Marvelous and the Black Holeis acoming-of-age comedyfollowing an unexpected friendship between a dispirited Chinese American teenager (Miya Cech) and an off-putting magician (Rhea Perlman). The young girl, Sammy, finds herself inspired by the group of misfit magicians and allows Margot to mentor her and help her find light amid her personal traumas and dysfunctional family.
Written and directed by Kate Tsang, the movie is a refreshing addition to the saturated genre as she approaches it with careful hands and the most genuine intentions - drawing inspiration from her personal life experiences. Working as a writer onSteven UniverseFutureandAdventure Time: Distant Lands, the Emmy nominee adopted a few lessons she’s learned from the two coming-of-age animation series to pull together her feature film. In this interview, we talk about the magical figure in her own life, the helpful inspirations she received from her other projects, the main message she’d like audiences to take away from the movie, and more.
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Game Rant: What drew you to the craft of magic?
Kate Tsang:When I wrote the script, I didn’t know much about magic. I lovedmagic as a storytelling device, so I had to dive in and do research on what it’s actually about. As I did a deep dive into it, I started geeking out. I ended up loving magic myself. Fundamentally, what I love about it is that it’s about transformation, wonder, and possibility. A lot of this film is about trying to find those things again, after really difficult times.
GR: Do you have a favorite magician movie or real-life magician that sparked this idea for you?
Tsang: The movie itself wasn’t inspired by a sleight of hand magician, per se. But I would say it’s my grandfather. He was definitely a magical figure in my life. My parents got divorced when I was young, and he came to watch me because my mom was a single mom. He could see that I was really struggling. I was an angry, depressed teenager, but he didn’t judge me. He validated me and became my best friend. He changed my life for the better because he brought magic to my life. He would tell me stories that brought me hope and joy, as well.
GR: Sammy goes on quite the emotional journey throughout the story. How would you describe some of the biggest challenges she faces?
Tsang:Sammy’s journey is inspired by what I went through. It is anger that she doesn’t know where to direct. The journey of this film is her trying to figure out what to do with that anger and how to channel it into something else, which is why she’s lucky that Margot comes along and helps her channel it into magic.
GR: How was your experience working with Miya Cech?
Tsang:She’s incredible. Because it’s an indie film, we had such little time to shoot. With a young actor, you only have five hours a day on camera with them. It has to be somebody really pro, who just gets it. Our casting director, Amey Rene, auditioned over a hundred actors, and we brought in about 10 of them in person. I connected with some of them, but on the last day, Miya came in and blew us away. If you’ve seen her in any other interviews, she’s nothing like Sammy. She’s a bubbly, very happy person. She’s just incredible as an actor.
GR: How did your work on coming-of-age cartoons likeAdventure TimeandSteven Universeprepare you for creatingMarvelous and the Black Hole?
Tsang:I got to work onSteven Universe FutureandAdventure Time: Distant Lands, and they are such incredible shows. I was a big fan of them before I even got to write on them. Working onSteven Universe, especially, because so much of the season I was on is about Steven’s journey to figure out how to express certain things that he’s been suppressing for a long time. I had already written the first two drafts of my script, but then I got on the show. Being able to work with a room on Steven’s character going through this journey helped inform some of what I could do with Sammy as well.
Game Rant: Can you break down your movie timeline? You mentioned that you started working on it while being a writer on Steven Universe.
Tsang:I had the script done in 2017 and then I got onSteven UniverseFuturein 2018. I’ve been working on really awesome shows ever since. While I was onAdventure Time: Distant Lands, I won a grant to make the film, so I had to step back for a bit.
GR: When did you start shooting?
Tsang:We won the AT&T Tribeca Untold Stories grant, which is basically this Shark Tank-style pitch where five filmmakers pitch in front of this intimidating panel. The winner gets a million dollars to make their film, and you only get one year from the day you win to finish your film and debut at Tribeca. We won the money in April 2019, and then we shot in the fall.
GR: What were some of your cinematic inspirations throughout the movie?
Tsang:I loveEdgar Wright. His style for sure. The biggest influences I would say, in tone and style, areTim Burton films.Edward Scissorhandswas my favorite growing up. I love E.T. as well, and John Waters. I also grew up in the comic books section.
GR: What is the main message you’d like audiences to take away from the film?
Tsang:This film is really about trying to find light in the dark. My hope with it is that viewers realize that there are people out there who want to help and step in, and make that connection.
Marvelous and the Black Holeis in theaters April 22.
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