EXCLUSIVE: Director Mouly Surya Talks Bringing to Life Netflix’s ‘Trigger Warning’

Netflix’s new movie, Trigger Warning is now streaming and we got the chance to chat with the director of the movie, Mouly Surya. During the chat, we talked how she came to direct the film, any roadblocks she faced making it, and so much more. Check out what she had to say below!

How did you come to be the director of this film?

“I’m Indonesian, I was raised and I live in Indonesia, so I read the script I think a few years ago. My team here in LA put me onto the script. And when I read it somehow… It’s my first English debut movie. It’s my first Hollywood movie. It was kind of a big decision, right? What would I want to do for my first American movie? And somehow when I read it, because I did an Indonesian Western before this, it felt familiar but also uncomfortable at the same time, because in a way it’s very different. It’s a female lead, it’s a tale of revenge.

I mean, my previous film was set in Indonesia, but it has an eastern Western kind of vibe to it, whereas this is a more modern Western of course, but set in a small-town America. I fell in love with it right away. And this is coming from someone who… I mean, I’ve been to America a couple of times at that time, but I’ve only been LA, New York, San Francisco, all the tourist city. I’ve never been to Mexico and I’ve never been to a town such as Creation, and that kind of fascinates me.

I’ve always said that if you want to get to really know America, you have to visit its small towns.

“Yeah, it’s really something else. And so that was kind of one of the things that fascinated me about the script. Then everything just kind of unfolds organically one by one to get where we are today with the film.”

Did anything change from the initial script to the final product fans get to see?

“Oh no, of course not. I mean, it’s a few years of development, of course. So we got another writer on board as well, to do the last pass, Halley Gross. And we, Jessica [Alba] and I and the producers and Netflix, also has some notes. It’s a labor of a lot of thoughts and love to the genre.  Everyone personally had something that they wanted to add to the film as well, and somehow make it work together. I never believe in a final draft of the script until the film basically premieres because it’s going to keep changing. You can do a lot in post-production as well. A lot.”

When you saw the final product, were you satisfied or are you the type of person who critiques there work even after it is finished?

“I’m done. Premieres for a director, it’s a funny thing, whatever, however way you did it, it feels like you’re standing naked in front of everyone. I’m sorry if that is an inappropriate analogy, but that’s just what it feels basically when someone watches your movie right next to you.”

I’ve never heard someone put it that way, but I have to imagine that’s exactly what it feels like.

“Exactly. I think the more raw experience would be when you write a poem when you were a kid, and then your dad reads it out loud to the whole room, which is what happens as well. That’s how it feels in a way. It’s a journey. It’s a process. And watching it as well, it’s a process as well, because I find that even though it’s my first American film, it’s my fourth film already, so I would appreciate it more maybe in five years’ time because that’s when I forgot some of the stuff. Not forgetting about the journey, but forgetting too much details about it that the audience doesn’t care at all. And so, I think watching it’s a journey.”

Well, you work with a plethora of talented actors, but you also work with a huge talented creative team too. As the director, the captain of the team, how do you keep it all together?

“My team was great. Everyone is so talented and very passionate about the work that we are doing, and very professional as well. The actors were fantastic. I mean, this is my fourth film, but it’s a different work environment in America, and I feel that. It’s also not just the actors, it’s the crew as well. It’s their crew, and how the system. Sometimes it can be a little bit overwhelming. It can be very intense. So in a way, as the captain of this… I don’t know, I am very uncomfortable sometimes with the words “the captain of the ship” because someone said to me in production, during production, that is so true, that directing a movie is like building a house from across the street, which is exactly true. And it is how I communicate and how everyone… You rely a lot on everyone else around you, but also it’s how you inspire people as well. So that’s how I captain the ship, to be.”

What would you say was the biggest roadblock you faced making this movie?

“A roadblock, I don’t know. Filmmaking is always full of roadblock. It’s logistics sometimes, and a lot of instances, maybe it’s written the way it is on paper, and then there’s probably, you don’t have enough money and you have to make it work. But I always think, I don’t know, this is coming from someone from Indonesia that the last time I made a film before I made Trigger Warning was a $600,000 movie. I believe that there is beauty in limitations, and there is creativity. I indulge in that, and I am a problem solver. I love solving problems. I feel so proud. But as an audience, when you watch a movie, you don’t know what the problem was, you just know the movie.

But to be honest, as a filmmaker, it’s something that I really take pride of. When we know that it’s a problem and we have to solve it. We have to make the audience not realizing it. It’s the movie magic. It’s the that’s it.”

Good for you that’s a great mindset to take. It puts your cast at ease, your team at ease when you’re able to say, “No, no, we got this. We’re working through this.”

“Exactly. It’s what filmmaking is. It’s problem after problem after problem. There’s no day without an actual problem. I always say that to people around me or to younger filmmakers. You cannot have a trace of panic in you. You cannot panic. You have to be able to say, you have to be calm. And I think I, that’s how I approached it.”

Well, for my final question for you today, why should fans tune into the movie?

“I think it’s a true back of feeling of eighties action movie in a way. You’ve seen this kind movie before in the eighties, in the nineties. You’ve seen it before. But there’s a woman, this is a woman, a Mexican American woman who is going home basically trying to gather memories of the person that was the most important for her. Her Father, her first love, the Dad, and there’s an emotional connection to it. So, in a way, the film is familiar but not familiar, but there’s something new to it, something new to experience. And of course, the film is super fun. The action is great. We work with the best thing, basically the best in the business. And Jessica is just absolutely killing it in this room. Literally and figuratively.”

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity

Photo credit: Karen Kuehn/Netflix ©2024.