Mammoth Film Festival - Reckless Juliets - Skyler Barrett Interview

An Atlanta native, Skyler's love of all things film and television, and her interest in creating complex, layered, female characters, started at an early age. After being accepted into Columbia College Hollywood in 2007, she made the move to Los Angeles. Many opportunities followed, including internships in Casting and Production at CBS Studios ("The Young and the Restless"), ABC Studios ("Grey's Anatomy, "Scandal", "Prime Suspect"), Colbert Mento Casting ("Step Up 3D, "Warm Bodies", "Destination Wedding"), and casting several student films for Columbia College Hollywood.

After graduation, she went on to work in commercials at Prime Casting, cast short films, and created the award-winning, dramedy web series, Reckless Juliets. The series follows four teenage girls as they navigate their way through high school and womanhood, and touches on themes such as mental illness, suicide, LGBTQIA characters, and the complexity of female friendships. The series has gone on to win awards at festivals like First Glance Philadelphia Film Festival, Best Shorts Competition, KAPOW Intergalactic Film Festival, and SoCal Creative and Innovative Film Festival.

Currently she is working on writing and directing the rest of the first season (and seeking distribution) for Reckless Juliets, prepping to shoot a short film about domestic violence that she wrote and will be directing in the Spring starring Shawn Kathryn Kane and Dylan John Seaton, and will be directing new episodes of the web series, Crystal, starring and created by Crystal Correa.

Reckless Juliets follows four teenage girls as they navigate their way through high school and learn the harsh realities of the world outside of the sheltered existence their parents have created for them. When the group's leader, Carmody, begins to psychologically unravel because of a tragedy, the strong bond between the girls is tested.

TRIVIA
The idea for the web series stemmed from an unpublished, three act play entitled "No Boys On Sundays" written by the creator, Skyler Barrett, in college. The play began with Wynn, Chloe, and Shasta waking up to Carmody climbing through Wynn's bedroom window after being released from a psychiatric facility upstate. After the final planning stages of the production were complete, she realized that there were too many characters coming in and out of the scenes, and that it would work much better as a TV show.

Sierra Pond (Fiona), Samantha Hodges (Margot), Braxton Baker (Ryan), and Roxanna Kaye (Moira) made such a great impression during the casting process reading for other characters that new roles were created specifically for them, and written into the show.

Supporting characters in the play included a college friend of Michael's and his ex-wife Debra that Wynn refers to as "Uncle Jack", several local kids who hound Shasta for weed for various reasons, Shasta's drug dealer boss Phillip, and Fisher Sturack - who was originally twenty years old and on an extended break from college.

THE JBN TEAM INTERVIEW WITH SKYLER BARRETT
Journalist: Joseph Flores
Location: Mammoth Film Festival

TRIVIA:
Creative influences include Jane Campion, John Cassavetes, Paul Thomas Anderson, Lynn Ramsay, Wes Anderson, Steve McQueen, Charlie Kaufman, Tilda Swinton's face, and the music of The Runaways.

Has a passion for writing multi-layered female characters.

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