The Most Supportive Set: Reflecting on "‘Till Death"

A couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to be contacted by the director of ‘Till Death, Morgan Monfriedo. I had auditioned for her project back in mid-October, but hadn’t gotten the part at first. But, when the original lead had to drop out and Morgan reached out the day before filming, I quickly jumped in to fill the gap. And I’m glad that I did.

From the get-go it was supportive and down-to-earth set.

I had shown up a few minutes late because of the trains and when I arrived to set, all sweaty and apologizing profusely, they assured me all was okay and that they were thankful that I was able to fill in at such short notice. The first scene we filmed involved me needing to wear a wedding dress but, because the actress they bought the dress for was much smaller than me, I had to wear a white tank top underneath and leave the lacing at the back all but untied. At first, I was very insecure. Being a slightly larger build, especially in the acting world, can sometimes feel so weird even in circumstances like these where it’s pretty much a given that you won’t fit into clothes meant for a much-different-sized person. But everyone on set, especially Morgan, were adamant that it looked fine and not to worry. There was no shade, just total acceptance and compassion!

At the end of that first day, I felt tired but proud of the work I’d put in.

Unfortunately, however, that Friday night, I got a call from my dad that my Grandma in Bosnia wasn’t doing well at all. Within 15 mins, I had a ticket bought for the night of the last day of scheduled filming (Sunday). I messeged Morgan to let her know what was going on, and she was so incredibly kind and understanding and assured me that we would wrap on Sunday in time for me to get on the plane.

Morgan both literally and figuratively holding my hand.

That Saturday, I was a mess.

Thankfully, the scenes we were filming were emotional ones, so the intermittent tears that popped up whenever I thought of my Grandma were not super out-of-place. Morgan checked in with me often to make sure I was ok, and even kept my phone on her in case I got any updates from my family about my Grandma.

When Sunday, the last day of filming came around, every single person on set was a Rockstar. They all understood the assignment and worked beautifully together to get me out on time – and that’s something I will never forget.

Working with young female directors like Morgan, I get very excited for the future of Film and TV.

Morgan was able to provide compassion and understanding while simultaneously still getting quality work done and getting the maximum out of the scenes she wrote. I think in our industry we’ve accepted a level of “that’s not my problem” from everyone involved, but we forget that we’re all human beings with full lives going on: shit happens. And how Morgan helped me through it was amazing.

I truly hope I can work with Morgan again in the future, as well as with everyone who worked on set that weekend. Special shout out to my co-stars Dayja, Jaime, and Ziad, as well as Charlie, Jake, Gianna, Marvin, Kelsy, and all the PAs, you guys were so awesome! (And extra special shout out to Morgan’s mom, for being one of the most supportive mothers I’ve ever seen!)

Can’t wait to see this film!

xx Selma