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In the dramatic comedy Tallulah (2016), writer-director Sian Heder explores the complexity of what it means to be and feel like a mother. Tallulah tells the story of Tallulah or “Lu” (played by Ellen Page) a free-spirited vagabond who impulsively takes a toddler from a wealthy, negligent and self-absorbed mother Carolyn (Tammy Blanchard). Carolyn mistakenly believes that Lu works as a maid for the upscale Manhattan hotel where Carolyn is staying and recruits Lu to baby-sit while Carolyn attempts to engage in an extra-marital affair. Upon witnessing Carolyn’s irresponsible behavior and reckless parenting, Lu spontaneously decides to take the toddler with her when she leaves. Pretending the child is her own, Lu enlists the help of her ex-boyfriend’s mother Margo (Allison Janney). Lu’s decision ultimately connects the three women, transforming each of their lives in touchingly poignant ways.

Tallulah is not based on actual events, but the story is inspired by writer-director Sian Heder’s personal experiences. During a Q&A session at Sundance Film Festival (2016) where the film premiered, Heder revealed, “When I first moved out to LA, I worked as a babysitter for a lot of the high-end hotels, as my day job. I had a lot of really surreal weird experiences, and I could probably make a lot of movies. I had one in particular with a very strange mother in that same hotel room which was very, very close to what happened” in the movie. Heder recalls, “I was so disturbed by the behavior of this mom, I really wanted to take the kid when I left. And I didn’t. But I thought about who would. It sort of started as an idea from the character I had in my head…Suddenly I felt like I had the plot of this movie from her. It kind of spun out from there. I wanted to explore this idea of motherhood and parenthood and who was meant to be a mother and who wasn’t and it came from that.”

The film expands on Heder’s short film Mother (2006), which takes a more critical tone of Carolyn’s character. Mother portrays Carolyn’s character as a selfish, narcissistic person devoid of any redeeming qualities. Heder explains, “I wrote the part obviously from a place of judgment. I spent the night with this woman and thought she was so horrible.” However, in the intervening years between Mother and Tallulah, Heder became a mother herself, which made her more sympathetic to the challenges of motherhood: “As the movie was trying to get made, I became a mother myself and I think I lost a lot of that judgment and I’m so glad I did because I really rewrote the script…and the part because it was so much more complicated than that.” As Heder told the LA Times, “Continuing to work on the script I suddenly realized that Carolyn wasn’t the villain and I couldn’t judge her in the same way that I had,” Heder said. “The character you start off hating you find empathy for.”

To find out more about Heder’s crafting of the characters and the story (12:40), watch this video below of Deadline Hollywood’s panel with Heder and Page at Sundance Film Festival (2016) on January 22, 2016.