Actress Phoebe Dynevor was nearly arrested while filming her latest film, Inheritance, in the streets of NYC.
The movie follows Dynevor's Maya, a struggling woman thrown into a vast conspiracy after discovering her father is secretly a spy. With her life on the line, she must journey around the world to find answers.
The production of the movie, however, was an incredibly unique process.
Director Neil Burger chose to have an incredibly small film crew and film on an iPhone. He wanted the movie to blend into the real world and not have everyone else looking at them.
However, in doing so, some messy situations arose.
Phoebe Dynevor Nearly Got Arrested While Filming Inheritance
"I Was Basically Very Nearly Arrested on Our First Day of Shooting."
- The Direct: "One thing about this film is [how] there's a level of authenticity to it that is really intriguing. And I was reading how you guys filmed it and how you would even get it in the brief scuffles with police while filming on location, you know, like stealing, and drinking tequila bottles in the open. It sounds crazy. What was that like, and how many confrontations did you guys end up getting into?
Phoebe Dynevor: It's funny, that was our first day of shooting, I think. And, our director, Neil [Burger]said, I just want you to stay in character for as much as you can, because anytime we have interactions with real people, we might be able to, they might work in the movie. So just keep staying in character, we'll see what we can get.
And yeah, that first day, I was like, oh shit, because I was, you know, in character, drinking tequila from a bottle in Times Square and smoking and getting, like, really weird looks from mums with their small kids, pulling them away from me. And I was like, 'Oh, my God, this is so strange.' And then, yeah, I was basically very nearly arrested on our first day of shooting. There was a safety in being in New York and knowing that Cairo, India, and Seoul were all to come. It was, yeah, luckily, that was as close as it got.
- The Direct: "I was gonna also ask, how often do you worry about things going sideways while maintaining that, in character, no matter what's happening?"
Dynevor: I mean, all the time, you know, from stealing the sunglasses in the airport to being on real planes and air hostesses telling us to stop filming and being in real airport security. And [in] foreign countries, markets in India. I put a lot of trust into our director, Neil [Burger], and thankfully, nothing bad ever happened. But yeah, there were lots of hairy moments, and I hope you can feel that when you watch the film because it very much was what it felt like.
Director Neil Burger went into even more detail about their scary encounter with the NYPD in New York City:
Neil Burger: I think it was our first day of shooting... She's a self destructive character as the movie begins, and she steals a bottle of tequila, and then she's just drinking on the street. She's trying to obliterate herself because she's got these problems, and so we have her drinking, drinking [not actual] tequila, but she's drinking on the street with a bottle, and people were walking by like pulling their children away from her because she looked like a dangerous, really troubled character.
And then I'm looking at my iPad, and suddenly, in my iPad, I see the three biggest New York policemen I've ever seen are suddenly converging on her. And I'd always told her, whatever happens, stay in character. That was the whole sort of ethos of the movie. And even though it's a tightly scripted movie, it's still, you're out in the world, and somebody bumps into you, or wants to talk to you, anyway, stay in the movie.
And so she, God bless her, did. They were like, 'What are you doing?' She's like, 'What does it look like I'm doing? Drinking tequila.' And they're like, 'Why are you drinking tequila?' And she's like, 'Because I like tequila. You want some? And they're like, 'No, we don't want some.' They're like,' Give me that bottle.' And she was like, 'I'm not finished with it.' She just stayed in, and then, at a certain point, I had to step in. And I was like, we're making a movie. And because they were like right on the verge of arresting her, and I let it go as far as I could. I walked [up], I said, 'We're making a movie. She's an actress.' And they were like, 'Why didn't she just say so? And I said, 'Because she's staying in character. They were like, 'Ah God.'
They literally gave us back the bottle and tequila, or the fake bottle of tequila... There were multiple times like that, where she'd be walking down the street, people would talk to her or want to know something, or she would be in the Cairo market, and somebody trying to sell her something or whatever.
The full interviews can be viewed here:
Inheritance lands in theaters on January 24.
