DANDELION Interview | KiKi Layne & Thomas Doherty

I truly feel that this film beautifully captures what it's like to be a dreamer there are those lines in here such as that line that's in the trailer about how chasing dreams is hard but also hard to quit and then also how the two of your characters help each other to dream again how would you say that your own dreams have evolved since doing this project and working together are you sunsetting some aspects of yourself that you're okay with are you opening new door yours how have you challenged each other as artists and dreamers yourself I think that one gift that this film really highlighted for me was the gift of perspective um what does success look like for you and I think in today's world like especially with social media success seems to be defined by so very few options and I think if you are basing your success off of all of these other you know ways of measuring it instead of really checking in with yourself about you know what did I seek out to do when I first started dreaming about this and I think like doing this film I was reminded like oh I'm doing the thing I'm like I I'm starring in a movie this is this is what I used to dream about I used to dream about being on set like I oh I'm I'm doing it and nothing can take that away like who cares how many followers I have or what events I go to it it doesn't matter that's not actually what the dream was um so I that's definitely something that you know this film that I continue to to carry with myself after doing all of the exploration that I did for this character a measure of success in today's society is Fame and Fortune and all that stuff and I'm like well that's kind of easy to get if you conform and you out and you it's it's not hard to get got all these platforms now where you can get that quite quickly now I'm definitely in a space and it never happened when I was doing the film it's only happened the last year since the film I'm just reevaluating like what what my value system is and like what life do I want to live you know and it's and it's hard cuz it's not as black in white like I'm not standing from some moral High Ground being like I want to be like an actor yeah I want the car I want the house like I also want that stuff as well but so that's where it kind of gets into the weeds with me right now so it's it's it's it feels quite muddy but I guess my Ultimate Dream my mom asked me in the car yesterday sounds like a very Hollywood Story but I swear to God she did she said what do you where do you see yourself in 5 years and I didn't see myself anywhere in 5 years the only thing that I want in 5 years is to be closer to who I authentically am and to be okay with that yeah that's good I I think what makes the pursuit of dreams so sincere in this is how your director Nicole finds the moments in between the notes like in this Quest For Truth your characters get time to think reflect and sometimes be in the same space together and just exist like how creatively freeing is that for you as a performer to allow Stillness to drive in between the songs you sing and how Nicole allows these fragments of your exist experience together to artfully show your character's relationship yeah I mean Le what is it 5% of what you say what you project out isn't what you say it's that that represents like 5% the ton 15% the rest is like body language and like you're quiet and your Stillness that's what like that's how you really kind of truly communicate when when you're not trying to impress and be something for someone you know and I think Nicole really honed in on that and and utilized that and and got us to a place and we got ourselves into into a place where wasn't contrived it felt very like organic and very real and therefore very powerful yeah it was very freeing uh Nicole just really gave us space to be in what whatever moment you know she knew what she needed and could communicate that clearly with us but she you know didn't overd direct us in terms of how we were going to get there and she definitely made space to see what Thomas and I what we were going to bring to the scene before you know trying to get there and you know direct and and change things so it was nice that she kind of allowed us to inform her a bit um to really see like what does Thomas naturally do in this type of situation based off of what he you know thinks about Casey what is Kiki going to do and then kind of nurturing that um so that yeah it was it was really lovely to work that way yeah giki did you know that there was going to be this beautiful Journey with your hands like the the campfire scene the moment on the bike and the moment where your hands come apart it's like these little micro stories that are lending themselves to the macro are you privy to all those micro stories a bit yes uh because she definitely that was one thing I do recall her saying to us especially when we were around the campfire of just like wanting them a bit closer on certain takes wanting them apart and kind of just letting us know like it's you know helping to kind of tell this story of their connection and their chemistry um so yeah we got I guess yeah like little hints of it but seeing the film and seeing what it ultimately became I was like Oh okay that's cool yeah yeah Quentin Tino's obsessed with the Regal's obsessed with h yeah I'd be okay with that she finds a way my my favorite scene in this is when Casey takes danelon to the a Scenic spot on on top of the hill in the tree he describes it as a as a place that helps him get rid of the noise and he can breathe do you each have a place like that a place that allows you to take pause and reset yeah just outside nature yeah puts things into perspective it's a good Eagle Eagle diminisher I think nature is I guess for me it's it's going back home to to Cincinnati just being around my keeps me very grounded and just helps me to remember why I do this and you know all of the people that have supported me from the very beginning in this um so being able to tell this story back home was I mean magical for me really I'm doing a press junk in Edinburgh I can't even imagine what it's like if I was doing a film in Edinburgh and they came see I couldn't do press in Cincinnati I did that one time for the Old Guard and the number of interviews that like my toddler nephew is a part like literally online like there's videos with my nephew like on my lap um I would not do press back home yeah Thomas I I have to ask about this this moment in the film it's the last song you perform in the film and it's something anyone could feel that moment in their soul because you're putting so much of your soul into it like you're neck veins are popping out tell me about going into that moment performing that moment and then coming down from that moment because it's even reflected in dandelion response in the moment like even she's just like whoa I I have to personalize everything right off the bat I was I saw a lot of I could have felt kive a lot of similarities and can understood him and saw myself in him so that from the Geto was amazing so I was able to personalize a lot of cases emotions into my own my own circumstances and situations the that emotion is the same so it's just I I mean I guess a case of putting it into something else and yeah getting into that space is it's weird it's a weird job man it's weird you you get into this space and it's it's dark and it's sore but it's feels cathartic so it feels nice and afterwards you feel a relief but also a sad like it's bizarre really really strange but I guess I should feel really blessed to be able to have a space and a cast and a director where I can be vulnerable and have that emotion yeah yeah I know we're out of time but I wanted to real quickly ask because this is an exploration of an artist during their humble beginnings and their pursuit of their dream is there an artist who you deeply value who you wish you could see Nicole give them the dandelion approach so you can see their humble beginnings and watch them perform in like a smaller venue Heroes David B that would be good that's the person that popped in my head was Prince like yes we got brain okay but like really like getting yeah that would that's an artist I would love to just see more more of that yeah