C4 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020
People who offer their dwellings on Airbnb
recently received a marketing email from
the company about trends. As travel re-
strictions ease, the message said, groups
and families will want “stays outside of ma-
jor cities” where they can rent “entire
homes and apartments.”
For Dave Franco, those aren’t trends.
They’re the makings of a nightmare.
“I’ve become a little distrusting of strang-
ers,” said Franco, 35, best known for his
roles in movie comedies like “21 Jump
Street” (2012) and “Neighbors” (2014).
“Home sharing is one of these concepts
where, if you take a step back, we’re really
putting a lot of trust in strangers.”
Franco explores his misgivings to eerie
effect in “The Rental,” his feature directing
debut (available on demand) about two cou-
ples whose getaway at a rented oceanside
home turns into a cat-and-mouse game with
a mysterious adversary. Written by Franco
and Joe Swanberg, the film puts a sharing-
economy spin on the horror subgenre of
wicked proprietors who, like Norman
Bates, rent rooms with evil intent.
The movie also touches on an insidious
part of the home-sharing experience: racial
discrimination. One of the weekend guests,
Mina (Sheila Vand), is an Iranian-American
woman who suspects the home’s caretaker
of bigoted motives after he ignores her
booking request and instead rents the home
to her white co-worker, Charlie, played by
Dan Stevens. (The film also stars Jeremy
Allen White and Alison Brie, Franco’s wife.)
In a phone interview, Franco discussed
this and other themes, but he pivoted from
talking about his brother, the artistic poly-
math James Franco, who directed him in
the 2017 comedy “The Disaster Artist.” (“I
draw inspiration from many directors I’ve
worked with,” he said when asked about his
brother’s influence.) Instead, Franco fo-
cused on why sharing is scary. Following
are edited excerpts from the conversation.
There’s a long history of horror movies set
inside residences. But yours is about a
rental property. Why did that distinction
interest you?
I was inspired by my own paranoia about
the concept of home sharing. The country is
as divided as it’s ever been, but we trust
staying in the home of a stranger because of
positive reviews? We’re all aware of the
risks of staying in a person’s home, and we
don’t think anything will happen. My para-
noia has reached its peak. Now when I stay
in a rental home I don’t think, is there a cam-
era in this house? I think, will I find the cam-
eras in this home?
Do you feel the same way when you stay in a
hotel?
I don’t think of this as much when it comes
to a hotel. But I’ve read articles about a ho-
tel where someone stayed in a room,
planted a camera, started livestreaming the
guests for months and posted it to porn
sites. It’s not my intention to freak the world
out. It’s more this idea of trusting a stranger.
Do you consider “The Rental” a horror film?
It’s between a thriller, horror and relation-
ship drama. I wanted to write the script
with Joe Swanberg because his main
strength lies in character and relationships.
Our goal was to create a drama where the
interpersonal issues are just as thrilling as
the fact that there is a psycho villain in the
shadows. We used the horror elements to
accentuate the couples’ problems.
Why a horror movie as your feature debut?
Most people know me from the comedies
I’ve acted in, so it’s a surprise to them that I
would want to tackle this genre. As a viewer,
there’s nothing I enjoy more than a smart
genre film that takes the scare seriously.
There were also logistical reasons I wanted
my first time to be a thriller: I could make it
relatively cheap with a small cast in one lo-
cation. Within those parameters, I could
have fun with the style. Mainly I just wanted
to make a scary movie that was relatable
and set in the real world. For me there’s
nothing scarier than thinking: That could
happen to me.Are there horror films that influenced you?
I just rewatched “The Blair Witch Project”
and it holds up. It’s crazy that the movie is
considered one of the scariest movies of all
time and you don’t see the villain. I was also
inspired by “Martha Marcy May Marlene,”
“Blue Ruin” and “The Texas Chainsaw Mas-
sacre,” which all are grounded in the real
world, where you believe something scary
could happen, and the punches land hard.
Have you had any bad home-sharing experi-
ences?
With anything I write there are personal el-
ements sprinkled throughout. But the rac-
ism that Mina experiences is not something
that happened to me. It’s based on friends of
mine who have experienced racial profiling
while trying to rent on a home-sharing app.It’s so important to include that element in
the movie. It was an honest way to create
immediate tension between a renter, who in
this case is of Iranian descent, and the white
homeowner. When it comes to my friends,
there were multiple situations where they
tried to rent places that had availability but
they were not allowed to rent.
What did you learn about being a director?
Over the years I’ve realized that film is a di-
rector’s medium, and as an actor there’s
only so much you can do. It’s disheartening
when you put so much effort into a role and
the editing or visuals or music can turn the
performance into something you never
thought it would be. As a director, the movie
lives and dies on your decisions. That’s lib-erating. I have so much compassion for ac-
tors. When it came time to edit their per-
formances, I would comb through the
footage to ensure we used everyone’s best
moment. I didn’t want the actors to think:
why would they use that take?
Now I’m going to think twice before renting
a home share. Does this mean you’ve sworn
off Airbnb?
I still use Airbnb. [Laughs] I stayed in one
while making this movie, in this wood cabin
on the beach in Oregon. We brought Harry,
our 17-year-old cat, with us and it was his
first time ever getting on a plane. He was
able to look out the windows every day.
Harry was thriving. But he recently passed
away. It was his last hurrah.Dave Franco Plumbs
His Vacation Fears
The actor on ‘The Rental,’ his
horror-thriller directing debut
about a home share gone awry.
By ERIK PIEPENBURGDave Franco, above, says “The Rental” reflects his own
“paranoia about the concept of home sharing.” From far left,
Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White in the film.IFC FILMSRYAN PFLUGER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESSUBMERGED IN SHADOW,we are surrounded
by a 19th-century freak show. Ugly phrase,
yes, but that’s what it is — a carnival side-
show of human beings whose appearance
promises the thrill of shock for paying
customers.
Some of the attractions are faked, ofcourse. But one barker assures the crowd
that he offers the genuine article, a young
Mexican woman truly “ghastly to behold.”
“Just waiting to walk onstage,” he says,
“and fill your hearts with fear, fill your
hearts with disgust, fill your hearts with
loathing.”
More likely, for us it will be her contempo-raries who elicit those reactions — because
the title character of Shaun Prendergast’s
one-act play “The True History of the Tragic
Life and Triumphant Death of Julia Pas-
trana, the Ugliest Woman in the World” re-
ally was exhibited internationally, in the
mid-1800s, for the delectation of spectators.
The sly trick of this 1998 play, written to
be performed in what a stage direction calls
“absolute darkness,” is that it asks the audi-
ence to imagine what Julia looks like. Lis-
tening to a new audio version, directed by
Jonathan Fielding for Amphibian Stage of
Fort Worth, we can do the same from home,
where we are encouraged to cover our com-
puter screens so their light doesn’t dilute
the atmosphere.
With her cultivated speech and unruffled
manner, Julia (a fine Hannah Martinez) is
captivating. To the ticket holders, though,
she is scarcely human — covered in dark
hair because of one medical condition (gen-
eralized hypertrichosis lanuginosa), and
with thickened gums and lips because of a
second (gingival hyperplasia). “Ugliest
woman in the world” is one way she is often
billed; historically, “ape woman” and “bear
woman” were others.
“Get it to sing for us,” a gawker demands.
Whenever Julia does, the loveliness of her
voice ought to shame the cruelty right out of
a crowd.
But Julia, who is smart and personable
yet fits no standard of female beauty, is con-
demned to otherness in a world ruled by mi-
sogyny, racism and general ignorance.
Lent (J. R. Bradford), the money-grub-
ber who hawks her to the masses, becomes
her husband as well. This is where the Am-
phibian production, with its richly textured
sound design (by David Lanza), could do
with greater depth of characterization.
The play’s most complex role, Lent is ar-
guably — and problematically — more
prominent than Julia, who poignantly in-
sists that he loves her for herself. Whether
his essence is straight-up evil or more nu-
anced, Bradford conveys only a superficial
sense of Lent and his motives.
To avoid spoilers, or if you have a sensi-
tive stomach, stop reading right here.
Because Julia has a baby with Lent, and
she and the newborn both die. Lent hasthem embalmed, and exhibits them for
years: his dead meal-ticket family.
That is not so far removed from the tour-
ing shows of human corpses, often from
China, that have persisted into our own cen-
tury — which, by the way, is when Julia Pas-
trana was finally buried, in Mexico.
The scariest thing about “The True His-
tory,” then, isn’t listening to it in the dark.
It’s that urge to dehumanize, and how stub-
bornly alive it is.LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES THEATER REVIEWShawled in Shadow, and Debased to an ‘It’
Written to be acted in the dark,
a play asks us to imagine the
world’s most hideous woman.
The True History of the Tragic Life
and Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana,
the Ugliest Woman in the World
Through Thursday; amphibianstage.com.
Running time: 49 minutes.Above, a 2012 production. Below, from left, Felicia Bertch, Mitchell Stephens,
Jovane Caamano and J.R. Bradford recording the latest version.
VIA AMPHIBIAN STAGEEVAN MICHAEL WOODSCLUE OF THE DAY
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