Audrey the Trainwreck is now available to stream for free on Frank V. Ross’ new website. Learn all about the film and its production in our latest video interview with the filmmaker

Perhaps the most beloved of Frank V. Ross’ films, Audrey the Trainwreck follows Ron Hogan (Tony Baker) and Stacy Ryan (Alexi Wasser), two 30-something, working-class Chicagoans who meet through an online dating service. Ron is an ATM parts purchaser who hates his job even as it rules over his entire existence. Stacy, on the other hand, is a delivery woman for a parcel service, who is also working to better her situation through night school. When they agree to meet for a second date, they bond over a shared dissatisfaction with their present situations while occupying vastly different perspectives on the control they hold over their futures.

In the following interview, Ross goes into detail about where he was at creatively and emotionally during Audrey the Trainwreck‘s production and the experiences that inspired the film. Audrey found Ross at several crossroads. For one, he decided to give up camera responsibilities to see if he could still make a film look and feel like one of his own without peering through the lens himself. Before this, for 2007’s Hohokam, Ross ditched a film crew entirely and helmed a one-man production in the Arizona desert. Following that, Present Company (2008) was shot by Ross and various cast members, friends, and their families. For Audrey The Trainwreck, David Lowery (director of Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and A Ghost Story) came aboard to shoot the film and Ross found it to be a freeing experience. He also started working with actors and producers from outside of his usual circle of local collaborators — including a pre-Ron Swanson Nick Offerman. Ross also brought jazz great John Medeski onboard to compose the film’s score. We are excited to share for the first time ever some of Ross’ unreleased footage of Medeski’s recording session in this video.

As with the earlier entries in this series, this video interview finds Ross at his most candid regarding what it takes to not only get a movie made, but to bring one to life. With time, we expect that Audrey the Trainwreck will be recognized as one of the great American films of its era. But for now, we hope Ross’ recollections of its making can inspire a few daring young artists to step out of their comfort zones to make films that are true to them and challenging to everyone who sees the results.

Watch the video here or head to our YouTube channel:

Read an excerpt from the interview:

Split Tooth Media: With David Lowery behind the camera, how did it change things for you? Did it allow you to shift your focus to anything else while he ran the camera?

Frank Ross: There was a complete trust and a good working relationship between me and Dave. I didn’t really ever look through the thing unless he asked, ‘This good?’ ‘Little tighter,’ that sort of thing. When you’re working with filmmakers — I’ve never worked with just a DP. I guess my first movie I did work with a DP, but we were too young to be working together. That’s why I never worked with one because when I was 17 and I was like, ‘fuck this.’ (laughs) I don’t feel like explaining myself to anybody. 

It was also kind of an experiment in letting go of the camera. Will this feel like one of my movies when it’s done? And I think it feels the most like one of my films, without me on the camera, because Dave is more competent behind there than me, but we have the same kind of instincts. If you look at the panning, and anticipating, and stuff like that, we have similar sensibilities.

You’re working with a filmmaker who makes decisions. Doesn’t ask unless there’s a reason to ask. You move forward. You make choices and you just keep going. That’s the way I like to work and at the time that’s the way Dave worked, too.

Read Brett Wright’s complete series on The Films of Frank V. Ross here

Audrey is a film about a guy who works a thankless job. He’s stuck in his routine. At this point in your life, what was your perspective on work and how were you balancing your relationships with your personal projects, your films, and your night job? 

I would never use the word ‘balance’ to describe it… Like, it’s an everyday thing for me even now where my situation is completely different from when I was 29 going on 30, about to get married. It’s still the same sort of, ‘how can I squeeze in the work I know I need to do in order to be happy?’ At the time I hated waiting tables more than anything. And I just kept going back to it. When I eventually did just quit and just walked away from waiting tables, even looking back there was no point where I was like, why didn’t I do it then? There was no place for me to do it. I mean, my dad was a maintenance guy; my mom was a waitress. That’s what I knew. You went to work. Making films was never going to be work. I didn’t understand how guys went from one job to another like gigging, whatever you want to call it. That didn’t make any sense to me and every time I tried I failed, wound up getting business cards printed up for making wedding videos. Which I did do a handful of and they’re great. Some of my best work! (laughs)

So when I looked at the characters, and the people they were inspired by, I was like, let’s just get them in their routine, and it turned into my version of a straight-up love story. It turned into my version of a boy-meets-girl love story. And it was about internet dating as it existed at the time. But I didn’t want to make a movie about internet dating. There’s one computer. There’s one shot of Ron on the computer. You deduce it from there. And it was always these three dates, and it was just for whatever reason these two people wanted to go on a second one. I guess this is why it’s my version of boy-meets-girl because as soon as they start talking and getting along we cut to two people who seem to be getting along, too, but one’s trying to sell the other a house. That’s my perspective on things. It’s all words, but there’s something else going on. I think Dave’s photography, again, lends itself to communicating that very quietly.

Watch Audrey the Trainwreck for free below:

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