated. If you listen to the creative input of your collaborators, not that you have to agree with them, but hear their input, work to maintain a tone of kindness and respect and calm on the set, I truly think that’s most of the battle.
What has your experience been like as a female filmmaker in the industry and have you faced discrimination compared to men?
I’ve witnessed it more as an actor than as a filmmaker, since my first feature was made with a female director, writer, and producing partner, and a 50% female cast and crew. I will say there were a few harmless but irritating incidents of man-splaining we encountered along the way. I think most of it is truly unintentional, they just assume ‘those little ladies need our advice’. And that’s where it’s really up to us to hold fast to our instincts, our smarts, and remember that we didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, you know? And in those moments, we didn’t go into combat mode, we didn’t try to change their minds, we simply didn’t hire them!
How do you view the #MeToo movement and what changes do you think need to be made in the industry, if any?
I think one huge way we can make a difference here is by bringing more women, people of color, and other underrepresented voices to the storytelling process. It doesn’t need to be an awkward, box-checking practice — simply ask yourself, as producer or writer or director, if you want the richness of different life experiences brought to your set or to your story, or do you want to limit yourself to the point of view of one gender, one ethnicity, one economic strata. Why on earth WOULDN’T you want to make your story as nuanced and engaging and rich as possible? To reflect the world in which we live.
I think film boards should set aside certain funds to be accessed by production companies actively committed to making this change — both in front of and behind the camera. I think there should be incentive to reaching beyond your comfort zone. Hiring more women directors, writers, composers, cinematographers. Hiring more people of color. More creatives from the LGBTQ community. More people with disabilities. A funding incentive, or tax incentive, that supports these efforts is a great way to assist producers in making change. Independent films are often able to be the most muscular in their hiring practices, the most nimble, and we should encourage and reward that.
I’m also all for women continuing to help women, as quite a few are already doing — Shonda Rhimes, Ava Duvernay, Melissa Rosenberg, and others — they’re out there building the ranks of previously under-utilized talent. By actively giving opportunities to female-identifying talent, to people of color, to other marginalized voices in the storytelling world — they’re making a real difference in both lives of the creative community, and the lives of people watching at home. Finally including those viewers who’ve been waiting to see themselves reflected on screen, to hear their stories being told. We can all do our part.
What advice can you give to other female filmmakers entering the industry?
Reach out to one another! Support each other, ask questions, build community. I’ve found other filmmakers (women AND men) to be amazingly supportive through that very important distribution-seeking process. Don’t be afraid to ask other filmmakers questions about pre-production, or crewing up, or distribution, or marketing — we can learn so much from one another! And lift your colleagues up, give them opportunities when you can. Challenge yourself to go beyond the first crew names thrown at you. Dig deeper for women, for people of color. And then I would just say trust yourself, trust your own brains and your own heart. I think there can be a tendency to hand over the reins/power on decisions we’re not sure we have the experience to make. Trust your own instincts. Don’t be man-splained to. Just remember how smart and creative you are. And that kind is cool.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt, whether that is in life or in the industry?
I think the most important lesson I’ve learnt thus far in the industry (applies to life too, I think) is to take creative initiative. To not wait to be given permission to ‘make something’. It doesn’t necessarily mean I can produce a film a year, yet, but it does mean I can be writing, forging relationships, learning more about the business and finding good people I want to work with the moment I can. And wherever forward movement CAN be taken, to take it. I’m not a big ‘develop this for ten years and then we’ll shop it around’ fan. I think we can all be a bit more muscular in our creative risk-taking. Just DOING the thing has great power in it.
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