At 10 years old, kids usually think of being dancers or astronauts when they grow up. Maybe firefighters, or police officers, or athletes. Even the odd writer or scientist. Amanda Row, however, decided she wanted to be a director after seeing James Cameron’s Titanic. Having attended Etobicoke School of the Arts and graduated from Ryerson’s film program, she’s since gone on to work within multiple avenues across the industry board, including acting, writing, and producing. She’s also worked the production designer and art director gigs for film shorts, music videos, and commercials, as well as sitting in the director’s chair.
Her film Mitten, an intensely creepy three-minute short about an old man who finds a bloodied mitten in a forest, and her work as second unit director on the second season of the Netflix series Hemlock Grove relay her passion for horror, a genre often unexplored by female directors. But it’s her directorial television debut, the emotionally-charged Shadowhunters 2B episode “Awake, Arise, or Be Forever Fallen,” that has show fans talking – a result of having been quietly working on the set throughout Season 2, where she was offered the opportunity to take the director’s chair once again.
We recently spoke with Amanda about her Shadowhunters directorial debut, her passion for directing, and being a young female director in an industry that is decidedly not. Keep reading to find out what she had to say!
You have a huge range of department credits to your name. Is directing where you wanted to end up?
Yep, directing has been my endgame since I was 10 years old. I used to be obsessed with the history of the Titanic and I begged my dad to let me see the movie when it came out in ’97. Afterward, I told my dad I wanted to be James Cameron and the rest is history! I’ve taken every possible route to get here, which is why I’ve got such a variety of credits.
How did you come to be involved in Shadowhunters ?
Just one of the many meet and greets I do on a regular basis, but I just happened to really click with Matt Hastings on this one. Both of us are big genre geeks.
Young female directors are usually at a disadvantage when it comes to this industry, but the show’s key demographic is younger women which makes you an ideal match for working with this story. How do you feel your unique younger, female perspective helped you with your episode, and how does it influence your work in general?
That’s a tricky question. I think regardless of the project, a new perspective – be it female, LGBT, or POC – will always have an advantage on any work because it will feel different than what we’re used to (get on it, new perspectives!). Other than that, being female means I have to work twice as hard to prove my worth, and that’s always going to result in better work. Not that working twice as hard is a problem; directing is the most fun job in the entire world!
But specific to Shadowhunters, I don’t think it was so much my being a lady that helped, but my being a former fangirl myself – in my case, it was Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It definitely helped me understand that this was serious business and not to be taken lightly!
Amanda Row
How much of your work for 2×18 was influenced by things you’ve learned on the show, and how much was influenced by things you’ve learned from other projects? Any particular advice you carry with you on the job?
To put it simply: I do what I can to find the truth in the story, whatever the project. Of course, a stunning shot or a beautiful camera move makes the heart swell in all sorts of ways, but it means nothing if there isn’t a character and an emotion attached to it. So I start with the core story first and then gild it accordingly.
You probably know how loved the Malec relationship is and even more so how important the nature of the episode’s events were to the show’s audience. How did that affect the way you chose to present certain things, and what were you hoping to accomplish with them?
I knew how deeply the fanbase cared about Malec, and it’s for good reason! It’s an incredible romance that anyone can hope to relate to one day! I was just trying to find as much truth and honesty between two characters who are very much in love, albeit going through a hard time. Even though it’s about a warlock and a Shadowhunter, it’s the humanity between them that is intoxicating. I didn’t realize what it would do for fans, especially LGBT fans, in terms of feeling represented. It made me realize that I often take my Canadian ‘Be chill, everyone’s cool’ attitude for granted. It’s an important reminder that the world I might see on the news today is not the world I was brought up in, and does not have to be the world of tomorrow. I’m excited for the next generation.
The Malec relationship, in particular, is the result of a lot of collaborative work between the writers, directors, and actors, and this episode had some big steps to take. What kind of conversations were happening to ensure the relationship really shined on-screen?
I knew that this was a big moment for Malec and that it would give their relationship the episode it deserved. But Jamie wrote such a beautiful story and, as a Malec fan myself, I really wasn’t worried [laughs]. I had great source material, so I knew we could romance the pants off of this thing.
Maia had a really vulnerable, sensitive moment in the telling of her traumatic turning experience at the hands of her former boyfriend. Tell us a bit about the filming of that scene and what do you hope the audience took away from it?
Ugh! It broke my heart to shoot it, and it breaks my heart to watch. Again, Jamie wrote some amazing words and Alisha is just such a talent. Not to mention Alberto, who actually didn’t read Maia’s monologue, so that Simon could really be hearing it for the first time. That stuff’s important.
We actually took a while to shoot this scene, because it was so heavy and I really wanted to get deep into it. I wanted Maia to fall so deeply into her story that she might as well be there with Jordan again, and completely forget that Simon is listening. She only snaps back into it when Simon tells her he’s sorry. For me, this scene was about the guilt a victim can feel after abuse, even years later, that what happened to them is somehow their fault. It’s something that I know a lot of the audience can relate to. What I’m hoping they can take away is the absurdity of Maia ever believing what happened to her could possibly be her fault or be the result of what love got her. The absurdity that she has anything to feel guilty about. But also that you’re not alone in that feeling. That absurd guilt is, unfortunately, a normal reaction, but a false reaction, and is something you have to fight to come to terms with.
We loved the focus on the rose, the omamori talisman, and the hand-holding, and how they each triggered important memories for Magnus. We’re gonna assume that was part of Jamie’s script, so how did you go about bringing those visuals to life and making them as beautiful and poignant as you did?
I actually was looking for a way to go in and out of flashbacks in a way that we haven’t done before on the show. We’ve seen zooming into eyes and all sorts of magical stuff, but because this was all based on memory, I just treated it the way a real memory works for most of us – it’s triggered by something in the present. Alec held Magnus’ hands and it triggered that memory of them in bed one morning. The rose reminded him of the ones he used to keep on the table (and you might notice the place he’s sitting right before the flashback to Season 1 is where Alec’s head was resting). I was just trying to make their story as human as possible, so I used match-cutting to connect the memory to the present in a human way.
Amanda Row
What was the most challenging scene for you to film?
Cue the cheese parade: the last scene I shot was Ollie and Sam in bed, and that was the hardest because I knew it was all gonna be over when I cut.
You managed to get some of the best performances we’ve seen out of the cast to date. Do you have an approach to helping actors get to those emotional places?
Well, thanks for saying that! Very kind of you. Maybe because I also was an actor way back when which helps with the language. But I also know that these guys know their characters so well. Better than I do. Better than you do. Sometimes better than the writers do! They own that character in a lot of ways, and I always find it benefits me and the story to listen to them. This is probably getting annoying, but it’s all about truth!
We know that directors have everything planned out before shooting begins, but sometimes there’s changes or added magic that happens on the day. Did you have any moments where you had to adapt your plan? Or did everything go as expected?
The actors had a lot of awesome improv that was really fun! Matt’s ‘I need to get back to the Institute’ joke was his idea, for one. That whole sequence ended up different than what I initially saw in my head, and that has much to do with how deeply both Matt and Harry care about their characters and the ideas they had. Adapting the plan often came about because the actors showed me something I hadn’t seen on the page myself. Kat and Will gave me a lot of that too.
So apparently you’re returning for Season 3! Do you have anything, in particular, you’re hoping you get the chance to do in future episodes?
Gimme all the action and all the feels! Also, y’all haven’t seen me try and scare you yet. That’s my forté.
How have you enjoyed the response to your work?
It’s amazing. I can’t believe it. Shadowhunters must be the only show on TV with such a dedicated and amazing fan base. The director’s work usually goes unnoticed, especially in TV, but damn, every little detail I put in there was screenshot or noticed by somebody! It’s beyond creatively satisfying. Also, I was one of you! So it feels really great to give back the kind of thing that I know was so, so important to me once upon a time.
Shadowhunters will return with Season 3 in early 2018.
