Create: Let’s talk about your film Bare. How would you describe it?

Natalia: Bare is a story about a young girl named Sarah, played by Dianna Agron, who lives in a small town in Nevada. She is at that age where she is sort of figuring out her future. It’s a few years after high school, and she’s realizing what her options are and what adulthood means for her. She meets this older woman, Pepper, played by Paz de la Huerta, and Pepper influences Sarah to take a job at a truck-stop strip club as a way to have some financial independence—or the film subtly alludes to that. So they develop a romantic relationship, and Sarah is sort of led to this other world that involves drugs, and a sexual awakening, and psychedelic experiences—it’s her coming of age.

Create: What was the movie’s genesis? How did you come to this story?

Natalia: It’s not autobiographical…but it’s very much based on personal experience and events that happened in my life and a relationship that I had with another woman who sort of opened my horizons and made me realize that I could be a creator of my own reality. That was at the core of what made me want to write this script.

Create: You’ve described the cast of Be Here Nowish as being a group of your friends. What was it like to work with “name” actors like Dianna Agron (of Glee, among other high-profile roles) and Paz de la Huerta (of Boardwalk Empire and numerous films)?

Natalia: At the end of the day, it’s not that different from other actors I’ve worked with. But it was different in that I went into it knowing, like, “Oh, these actors have worked with Martin Scorsese and all these different directors that I admire.” So it was definitely, like, “Whoa, I really have to know what I’m doing here.” But of course I do know.

Dianna and Paz, both of them—we didn’t have a lot of prep days, but any day we had off, I would have them do stuff to prepare their characters. For instance, Dianna—one night I told her, “I want you to see what it’s really like to work in a strip club, so put on this wig and make up a persona.” Of course she wasn’t doing a lap dance or anything. She was dressed the part, she’d talk to the customers, and she even went up on stage and did a dance…. I think the fact that both Dianna and Paz were so willing to go there and do the research and be in that character was very important.

Create: How did the work on Bare compare with working on your web series?

Natalia: Obviously, everything happens on a bigger scale. For Bare, Alexandra and I were producing a feature together for the first time, and we really learned a lot…. The story of the script is really like the story of making the film, because we were just trying it out and saying, “OK, we can do this even though we’ve never done it before.” It was just a big learning experience for us and a wonderful challenge.

Create: And how does it feel to be featured at a major festival like Frameline?

Natalia: It’s so exciting. I lived in San Francisco for four years—I went to the San Francisco Art Institute. I loved Frameline—would go there every year. And seeing films at the Castro Theatre, which is such a beautiful theater—I don’t know if they still have an organ player before the movies?

Create: They sure do.

Natalia: That’s so great. It’s so gorgeous, and it’s such an honor to be screening there and having Bare be the closing night of the festival. We’re excited.

Create: As a filmmaker and storyteller, what inspires you? What are the stories you want to tell?

Natalia: At the core of it, regardless of whether it’s drama or comedy, I think it’s about human relationships, and that’s always been something I’ve been really drawn to, the psychology of how people interact and why they do the things they do. With the work that Alexandra and I have been doing together, we’re exploring themes around relationships and sexuality and spirituality—and the intersection of it all.