Adam Lambert, Emilia Jones, Scoot McNairy, Cody Fern & Fairyland Director Interview | Sundance 2023

In writer-director Andrew Durham’s feature directorial debut, Fairyland, Emilia Jones plays Alysia Abbott, a young girl being raised by her single father in the ‘70s. Based on the memoir of the same title, and author and real-life Alysia, Fairyland tells a “parallel coming-of-age story,” as Durham describes it, of the father-daughter relationship between Alysia and Steve Abbott (Scoot McNairy), a man navigating the queer community of ‘70s San Francisco, and all the new freedoms it has to offer. While simultaneously raising his daughter and attempting to experience his new life, Steve encourages Alysia to embrace her passions, while doing the same. Though her childhood was filled with love from her father, as Alysia gets older she begins to feel her family’s otherness. Wanting desperately to fit in and carve her own life for herself, Alysia heads off to college, first in NYC and then abroad in France. It’s during this time in the ‘80s, when AIDS tragically swept through the gay community, that Steve calls on his daughter following his diagnosis. Alysia must now face the decision to continue living her life or return home to care for her father. In addition to McNairy and Jones, Fairyland also stars Cody Fern, Adam Lambert, Geena Davis, Nessa Doughtery, Maria Bakalova, and more. After Fairyland’s Sundance screening, Durham, Jones, McNairy, Lambert, and Fern visited the Collider Studio in Park City. During their interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, they each share what about the script resonated with them, discuss the “whirlwind” of making an independent film, and talk about why this heartbreaking story is imperative to tell, and continue telling. They open up about the ripple effect AIDS has on the queer community, and all of those affected by it, and discuss emotional scenes in the film. Durham also reveals the ways the movie almost changed drastically during the editing process, and explains the intentional camerawork as it matures with each act. #AdamLambert #EmiliaJones #ScootMcNairy #Fairyland #Sundance For interviews, movie reviews, and more visit https://collider.com FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL   / collider     / collider     / collider