That was the inspiration behind it and I told my friend Nick, who had directed a few films, and he said to me, ‘it’s too bad you don’t want to be on camera,’ and I was like I really don’t.
He then said to me it would be good because I have a really interesting perspective on love. He told me that ideally what would happen is if you fell in love on camera. I said to him NO! It’s not going to happen.
But he said it would work - a combo of both the documentary and a fictional film and that did intrigue me because I do like an element of reality in my stage performances.
Was the fiction part pre-scripted or was it more improvisation?
There was about five pages of an outline and there was a lot of alternative scenes. Some of them worked out well, but some of them didn’t so we did have to think on the spot.
I think we had over 300 hours of footage, including the documentary portions and it really was like building your own story so we could choose different elements for where the story was going to turn, so it was very much improvised. It was actually a little bit terrifying improvising that much.
Do you think you achieved your original aim that you set out to do before making the film?
I think we surprised ourselves in a lot of ways and there were many parts that we thought looked really great, but then there were some bits that we wished we had more footage of. I don’t think it would ever be like a perfect movie. We could have had better takes on things and better options on certain things but it was a hectic process.
But I mean I am really satisfied with what we have, especially the documentary footage but there was lots of my acting parts where I was like ‘ewww’ terrible take. I wish I knew how to act!
Did you find it a fun film to make - especially meeting all the different people?
Oh yeah it was extraordinary. It was one of them rare things where you get to work with your friends and go on this great adventure across America. We got to go into people’s houses, hang out with bikers and ride with them. It was amazing and so much fun.
Aside from the film, you have lots of different hobbies. You have a number of bands also?
Yeah but they’re all a little rusty and I’m not very good at my instruments but I’ve loved music ever since I was a kid.
I remember the first time I tried to write a song - my parent had just bought me a keyboard - it was the 90s, Madonna’s ‘Like a prayer’ was really big and MC Hammer and I tried to write a song. I wrote some lyrics, I think I was about five, and I left the lyrics in my room then went downstairs to get a snack and my parents found my lyrics and started making fun of me and I cried.
I didn’t touch an instrument again until I was in high school. They make fun of me to this day about the lyrics. I think the lyrics were something like ‘oh god, oh god I think I’m in love.’ I told them I was going to make a huge hit out of it.
Music was obviously one of your first passions but what do prefer doing out of all your different hobbies?
I always change, because sometimes I fancy a bit of acting then I just want to work behind the scenes and then when I’m bored with that I’ll jump into music. I’ve realised there’s lots of things to get involved in so I do and keep doing it and you don’t need to have just one career.
I don’t think success is defined by how much attention you get I think it’s about your own happiness - that’s how I define my success.
You obviously enjoy the writing part of music and film - is that something that you would like to carry on doing?
Yeah, I’ve been doing it for the last couple of months. I’m working on few scripts for some friends - I’m not acting in them so it’s great. It’s got not having to write to my own limited acting range. It’s really exciting to think of someone else and trying to find the best writing for other people.
What about your role as a comedienne, is making people laugh something you enjoy doing?
Yeah it’s fun. It all started at college when I was involved with acting and I was being completely sincere but people started laughing and then I realised why they were laughing - because I was so terrible!
I then tried to use this to my advantage and exaggerate how terrible I was by being clumsy in a sincere scene and I think I realised that there is so many variations of how to make people laugh or confused.
People start laughing because they’re uncomfortable and they don’t know what’s real and what’s not and I remember my acting teacher saying to me, ‘Charlyne this is a really dramatic scene - why do you think you’re laughing?’
Then we talked after class and he said to me there’s a very fine line between drama and comedy. And you’re just gearing towards comedy.
What do you think you’ve learnt over the last few years through your acting and song writing etc?
I think I’ve learnt a lot. I have learnt that a lot of the stuff I do is too weird and a lot of people think that the conventional is the set way of doing things if you want to make money.
I’m sure we would have made a lot more money if we’d made a more conventional film but it wouldn’t have made me as happy and I think that something I’ve also learnt is ‘stick to your guns’ if you want something you can make it happen. A lot of people doubted this movie but we got the money we needed. You should always embrace the things you want to do, and have fun.
What sort of advice would you give people who are wanting to get into the same things that you do?
I’m not really too sure how people become actors and writers. I think luckily I just sort of fell into it by performing and a manager found me and asked me if I wanted to write/act/ So I’m not necessarily sure how to give advice on how to get into the business.
What about advice for life?
I guess something I learnt was not to give up. At one point I was performing to an audience of three people and then they walked out on me because I was a girl. It had taken me two hours to get to the venue. I started crying and said to myself ‘what am I doing with my life?’
Also as I didn’t have enough money to go to college so I used to sneak in to various classes and the professor said something really smart one day, usually he just talks about movies, but instead he came out with, ‘no one cares whether you ever perform again, you have to care.’
And I realised that he was right. You can’t rely on other people to be your cheerleader and make you care about something you feel passionate about.
You have to push yourself and find the drive within yourself to know you’ve got what it takes and the only person you will be hurting if you don’t do it is yourself. That is probably something that made me realise that I had to try and go the whole way, which was why I moved to Los Angeles.
Paper Heart - on DVD 8th February - Anchor Bay Films'.