Filmmaker Arthur de Larroche puts Micaela Wittman under the microscope, offering an insider look at the films they made together and the fickleness of success.
By Olive Walton
Writer, director, actor (actually), and social theorist (in spirit), Micaela Wittman is cool, passionate and thoughtful. Complimented greatly by collaborator Arthur de Larroche, this conversation illustrates that the pair are inquisitive, questioning and just the right amount of skeptical about the industry we all work in.
Arthur de Larroche: I’m a writer and a director and I’ve collaborated with Micaela on Clairvoyant, Remy & Arletta, and We’re Already There, so three films now. I’ve been along the process of Micaela’s rise and seeing her navigate all of this since 2021 and I’m just really lucky that she has kept me around for the ride a little bit too. It’s been a privilege to know her.
Micaela Wittman: I never agree with that last part. I’m not ‘keeping you around’ obviously. Arthur’s very talented in his own right.
AdL: You’ve been open in the past about riding a fine line between true artistic expression and cynical trend chasing or self-promotion. In the modern age, how do you balance the two or is that something even possible to balance anymore?
MW: I wish that artistic integrity was the only thing that mattered. And I wish that I was happy just being isolated, alone, like in the middle of nowhere, in a hut telling stories. But I just genuinely don’t feel like that is the true scope of it. I mean, your work needs to interact with people as well. You kind of have to do this like ‘clout-chasey stuff’ and you need to find your numbers somewhere. It’s about making the art, putting it out there, and having people see it at a large scale at the end of the day, that’s the goal. That’s everyone’s goal. I don’t love social media and I don’t love influencing as much as I love art and storytelling and making movies, but they just go hand in hand. So I think when I stopped fighting that my life got easier.
AdL: Do you have any cancelable advice for a person just starting out in their career like you?
MW: That’s funny. Cancelable. I have said that if I was starting now, I would change my name on all of the acting profiles. I would just change my last name to Wahlberg with no explanation. And then if casting directors ask if I was related to Mark, I would just say “I’m uncomfortable answering that question. I really wanna do things my own way,” which would be true! I just remember one time I had this audition and we were totally vibing and then the casting director asked “oh, are you Mae Whitman’s sister?” And I was like, “haha, no” and then the vibe completely shifted and I thought we were vibing for us but then their face dropped and the rest of the meeting was just cold. That was a wake up call for me. I was like, wow. Obviously I wouldn’t have lied, I wouldn’t go back and do it differently, but it was crazy to see how much that actually played a part in real time.
AdL: I remember that when we first put out Clairvoyant, one of the first questions that I received, uh, just when, uh, an interview before an interview was “Micaela Wittman, like Walt Wittman, right?” And I was like, “no”. So like they’re trying to find it in any way that they can.
MW: Yes, so I think that’s why I would just go with it. Like, “yeah, Wahlberg”, with no explanation.
AdL: Remy & Arletta premiered in movie theaters previously. What was it like seeing Remy & Arletta on the big screen?
MW: I was always very critical of Remy & Arletta throughout the editing process. As soon as I saw the raw footage, every part of the process I was tearing into, I was tearing it apart, and then when I saw it in the theater and it was dark and it was on a big screen, I was just having this private moment, as you do when you go to the movies, and I was finally able to be proud of it for the first time. I was finally able to see the story for what it was quite literally, because there was nothing else. I think it’s very symbolic of the screen being massive because there was truly nothing else in my mind. It was just taking up all the space in my mind, the story for what it was. I wasn’t able to think about all this gratuitous stuff that I usually was thinking about with Remy & Arletta, and I was just able to appreciate it and think that it was really cool. We did that and we did that on such a small budget too. That used to come with shame, but I was just able to see it for what it was. It was really nice.
AdL: How do you feel about the current state of Hollywood?
MW: I feel… God.
OW: Do you want a cancelable answer or what? I think you need to specify now.
MW: I think that a lot of people are not happy with it. I talk to creative execs, execs, independent filmmakers, actors. Everyone is very ornery and very upset with the state of the industry from my experience. It’s hard. I’m learning to navigate it now, so it’s harder to be negative about it because now I’m starting to learn how to navigate it, but there was a huge learning curve. I don’t wanna be negative, but old me definitely would’ve been negative.
OW: Can I turn the question back to you, Arthur? What do you think about the current state of Hollywood and what’s the subtext in that question?
AdL: My personal belief is that we’re over the hump. I think that it looks really bad, but everybody’s sort of a laggard, they’re realizing that it’s bad. But for me, the signs were there in 2010 – it was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we need to slow down before something terrible happens. And then we’ve been through 15 years of terrible things happening, and now it really can only go up. Everybody’s heart is in the right place from everyone who’s serious about film. Their heart is in the right place for the first time. Because before you would have these meetings with artistic people and they would start talking to you about cross-promotion for brands and apps in the film. It was very cynical and everybody wanted to kill theaters for the longest time. I always think about Witch Finder General, the Vincent Price movie, because he was so evil for evil’s sake and he just wanted to destroy a nice community in the film – he just wanted to exercise power. That was sort of the vibe from the bottom up in Hollywood was like ‘streaming forever’, ‘kill theater’, ‘everything that’s old is bad’ ‘even if it’s just 1-year-old it’s bad’. But I think now there’s been a realignment.
AdL: What’s it like having Clairvoyant achieve cult status?
MW: I think when Clairvoyant came out, there was a period in my life where I was being treated like shit by everyone in my inner circle – reps and all that. Then I’d go to a party and someone would say, “Oh, you made Clairvoyant. I saw that. It was really funny,” or “It’s on my Letterboxd, I watched it.” People knew about the movie. It created this really weird dissonance: in my inner circle, people were saying, “You haven’t done shit,” and out in the world, people were like, “I love your movie.” Cult status is so much more nuanced when you’re actually going through it. I like the movie, so that’s good.
AdL: Is there anything from your upbringing that you feel helps or hinders you in your life today?
MW: Obviously it helps fuel the art. There’s a lot of stories there but I think the best thing from my upbringing is that I was never comfortable and I’ve never had anywhere to go back to and I’ve never had anyone to go back to. When I see people fall out of this industry, it’s usually because they have some source of comfort somewhere. They have a family that they could go back to where they have money doing something else. And this is truly what I have and what I’ve dedicated my life to. I don’t even have a high school diploma, which is great because I’m uncomfortable and I will push through any obstacle that comes. I do love it but I’m uncomfortable in my life no matter what, so I might as well be uncomfortable doing this.
OW: Do you use your past experiences into the way that you approach your roles and characterisation as a tool?
MW: Yes, definitely. I think having those experiences and then also healing from them has been what’s been really important. I think that those experiences, raw, would maybe create something a little bit more chaotic or messy in my performances that probably wouldn’t be good or refined. But I think having those experiences, healing from them, doing the inner work and then being able to draw on them in a way that is healthy and that I’m comfortable with, has been something that has elevated my work.
AdL: Do people treat you differently now than they did a couple years ago now that all the projects, fashion brands, modeling and all that’s kind of taken off?
MW: This could just be the natural progression of life, but I’ve found that I have a lot more friends now. I don’t know if that pertains to that necessarily, but my circle has just grown in acquaintances, close friends and people who want to work with me. You just see that it grows over time. Is that a superficial thing? I don’t think so. And if it is, honestly, I wouldn’t say no to it because I like it. I like that people are nicer and nicer and I know more and more of them. It’s a good thing.
AdL: How many times a year do you betray yourself?
MW: Never.
AdL: That’s your official answer?
MW: Never.
AdL: Okay. Not one.
MW: I think that there’s some moments where I’m like, ‘Why didn’t I stand up for myself in that scenario?’ Or ‘Why did I stay quiet?’ But then when I look back at the choice that I made, I’m pretty sure I was being strategic.
AdL: In that sense then, how many enemies do you have and why? Feel free to name names.
MW: I have definitely accumulated some enemies. It’s equal: personal and professional. I will not name names, but I always find that every time I’m doing really well, I don’t really care about my enemies anymore. So I just hope to get to a point in my life where to all of my enemies, I wish you love and luck. That’s my goal. I wanna not care. In history, do people hold on to their hatred of people? I guess they do. Even when they’re as successful as they wanna be they do hold on to their hatred of their enemies. Like Betty and Joan, right? They always battle no matter what.
AdL: What are your three favorite movies?
MW: I truly feel like this question is the most impossible to answer. I think I have, I don’t know, 60 movies that I would rate a perfect 10 so it’s really hard to choose just three. If I were to choose just three, it would probably be based on nostalgia, like the first really great films I’ve ever seen, which are The Secret Garden, the original not the reboot. I definitely don’t mean the one from two years ago. I also really like Overboard, the Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell movie that they met on. I also really like Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio. They were the first really great films I saw. I’ve watched a lot of great films since then, but they get to have my special novelty top three slots.
AdL: If you could describe the feeling of stepping onto your first ever set, what was it and what were your feelings? And then could you do the same for the last set you were on?
MW: That’s so interesting. Honestly, my first feeling was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do it again soon because I was so happy. It was Modern Family and it was just so easy. I was so confident and everyone was being so nice and then it was just a sinking feeling of ‘When am I going to be able to do this again?’ And as an actor, you’re like, probably not. So that was my first feeling, while also being just very happy to be there and just feeling very at peace and very excited to do more of it.
Then my last time on set, I think, what did, what did that feel like? It’s weird because you have these dreams and then they come true and you’re in the minutia of it and you’re like, how do I make myself feel this all the way? It just feels so much more mundane when you’re actually living through it. I love acting. I love when people say action and you’re just in the scene. I could do that all day. But the actual, being on set and taking it in, I’m just incapable of taking things in and truly that’s been something I’ve been going through at Paris Fashion Week. How do I take this in? I think I need to start meditating or something like that.
AdL: What’s the big finale then? How do you want them to eulogize your career once you’re gone?
MW: I want to be the most talented, the best ever. No, I want to be seen as someone who persisted despite all odds and who came up at a time when, I think looking back, this is going to be a very dreary time in Hollywood’s life and I do have hope that things are going to just expand and blow up and be better for everyone in the next few years, and I wanna try to be a part of that, ushering that in as much as I can.
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