Above image: Still, Shiva Baby by Emma Seligman, 2021

Family gatherings are, by their very nature, fraught social obstacle courses that test the limits of our emotional endurance. Shiva Baby, the debut feature from US newcomer Emma Seligman, takes the most excruciating essence of this well-known fact and runs with it for 80 minutes, fronting as an awkward teen comedy before clamming-up with breathless moments of pure horror.

In this richly layered study on adolescent angst and brilliantly observed Jewish character tropes (shiva being the Jewish equivalent of a funeral wake), we witness Danielle (Rachel Sennott) navigate a single afternoon with her extended family. Adding to the inherent stress of the occasion are Max (Danny Deferrari), Danielle’s secret sugar-daddy and Maya, an old childhood friend and former fling, brilliantly played by Molly Gordon (Booksmart).

As the only character not to have featured in the original short-film version that Seligman made at college, Maya both cranks up Rachel’s anxiety and offers her only respite. With her Law School credentials and over-achieving energy, Maya is a stark reminder to Rachel of her own fumbling career path and a fleeting romance that’s not as forgotten as either would care to admit. Dodging doting parents and the backhanded compliments of distant relatives, Rachel and Maya move past their outward posturing to find comfort in their shared insecurities.

Below, Gordon provides insight on how this dynamic was whittled into shape and the joys of collaborating on a low-budget gem.

Finn Blythe: Can you tell me how you became involved in this film and how your first reading of the script resonated with you personally?
Molly Gordon: I remember I was taking the subway in New York when my phone lit up and I got sent the script. I started reading it immediately and I couldn’t stop so I missed my stop. I was just so taken by it. It felt like Emma had lived a million lives at every single Jewish gathering I’d ever been to. It was just such a beautiful script. It was so low budget that my agents were like,”You can do this if you want, but you don’t have to because we don’t know anything about the filmmaker.” I just thought I have to do anything to be part of this. Then I met Emma and she was unbelievable, such a force. I felt so connected to every female character in the feature and was so taken that there were so many. Usually there’s one good female role, not five of all different ages, so I was just so excited to be a part of something like this. 

FB: Maya is interesting because she’s the only major character that didn’t feature in the original short. What do you think she adds to the emotion of the story?
MG: It’s this claustrophobic, combustible pressure-cooker situation and Maya being there kind of smashes it and makes it completely unbearable for her. I think Emma was looking for one more thing to kind of aid in Danielle’s breakdown but I also think it really triggers her family’s judgement. I think especially in Jewish communities, and even progressive Jewish communities, there’s a lot of homophobia and the film portrayed a young woman of this generation so beautifully. I don’t know how Emma was able to explore so many things within one movie, but having Maya there allows Danielle to really reflect a new generation that are so open to anything and aren’t going to label themselves.

“It felt like Emma had lived a million lives at every single Jewish gathering I’d ever been to.”

FB: Was there a lot of overlap between your experience of Jewish family gatherings and Emma’s portrayal?
MG: Definitely. I related so, so much. I’m Jewish but even if it’s just a family gathering, you love it but you also want to kill yourself. “Did you lose weight? Did you gain weight? What are you doing with your life?” Just picking at you. Emma and Rachel say that being a woman is like being in a horror film sometimes and I think Emma captured that so beautifully.

FB: Maya’s relationship with Danielle is very interesting. She does contribute to that pressure cooker situation but she’s simultaneously a source of comfort. How did you develop the script between you and Rachel to give it that very real emotion?
MG: We all have that person who was your escape from the rest of your family, the first person you were able to feel truly yourself with. I think Danielle and Maya have that. They’re very competitive, they trigger each other, they love each other, they’re attracted to each other, they’re so many different things. Emma was also so open to collaboration if a moment wasn’t working or if one of us had an idea, the three of us would put our heads together and improvise other solutions.

FB: Were there any particular moments of improv that stick with you?
MG: My background is more in comedy so I’m very comfortable in that and I love getting to play with material. This was such a gift because getting to improvise within more of a dramedy world was even more exciting. So when Danielle and Maya were at the buffet table and I’m like, “You can’t come to the after-party of a shiva”, that was improv. It so beautifully led into the rest of her dialogue which was exactly how any of us would speak. Rachel is also an amazing stand-up comedian so she improvised that “girl-boss” line that people love. People are sometimes frightened of actors putting their own stamp on scripts because they’re worried about their material changing, but film is like the only true collaborative medium where everyone from the lighting guy, the background artist all contribute ideas. If you allow yourself to take in all the beautiful things people are bringing it can add to your script. Emma was so open to that even though she had such a strong vision.

“They’re very competitive, they trigger each other, they love each other, they’re attracted to each other.”

FB: I read it was a fairly intense shoot. How did the cramped conditions add to the claustrophobia of the film?
MG: We were all in this house in Brooklyn together with limited AC in the dead of summer in New York. So many actors of different generations just squeezed in together. I think this job can be so isolating because you go to set, then you go to your trailer and you sit by yourself and I think people can get very: “My trailer has to be nice and I have to have my own space.” But as none of us had trailers and we were all on top of each other the whole time it provided a kind of heat within us where the minute the camera started rolling we were already feeling so uncomfortable. We also knew each other as a family at a shiva because we had all spent time with each other and got to watch other people do their scenes. It kind of felt like camp.

FB: Finally I wanted to ask about the film’s final scene which, in its nuanced way, reflected a lot of the film’s complexities. What kind of conversations did you have about what you were trying to deliver with that moment?
MG: Speaking of claustrophobia, that car was so hot. It didn’t have any AC and so that was a wild day of shooting, too. I think Emma wanted it to be that you can’t escape how fucked up your life is but if you look around, there are people that love you, you just need to let them see you. That moment is Danielle being stuck in her life and her choices, but she looks to me and feels safe for one moment and how beautiful is that?

Shiva Baby is available now on MUBI.