Kyle Milner
While the found-footage genre roared to life and eventually fizzled out across the late 90s and early 2010s, there’s recently been a resurgence of drama, thriller and horror films using innovative, non-traditional perspective. Feature films like Searching, Host and now Profile make clever use of the familiar computer desktop, using desktop applications and cameras to tell stories in an exciting new way.
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch, Wanted) and based on the non-fiction book In the Skin of a Jihadist by French author Anna Erelle, Profile follows struggling British journalist Amy Whittaker (Valene Kane), who goes undercover as a recent convert to Islam in the hopes of getting the scoop on a prominent ISIS recruiter (Shazad Latif).
As Amy delves deeper into the persona of Melody, she begins to find herself drawn in by Bilel as their conversations become more personal, and Amy’s own relationships and safety are put at risk.
It’s white-knuckled viewing, driven by excellent performances by Valene Kane and Shazad Latif. We had the pleasure of speaking to Valene about her experience shooting Profile in a very unusual form, developing the chemistry between Amy and Bilel with Shazad and more.
With complete sincerity, I don’t think I’ve felt so anxious watching a movie in a hell of a long time.
Valene: Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?
I mean, it’s a matter of perspective – but I’m a big fan of it! Your performance in particular really drives the tension home, and the other major factor is the way the film is shot. I believe it’s called the ScreenLife format?
Valene: Yep.
Although it’s not the first time a film has been done in this format, I think it’s such a unique way to present this particular kind of story. I’m so curious to know how that experience was for you as an actor on a technical level as well as performing.
Valene: I think what was incredible about it was that I was my own DP, my own gaffer, my own prop person, my own continuity; my own everything. There was such a deep involvement from the very beginning that it allowed me to really immerse myself in these characters, Amy and Melody.
We didn’t have trailers. There wasn’t like, “now we’re shooting this scene, and now we’re shooting this scene”. It was just me from nine o’clock until one on my computer, then we had lunch, and then from two until nine o’clock. That’s how we shot. There was no makeup, no hair, it was all just me.
So it never felt like, “this is Valene the actress”, and I’m stepping into hair and makeup and then I’m going to arrive on set. I was just Amy, and I could feel myself slightly changing and become tougher and harder as we were shooting.
Although the technical aspects were tricky, and it was a whole other set of skills to learn, it enabled me to not worry or think too much about the role and just completely inhabit it, which is just so great. I think the one thing that me and Shazad were both really aware of was being authentic. All you see is my face (laughs). There’s a lot of this! (gestures at face). There’s a lot of Shazad.
So you can’t have hammy or shit performances. It needs to feel like you’re a fly on the wall. I think because of the way we shot it, because of the way we rehearsed, we were hopefully able to pull off that authenticity.
The film really does rely on these floating heads of yours – not to simplify the performances to that – but so much of the audience’s emotional investment and the film’s tension comes from being able to buy into these characters. We only have what they’re giving us on-camera, and we don’t know if that’s actually what’s going on with them.
As you said, you’re essentially playing two characters – Amy and Melody. One is the real person, and another is this performative persona, and the same could be said of Shazad’s character as well. So the parallel between Amy and yourself in that performance is quite interesting.
Valene: I think that’s really true.
Shazad is so charismatic in a role that really requires it. Considering the film is about how people – particularly young women – are so easily seduced into situations where they become radicalized as extremists, I think he does an excellent job.
Valene: Did you fall in love with him a little bit?
Oh, more than a little bit.
Valene: (laughs) I think that’s what’s so cool. I met the real Anna online on Skype. She shared her screen, and she showed some of the actual videos of her and Bilel. It was really helpful for us to see that; particularly Shazad. Obviously I had the book, but I think it must have been hard for him to think that he was playing a terrorist. To watch the videos and see that Bilel was this very egotistical rock-star that was really flirting with the camera informed both our views of who he was. And then Shazad is just such a bloody good actor. He’s a joy to work with. He’s naturally a very charismatic person, so he’s perfect casting for this.
We had a lot of fun together, pushing each other and seeing how far we could go. It wasn’t for him, but in the middle of it, I was like, “I’m definitely in love with him. I’m going to have to tell my partner I’m definitely in love with Shazad” (laughs). His magic worked on me, too.
I can see why! That’s fascinating that you got to spend time with the real Anna and getting an inside look at all that stuff. When it comes to making films inspired by real stories, I always love to find out to what degree reality is shining through, and how much has had to be compromised for the sake of storytelling. Do you feel that, based on your interactions with her, it captured the reality of the story?
Valene: Because we were setting it in London, and were making me a Londoner, I wanted to put my own stamp on it in an obvious way, because Anna is Parisian. I wanted to base it on Anna’s story, I wanted to take a lot of aspects of her character, but I also wanted to bring truth to the character. That is to channel all of that, but also channel it through who I essentially am and what my interpretation of the character is.
I think I wanted Melody to be more similar to her Melody. I liked the idea of picking up on the things she had done. So, watching the videos of how she flirted with him, the little things like how girly she became, that was really interesting. When I met her in person, she had taken some of those aspects into who she is now. I think I wanted to make Amy Whittaker separate from Anna Erelle, but very much based on her.
Capturing her essence, but not doing an impression.
Valene: Yeah, exactly.
I think the movie captures the tension of Anna’s work in a way that, if it was shot in a more traditional cinematic form, it would not have had at all. She’s so deep into a situation that’s so dangerous despite her distance from Bilel, and it’s not just the situation but being able to see all the nitty-gritty details of how she goes about this job. It’s so stressful, juggling different computer accounts and receiving all these different calls at the same time.
Valene: It’s the subtext, you know? How we see the interior world of Amy is through all these things that are going wrong on her technical ability.
The technical ability, and the performative ability too.
Valene: To mask it, even when things are going wrong. She’s still trying to play with him. But obviously, there are some brilliant moments when he’s like, “is somebody else there? Are you talking to somebody else?”.
PROFILE will be released in theaters by Focus Features on May 14.
