‘Sunlight’ Stars Nina Conti and Shenoah Allen Discuss Finding Life - Through Life-Sized Puppetry

Courtesy of Sunrise Films

For close to twenty years now, comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti has been gracing the stage with all different kinds of puppets by her side. Most notably, a little tiny monkey called “Monkey” - who just doesn’t have any filter - has become one of her biggest hits with audiences. Along with Sheonah Allen (her long time improv partner), Conti has now evolved the small creature’s sheer absurdity into a full blown theatrical film called Sunlight. Instead of being a hand puppet, Monkey is now a monkey suit which Conti’s character named Jane has hid herself in to get away from a toxic relationship (along with giving herself an entirely different personality). Allen’s Roy comes to meet Monkey through a fateful event and the two start off on an epic road trip which will have lasting effects for both of them. Just in time for the film’s digital release, The Movie Nerds talked with both Conti and Allen about finding out what went into such an hilarious movie about breaking free from life’s troubles.

Sal Cento: Thank you very much for joining me today, Ms. Conti and Mr. Allen. I was pleasantly surprised - Sunlight is so emotionally rich. I know that’s right off the bat but I just had to say it!

Nina Conti and Shenoah Allen: Thank you, thank you.

SC: I’m Sal and I’m from The Movie Nerds and I got a great load of questions for you guys today! The first one is for Ms. Conti  - You’ve had so much success with Monkey in other mediums - on stage, on television and on the internet. What made you decide that a theatrical film with a life sized version of Monkey should be the next step?

NC: It’s the way life folds at you in different weird ways, I suppose. I met the creature department from Star Wars when I had a background part in Solo. We ended up casually chatting about how they made these creatures and I said I’d love to have my little monkey look as big as Chewbacca and they made it happen! And then big monkey, big screen laughs. I don’t think we’ve seen anything like that sort of creature in film before. We’ve seen CGI versions and other recreations where the mouth doesn’t actually move the same way. I thought that this is slightly different. Chewbacca’s the closest but he doesn’t speak words laughs. [Monkey] is a very basic puppet mouth but I also thought that it’s quite an engaging face and could work. I put it on and went to go do this improv thing and met Shenoah there. He was doing this character called Roy. Monkey and Roy hit it off straight away and I wanted to work with him more immediately. 

SC: There is a sentence in the synopsis that still sticks with me about Sunlight. “This is beauty and the beast in reverse.” For those that read the interview but are not super familiar with the movie, could you explain how that quote applies to the two leads in the film?

NC: Well, I would say the reverse is that the Beast is the better guy Conti and Allen laugh. We’re not trying to get the prince out. The beast is the prince in my head. But it’s usually the male character that’s the beast in The Beauty and The Beast. In this case, it’s a woman.

SA: Yeah - and I’m so pretty. everybody laughs. That’s how that works - maybe it’s in reverse. Yea, I think the beauty part’s maybe in reverse.

NC: I think when I say reverse I mean something inward. It’s all going in the wrong direction.

SC: For the majority of the movie, you are in a full on monkey suit playing a character. But you are also the director. What was that experience like balancing these two demanding roles?

NC: You’re just focused on the scene, really. In the day to day moment, I don’t think I was aware of balancing. We were just used to doing the scenes together. We’ve been doing versions of them in my living room for such a long time that it came very naturally to be Monkey and Roy. We also trusted [the Director of Photography] James Kwan and his wife Megan, who was working with him. We trusted them to tell us whether they got it and we just went ahead and did. It was pretty simple in the actual fact.

SC: The creation of Sunlight started seven years ago but the film itself was shot in just twenty days. Speaking in terms of development, what happened that caused that gap to be so long?

SA: Initially, we started talking about it and then actually started to work on it. But then the lockdown happened and that slowed us down a little bit. After that, there was just this kind of no man’s land where you have to go laughs and try to keep hope while all the elements come together to make a film . . . to get enough money to have it all be possible and get the script to a place where it feels right. But I think living in that long timeframe really allowed us to create an expansive universe in our minds with the film. When we started shooting, we were already familiar with these characters, with their story and who they were and what was driving them. This all allowed us to really improvise with the film. As frustrating as it was at times - that timespan allowed us to really deeply explore in a lot of different directions. So much never made it to the screen. There’s so many different versions of the screenplay. There’s so many different places Nina and I went while creating it.

NC: But like everything strenuous falls off along the way on a project like this. You get rid of all the little bits that are dragging you down. We made our first taster for this in 2018 - and that was so long ago. We were podcast hosts in that version. Allen laughs

SC: What was the difference between the scenes where you went on the script and the scenes where you improvised? How did you learn where to go in what terms? Which scenes did you know where to go with which?

SA: The script is there to make sure we got the story in a sequence that felt as dramatically satisfying as possible. That’s like a nuts and bolts kind of document. It’s very much a written script but it’s there not to keep us from improvising - it’s there to make sure that the information in each scene comes out.

NC: It all reads beautifully. I mean, the dialogue in the script is beautiful. Lots of it is in the film, but then actually doing it and you find another set of words that say much the same thing but they just end up feeling more natural at that time.

SA: Playful new things would appear too. There’s a song in the movie that’s not in the screenplay that you might remember. We sing together about poles we all laugh.

SC: Even though the chemistry between Monkey/Jane and Roy is undeniable, the road trip aspect becomes a main ingredient in helping to make that happen. This could have been filmed in numerous places throughout the US. Why choose New Mexico?

NC: It’s beautiful and kind of desert-y and everything but Shenoah’s from there so it makes perfect sense. He was in London when we met but he was talking to me about New Mexico . . . it just had to be New Mexico. It felt right.

SA: I don’t know. I think I just had the landscape in my mind. It made it easier to write even though we ended up making our own geography anyway. It was really nice to have a place that I knew as we were figuring out the roadtrip. I just love the desert and the sky. I guess that’s the main reason.

NC: Texturally, it’s just got the right vibe for people who have gone off the beaten track somewhere. There’s something about it I find. The way you drive off road, it’s all very alluring.

SA: It’s expansive. The UK is a beautiful place -

NC: No it’s not Conti laughs.

SA: You can’t go very far without running into another town. It’s a small island -

NA: It is beautiful. I take that back!

SA: I know. It just doesn’t have the same kind of open road vibe that you can get in the southwest.

NC: It doesn’t have the sunlight. I could sort of feel it in Shenoah’s talking about the place and I wanted that sun on the monkey’s back.

SC: While we are introduced to Jane’s Monkey alter ego early on in the film, Roy ends up with his own wolf persona much later on. This helps both of them cope in times of distress. While we all don’t have immediate access to a full on furry suit, what is Sunlight trying to convey to viewers?

NC: I think the struggle to express yourself is in us all. And hopefully, even though it feels like cheating to do that [she refers to becoming Monkey in the movie], it helps. Anything goes, whatever it takes to express yourself is fine. It doesn’t have to be a full walking success story and an integrated personality that knows what to say all the time laughs. That’s a big ask of any human.

SA: Yea, and I think going back to the opposite thing a little bit, There’s a lot of opposing ideas in it. One of our themes that we were working with was - “do it wrong to make it right” or “do the wrong thing to get to the right place”. We were going in the opposite direction to find our way through a lot and I think that putting on a mask - there’s that old adage, maybe you can help me with this -

NC: It’s Oscar Wilde.

SA: Yea. the mask tells the truth or something like that. You can help articulate it.

NC: Man is least himself in his own aspect but give him a mask and tell him the truth.

SA: In playing a character, sometimes you get to express yourself in a way that you might be too inhibited to otherwise. Put on a big animal suit and you really get a green light to be who you are

SC: That is it for my questions. If there’s anything either of you want to add - now  is that time!

NC: Hooray! I would just like to direct people in ways they can see the film which I’m sure by the time you write this it will be on Apple and Amazon.

SC: Alright, thank you guys so much!

SA: Thanks a lot!

NC: Thank you!

As well as previously airing in selected theaters throughout the US, Sunlight is now currently streaming on both Apple TV and Prime Video.