If you aren’t already familiar with her, Ali Vingiano is a writer, filmmaker and actor and is best known for her work on The Morning Show, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, and for her short films and viral videos for the likes of Glamour magazine and BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. Vingiano has been working toward this career since minoring in film and media studies and theater arts at Bates College, where she also studied abroad at The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She followed that up by taking Columbia Publishing Course at Columbia Journalism School to break into writing, and has been working on her triple-pronged career since.
Her latest work as an actor, and her first starring role in a feature film, is a timely one: the pandemic-themed rom-com The End of Us, directed by Steven Kanter and Henry Loevner and released by BuzzFeed Studios. In The End of Us, Vingiano and her co-star, Ben Coleman, take the audience on a hilarious and bittersweet rollercoaster of love (or rather, the breakdown of love) in the time of lockdown. Set in California, these two exes must continue cohabitating during the stay at home order for COVID-19. We get to watch them move on from their relationship, without actually being able to move out.
For some, this film will resonate very well, and even for those of us who didn’t experience a breakup during lockdown, the scenarios are still so relatable you’ll find it hard not to laugh, or shudder, in remembrance of those weird lockdown days. I personally enjoyed how well this movie encapsulates how the pandemic affected our lives in ways we couldn’t have ever imagined. Seeing this experience onscreen feels like a more enjoyable souvenir of what difficulties we all shared, highlighting the absurd aspects and helping us laugh as a collective, through some of the hardships we experienced.
Ali Vingiano, who’s developing her first feature film as writer/director with Park Pictures, was kind enough to sit down and answer some questions for Residence 11 about her early inspirations, her writing and acting processes, and the process of shooting a movie under quarantine while respecting COVID restrictions.
Can you name a few early influences that got you excited about writing or movies?
I devoured books as a kid. I loved Harry Potter, and YA books like the Angus Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging series. The first script I ever wrote was when I was 13 and adapted a book called Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. On the film side, watching the women of SNL when I was a kid and teenager had a huge impact on me. It was the generation of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer. It’s part of why I started taking UCB classes and found my way into entertainment.
What were your initial thoughts and feelings when you were first approached with this project?
My initial thoughts were: we’re two months into a global pandemic, how the hell are we going to make a movie? It seemed like a crazy idea, but I’d also been stuck at home for two months feeling creatively depleted and depressed. The idea of getting together with friends and trying to make something was exciting.
Do you think that being a writer has helped you in the field of acting? If so, how?
Yes, definitely. I approach script analysis much differently when I’m writing than when I’m acting, but writing has still helped me ask good questions as an actor. What is the real meaning behind each line? Where are the emotional transitions? Who is driving the scene and who is reacting? Beyond that, what’s the point of this scene? My writing brain is especially helpful when using improv on set — not only to come up with funny or meaningful lines, but to actually question what is necessary and how we can keep moving the story forward.
At about the halfway point in the movie we start to see glasses of wine a bit more frequently, which was a common theme of the COVID lockdown experience for many people. Were you personally more of a bread baker during the lockdown, an imbiber, or a healthy lockdown mix of the two?
Oh god, I definitely went through phases of both! When COVID started I’d just finished a yoga teacher training, and used my newly acquired free time to take online yoga classes or go running outside. I even taught a little bit on Zoom! Then, as that two week quarantine turned into an indefinite one, and the restaurants near my house started offering to-go cocktails, I definitely went through a take-out-margaritas-on-a-Tuesday phase. I also got really into baking and cooking. I have a gluten allergy so I skipped the bread, but got super into gluten free baking. I’m talking cakes and cookies every week. I also cooked pretty much everything Alison Roman posted. We started watching the Sopranos, so naturally a favorite ritual became making pasta and getting in touch with my Italian roots with the help of Carmela and Tony.
You told FilmSnobReviews that the script was essentially a broad outline and a lot of it was improvised. Did you find working with such fluidity to be freeing, given the changing emotions in lockdown? Was the ending known from the start, or did that come about organically through the improvisation?
We actually shot two endings, and two opening scenes. I didn’t know which one the directors went with until I saw it for the first time! We shot the film in sequence so that we could adjust the story as we went. Once we finished shooting, we went back and shot an alt opening in case it would better set up the film. I loved the way we worked. It was collaborative, freeing, but still had a lot of structure to it and the directors had a strong sense of what they wanted
from each scene.
The End of Us was shot on location in a rented Airbnb. Did you and Ben Coleman stay there to keep character and embrace the sense of a lockdown or would that have been a little too intense?
I’m pretty sure I understand the implication here and the answer is no. Sorry! But we did all stay there together. It was a crew of five: Me, Ben, our directors Henry Lovener and Steven Kanter, and our producer Claudia Restrepo. We lived together to abide by quarantine rules and shot the entire film in the same Airbnb. Every night we had dinner as a family, and definitely the occasional glass of wine, but we all passed out soon after we wrapped because we were working such long days. We didn’t take a single day off for 12 days. It was exhausting!
You and your co-star Ben Coleman had great acting chemistry together and a sense of fun really shined through, despite the difficult subject matter of the movie itself. Did you have a favorite scene to shoot, one that garnered more laughs on set than the others? If so, why?
Thank you! There were so many fun scenes to shoot. We were cracking each other up constantly. I don’t think I can choose just one! But the Zoom with the doctor and our fight on the couch at the end were a blast. Plus, there were a lot of smaller moments that we had fun with. There was one scene that was cut from the movie where Nick is taking a very long bath when my character needs to use the bathroom. Ben kept on improvising different reasons his bath was taking so long and I was losing it.
What is the name of the little instrument that Nick was playing with and do you own one? If so, what songs can you play on it?
It’s called a melodica and no, sadly I don’t own one. It either belonged to Steven Kanter or Ben Coleman, I don’t remember. Despite years of piano lessons, I’m gonna guess that I can play zero songs on it.
Thank you so much for your time and sharing this great movie with us, it was an absolute treat. Is there anything in particular you hope the audience walks away with after viewing The End of Us?
Thank you for watching it! I hope if anything it inspires more filmmakers to go out there and shoot whatever they can, with whatever resources they have.