Interview with Phuong Mai Nguyen, In Waves director

An overwhelming love story between a young skater and a young surfer put to the test by illness. Hand in hand, with their friends' support, they face adversity never succumbing to the tide of sorrow. A luminous melodrama that unfolds majestically under the pink-and-blue California sky.

Interview with Phuong Mai Nguyen 

What made you want to adapt AJ Dungo’s graphic novel? What moved you in this story about love, friendship, and resilience? 

It’s one of the few graphic novels that helped me put into words emotions that I wasn’t able to articulate for a long while, such as grief. There was something deeply intimate, almost therapeutic about this story, which helped me acknowledge my sorrow and reconcile myself with the idea of losing someone. I was overwhelmed when I understood that it was the author AJ Dungo’s real story. In making his story into a film, I felt a very strong responsibility towards him and Kristen’s family. I met them very early on, as soon as we started working on the film. I visited the places where the story took place and spoke with them. Whenever I thought I was being intrusive, they always welcomed me with open arms and hearts. This reinforced my desire to bring this story and their community to the screen as well as I could, as a means of extending AJ’s promise to Kristen to keep her alive through his drawings. At the start, not being a surfer nor a skater myself, I didn’t feel it was my place to adapt this story, but then I realised that In Waves is absolutely not about the technique of surfing, but rather the passion for the waves and the ocean is a way to connect to something more sacred. Gliding on the water is bonding with something greater, it's finding a sense of humility and accepting one’s place in the universe. 

What was most challenging in directing this film? 

Managing to convey the emotion of the graphic novel while transcending it through the language of animated filmmaking. I often wondered how I could create something equally powerful, how I could measure up to what the book elicits. We had to find a balance, to adjust to avoid slipping into pathos. I also wanted the film to convey the sensory experience of water, of the elements, while finding my own visual language. Representing the ocean and the waves was at the heart of this research, and many very talented artists contributed to that endeavour. As for myself, as an illustrator, it is pretty much a boundless graphic playground. Water is a reflection of our own image, our inner state: it can be calm, wild, clear, or murky. From a technical perspective, animated waves were most certainly the major challenge in this production. I wanted something painterly, highly textured, and move away from anything too realistic. So I had to create bespoke digital tools to meet that challenge. We developed a hybrid process, blending 2D animation and 3D tools in order to keep an organic feel while allowing for great freedom of movement. 

The characters’ performances are very powerful. What were the criteria for choosing the French and English voices? How did you work with these remarkable young actors? 

I worked with Céline Ronté for the French version, and René Veilleux for the English version. Since it’s an animated film, I focused a great deal on the timbre of the voices and the actors’ sensitivity. We did a casting, through which we met Rio Vega and Lyna Khoudri. Very quickly, it was clear they were the right choices. For the character of Kristen, I was looking for a slightly raspy voice, one with a strong personality. Lyna managed to create that strong, very deep character. Conversely, Rio has this vulnerability in his voice that matched AJ’s gentle, dreamy personality. When we were recording, we had already put together a storyboard to show Lyna and Rio and we went chronologically, one scene at a time. I really loved having both characters record together. It helped create this real connection between them and they were able to find their spontaneity while acting, even in front of a microphone. From these recordings, we animated the 3D characters to embody the actors’ performances. 

As for the English version, I later worked with Stephanie Hsu and Will Sharpe, once the film was finished. This was a different challenge: we had to find the right words, the right musicality in English, while adapting to the already completed animation. It’s very precise craftsmanship, almost like that of a goldsmith, to preserve the emotion as well as the rhythm and the interpretation of the characters.