We Are Crushing Stereotypes! And getting a love interest in the process.

The editor and I ended up creating our main characters on the first day. We also settled on a genre.

Last project, I had promised we could produce a romance or rom-com, something of that sort, for our next project.

The characters we came up with were Adrian and Evelyn. Adrian is a non-binary lesbian character, while Evelyn is a female lesbian. We didn’t want to write a straight romance, which we established within the first five minutes of class. We wanted people of color in our film as well. Diversity and going against stereotypes were goals we set for ourselves. 

We did spend quite some time deciding on who our main people would be. A list of names was created, and multiple browser tabs were open, set on baby naming websites, with ‘unique’ names and their meanings. 

One thing I didn’t want was an androgynous name for Adrian. Non-binary characters tend to have gender neutral names, which isn’t anything bad, I just thought Ocean (a name we planned on using) would enforce the stereotype that non-binary is equated to androgynous and masculine presenting. 

As far as casting went, I ran into some issues. I had to make sure whoever would act as these characters was, a) comfortable in the role, and b) able to portray the character well. After much thought, I casted Angel, who acted in our last film, as Adrian. Kammy, who also acted in our last film, would play the role of Evelyn.

These actors are close friends. After I chose Kammy for a main role, it was obvious that Angel would be involved in some way. Both have amazing chemistry together, in their acting, and I feel that is going to show clearly in the finished product.

I can’t wait to see how Evelyn and Angel will be brought to life!