EX

Paloma says: I was raised in Bristol on dried fruit, astrology and the great outdoors. I went to Art School and trained in film. Then I did a B.A at Guildhall and trained as an actor. Then I did an MFA at Birkbeck and trained in Theatre Directing. I’ve trained more than First Great Western.

I like to make theatre and film full of mayhem, magic and pleasure. I like to break form in new and unexpected ways. From a kind word to a quick word, from word of mouth to the word on the street...words connect us, pierce us, empower us and shape us. Words are how we make sense of ourselves, each other and the world. I like to tell stories that are upside down and inside out. Stories that you don’t see coming, stories that go bump in the night and stories that make you want to wink at a stranger. Stories full of anarchy, poetry and truth. Stories that give voice to the unheard, give spotlight to those left out, and help us walk in another's shoes. “Hang on, they aren’t so unlike me after all.” I like audiences to be complicit in these stories… I like it when we all get to play together.

Working with the brilliant script for EX and such versatile actors was a pleasure. Whilst the text was witty and concise, I found that a lot of the life, relationship and connection was revealed by what was unsaid; the eye contact a beat too long, the giggles, the brief waft of sadness when the outside world penetrated their intimate online one... So I encouraged them to play during each take, to explore the conflict between their head and their heart, and true to the complexity of human nature, allowing themselves to turn on a sixpence. We wanted Sam's space to feel less cluttered than Jake’s, less filled with family, lonelier, and emptier. We are only afforded a zoom-out on Sam's home life right at the end, when she feels no one is watching. We wanted her to feel in control of what the viewer sees and what she chooses to give away. I love the sinister nature of the ending... Claire acknowledges Sam is toying with her Ex's hearts but doesn't seem to grasp the full depth of it... even she may not know the true Sam, the Sam we see in the final moments of the film.

One of the most interesting artistic decisions was what to do visually during Jake's voice messages: we wanted something to reflect the story taking a bitter twist. We had the idea of these very cheesy 'shutterstock' images slowly emerging from Jake's tragic, persistent pleas - almost as if these were Sam's thoughts. First, we believe she sees Jake's life through these rose-tinted goggles, then we see the truth; that actually the whole situation is mock-life to her, something that can be manipulated and made to look real.

I love the track at the end - it's so rebellious, angry, and yet sexy, and passionate. I think it captures the dichotomy of the film perfectly- who is the perpetrator, and who is the victim?

‘Paloma is one of those rare people in life who has the ability to see the world and people in a unique, ravishing and true way. This in turn makes her work utterly inspiring and endlessly imaginative.... I'm left in awe, first laughing then crying at the brutal honesty of it all.’
Lily James, Actor