Girls with Balls was probably my biggest surprise this year at Fantastic Fest. It was a film I knew nothing about other than the clever title before I sat down, finding it to be one of my favorite films of the fest. The horror comedy about a women’s volleyball team that takes on a group of gay hillbilly cannibal cultists is the brainchild of special effects master Olivier Afonso, who worked on such films as Inside, Raw, Livid, and strangely enough the Taken series. After seeing Olivier at a few screenings I asked him to do a quick interview, and given English isn’t his first language we did our best to talk not only about how he went from special effects to directing, but his inspirations and what the French have against Chihuahuas.
So why did you go from special effects to writing/directing?
Because now you don’t have a lot of comedy horror movies, like a Sam Raimi movie, like an Álex de la Iglesia movie. I love this thing because it’s only fun. To be honest, in Girls with Balls, it’s not so simple the story, because you talk about the relationship of the girls, you talk about what it’s like to be a girl, they fight, perhaps they all stay together. This movie talks about that, it’s not really about the hunting of the girls, it’s about how people act when you have an emergency. If decide to band together or not.
I wanted to do a movie with strong feminine characters, because I think they are more interesting, more complex. The men, the hunters, they never speak. It’s a metaphor for the danger and what happens in the group when you have that danger.
Why make them volleyball players?
Because in the beginning, I love slashers. It’s always one girl you know? I say it’s going to be fun if I have a lot of girls, you know. When I started writing with my co-writer we thought about a lot of things like a singing group, at last we think about volleyball because of the wardrobe is very cool. Longer socks, brighter colors. I thought about running in the forest what would be the worst? You cannot hide. It’s impossible, it’s like a light in the night. We laughed about that, and thought the volleyball could also be a weapon. That is also funny, fighting real weapons with a ball.
Where did the story come from, and what influenced you as a writer?
I love a lot of things. I love comic books. I love genre film. I love teenage movies. I love dramas. And for that I wanted to do something that kind of like a puzzle of all of those influences. I love Korean movies, you can have a sad thing with a funny thing, an ugly thing with a beautiful thing. For me life is like that, a mix, and I wanted to do something like that. With a woman character that is more realistic and not just a pinup. For me everyone can find something in this movie.
You’ve seen The Host? You know that movie? Where is the story? The story about the family, not the monster, and the monster is more of an excuse to talk about this family, and my excuse is the hunters. To talk about relationships between women, because I grew up in a household full of women and I was always very interested at the way the women would talk with one another.
I have to ask about how you decided to subvert the genre by making the hunters gay, which was a great touch, but very unexpected.
That scene is very interesting, I love the idea the girl is trying to seduce the hunters, but I am a man. But that character never thought those guys don’t want to have sex with her. She’s oddly disappointed when the hunters decide to make out with one another instead of her. She’s like, that’s impossible! That’s possible. In this movie I love the idea to put my personal points of view in the movie. It’s normal to have a lesbian couple, it’s normal to have a gay couple. It’s normal, it can happen. It’s not a joke. The reaction of this character is a typical homophobic thing, you know. I am trying to do a normal thing in an un-normal situation.
Was it hard to cast this film?
It was a lot of work to find the girls, because sometimes you find an actress that works very well alone, that can’t act in an ensemble and they disappear. I have to find actresses that can play well together. Because for me in this movie the most important thing is the group, the team, I have to find that.
I loved the relationships of the women on screen. How much input did the actresses have into what was on the page?
First we write the script. Then I worked with the actresses to find solutions together, because I wanted to hear from the actress how they would tackle these situations. What they identified with in the characters, I added that to the script.
This is so different than most French films I’ve seen. What was the hardest thing you faced to get this film made?
Everything. Everything is hard to do, because in France it’s difficult to find money to do this kind of movie, because it’s different. Everyone is afraid of things that are different. The other thing is to explain to the people who you work with, to believe and trust in you as a director. Everyone is afraid of looking stupid. In France we have tradition of very serious films, and in the US you have this reputation for dumb movies with really incredible actors like Will Ferrell or Jack Black, in France you cannot find actors like that. It’s not they cannot do that, it’s they cannot find scripts like that, and it’s hard to convince people that we can do a movie like that.
This is a bit of an odd question. So, this is the second French film I’ve seen at Fantastic Fest where a Chihuahua was killed. Do the French hate Chihuahuas?
No. No. No. No. No. It’s a very funny comparison. About the Chihuahua was a very funny story. When we wrote the script I wanted to do a scene with a character like the coach, because I love a movie called Shogun Assassin, because I love this kind of character. He is not so beautiful, not so normal, but he is a very strong guy. We asked what is the opposite of this character? A little animal. In my workshop we had a Chihuahua for another film and I said what about a Chihuahua? He thought that was great?
What film was that from? The Dog, where they kill the Chihuahua that “looks like Hitler”?
No it wasn’t.
I love animals I am vegan, but that was still very funny. The funniest thing is the reaction you get from people. Because you can kill a man or a woman in a very horrible way, but not a Chihuahua. There is always someone that says you cannot kill the Chihuahua.
I saw you actually also worked on a lot of the films screening at the fest this year, like Knife + Heart, which was one of my favorites, Keep an Eye Out, and Murder Me Monster.
Yes. In France, thanks to Raw, people want to do genre again. With Knife + Heart I worked on the previous film with Yann, and then this film because I know this guy is going to be fucking huge.
That mask the killer wears in that film is truly unnerving. Did you do that?
I did. The co-writer designed it and I made it. It works because it is simple. That simplicity of the design of the mask is very difficult to do. That’s why it works.
And the dildo switchblade he uses…
(Laughs) I do all of the things.
I’ve seen you at a bunch of screenings. How have you been enjoying Fantastic Fest and the reaction to your film so far?
I think it’s very interesting, because in the beginning of my movie they are like “What is this thing?” After a few minutes they understand, it’s only fun. In this festival you have a lot of very serious movies, I feel like a comic book in the literature section. I’m a little bit lost. But once they realize the film is fun, they relax.
What’s next?
I have the opportunity to do special effects on a very serious and scary genre film, or perhaps I have the chance to work with my co-writer on a women in prison movie. I don’t know, I want to do a lot of things, but I love comedies.
