We had a quick phone call with up and coming writer/director Kenneth Andrew Williams and here’s what we learned about race, MTV and his upcoming horror film Expulsion.

1. What inspired you to become a writer/director?

I was enamored with movies at a very, very early age. In fact, I wanted to be an actor when I was 8 years old because, at that age, all I could see were the people in front of the camera. And I thought they were making up everything as they fucking went. A short while later I found out there were people writing the words for them and was literally blown away by this. I started screenwriting as an off shoot of the creative writing I’d been doing as an adolescent. By age 10 I started really pursuing the craft. I’m sure I was using the wrong format but in my young mind it felt like writing. Thanks to the proper formatting programs, I’ve been evolving as a writer ever since.

The inspiration to direct came as a natural progression from writing. I could see the films I was writing so it just made complete sense to pursue that as well. But, winding the clocks back again, when MTV first hit the airwaves it was nothing short of revolutionary. Back then music videos were like a new frontier and they took you to far off places or had weird 1980s style bullshit graphics that were awesome for the time.  Either way, they had a sizeable impact. But, to me, writing and directing are mutually exclusive.

2. What’s the most important lesson(s) you’ve learned as a filmmaker.

It is an intensely collaborative art form. Without EVERY person performing at their absolute best, the picture will look just like shit. Now I definitely did not start out with this mindset. In the beginning I wanted to do as much as I could. After a while I found that if I surrounded myself with knowledgeable people I could focus solely on writing and directing. But the positive take away from trying to do it all is that I gained intimate knowledge over nearly every aspect of film production. And on a project, if I see someone fucking up, I can go over and kindly ask them “Hey. Are you fucking up?” I ask myself that question all the time also. Better to catch it on set than in post.

Ultimately, as a filmmaker, you have to be a perfectionist. And when other people sign on they’ll see that and it’ll permeate the set and the production. When one person doesn’t subscribe to this, you’re fucked. I have run into this several times. You literally want that person to fucking die.

3. How has your race played a role in your career?

The only person who can stop me from achieving my goals is me. It may take longer or shorter because of my skin color. I try not to put too much thought into it, though. When I create a story and characters, I try to do it artistically. And, for me, that means taking every part of me out at first. My race, morals, even my gender comes out of it so I can create characters without judging them. And it gives me a lot of freedom to take a story and characters where they need to go. Once you’re judging your characters you might as well start writing children’s books.

I do think there’s definitely a difference in how you’re perceived as a filmmaker of color. And I’ve enjoyed changing that perception on occasion. But because the work I’ve done so far has been either avant garde or involved characters that ran the spectrum of racial and emotional make up, it has helped keep me in my own category. I like to think that the way I write and direct, the intensity and focus that I bring to a project eventually supersedes how I’m perceived. Everyone I’ve worked with would talk more about my approach than my race, I hope. They might also say I curse too much but fuck them for saying that.

4. What inspired Expulsion?

I love horror and had never truly contributed to it! And I really needed to challenge myself. I was in a funk and creatively bored as fuck. When I was putting the idea together for Expulsion there was a lot going on in America. Police shootings, racial and political problems were all you were hearing about. Seemed like a very negative time and I needed to channel what I was feeling in a productive way. And intense horror was the only way I felt I could do that.

I had to put a lot of thought into how the approach would be. I didn’t want to just make a scary picture. I wanted to deal with it as I would if making a dramatic film. Placing the characters in jeopardy and seeing what they go through from an emotional standpoint was something I wanted to explore. So instead of waiting to see how people die, you’d be rooting for them to live.  It pushes me to direct in a much more visceral way, which is new. But most of all, the idea of demonic possession freaks me out. And I wanted to see where that fear might take me.

5. What’s been the process of bringing Expulsion from page to screen?

It’s been a wild ride so far. We’re still in production so the adventure is far from over. When writing the script, I felt I needed to go to some dark places for it to stand out. And instead of judging the characters, I found myself judging MYSELF. But I wanted to write a challenging script and I feel I achieved that. That has its downside, though. I’ll circle back to that momentarily.

I’m happy to say I’m surrounded by an incredibly talented crew, who are as dedicated and knowledgeable as I am-if not more. I’m big on production design so locations are important. I recently had a location fall through on me so I’m finalizing a replacement. It’s frustrating but shit happens.

Casting was a unique process as usual. I worked with two casting directors and we looked at a LOT of people. A few actors passed on the material due to subject matter. There’s the downside of writing challenging material, by the way.  But it has left me with a cast of artists whose performances will be second to none.

Once the financing was in place, we shot a teaser and a promo piece for the project. That has given us a chance to work with an ambitious group of people who are guiding us through the PR landscape. And a smaller film like this needs all the help it can get.

Once completed, the project will begin its life on the festival circuit. I believe it’ll find its audience there, which will generate more buzz as it goes. Thanks for taking the time to chat!