Sundance 2020: Interview With Linas Phillips, Director, Writer & Star Of THE RIDE

Along with features and shorts, Sundance Film Festival also brings opportunities for independent episodic work. This year I was able to see The Ride, an episodic focused on Wayne, a ride share driver. It’s a short form, interesting way to deliver blips of moments and interactions with his customers as he tries to help them (even those who try to resist). Funny, but also enlightening, The Ride is a wonderful idea and the format enhances its message. I was able to speak with writer, director and star Linas Phillips about the process and concept of The Ride. 

Kristy Strouse for Film Inquiry: Thanks for taking the time today. So, as writer, director and star, can you tell us a bit about how the concept got started?

Linas Phillips: Well, I was a Lyft driver in real life, and the production company DBP Donut wanted to do a show about a rideshare driver. Jay Duplass, who is a very close friend of mine, knew I was doing this. I didn’t really even tell a lot of people, but I recently moved back to LA and I had a really bad breakup after moving back from New York. I started reading a lot of spiritual text, so when he asked me to do a show about a rideshare driver I was like, “Oh I should put in all that other stuff and do this exaggerated version of myself going through this transitional healing period.” Sounds hilarious right?! [Laughs]

[Laughs] How long ago was this when you were a Lyft driver?

Linas Phillips: Well I mean I was doing it like last month a little bit. So you know, very recently.

Oh interesting! So, the experiences you had are fresh.

Linas Phillips: Yeah. So, I kind of hated it, but actually there been some really cool experiences of meeting people. When I’m in a good mood, you know when I’m in a really zen place, but it’s hard. And, so much of my ego comes up like…I hate being a Lyft driver. I think I was sort of showing that in the show where it’s like he’s trying to overcompensate by showing “Oh I’m more than a Lyft driver. I’m not gonna just be a f*cking Lyft driver I’m also going be a spiritual coach, to prove to people that I have more value than this shit job.”

It makes sense and I think that’s part of what was interesting. The fact that you meet people in that context, in this enclosed space. In my experience, sometimes the drivers are very talkative and sometimes they’re not, but you’re kind of stuck there either way.

Linas Phillips: Right, so theres a built in awkward humor even if you’re saying anything at all. Even if it’s a guy who is just trying to get to know people and is super lonely it would have a lot of the same beats. Yeah, but he had this added agenda of trying to fix people.

Right, and it does have a confessional feel, your show and real life ride shares.

Linas Phillips: Yes, because also you are never going to see that person again. So, you might be like “So what- I’ll tell them I just slept with my best friend’s  girlfriend.” Ya know? [Laughs] That’s what is really cool about meeting random strangers. You notice that when you travel on foot too. My favorite filmmaker, Werner Herzog, talks about how people just drop into like a very vulnerable, honest place, especially when they know that you’ve traveled. I walked from Seattle to LA and  when people ask “Hey where are you from?” you say “Oh, you know I just walked from Portland.” And they are like “You know what, this divorce I am going through is horrible.” You know, because they’re like “Well I can’t be any crazier than you!” [Laughs]

I love that. I was actually just talking about this with a friend recently- some people feel more comfortable with strangers than they do people they know, and I think that’s an interesting concept to kind of explore. Did you pull from any actual-specific experiences with the Lyft driving? 

Linas Phillips: For sure. The woman I overhear talking on the phone and I say “Im glad you stuck up for yourself” – I really did. It’s sort of embarrassing to say, but I think in real life it was sort of like sussing it out a little bit more carefully. Yeah, I didn’t go on. I sort of left it at that.

What was the reaction like, in real life?

Linas Phillips: I think she was sort of like, you know, maybe a little nervous but also, I think I was really lonely. You get lonely driving around, especially if you’re getting over a breakup and you start obsessing over someone.

So, did you use this as therapy in a way?

Linas Phillips: Kind of, for sure. Yeah, because it brings your awareness to your patterns in a more pronounced way. Like, literally, when I was editing the show I had just broken up with someone. Someone who I kind of was pushing a little too much into her being my girlfriend, because whatever, I was just sort of anxious about it. And that’s exactly what the character is doing in the show and I am like “Holy shit man, there you go again!” So, yeah, it was therapeutic just in the sense that you’re like “Well it’s real man, I don’t know.” Like you can beat yourself up over it or sort of try to laugh about it.

Absolutely. You said that you were close to Jay and that they were interested in doing a show about a driver, so it seems like it worked out pretty well. What point in the process did they get involved in this?

Linas Phillips: I was kind of too embarrassed to do anything about this for a while. I was like “Well, who knows how long I will do this but I don’t want to talk about it.” I didn’t want to post about it, didn’t want to tell close friends. They wanted to do a show like this and Jay was prepping me a little bit because he knew it was so ripe for something. I would send him a picture of me in Sherman Oaks at 11PM getting some bad Chinese food on the side of the road and eating on the top of my car and #LyftLife and he was like “Dude that’s hilarious, you have to post about that.” And I never did. And, I post other vulnerable stuff. So, yeah it was really them kind of coming to me and then I wrote it all pretty quickly and the production companies DBP Donut, which is Mark and Jay’s new experimental company, was behind me.

They have a pretty eclectic range of projects. Did you plan it to be episodic or how did you see it originally?

Linas Phillips: Originally, that’s what they wanted. And yeah, first I was a little bit like “How? What does that mean? How does that affect my tone and what I can get away with saying?” That’s my agenda. But ultimately, restrictions of the short form and those episodes, forced me to pack in more plot than I would have if you had the luxury of just writing a feature.

Do you feel it was more difficult?

Linas Phillips: Yeah, a little bit more difficult. I do feel like it kind of made me a little bit insecure about writing longer scenes, because it can’t be too long. But, my collaborator Joslyn Jensen was very helpful, like just whittling it down. I think it’s important to get the longer version of the scene, as long as you can find a way to whittle it down. She was super helpful as well working with the actors onset. The producers are so worried too, because she was like “You know you have a lot of pages here dude.” And I was like “I know, but I will figure it out.” And beforehand, before we did every episode we would read it through and just cut a ton of stuff, and then add something better.

So, how long of a process was it, did you go through a lot of drafts and revisions?

Linas Phillips: From September to December we were writing off and on.

Do you have a specific process when it comes to writing?

Linas Phillips: Avoid. [Laughs] Avoid it until you can’t avoid and you gotta spit something out. I am bad like anyone. But another reason why it’s so helpful to kind of bounce ideas off of Joslyn and to talk to other friends about it like: “I’m thinking this idea or this idea.” They can tell me what’s good, what’s great. So, okay, I’ll go ahead and try to write that. I mean Jay always tells me “just write the bad version.” Trust that there’s something good from it and you can build from there.

That’s good advice.

Linas Phillips: Yeah. Even if you have only one scene just write it. I also teach writing. And it’s like…just trust that that one idea is enough reason for the scene to exist. You know, or if you’re trying to get that energy across like “Oh, I am just trying to show this frustration and the guy… I want him to be embarrassed and trying to say that she’s his girlfriend when she’s not.”Anything else can be there or not be there, but you just want to get that heart of it. So, even just write down the main idea.

Yeah, that’s good advice too.

Linas Phillips: I will plug my website “Screenplay Doula” and I do teach classes and do one on one coaching for screenwriting.

Great! You wrote the feature Rainbow Time and I also saw you recently acting in The Great Pretender. Is it different for you if you’re doing several jobs, more difficult?

Linas Phillips: Yeah, it’s hard. I was thinking of this analogy: Beck when he started recording or doing more, more produced albums, “I never knew how little attention I was paying to the singing, when I was just doing it all. But then, when I had a band, I could really focus on singing.” Which is sort of like the acting part of it. So, I do like it. Acting in The Great Pretender was great. I was just in this total emotional space and I think as an actor you kind of have to have a certain agenda that’s maybe not always in line with the story. You just have to be going in there, hot and exploding, you know. And it’s hard to do that when I’m just like thinking about driving the car with the camera in front of me and working with the DP. Just all that head work. So, it was really hard to think about the acting. Thank God it was not worse. That’s how I think about it. I like how subtle it was and sometimes you’re less precious. It has a different quality, which, in some ways, I think turned out well. Not to toot my own horn.

Go right ahead, I’d say you earned it. Would you consider this to be the most personal project that you’ve worked on?

Linas Phillips: Well, my feature Bass Ackwards that was here at Sundance 10 years ago was probably even more personal and raw, but in some ways this has more than me in it because it’s funnier and Bass Ackwards was kind of just a downer. It was sort of like The Brown Bunny without the blowjob at the end, just like a guy driving. That’s how my editor described it and I was like “No That’s horrible.” And he is like “No, that’s beautiful.” So, yeah, it was just like a…you know, just more of a tone film, less plot. So, this shows much more of my writing that I’m proud of. Yeah, it’s pretty personal and yeah it’s hard. It’s vulnerable.

So, what’s it like looking back, being here at Sundance a decade later?

Linas Phillips: There might be something profound that comes up in therapy two months from now. Right now I’m just sort of like, you know…pretty stressful about it all, but just trying to make sure I don’t forget who to mention and who to bring up on stage and all that stuff. Oh my god, but I do feel really grateful, watching it, just for all my collaborators being a part of it. I think one thing I was struck by was that these are kind of two of my most personal things as a writer, director, and actor and they both got into Sundance! So, there’s something to be said for that, like…”wow.” Sometimes, you just really lay it out there, raw, and exposed, and people connect to that.

Yeah, and I think that’s the importance of festivals too. To give outlets and opportunities for different kinds of visual storytelling and gets movies out there. Would you say that that’s something that you feel strongly about given your many experiences with them?

Linas Phillips: For sure. Rainbow Time we sold to Netflix and it’s on there now, but probably wouldn’t have done that without being at South by Southwest. So it is great. Yeah, it’s a great stamp of approval, validation from people who have great taste. It is really nice just to be a part of the community. 10 years ago I sort of knew some people, but now it feels like I know a ton of people just from being at festivals over the years.

I bet! The premiere was today. How did that go?

Linas Phillips: Shitty, Really bad. Really bad- I’m pulling it. We aren’t showing it tomorrow, I’m leaving town. [Laughs] I am kidding! It was great and the whole program was good, a program of other episodic shows and I’m proud of how much personal stuff I put into it while making it really funny and jokey. I was like, “oh yeah that’s pretty good.” Is that a lame thing to say? I liked it… I liked the thing I made, Wow.

No, that’s not a lame thing to say! See…that’s already kind of therapeutic just saying that out loud “I liked the thing I made.”

Linas Phillips: Right! Nothing’s perfect. If it has the intention of what you’re trying to say, that’s important. For me, just trying to show this guy who’s struggling and the irony of him trying to help people while he’s still in such need of help…that’s endlessly interesting for me, and to put a bunch of other characters that connect to that theme was just… great. You can’t lose when you do that, when you’re putting up on screen something that you care about and think about. That’s what I talked about with Joslyn when we’re talking and writing, you know, so it’s all the same thing to me.

Terrific! Thanks so much for chatting today, and congrats again!

We want to thank Linas Philips for taking the time to speak with us.

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