How a Filmmaker Crafted a Compelling Movie with One Actor

Movies with one actor are a rarity, and ones that captivate audiences from start to finish are even scarcer. Yet, filmmaker Jeremy Meyer has managed to defy the odds, crafting a gripping and thrilling movie with one actor in a single location. We sat down with Jeremy to delve into the process behind creating this cinematic achievement.

1. In your own words, can you describe what Winner is about?

Don’t want to spoil the movie, so I’ll just say that ‘Winner’ is about making the most of what life has given you, despite your situation.

The story focuses on Chloe, whose dream is to move to Borneo and make a kid’s show about orangutans from her studio there. Chloe was once healthy, happy, attractive and outgoing: she was a backup-singer & dancer for a live music act (with her ex, DJ Justin Sane). But the accident (which happened during a performance organized by her brother and ex-boyfriend’s company) ruined her dreams of performing on stage.

Chloe’s family life is terrible; they resent her for being disabled and struggling financially, and she resents them for how they treated her after the accident.

The movie takes place on the day that Chloe decides to solve her problems once and for all –and make her biggest dream a reality.

2. How did you come up with the story behind Winner and the character of Chloe?

I knew I wanted to create a story that was inexpensive to produce by having the entire movie take place in a bedroom with just one actor. I brought in a writer, Alec, to help brainstorm ideas. Once we had a general premise for the movie, Alec fleshed out Chloe’s character and her backstory and wrote the script.

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3. Taking place with one actress and one location, how did you approach writing the story in a way that maintains engagement?

To keep the audience engaged, I needed to make the film visually and thematically compelling. It was important for Chloe’s character to have many layers to her.  The audience only ever discovers what she’s thinking two or three steps after it’s happened.

To create dramatic tension, Chloe is drawing sketches of animated characters while having these heavy conversations.  This also provides visual variation so we aren’t looking at Chloe’s face for the entire movie. We also used different colors of room lighting to keep the audience engaged. Throughout the movie, Chloe switches her room lighting to various colors.  Thus, different sides of Chloe’s personality emerge.

4. When the mother character arrives at the apartment, what was your decision-making process behind keeping her off-screen?

This goes back to your previous question. Even before coming up with the story idea, I knew I wanted the story to take place in a single room with just one actor, so I was never tempted to add more on-screen characters or locations.

5. What were you looking for when casting the main actors? Did you use any techniques to pull out their amazing performances?

I was looking for someone with character-voicing skills since Chloe is a voice-over actress for kids radio. But most importantly, I was looking for someone who could show a range of emotions and carry the story through her performance.  I didn’t have any techniques to pull out Koko’s amazing performance other than make sure she was comfortable. We did schedule the heavy, emotional scenes the day after our day off so that she had a day to rest and prepare for the more challenging scenes.

6. Referencing IMDb, what was the story behind the lava lamp on set?

So Chloe has a lava lamp on her dresser which is kind of important for the visual aspect of the film. We plugged it in about an hour before we needed to shoot the first scene with the lava lamp in the background, but there were no bubbles and it wasn’t very warm yet.  We had to wait around for about an hour for it to finally warm up. On the rest of the shooting days I ended up plugging in the lava lamp first thing in the morning. Thankfully, everything else went smoothly and there were no other production delays.

Koko Marshall as Chloe in ‘Winner’

7. What’s your favorite film that only has one actor?

I know less than 10 films that only have one actor for the entire movie, but my favorite is probably ‘Buried’. ‘Winner’ is in my top 10.