30 July 2023
Megan Huber and Wyatt McDill’s pandemic-era comedy, “Hollywood Fringe,” centers on a pair of Minnesota-bred husband-and-wife directors making a roving, site-specific Fringe play about a pair of Minnesota-bred husband-and-wife directors. And true to life, the couple depicted in the play-within-a-movie try to earn their big break in the Los Angeles film scene while contemplating a return to Minneapolis.
Like the characters McDill penned, Huber and McDill are also married, in their 40s and balancing life between the Twin Cities and L.A. And like the play in the film, “Hollywood Fringe” was mostly shot in their own apartment.
Not all their work — which ranges from sci-fi to comedy — has been so self-referential. Their writing-direction-production company, Sleeper Cell Films, produced the thrillers “Three Day Weekend” and “Four Boxes,” and has a comedy, “The Fun-Raiser,” in post-production.
Minnesota natives Wyatt McDill and Megan Huber directed, produced and wrote “Hollywood Fringe,” a film about two aspiring actors. (Courtesy of Sleeper Cell)
The Film Society of Minneapolis-St. Paul hosted a screening of “Hollywood Fringe” on July 17, just ahead of the annual Minnesota Fringe Festival, which kicks off Aug. 3 and runs through Aug. 13. A free link to watch “Hollywood Fringe” is available from the festival website, minnesotafringe.org.
Q: Can you briefly describe what “Fringe” is, and how you first got involved with it?
Megan: I got involved with the Fringe 20 years ago, while working with Matt Stenerson. We did two consecutive years with the Fringe, including lip-synced musicals that were pretty fun. It’s the largest non-juried film festival, so you can apply and if there’s space they will let you put on your show and help with getting a space, lighting, ticketing, etc.
Wyatt: I think I was always intrigued by the Fringe. I helped Megan and Matt when they were putting shows on. I love the spirit of the Fringe; we go every year. It’s just art in its purest form — sometimes it doesn’t even matter if there’s very much of an audience, but people have a need to perform, and they have to get it out there and express themselves, even if it’s rough and unvarnished.
Megan: Wyatt and I are married and we’ve made some films together. We did the Fringe Festival in Minneapolis, then we lived in L.A. for 12½ years, and now we recently relocated. We filmed “Hollywood Fringe” in LA in our apartment, so even though it’s a film, it’s sort of a Fringe-esque experience.
Q: When you say ‘Fringe-esque,’ I see what you mean. The scenes in “Hollywood Fringe” are a bit like the performances you might see in the Fringe Festival. In some of the scenes, you see audience members in the background. Can you talk a bit about why you included these elements?
Wyatt: I was influenced by a show at the Fringe which took place in a taxi cab. The actors were the driver of the cab and then a passenger in the front seat, and the audience rode around in the back seat of the taxi, while the actors put on a play in the front seat. As filmmakers, that’s so similar to what we do, writing lines, going places where those lines would take place, and filming in that place. So the movie and what happens at Fringe are very similar.
Q: The film follows Samantha and Travis, a married couple, who are trying to succeed in Hollywood. Was there real-life inspiration behind this story?
Megan: There wasn’t one specific real-life story, but it captures the vibe of L.A., where you’re surrounded with everyone in movies and films, and there are so many people that come from other places where they did other things. There’s always this push and pull between doing something where you have complete control versus where you can fit in as one piece in a bigger puzzle, and I think a lot of people, no matter what their role in movie making, have this push and pull.
The cast of “Hollywood Fringe,” a dark comedy about acting and fringe festivals written and directed by Minnesota filmmakers Megan Huber and Wyatt McDill. (Courtesy of Sleeper Cell Films)
Wyatt: The main character is played by Jennifer Prediger, and there was a dinner party where she came to our house in real life and had a terrific outburst that was very beautiful, that was the inspiration for the ending scene of the movie. Almost every scene in the movie happened to someone we know. Interestingly too, in Hollywood, everyone is “on the fringe” — even if you’re a big star, you’re always getting older, and there’s always a great panic about staying in the heart of things. It’s the real untold story of Hollywood: everyone clambering to stay in the limelight ultimately fails, and I think it’s a side of Hollywood that we experienced and wanted to shed light on.
Q: One conflict early on in the film centers on the decision to remain in L.A. or return to Minneapolis. In your experience, what are some of the differences in creating art in both of those places?
Megan: There are pluses and minuses to both places. It can be so exhilarating in L.A., but it’s so comforting in your own hometown, so there are sort of two sides to the same coin. We had a great time in L.A. and we still go back and have all of our friends there, but it’s just like life, you have to keep going and there’s no place that’s perfect.
Q: How has the film been received in the three years since it was released? Has audience reception been the same in Minneapolis and in L.A.?
Wyatt: We showed the film at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival two years ago and we won the audience award. We also showed it at a film festival in LA, called Dances with Films, which was virtual because of the pandemic, and we won the audience award there too. … It was kind of made to kick off the Fringe Festival because it’s a perfect mashup of L.A., show business and Fringe. Because the screening in L.A. was virtual, we weren’t able to see much of the audience reaction there, but I think the reactions were similar, because it’s about an experience any actor can understand.
Megan: Everybody that worked on the film — and there were probably 30 extras — had the feeling that the film really did reflect a side of LA that everyone who is an artist there has experienced. It’s just that feeling of being outside of the system and how do I get a hand-hold and how do I climb into this mighty machine. So I think the film is about show business and it is about art and artists, but more generally it’s about life, and it reflects everyone’s struggle to want to be a part of something bigger themselves. So hopefully there is a universality to it.
Q: What aspects of Fringe are you looking forward to this summer?
Wyatt: Minnesota Fringe does something really brilliant — they have a preview, a three-minute-long preview of many of the shows. I highly recommend people go to that because it’s such a useful tool in deciding which flavor of show is right for you.
The Fringe Festival hosted the first of two preview nights featuring three-minute selections from some 30 shows, back-to-back, on July 24, and a second preview night will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2 at the Rarig Thrust Stage on the University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus. Shows will run Aug. 3-13.
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