Interview with “Sissy” Producer and Actor Emily De Margheriti

Shea: Thank you so much, Emily, for joining me today. I hope you are feeling well. How's everything going for you on your end?

Emily: Everything's going well. We have our screening at the Sydney Film Festival tonight. Last one. Which was very exciting. We got like, I think, something runner up in the audience choice, but that's exciting.

S: In terms of the making of the film, what did you want to do with the film? It really resonated with me as someone who does use social media as well. That is very strong in this film with the main character Cecilia. But it seemed like the other characters were a little more realistic in terms of how they live their lives on social media.

E: We wanted to like a modern day. Well, the modern day, like in hearing on social media, I find it's fascinating to explore social media and how it affects you. Mentally also female friendships is such a complicated thing when you are younger and its character and how that translates, translates social media, this era of social media. So I think about what we wanted to explore. I think we can all relate to these characters or we see them in these characters. If you have a group of friends, I suppose, a group of girlfriends, you can relate to it. Yes. And I think with social media we can see a lot of pros and cons, but I think that exploring this, you know, this dopamine hit that you have from it is quite interesting and how that can affect you.

S: Like you said, those characters felt incredibly familiar. All of them, you know, not just Cecilia, but every single one of them. For you, Alex lived in her own truth and I ended up kind of admiring Alex. For being genuinely and authentically herself and for not letting Cecilia, forget what she did and trying to hold her accountable. How was it like playing that role? You were such a pivotal figure in the story.

E: With Alex, it was fun exploring what it was like to see her, I think, at the start to, I mean, typically read it. I just found more layers to it. She's a survivor of abuse. She has boundaries, which honestly, a lot of people don't have in today's age. We don't have boundaries and I think speaks her truth and I think that's really admirable. I think I could lean into that more so I could kind of get on her side and I understood.

From the pain and, and the hurt that she helped within her, why did she come across that way? I guess how she was, is because of how she felt under trauma. I think a lot of people don't take accountability for actions and we like to, with social media specific we put out a perception of ourselves out there and, it's the highlight real on Instagram highlight real. We all know that. Yes, that's what it's and I think, you can be perceived as something that is a lot more. And I think with her time and the way that she's frozen in time is kinda encapsulated, not just in the time capsule that she's buried, but I think also in.

I think, sometimes you get so wrapped up in it, but remember being younger, maybe it's just me, but being younger and everything your girlfriend said to you, it was the end of the world. If you had a fight with your friends

I think she still feels that, that she's got that very unsteady emotional kind of turmoil going through her. Yeah, she's just never not grown up, but she's never worked on that and never really found two friends who developed from that. I think it's easy to hide behind a phone, easy to hide behind. Perspective. Not necessarily, perception is not reality.

E: With Alex, it was fun exploring what it was like to see her, I think, at the start to, I mean, typically read it. I just found more layers to it. She's a survivor of abuse. She has boundaries, which honestly, a lot of people don't have in today's age. We don't have boundaries and I think speaks her truth and I think that's really admirable. I think I could lean into that more so I could kind of get on her side and I understood.

From the pain and, and the hurt that she helped within her, why did she come across that way? I guess how she was, is because of how she felt under trauma. I think a lot of people don't take accountability for actions and we like to, with social media specific we put out a perception of ourselves out there and, it's the highlight real on Instagram highlight real. We all know that. Yes, that's what it's and I think, you can be perceived as something that is a lot more. And I think with her time and the way that she's frozen in time is kinda encapsulated, not just in the time capsule that she's buried, but I think also in.

I think, sometimes you get so wrapped up in it, but remember being younger, maybe it's just me, but being younger and everything your girlfriend said to you, it was the end of the world. If you had a fight with your friends

I think she still feels that, that she's got that very unsteady emotional kind of turmoil going through her. Yeah, she's just never not grown up, but she's never worked on that and never really found two friends who developed from that. I think it's easy to hide behind a phone, easy to hide behind. Perspective. Not necessarily, perception is not reality.

S: It's important to remember that. And it felt like Cecilia was definitely not living in the real world. She, like you pointed out, would always revert back to her phone whenever she was going or had to face something that she wasn't ready for. It was distracting. Looking for that validation that, you see those likes, you see the comments, you see the people like giving, like, and she's feeding off of that. 

E: That's an addictive side, isn't it? The way that it is the way that the music and you see the, the comment and it kinda makes you feel a bit gross about social media, a way for me personally, I find it like you watch the comments come in and I think it’s interesting because we do escape to our phones sometimes. Of course when we don't want to deal with problematic feelings. 

S: Yes, it fed her ego, most of all. She [Cecelia] genuinely felt like she was helping people. 

E: Yeah, I think a lot of people promote things when they, you've got influencers and you've got the people that wanna be influencers. And they’re not, it’s an interesting world, social media and Instagram specifically. 

S: Cecilia was seemingly obsessed with her social media self that she had created. And  as we could see throughout the film, it became sort of this comfort zone or solid grounding for her, it was pretty problematic. What was the takeaway that you feel was made with this film in terms of, you know, mental health, especially. 

E: I think that it's a film that poses the question, is social media healthy, and it can make you question, you know, why do I finally follow these influences? I think that's an interesting thing to question. If you are someone that uses Instagram,  if you are not being sold the product (mm-hmm) you are the product.

S: for my last question, how was it for you to play this character? Was there anything in this character that you related to, or how was it for you in terms, did you relate to this character or was this character kind of like a departure from you for yourself? 

E: Well, I'd like to think she's very different from me. It was difficult to fit in just because of the way that she dealt with situations.

You know, she's motivated, motivated by a desire to increase her popularity. And I think that is different for me, but for Alex, you know, she wants to protect herself and she's the only one with boundaries. She wants to protect her friends. I can relate to her wanting to protect my friends.

I think that her family is her friends. So I think for me understanding that my family is everything to me, my friends are like my family. Like to only have her friends as family. I think leading by ultimately speaking the truth, being motivated by the truth. Being a truth teller.

You know, that to me is something I resonate with. I always try to be myself and be as honest as I can. So I think I can relate to her in that way. It was hard to explore as someone who, you know, is a survivor of abuse and I can relate to the fact that she's a fighter and then she's a loyal friend. I think that that's something that I really lent into for it. Yeah, but it was difficult. It was obviously difficult to bully someone like it's not, but I can't look it in that way. I really get into understanding what it's like to be her. I wouldn't say it was ever easy to play.

S: But you did a great job. I think you did an amazing job. You know, even with Alex, with her bullying, Cecilia, it felt like she was more so hurt.

E: That's what I wanted to build it from. It was the core of the heart and painful skills. I tried to build that. 

S: And once again, congratulations on the film and receiving such high remarks for Sissy. I think it did what it needed to do and the message is definitely gonna come. So I am very happy that I got to speak with you today and I got to watch Sissy as well. Thank you