セクシーな部屋着やコスプレ、トークを配信し、視聴者からの「あげ銭」で稼ぐCAMガールのアリス。配信の合間には上客とDMで密会を約束し、お小遣い稼ぎもお手のもの。美しく、スタイルも良い、異性を操る心理術も心得ている人気者たちが「あげ銭」を競うのは、現実でも起きていることだ。刺激的であればあるほど票は集まることからエスカレートしていく配信もまた同じ。ランクアップしようと自らをエサにして躍起になるアリスの姿は痛ましくすら見えるが、地道に働くよりも短時間で何倍も稼げてしまう生活を知ってしまっては引き返せない。そんなある日、アリスは自分では行った記憶のない配信が流されていることを発見する。誰が自分を騙っているのか、どんなからくりで自分に見せかけているのか、その意図はーー？ 謎を追っていくアリス、あざ笑うかのように過激さを増すCAM。現実の”私”とネット上の”私”が同じ人間ながら違う側面を見せていること、そしてネット状の”私”の方であることが素の自分を食いつぶしていくことを感じたことがあるをこの現代社会においては誰もが自覚している。そんな”今”の闇を描いたホラーサスペンス。主演は第69回エミー賞でドラマ作品賞、主演女優賞を始め8部門を制覇したHuluのオリジナルドラマ「The Handmaid’s Tale（原題）／侍女の物語」でも注目を浴びるMadeline Brewer。脚本段階から制作に参加した彼女による渾身の演技に飲み込まれる。
監督 :Daniel Goldhaber／脚本家・プロデューサー : Isa Mazzei／主演：Madeline Brewer
ーー非常に独創的な作品ですが、どこから着想を得たのでしょうか。
Isa「私自身がCAMガールとして働いていたことがあり、そのストーリーを話すこと、そして性を仕事にすることを特殊ではなくもっとノーマルなものとして描くことが自分にとって大切だと思い始めたのです。そしてオンライン状のペルソナと実際の自分についての探究もまた重要でした。CAMガールでいると自分のどこがリアルで、どこがそうじゃないのかわからなくなってきて、20代前半の私はすごく混乱したし、破綻をきたしていたんです。そうした不安を扱いかねて、世界中の人たちにこの気持ちを吐き出したいと思ったことが本作が生まれるきっかけとなりました」
ーー監督におうかがいします。Isaの脚本を読んでの第一印象は？
Daniel「脚本から加わったのではなく、僕たちは一緒に脚本を書いて、ブレインストーミングしながら映画を作り上げていったのです。Isaはキャラクターを作り上げたり、心理的な部分を担当し、僕はもっと具体的な、このアイデアをどう映画にしていくかというようなところを担当していました。それこそ初日から共通したヴィジョンを二人で持てたのは制作するに当たってとても良かった点ですね」
ーー主演のマデリーンはいかがですか？
Madeline「最初はマネージャーが脚本に目を通して『とても面白いし、君がやるべきだと思うんだけど読んでみて感想を聞かせて』と言ってきたんです。それで脚本を読んでみて、『なに、これ!?』というのが正直な感想で。でもなぜか興味をひかれたし、やりたいと思ったのでオーディションを受けました。そこで彼らが私にアリスを演じて欲しいのだとわかったんですが、私は怖かった。CAMガールを演じ、セックスワーカーを演じるということが怖かった。実際に経験していた人が書いた脚本でセックスワーカーを演じるのは光栄なことですが、自分がうまくやれる気がしなくて。複数のキャラクターを演じ分け、そのそれぞれに強烈な出来事が起こるーーそれをちゃんと表現できるのか怖かったんです。その一方で、オーディション会場の段階ですら分かっていました。”これは私の役。他の子は無理よ”ってね。そして実際にそうなったんです」
——I think the story is depicted as something really unique. How did you get the idea for CAM?
Isa: I think the idea for CAM from, I mean I was working as a cam girl, and I started to realize that it was really important for me to tell a story and have the audience really emphasize with the sex worker, and try to normalize sex work. And also it was important for me to try to explore ideas between my online persona and my actual self. And I found out that the longer that I “cammed”, I begin to have trouble fingering out what parts of me were real and what was not real. Obviously I was in my early twenties, so I was just having these crisis. Anyway, so you know I was dealing with those anxieties. I wanted to bring the audience into this world. That is sort of where it came from initially.
——What are your first impressions of the scripts?
Daniel: We developed the script together. So we kind of came up with the idea of the movie together, and kind of brainstormed the story together. The movie was made by Isa and I and the accurate way to put it is that, Isa was in charge of the characters and the psychologies and what is this movie about, and I was working a lot more like, making it into a movie, and like to explore how the ideas should be expressed cinematically. But the vision and the collaboration of the project was from literally the first day of the film.
Madeline: I personally, I read the script, I get everything from, well at this time I didn’t really have an agency, and so I got the script from my manager. And he read it and was like “this is interesting!I think you might like this! Just read it and tell me what you think about it.” And I read the whole thing and I was like “what was that?” But I was so intrigued and I wanted to go in and I wanted to do it. So I went to audition and I found out that they wanted me to play Alice. I was scared. I was so scared not because I was going to play a cam girl, a sex worker. That to be would be an honor. I would be so honored to play a sex worker written by a sex worker. But, I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to pull if off. Like ,there are so much to all four of the characters. So much stuff happening with them and i was scared. But I knew, like even in the audition room, like I saw a couple of girls outside, I was like “Nope it’s mine. No one else could have it.” Yeah.
ーーアリスというキャラクターは可愛くて憎めないところがあるけど、ちょっと不気味でよくできているなと思います。人物像を作り上げる上でどういう話し合いをしましたか？
Madeline「Isaが脚本のベースを作ったあたりからたくさんの話し合いがありました。このストーリー、そしてアリスとティンカーには私たち３人が反映されている気がします。情熱を傾けたプロジェクトというより、このストーリーとそれをしっかりと伝えることに熱狂していたというくらい議論を重ねました。お金のために違う性質の映画を作ることも、こうした内容にしない選択もあったけど、みんなが同じ気持ちで制作できたのです。素晴らしいコラボレーションのプロセスを歩むことができました。セックスワーカーじゃない人間がそれを演じた映画を撮るには、セックスワーカーの知識を持っている人がいなくては到底無理だと
思う」
Daniel「男性監督がこうしたストーリーを扱うためには、制作段階でのコミュニケーションはとても重要なことだと思います。マデリーンは共同制作者であり、同時に演者でもあって。僕たちはかなり早い段階からヌードシーンについての話し合いを持ちました。そうしたシーンをどう感じるか、ヌードによって人物像がどう描かれるのかは彼女次第でしたが、マデリーンは”ヌードの必然性があると思う”と言ってくれたんです。 別の時には、ここでのヌードは必要ないと的確な理由付で持って判断を下してくれる時もありました。彼女がこうした重要な役割をになってくれたことはとても特別な出来事であり、身体を用いてキャラクターやストーリーを表現するということを学ばせてもらって感謝のしようもないです。 セックスにまつわる映画を撮ろうとしたり、女性のセクシャライティについての映画を作りたい男性監督にはこうした学びの場が必要ですよね。素晴らしい役者とこうした創作の機会を持てたことは幸運です」
Isa「そんな共同作業ができたらからパワフルな作品に仕上がったとも言えます。脚本１行ごと、アクション１つごと全てが練られ、話し合われたものです。アリスの人物像には全力を注ぎました。そのために非常に魅力的で観るもののの心に残るような深みのあるキャラクターになったと思うのです。彼女にはこの３人の気持ちや感情が詰まっています」
——I like Alice as a character! She is kind of creepy.So, what kind of discussion did you have as a cast in the making of the film?
Madeline: I think there was a lot of discussion just based on the script that was written by Isa and how they want it to be shot. I feel like there is part of all three of us in the story, and in Alice, Tinker. I just think that there is so much of all of us in those characters. Usually when you call something a passion project just because you are like, you are doing it out of the goodness of your heart, in this case I feel like we are all so passionate about making this story and telling it right. Because I know, every time they could have just make money and make a different film, and make a film with a different story that didn’t tell the story that we told. And they did not back down on the story as it is right now. Which I think the story right now is what we all agreed to make. And it was an incredibly collaborative process. I never felt so involved and included and safe. As some one who is not a sexual worker, I don’t know if you can make a film about sex worker without some one who knows, and without feeling the safety of the support of the people around you. And I felt that every step along the way.
Daniel: Something was really important for me as part of the process, as a male director to tell a story of this kind of stuff, is to communicate. You know, Madeline was very much like a co-filmmaker in performance. And one thing we discussed really early on was about all the nudity scenes in the film. On the day it is really just about you. It depends on how you are feeling, and how you think nudity is expressing the character. And what was so cool is that there were these days when Madeline would come up and say that “I think I need to be much more naked than this.” And there were days that she would say “I really don’t think the nudity that was written is the right thing in this moment.” And she had all these amazing reasons. What I think is so special is that she offered part of the movie in such a significant way and I feel very grateful to have been learning so much from her and approach to how she was dealing with using her body to express the character and tell the story. And I think it is just a lesson for the people out there who wants to make movie about sex or men who want to make movies about female sexualities. It is like, just listen, and like create that opportunity for a brilliant actor to come in and do that all with themselves. Because that is all you need.
Isa: It was pretty collaborative and I think that is what makes it such a powerful film. Every single line and action was thought about and discussed. I think we all brought so much to Alice, particularly about the film as a whole. And I think that is why Alice feels like such a fully crushed out nuance character. She just has heart of all of us in her.
——Your way of auditioning and casting is very different from other kind of making of a film. Why did you choose that approach?
Isa: We all looked at films like Black Swan and Whiplash, like where you have a character that is driven by this one absolute passion. And we wanted to tell that story of a sex worker. Because sex workers, a lot of them are driven by an absolute passion and ambition. They approach their work as a business. It is a business. And it is important to us. Especially in the ending of the film when people say that “why did she go back?” No one questioned why the drummer went back to stage in Whiplash, no one questioned why Natalie Portman danced in the Black Swan, because that is what she was born to do. And Alice, is the same type of character. She was born to be this cam girl, she loves being this cam girl. So of course she would go back in the end. So this is her passion.
——So social media is usually a platform for us to perform as our best self. But the fact is that everyone has weakness and scars. In this film, I see that what makes Alice so humane and alive is exactly the scars she has. How did you choose to go with that approach?
Isa: I think at the end for Alice is about creating a separation between her performative identity and her real identity. And so, in the beginning, there was not a lot of distinction between her and Lola. In order to regain her identity she had to physically hurt herself in the end, we do see the distinction. She’s got the nails and her nose is broken. But she is finding power in that. She is finding power in this persona. And because there is such clear distinction now that she is drawn. I think she has definitely developed at the end, so going on with this new look is just very empowering.
2018, DIR. DANIEL GOLDHABER, 94 MIN., UNITED STATES,
https://fantasticfest.com/films/cam
text Ryoko Kuwahara
