Zoe Lister-Jones lets slip about new Roku show.

Zoe Lister-Jones is an established screenwriter, director and producer who also co-wrote the music for her directorial debut, Band Aid (2017), while her acting credits encompass television, theatre and film. This spring sees the launch of Slip, a seven-part comedy series written and directed by Lister-Jones in which she also stars as Mae Cannon who, feeling detached from her ostensibly successful marriage and career, has a one-night stand that propels her into a succession of alternative lives.

Although she conceptualized the plot several years ago, writing the script during lockdown was a surprisingly rapid process. “It poured out of me. I think because I was writing the entire season on my own, I just went on an adventure of the imagination.” Filming the series in Toronto was similarly quick: just 36 dizzying days of jumping between the different worlds that Mae inhabits alongside such acting talent as Emily Hampshire, Whitmer Thomas and Amar Chadha-Patel. The only constant presence is Mae’s best friend, Gina (Tymika Tafari), while other faces reappear in different episodes in different contexts – disorientating for the viewer but far more so for the cast and crew who were filming the scenes out of sequence. “We had to get so much done in a day. It was really a challenging shoot, but we were all having so much fun.”

Lister-Jones notes that the process was made easier by the production company (Dakota Johnson’s TeaTime) and the streaming channel Roku: both relative newcomers, having launched in 2019 and 2017 respectively, they were able to be more flexible and responsive than the industry behemoths. “It was truly a dream of an experience as an artist. When they read all seven episodes, they gave us a green light within a month without one script note, and that’s unheard of. I got to go make the exact show that I intended to, and they gave me so much freedom creatively.” She is also quick to credit her team, particularly cinematographer Daniel Grant and editors Betsy Kagan and Sandy Pereira.

It’s the first time that Lister-Jones has written for television rather than film. “There’s so much more room to flex! As a writer and director you get to breathe into your characters in such a different way, and get to explore narrative in such a different way.” Slip also offered Lister-Jones the chance to “wear all the hats” – from initial concept through writing to directing and acting. “It feels really organic to have all of those roles converging because they all inform one another. Like, when I’m writing I’m seeing it all in my mind as a director, and because I’ve written it and have seen it in my mind when I’m directing actors, there’s very few questions that I haven’t answered for myself. And so it is very singularly my vision, which is such a rarity as a filmmaker.”

“As I’ve grown as a filmmaker, I wanted to challenge myself to grow in terms of the visual vocabulary I was playing with”

— Zoe

Lister-Jones has grabbed this opportunity to stretch herself in every arena. As a writer, she is unafraid to take the viewer to some pretty bleak places for what is billed as a comedy; her moving performance drives the final episode in particular; and the direction is inventive, as in the opening episode’s use of a subtle yet complicated 360-degree shot. Getting to this point, Lister-Jones says, is the accumulation of years spent both working with and studying different directors. “When I started directing with Band Aid, I was really much more influenced by the likes of Cassavetes – a more voyeuristic and veritas aesthetic. As I’ve grown as a filmmaker, I wanted to challenge myself to grow in terms of the visual vocabulary I was playing with.” She was recently directed by Ari Aster in his forthcoming feature Beau Is Afraid. “It was really cool to see him work, and how meticulous he is with his shots, how intentional those shots are, and how much happens in one frame. To work with him as an actor was really so inspiring. He creates this incredible environment that I found was a really liberating experience as a performer because he knows exactly what he wants, but it’s never exacting. That allows for such a sense of experimentation that I’ve never experienced before.” Six months later, she carried those lessons with her into directing Slip. “I really wanted to see how much I can pack into one frame, or into one shot, or into one move – to really go full throttle with camera dynamics.”

Beau Is Afraid gets its full theatrical release on 21 April – the same day that Slip launches on Roku – and initial reaction has been positive. “It’s such an incredible, brilliant, demented adventure. Joaquin Phoenix’s performance is unreal. I’m really excited for the world to see it.” In the meantime, Lister-Jones has just finished the scripts for a second season of Slip that will delve deeper into the characters, especially the friendship with Gina which is so central to Mae’s identity. “As we jump from romantic relationship to romantic relationship, it is those people who anchor us into ourselves. They’ve got your best interests in mind, and will give you tough love when you need it, and will reflect back to you the parts of you that might need to shift or grow.” This time round, writing has been a less solitary process. “I did have a small writers’ room, which was a really cool new experience for me, to be running a room and working with such brilliant minds.” Although there is no official pick-up for the second season as yet, the ending of the first season will leave viewers hungry to discover what comes next for Mae. “I always love an ambiguous ending, and I love an ending that gives one the option to walk away or to return should you choose to. So I’m hoping that we get to return, because we’ve written a really batshit second season!”

Slip is released on April 21st on Roku.

Author: Rachel Goodyear