Co-directors James Krishna Floyd and Sally El Hosaini talk about their new star-crossed romance film, Unicorns.
Unicorns, the story of a single dad (Ben Hardy) falling for a troubled drag queen (Jason Patel), has been through plenty of guises during its eight-year journey to the screen. Beginning life as a screenplay from writer-director James Krishna Floyd, at one stage there was talk of turning the story into a TV drama.
But after gaining steam as a proposed lockdown project between real-life partners Floyd and Sally El Hosaini, Unicorns ultimately turned back into something closer to the original script: a touching, physical story of a romance spanning two very different worlds. Or, as one cast member would describe it, “a very modern love story”.
We sat down with the co-directors to talk Bollywood inspirations, drag on screen, and, of course, Top Gun: Maverick.
I’m trying to envisage how Unicorns would have worked as a lockdown movie. There are so many scenes in night clubs, for a start…
Floyd: I’m so glad we didn’t do it. Basically, the budget we put in would have been half of what we had, which was already tiny.
El Hosaini: We thought we’d lean into the car scenes a lot more. And then a lot more would occur in those interior spaces, just between the two of them. So it would have meant stripping back some of the other supporting cast and characters. But I’m so glad we didn’t, because we were able to really burst out into these two worlds that on the surface seem so different and contradictory. And yet the more you look at them, you realize how similar they are.
It’s such a fun film. In one scene in particular, where Ayesha visits Luke at the garage, I thought: “That’s a shot from Top Gun: Maverick…”
Floyd: Absolutely – I mean that’s our taste. And by the way, Top Gun: Maverick is a brilliant movie. I think one thing that we’re very proud of is the fact that we have influences from all types of cinema. You know, we love certain arthouse films. We also love certain commercial films. We’re not snobs. We’re here to be moved and to try and move people. And I’m really glad you said it’s entertaining and fun and funny, because actually, even though the subject matter is quite serious, the real communities that this is based on have this extraordinary ability to find humour in any situation…
El Hosaini: …awkward situations…
Floyd: …and that was something that was really important to put in the film, because it’s realistic, but that’s cinema, you know? I always feel like the best dramas are funny, and the best comedies are dramatic. You want to have all those different colours. If you’re just doing one thing, I don’t think you can engage an audience in a really sustained, human way.
El Hosaini: I mean, we love The Sound Of Music. I felt that that was a big influence.
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Floyd: A lot of Technicolor films were a big influence for this. That way they can take a very serious subject matter, but then suddenly they burst into song and it works.
There’s a Bollywood inspiration behind Ayesha’s character too, right?
Floyd: Yeah, in Bollywood culture for many, many years, there’s been this archetype called the ‘Item Girl’ that you’ll often see, and she’s basically the love interest. She’s hyper-feminine, and often dances and seduces the manly king or prince in exchange for protection. A lot of the Gaysian queens in real life, they’re trying to find their own Bollywood love story.
But what’s really unusual is because that community is oppressed from all sides – they’re not accepted by the South Asian community, by and large, they’re mostly not accepted by religious communities, and they’re not particularly accepted by the mainstream LGBTQI+ community – these Gaysian queens have a tendency to fall for white, straight boys. And that’s where a lot of the story comes from, because it’s coming from the reality of this weird, modern Bollywood love story.
And the realism drag that you have in this film is very different to the American style drag that we all know. Especially from RuPaul, which I love, but there’s this kind of over the top, let’s put on a mask thing that’s part of that protest movement. Realism drag is something that we’ve had in South Asian culture for many, many years going back to the Mughal era. It’s all about passing in a very subtle, realistic way. It’s an extraordinary art form, it’s quite an amazing thing to see. I’m so glad we got to put it in a film.
There’s a temptation there, I think, to talk about Unicorns as a drag film or LGBTQI+ film, which doesn’t really mean anything on its own – it could be a thriller, a romance, anything. So how would you like people to describe it?
El Hosaini: For us, it was always a love story, first and foremost. That goes above everything. It was two people who are learning about themselves, who fall in love, who try to overcome the boxes that society tells them they ought to stay in, to be themselves. And that, for me, is a universal story that breaks out of any kind of way you might display it in a shop, you know?
I feel like sometimes marketing for films, limits films. Ultimately, we’re all human beings, and it’s been lovely to see that as the film has started to play to ordinary people, there’s people that you wouldn’t expect to go and watch a queer film, but who have watched Unicorns and said, “I really enjoyed that – I normally wouldn’t have gone to see it, but that was accessible.”
Floyd: …and I can see why, because ultimately, you know, it’s a love story, and it’s about family; it’s quite a classic setup. We’re going into a new era because of a young audience, the ‘Netflix audience’. They’re demanding films like this, because they don’t want to see another movie about some, you know, white, cis, heteronormative American soldier saving the world and killing a bunch of brown terrorists. You know, I think like, what it is, is that these stories have always been right in front of us. It’s just as an industry, I think we failed by not making them and it’s only now that things are starting to change.
Read more: Femme review | A tense, complex thriller
Is that reproduction of the world around you important to you?
El Hosaini: Very important. Authenticity has always been something that I’m very passionate about. I always live in fear of making a fake film. We wanted to honour the real people of those communities, not just the Gaysian scene or the majority Muslim family, but also the Essex family.
And that led to some interesting discoveries. Grant, who plays Luke’s dad, he’s an actor, but also the head of the London Black Cab Association. And when he first read the script, his wife said, “So what’s this new film about?”
Floyd: …and Grant’s never met anyone who’s even one-hundredth Gaysian, you know? And the way he described was, “It’s a very modern love story.” And that felt very true.
Unicorns arrives in UK cinemas from 5th July.
