As a horror enthusiast living in Brooklyn, I’m always trying to stay up to date on local talent and new innovative projects. When I discovered the title of Genna Edwards’ upcoming short film Brian Won’t Wear Condoms, I knew we needed to talk. Edwards has spent most of her time on set working in the sound department, but she’s taking the helm as both writer and director for this project. She was kind enough to talk to me a week before production started about her career, horror movies, and how the story behind Brian Won’t Wear Condoms came about
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
ORTEGA: Would you like to introduce yourself?
EDWARDS: My name is Genna Edwards. I am a sound mixer and designer based in New York, but I travel wherever productions take me or wherever I feel like going, and I also write and direct queer feminist horror on the side. And I write short stories and books and other stuff, but film people tend to like to hear about film.
ORTEGA: Sweet! I also want to hear about the story stuff too!
EDWARDS: I love prose, that’s how I started.
ORTEGA: Do you have any published work you’d like to talk about?
EDWARDS: I’ve gotten a few stories published from a longer anthology that I’m working on that’s queer feminist horror. I have this fun one I was really happy about that got published last year called, “10 Ways to Kill Yourself in Bumfuck, Ohio” and I recently turned that in to a screenplay that we might try to make in the future
ORTEGA: That’s awesome!
EDWARDS: So yeah, stuff is going on! (Laughs)
ORTEGA: What sort of horror are you drawn to?
EDWARDS: I’m drawn to really psychological stuff, I also like stories that don’t necessarily take themselves too seriously. Like, if I want to have a night out at a movie theatre, I’m really drawn to stuff that’s campy and fun but also can be super gory at the same time, I really loved—if I’m thinking about recent films in that regard—Ready or Not or Bodies Bodies Bodies, where there’s social commentary in there and it’s also massively fun AND scary. That’s the full package for me.
ORTEGA: Do you have a favourite movie?
EDWARDS: I’ve gotta say Jennifer’s Body because that started it all for me. I watched it as a teenager and it just blew my mind. I hadn’t seen anything like it.
ORTEGA: I mean it is quintessential queer feminist horror.
EDWARDS: Right! Yes! Yes! It is THE text. No, It’s a freaking classic. I mean Diablo Cody—I love. Lisa Frankenstein was great recently too!
ORTEGA: Oh I haven’t seen that one yet.
EDWARDS: Oh It’s super fun. I just love a revenge flick!
ORTEGA: How did you start getting into making movies?
EDWARDS: Man, it started when I was a kid. When I was like 8 or 9 I got one of those little flip cameras, you remember those?
ORTEGA: Mmhmm!
EDWARDS: I roped all my friends into making really bad musicals in our yard, and I would have my family members play everybody and they hated it. Oh my god, they were so annoyed. It started as a fun thing that I felt really drawn to because I had a lot of energy as a kid, and I had a lot of stories I had no idea what to do with, so it kinda snowballed from there. And through high school I was making weird stuff and always in people’s faces with the camera. Then in college I realized, ‘Oh you can actually make a career in this industry and it’s actually a viable thing,’ so I started to take it more seriously.
ORTEGA: Is that what you went to school for?
EDWARDS: I went to school for Film Theory and English. I was just a big nerd—I really like the theory and the academia around film and reading texts and the analysis.
ORTEGA: I feel like that’s what horror people do!
EDWARDS: Yes! I feel like horror people especially have such a great finger on the pulse of whatever is happening in the world, especially in how they translate it through the medium that I think a lot of other genres don’t necessarily always have. I feel like horror is more honest in that way.
ORTEGA: Was audio a way for you to get into the film industry? Or was it something that you were immediately passionate about?
EDWARDS: It’s a little bit of both! I’ve made music from a very young age. Film combined all of my passions into one—there’s writing, there’s art, there’s visuals, there’s sound. I got really lucky when I graduated college. I applied to PA (Production Assistant) on this film and they heard that I was a musician and they were like, “Oh would you want to do our sound?” I was like, “Okay, hell yeah,” and then I had a boom pole and I fell in love with it. I just kind of ran with it. So I got really really lucky there. I love sound too. I have a lot of passions.
ORTEGA: I saw the videos of you doing the foley on Cannibal Mukbang.
EDWARDS: Oh my god, that foley was so much fun. I ate so much melon!
ORTEGA: *laughs*
EDWARDS: Yo, that was crazy! Yeah, I demolished some fruit for that. That was way too fun. We spent a day in a friend’s studio in Jersey. In terms of where I came from with audio, in college I started recording these ASMR videos, I don’t know why. There’s something so calming about certain sounds to me. I think because I was involved in music from a young age, I have a very emotional connection to sound. Another instance where the horror genre reigns supreme here—sound is so paramount in these films. Like with Cannibal Mukbang, oh my gosh we had so much fun with that. So much fun with that.
ORTEGA: Lots of flesh?
EDWARDS: Lots of flesh….I love flesh. No, that was great. A movie with that topic especially, that was honestly a dream project, I mean that is one of my favourite movies of all time.
ORTEGA: That’s awesome! It was a sick movie too.
EDWARDS: Yeah, just like the premise, the message, the comedy, the performances were insane. I mean, the soundtrack is [all] bop. That was a good movie. I’m a nerd about that one.
ORTEGA: Let’s move on to your movie!
EDWARDS: What do you want to know?
ORTEGA: I want to know everything! I saw you talk a little bit on your instagram about the inspiration for it, can you tell me a little more about that?
EDWARDS: Yeah. Honestly, it came from a bunch of really terrible experiences that I had in the dating scene, with boyfriends in the past, and I finally—I was with this guy, he claimed to have loved me so much but he would not do this one tiny thing that resulted in me, you know, having an IUD which was one of the worst experiences. This comes from real life. I passed out during the procedure-
ORTEGA: Woah, that’s crazy!
EDWARDS: This is the insane thing; the doctors hardly prep you and if they say anything it’s “it’ll feel like a little pinch.” A little pinch, my ass! That’s insane! All of my friends I’ve talked to, I’ve even worked on a documentary a couple of summers ago where we interviewed women about their experiences with their IUDs and 9 out of 10 the stories were like “this is the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life,” “I thought I was going to die,” and we’re supposed to act like this is normal.
And add on to that, a society where—I’m not heterosexual, but when I’m in heterosexual relationships there are expectations that you put yourself through pain, for the pleasure of your partner, which is insane. I had finally had enough. I hit a point where I was like ‘Why?’ These hormones are driving me crazy, I’m having the worst cramps of my life to the point where I’d be curled up on my bed and not moving. So I dumped him and I wrote this.
ORTEGA: Hell yeah.
EDWARDS: Yeah, as you do.
ORTEGA: Cause there’s not enough research on, well…just…generally anything that has to do with people’s bodies who were assigned female at birth, like if you have a uterus…
EDWARDS: YES, yes, if you have a vagina they’re like ‘Fuck you! We don’t give a shit about anything that happens with your body!’ Our pain isn’t taken seriously, one hundred percent.
ORTEGA: But then there’s so much anecdotal evidence of how fucking awful it is from people who have experienced it.
EDWARDS: Literally- everyone I’ve talked to…what’s been fascinating and not surprising but also sad, as we’ve been talking about this on Instagram and working in our crowd fund, I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and say like, “Hey, my IUD made me suicidal,” And I’m like “Yeah, unfortunately, I’ve heard that a lot.” It changes how you feel and who you are and it’s crazy that we’re expected to do this because partners just won’t wear condoms, or the scientific community at large does not care about our health and our safety. Point blank.
ORTEGA: Yeah, not to mention that IUDs also don’t protect you from STIs
EDWARDS: Yes! Yes, ‘well you can just get an IUD and not wear condoms,’ sex-ed in our country, that is a whole other conversation, but it does tie into all of this. We are not given any tools.
ORTEGA: What was your sex ed like?
EDWARDS: I was in Pennsylvania, they made us yell ‘penis’ down the hall and that was the main thing I remember from sex-ed. What was yours?
ORTEGA: I feel like I somehow skipped it.
EDWARDS: WHAT?
ORTEGA: I went to catholic school from kindergarten through 8th grade. That was abstinence only, obviously.
EDWARDS: Yes of course.
ORTEGA: I went to high school and I didn’t know what a condom was when a classmate was talking about condoms.
EDWARDS: No! I was afraid to say ‘condom’ as a kid. They try to put you on birth control as fast as possible. I have issues with the pill too. We were too young to have all that stuff in our body. We don’t know the effects of really any of it. Because they’re not studying it! It’s just crazy. And people just want to be raw dogging! Like, seriously! In this economy?
BOTH: NO!
ORTEGA: Especially in a post Roe v. Wade world.
EDWARDS: It’s so dangerous! That was the other part of all of this. I sometimes try to forget that happened, and then you just get hit over the head with it. That happened and I went on a rampage of like, okay honestly some people need to stop having sex. Like, I mean of course I think people should be having as much sex as they want. But the issue is that a lot of people aren’t doing it safely, or with their partner’s safety in mind, you know? There are so many states where if you get pregnant you’re fucked!
ORTEGA: Yeah, you’re having that baby, if that baby is making you sick, you’re going to be fucking sick.
EDWARDS: Yeah, you’re done-zo. All for what? A 10 second nut? That’s what’s hilarious with this whole thing. We’re putting ourselves through so much pain and for what? Literally for what? For some guy named Chad that you meet on Tinder?
ORTEGA: All for Brian!
EDWARDS: Literally all for some doofus named Brian, I mean come on, just wrap it! It takes two seconds. And the whole ‘it doesn’t feel good’ argument—I got so sick of it.
ORTEGA: It’s such bullshit!
EDWARDS: Yeah! You hear them groan over and over about all the reasons like, ‘I can’t cum with a condom on.’ That sounds like a you problem. Why is that a me problem?
ORTEGA: At least seventy percent of people with vaginas can’t cum from penetrative sex alone.
EDWARDS: *in a crescendo while snapping fingers* LETS GO, LETS GO. PERIOD. That is what I’m talking about! Like as if we’re coming! COME ON. PLEASE CALL THAT OUT. Like the statistics on that terrify me. And people think that you pump once and it’s, ‘Oh my god, it’s happening.’ Well it’s how they show sex a lot in the movies too.
ORTEGA: You’re in pre-production right now. What’s that like? What’s the lead up?
EDWARDS: It’s crazy. I do think that I’ve been pretty lucky with how wild I feel. I hear that the level of intensity I’m feeling is normal. I have an amazing team so I’ve been weirdly calm in terms of…I just contradicted myself…I feel crazy because we’re about to do this big thing. But, I’m calm in that I trust everybody in my team and all the ideas they’ve been approaching me with have been incredible.
We were really worried about wardrobe, because I’m not a fashion person, I don’t know where to go with any of this. But I shot my character descriptions and idea to our wardrobe designer, Coco, and she shot this deck back that’s just GORGEOUS. I was like, “I almost have no notes on this entire thing.”
Everybody on the team has been really invested in the story, the look of it, and the whole process in a way that’s made pre-production almost alarmingly smooth. We’re really trying to prepare as much as possible before we shoot because we have some really crazy SFX stuff happening and some other surprises that we want to really be prepared for.
ORTEGA: Can you tell me about any of the effects?
EDWARDS: They’re a little bit secret! There will be a lot of blood. That’s all I can say
ORTEGA: Beautiful.
EDWARDS: Yes, there will be some fluids that are happening on this set one hundred percent, but I don’t want to say anything else.
ORTEGA: What was crowdfunding like?
EDWARDS: Crowdfunding, also, alarmingly calm. I was really nervous because it feels really intense to ask people for money especially in an economy like this. Especially for…you know, I come from some conservative places. I ended up reaching out to a lot of my family members. They were very supportive in a way I was not expecting, and in a way that was really affirming of everything I’ve been up to!
ORTEGA: Cool!
EDWARDS: Yeah! I think in the horror community especially, it’s probably a little bit easier to crowdfund cause y’all come out! Especially when it’s stories we might not have seen yet in the horror genre. I’ve been hearing from a lot of folks that say, “We don’t have a story like this about this aspect of health.” Also we are representing some characters that are queer as well. It’s just a lot of really niche stuff happening at once that I think people are just really excited about.
And our social media and graphics designer killed it, which I think made crowdfunding easier. She made these insane condom pictures and is a wiz at photoshop and absolutely hammered it out. I recorded a bunch of videos with my DP Molly, who’s a freaking genius, so I think having the pitch video helped in the crowd fund process in explaining what our plan is and what the look is and how we want that to all come together.
I think we prepped the crowdfund really well, not to toot our own horn, but everyone on the team just slayed.
ORTEGA: I think all the promo stuff looks great!
EDWARDS: Thank you! We’re so happy with it! And everyone worked so hard. And all of my friends really came out! Everyone has been so supportive in sharing it and talking about it. I feel really really loved, which is cool because I’m a deeply insecure person *laughs* so that’s been wonderful
ORTEGA: It’s also important subject matter, too!
EDWARDS: Yeah! I’m glad! It was weird, I think that was the other thing with the crowd fund—I am just openly stating that I had this thing happen to me, and it’s a little bit embarrassing to say “Hey y’all, I’m making a film about how I kept an IUD in for too long because I didn’t just dump this guy or tell him to wear a condom.” That’s a little bit embarrassing but I think that, weirdly enough, more people are into it because of that.
ORTEGA: I mean, it’s relatable.
EDWARDS: Unfortunately, that’s what I’m learning here. That when I’m honest about things I feel I’m alone in, it’s actually ‘Oh no, thousands of other people have felt the exact same thing’ which sucks but at least hopefully we can make a movie that helps other people feel more normal about it.
ORTEGA: It goes back to what we were saying about the lack of sex education and research.
EDWARDS: Yeah we don’t talk about it. In the horror sphere there’s a lot of hyper-sexualized or pornographic stuff that just isn’t true to life for a lot of folks. Especially queer folks.
ORTEGA: I think it’s getting better especially in the indie scene.
EDWARDS: In the indie scene it’s gotten so much better, I can even point to Cannibal Mukbang. There’s a great sex scene. We don’t get a lot of those! I think it’s changing for sure. There’s a lot of people who are passionate about advocating for stories that represent more of us which makes me really happy.
ORTEGA: Absolutely! Well that’s also something that your production company Carmilla Productions is hoping to do.
EDWARDS: One hundred percent!
ORTEGA: Can you tell me how you started the production company?
EDWARDS: I wanted to create a team of creatives that also encompassed a larger film company that focuses on feminist queer horror—because I think that is a niche in the genre that I see so many people hungry for more of. And I know, in my case as a young queer kid who loved horror—like Jennifer’s Body—we only really had a couple of those. If I had seen more of that as a child, I think I would have felt less weird about my sexuality and how much I care about equal rights but also less weird about my love for gross stuff. There’s this weird idea that feminine people don’t. *clap* like. *clap* horror.
I remember in school, I would write this stuff so often and I would have grown ass professors saying stuff like, “Well that’s a funny joke that your character likes horror because women don’t like horror,” and I’m like,“What are you talking about?”
ORTEGA: That’s asinine.
EDWARDS: THAT IS ASININE RIGHT? We are all out here, we’re just not represented in the media as much. I think that’s the issue. So that’s why I wanted to make this. Long story short.
ORTEGA: That totally makes sense. So, once you’re done with Brian Won’t Wear Condoms do you have any idea of what’s next?
EDWARDS: Oh gosh, yeah, I mean—I have too many ideas which I think is a slight issue. I have a lot of scripts. I think we want to see where Brian goes and then I’m also producing the indie lesbian horror film Make Whole later this year so those two things combined…we’re gonna see what happens there.
But I have a feature that I’m really hoping to make in the next few years. If not that, we have a couple other shorts on the docket. We just want to make more…more feminist queer horror in whatever way possible. I have more people hitting me up for producing lately which really excites me. There are just so many people who have so many amazing projects. I just want to make all of them. So what’s next is me trying to figure out how to balance my schedule.
ORTEGA: Can you tell me about the feature?
EDWARDS: Yeah! I have this feature that I wrote on a retreat last fall. How do I even describe it…..it is a psychosexual rape revenge about BDSM and online porn.
ORTEGA: Cool!
EDWARDS: I’m really hoping that we’re able to workshop that to a place where we can feasibly shoot it, because I think I have now amassed a great team of people who can knock it out of the park. I’m a big revenge film person and I feel like my first feature has to be in that genre because I am so passionate about it. Also, it’s done us dirty so many times and we need more entries into that cannon.
ORTEGA: What are some revenge films that you like?
EDWARDS: Promising Young Woman—I think about that one all the time. I would argue that Jennifer’s Body is one hundred percent a revenge film, that’s how I read that text. Those two have been my favorites.
ORTEGA: How do you feel about some of the older ones that maybe lean more towards exploitation films?
EDWARDS: I chew on this all the time! Because honestly, I love The Last House on the Left, but I also have my gripes with it.
ORTEGA: My biggest thing is that her parents get her revenge for her.
EDWARDS: *huffs angrily* I completely agree with you on that. But then, she’s dead so what is she gonna do? You know? I suppose I like that the mom is also involved. I think I would’ve felt a different way had it been: ‘The father of the boyfriend will avenge you.’
ORTEGA: I think there’s something complicated there about it being her mom who fake seduces the guy.
EDWARDS: This is what I’m talking about. There’s this trope in horror films and in films in general that women can only outsmart people by being seductive and sexy. I would really love it if that’s not how it had gone down.
We need more instances where they’re actually using their incredibly capable brains. Of course I have so many issues with that genre which is why I’m trying– it’s also the gratuitous scenes of sexual violence. You don’t need to show that.
ORTEGA: Yeah, they’re voyeuristic.
EDWARDS: I feel that way about Game of Thrones. A lot of people argue with me on that but it’s in the same vein as ‘why are we doing this?’ Then everybody is like, ‘Well it’s real life.’ No shit, you think I don’t know that? I’m interested in catharsis, I’m interested in a conversation about how we can heal from this stuff. We don’t need violent porn shown in the theater for weirdos to get their rocks off to Not into it.
ORTEGA: I also just think, in the vein of believing women, it’s a more powerful message if you don’t have to see the violence on screen to empathize with the character.
EDWARDS: Holy shit! Yes! Even when people see this stuff with their eyes they don’t even [empathize], you know, so why do we need all that info. I’m gonna be chewing on that.
ORTEGA: One last thing from me: I’m really excited about the condoms that y’all are giving out.
EDWARDS: *laughs* Thank you!
ORTEGA: How are y’all getting those made? How did y’all spin that?
EDWARDS: We’ve been talking to a couple of custom condom companies. There is a surprising amount of companies, I did not know this, that will put whatever you want on a condom. And it’s funny! I don’t want to hand you my business card, but you can have this [condom].
ORTEGA: Is there anything else you want to say about the movie, about the production company?
EDWARDS: We’re a group of really talented folks that really care a lot, and we hope to create a story that makes people feel seen and also helps people laugh about this. Because it’s so serious and so sad and it’s so traumatic and we all just need a little catharsis. I think it’s what this whole thing is about.
You can support ‘Brian Won’t Wear Condoms’ here!
