Growing up in Los Angeles, Nastasya Popov has always had Hollywood – and all its sparkling connotations – in her periphery. But like many young filmmakers, figuring out how to pierce the bubble of Tinseltown is something else entirely. As a child of Russian immigrants, Popov’s debut, Idiotka, is a testament to the power of writing what you know. The film holds a mirror to the off-kilter one-liners of her grandmother, the dynamics of an intergenerational household, and the tongue-in-cheek absurdity of trying to ‘make it’ in America today. Anna Baryshnikov takes the lead role as Margarita, an aspiring fashion designer from a Russian émigré background who enters the fictional reality show Slay, Serve, Survive in an attempt to save her family from eviction. She’s joined by an ensemble cast including Camila Mendes, Julia Fox, Gabbriette, Benito Skinner and Owen Thiele – a stellar line-up for a first-time feature, and a testament to the magnetic pull of Popov’s storytelling.

Ella Joyce: How did film first come into your life? What movies did you love growing up?
Nastasya Popov: Growing up in LA as the child of Russian immigrants, my family didn’t come from a film background, but I was surrounded by people whose parents were working in film. I did some musical theatre as a kid, I loved performing and acting. But it subconsciously became clear to me that there is a whole other facet to this industry where you can work behind the camera. One movie I’ve been thinking about a lot, now rewatching and realising how much of an impact it made on me, was The Parent Trap – iconic! When I was a kid, I loved the escapism but I saw my family reflected in it. Now I look back and realise how much that informed the tone that I love. In middle school, Netflix had just started doing package mailers and my mom had signed us up, so then I really started my cinephile education. Every day, my mom and I were watching [François] Truffaut and the masters, you could say. But the movies I grew up watching are just as impactful as before that more serious self-education. Thinking about the moment I first saw The Parent Trap and how I would watch that repeatedly. School of Rock, one of my friends’ parents was involved in making that and it was just the funniest movie I had ever seen. It was a mixture of this conscious effort to learn the medium, but also just always loving and gravitating toward those lighthearted comedies.

EJ: There’s a real value in them, especially now when the world is so heavy. You need some light relief.
NP: 100 percent. I really developed my tone throughout this process, realising I’m having so much more fun writing when I lean into comedy and the absurdity of this family. That doesn’t mean there can’t be heart and there can’t be dark and deep themes being explored. I think there’s a young amateur filmmaker thing you have to learn, where dark doesn’t always mean good.

EJ: You mentioned your self-education, but you also studied at Northwestern University. How did that experience shape you as a filmmaker?
NP: Northwestern, I loved it so much. I knew I wanted something different for college, I wanted to leave LA and get out of this bubble. When I got to Northwestern, the most popular class was Russian literature, taught by a professor who was a preeminent scholar and everyone adored. It was this huge lecture on Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov. I think it was all ingrained in me but it was interesting that only after going to an American college and leaving home, did I realise that these themes are also something I want to explore. It was an interesting and unexpected return to my roots. As storytellers, we never know where things are going to lead us, but ironically, going to Chicago for four years brought me more in touch with my roots.

EJ: And that brought you to your debut feature film, Idiotka, which really holds a mirror up to your upbringing. What made you want to tap into that or a wider audience, and how did the story first begin to take shape?
NP: Some of the best advice that they give young filmmakers is write what you know and tell a story only you know how to tell. I think at times I had really pushed away from that. I had made some documentaries about my friend’s dad, and I had been a little fearful or nervous to put a mirror up to my own life. After I graduated from college, I moved to New York for four years, spent some time there working in film and then I moved back home right after the pandemic. Having been on my own for almost a decade, I was living in this intergenerational household with my grandma, my parents, my sister, who is a fashion designer and was starting a new brand and my boyfriend. It was very claustrophobic and very Arrested Development vibes; this melting pot and boiling point of humour and familial claustrophobia. I had been working on versions of this story for a long time but never been ready, then I was like, “OK, I’m in this right now and the story almost tells itself.” Every word my grandma was saying felt like a line in a script, so of course, it’s semi-autobiographical; a lot of it is made up but I definitely pulled from this culture clash I was experiencing. Everyone was telling me to write what you know, whereas in the more immigrant perspective of things, we should be more closed off in how we depict our truth. I thought there was a lot of humour to be had there.

EJ: Speaking of that difference in culture, this film explores the idea of making your private self public. Especially in the age of social media, it’s almost abnormal not to share your life. What was it like exploring that?
NP: It’s funny because now it’s been five years of me working on this and when I started it felt a little more novel to me. Now, if you’re not doing social media, then you’re losing out. It helped me become more open-minded about it. I’m very non-judgmental, if you can make a name for yourself as a reality TV star, go for it. It’s a very American thing, more and more, there’s a randomness to how our fate falls into place. But we aren’t in control of it, so because of that randomness, I’m like, “Do what you want to do and I will not judge you for living your truth.” But for me, I do think it was really important to set certain boundaries with my family. I didn’t want them to read the script but it was also very important to me to honour them and show the complexity of the different characters. It’s an artist’s job to find nuance and not think of things in black and white. 

“I think the most interesting thing is to try to see things from different perspectives at once and find the humour in how we all conflict.”

EJ: The reality show aspect of the film taps into the notion of celebrity and how that’s changing. As a filmmaker, how do you see that continuing to develop?
NP: It’s changed the way we relate to celebrities. It’s made us expect more of everyone but it’s also made us a little more accepting. We want to see people in their rawest form and, as a filmmaker, it’s a really interesting medium because it’s now so ingrained in our culture that it’s kind of this perfect structure. Movies like The Running Man or shows like The Beast or Squid Game, this survival of the fittest is so American, but also the fan favourite is its own category, and that to me is interesting. The people who are their most authentic, random and quirky are people we culturally really relate to. I think that’s what a lot of our current pop stars really embody, too. It’s not about this perfect facade anymore. Julia Fox is, of course, the epitome of being who she is.

EJ: You’ve got some amazing names in your cast for this film. How did they all get involved?
NP: It was incredible. It took a while to get there, so I will not say it was an easy path at all. Getting the first person is a huge thing and I was lucky with Anna Baryshnikov, who’s the star. She read an early draft of the script and we really worked through it together. We got the script to Camila Mendes literally through a DM of a mutual friend. No one wanted to help us, we weren’t a financed film, we were just an indie with dreams of getting made. Once Camila got involved, it really helped legitimise the project, and we all worked together. I knew Owen Thiele loosely and knew he was so funny, so I sought him out. He’s hard to pin down, but he was like, “Sure!” I wrote that part with him in mind. Benny’s [Benito Skinner] show hadn’t been picked up yet, or he was in the process of writing it – so it’s really exciting to see all these stars blow up now. Julia Fox was this very kismet thing where I had been working on the script and then it was announced that she was going to host her own reality show, so it became this synchronised thing where she was like, “Yeah, this is so meta!” Working with all of them was a dream and after all those years of wondering and pushing, to get to the point of those nineteen days of shooting. You’ve had this script and story internalised in your mind, and [suddenly] these hilarious actors are firing off on all cylinders and they have such comedic timing and chemistry with each other. That’s what you do it for.

EJ: I loved the music used in the movie. How does music accent your filmmaking?
NP: The Eastern European, Ukrainian, Russian electronic music scene is very interesting and that’s just what I like listening to; I like electronic music. I always knew this movie would have that vibe. I was like, “This is what her mind sounds like.” It was really fun. The band Zventa Sventana are used in a lot of the film, I used them as a sample in a private sizzle reel and then our music supervisors sourced so many cool, young, up- and-coming musicians from that part of the world. That counterbalances with the humour of this very stereotypical reality TV show music, which is also really catchy. I think it’s this fun interplay of popping into her subconscious versus the thing we all accept as the norm of “dun dun dunnnn” those needle drops that are really cheesy. Our composer Ian Hultquist is London-based and he was also amazing, he did a lot of that electronic-sounding stuff. He had previously worked on Assassination Nation, and it was really inspiring to find someone who gets that this shouldn’t be a traditional-sounding score.

EJ: I really liked that contradiction. We’re in this quite traditional home, but it also sounds like we’re in a rave. [both laugh]
NP: Yes, exactly! [laughs]

EJ: As someone who is making films today, what kind of stories do you think are important to be telling, and what kind of stories do you enjoy watching?
NP: I will always gravitate to stories of strong, complicated women because I’m surrounded by them in my own life. I just saw Sentimental Value and it was incredible. That’s made by a man, but it’s such a rich, deep story of grief. That movie really impacted me and is tonally inspiring in that there’s still a lightness and a self-awareness but it explores very human themes. I was really inspired by Emma Seligman, who made Shiva Baby and Bottoms, early on in my process, and now I, of course, love I Love LA by Rachel Sennott. Of course I love Paul Thomas Anderson and Robert Altman and Agnes Varda and Bong Joon Ho. A big hero reference for me in Idiotka was Little Miss Sunshine, an incredible movie.

EJ: Looking forward, what does this year have in store for you?
NP: I’m really excited. I think 2026 is going to be so amazing, we’re finally releasing Idiotka in theatres, so the first quarter will really be us doing a Marty Supreme level media blitz – that’s what I’m telling people. [laughs] I’ve been writing my second film, it’s a romantic comedy, very much in line with so many of the films I’ve said inspire me, and I’m really having fun with it. It’s still going to have aspects of family and aspects of an artist’s self- exploration. I’m grateful and excited to finally be able to talk about the film – I hope it will reach more people and make them laugh. 

Interview originally published in HERO 35.

photography JJ GEIGER;
hair and make-up ABIGAIL SMITH