After a prolific career acting on television and film, Sujata Day makes her feature directorial debut with Definition Please. The movie follows a former spelling bee champion named Monica Chowdry, who feels frustrated that she hasn't lived up to the potential of her elementary school glory days and must contend with unresolved issues within her family. Produced, written, directed, and starring Day, Definition Please was filmed in Day's hometown of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, including in her parents' home. Coupled with Day's history as a spelling bee participant, Definition Please is truly a labor of love.
With Definition Please now available to stream on Netflix, Sujata Day sat down with CBR for an exclusive interview. She revealed her personal inspiration for crafting the film's story, explained casting for its key roles, and shared what it was like to film in her old hometown.
CBR: With this being such a personal story and filming in your hometown, where did the seed of an idea for Definition Please first come about?
Sujata Day: The seed is from way back when, in fourth grade, I won my class spelling bee and went on to regionals. I lost in the first round on the word "radish," which was pretty devastating. I spelled it with two "d"s instead of one and I've always remembered that moment. It's something that I've thought about a lot. Fast-forward to 2015 when I was in an Upright Citizens' Brigade sketch writing class. We had to churn out sketches every single week. One of my sketches was entitled "Where Are the Spelling Bee Winners?" If you Google spelling bee winners, they're all doing insanely brilliant things like working at NASA, designing robots, winning the World Poker Tour. I thought it'd be funny if the punchline for this sketch is what if one of these former spelling bee champions grew up to not live up to her potential, not work out at NASA or have another awesome science or math-related job?
That four-page sketch then turned into the feature film idea for Definition Please, which I started writing in 2017. I wanted to explore the premise of that, of a former spelling bee champion who grows into a young woman and is still lost in her life and not doing what she's meant to do. I wanted to explore the answers. Her decisions were going to rest in her relationships, especially with her family members, her relationship with her father, mom, brother. That's where Definition Please came to be!
The core of Definition Please is the dynamic between Monica and her brother Sonny, played by Ritesh Rajan, who really goes for it with his emotional performance. What made Ritesh the perfect Sunny and how was it directing him?
I met Ritesh about four years ago. We were brought together by Dante Basco. He was putting on a monthly Asian American panel. Ritesh and I were both on the panel to talk about our careers in entertainment. We hit it off and, right after that panel, we were talking and his friend AJ Rafael came by. AJ puts on live music shows. He discovered that both Ritesh and I had auditioned for the live-action Aladdin. [laughs] A few weeks later, AJ hit us up and asked if we were interested in singing "A Whole New World" for one of his live shows. I told him I didn't want to sing "A Whole New World" but wanted to switch up the lyrics. I rewrote the song so we could perform that duet.
We did that. The song was called "A Diverse Film" and it was about inclusion in Hollywood. It's up on YouTube. Tesh and I filmed the video. That was our first time really working together and we just had a great time. I knew working with him would be really easy and fun. I remembered working with him on that video and a couple of years later was writing Definition Please and had him in mind for the brother role. I wined and dined him at Rock Sugar and told him I wrote this script and had a role I wanted him to play. He went home and read the script and said, "Yes!"
I always knew he would be great at it, but the moment I knew was when we were having rehearsals in my apartment before going out to Greensburg to shoot the film. I invited him over to go through the script together -- nothing stressful, it was a very casual read-through. He's on the couch bawling, going into the character, and I'm telling myself, "Oh shit! I have to rise up to his level of acting! He's going to be bringing it every single scene!" He made me a better actor. It was just wonderful having him there. He really was the perfect Sunny. We were a low-budget film so we didn't have the time to do a ton of takes, and he would give me something different every single take when we were shooting. It was really fun directing him and Anna Khaja as Jaya.
In regards to Anna, I've seen her in shows like Quantico and The Good Place before but as more generalized South Asian moms -- not to knock those shows. This role is unlike those stereotypes.
That was something I was intuitively aware of as I was writing the script. I've seen so many roles and characters through my years in Hollywood, whether it's auditioning for being the daughter of these certain stereotypes in these projects... I kept seeing the same kind of character over and over. It was a strict Asian parent who was controlling and wanted their son or daughter to do a certain thing. It was very strange to keep reading the same role over and over. I took it upon myself to give, especially Jaya, the character of someone you'd know -- maybe it's not your mom but it's certainly one of our moms back home. I was obviously pulling from my mom but also a lot of the Indian aunties I grew up with. Honestly, all of them are cool! [laughs]
It was very strange for me to read these projects over and over with very stereotypical moms that I had never seen before. I took it upon myself to give this character a bit of fun and pizazz, something you've never seen before on-screen. That's definitely what attracted Anna to the role. The day after she read the script, she called me and went, "I've played a lot of moms in Hollywood. This was such a fun role that I've never gotten the chance to read before."
Again, it was a situation where we didn't have a lot of takes and time to shoot things. She just brought it. She has a lot of theater training and you can tell. When she's filming, she's all business. It's wonderful because you feel so taken care of. Especially as someone who is acting and directing at the same time, it's nice to have collaborators who are there in the trenches with you to make it the best product it can be.
Two questions about logistics: In casting Doctor Chiou, did the character breakdown read for someone with "callipygian assets?" And, in filming in your hometown, how was it getting location shooting permits?
For the casting of Doctor Chiou, I wrote that role for Tim [Chiou]. I thought about changing the last name but I am surrounded by so many talented actors in Hollywood that are, once again, playing these stereotypical roles. I wanted to really flip the stereotype and have these Asian men in roles that make them look hot because they are hot! That was done on purpose and it was the same with Jake Choi. I had met him at the same event as Anna Khaja, the East West Players gala before the pandemic. I was looking at other actors for the role of Richie and I met Jake and knew he was the one! In terms of Doctor Chiou, the breakdown did not say "callipygian." I was already aware of Tim Chiou being a very sexy, hot friend of mine so I was definitely excited to cast him in that particular role.
For the second part of your question, the community really got behind the filming of Definition Please in ways that I've never seen before shooting in L.A. or any town that gets a lot of filming. When me and my producer Cameron Fife and cinematographer Brooks Ludwick went out to Greensburg about a month before shooting to get the locations down and accommodations for everybody, we called the Pittsburgh Film Office and told them we had these particular locations we were going to be filming at and wanted to go about getting permits. They said we didn't need permits to shoot in Pennsylvania, we just needed permission from the owner of the establishment or people in the vicinity who you might disturb.
When we were shooting the nighttime scene where I'm making out with Jake Choi in the truck and Tesh comes out and interrupts our hook-up session, that's a very loud scene that we were shooting from 11 pm to 1 am on a weekday. Since we didn't have to get permits, I hand-wrote eight notes saying, "Hey, we're going to be shooting this scene at this time. Please call my producer if you have any questions." I taped them to my neighbors' doors. Cameron got two phone calls, one asking if they could be in the movie and the other just asking about the film. As we were shooting the scene, my neighbors came out, put down their lawn chairs in the yard, cracked open beers, and just watched us film the scene. I was like, "This is classic Greensburg!" [laughs]
As someone who grew up watching Reading Rainbow, how was it directing Levar Burton in the film on a facsimile of the Reading Rainbow set?
It's incredible. He's a legend. Meeting Levar came about serendipitously. I'm part of this Blerd brunch group -- Black and Brown nerds. We have brunch every Sunday and even during the pandemic we met over Zoom. Pre-pandemic, we were having brunch at a restaurant and Levar Burton walks by. One of my fellows Blerds, Yvette Nicole Brown, had worked with Levar and went and grabbed him to introduce him to all of us. He comes in, sits down, and tells us to take out our phones. We take out our phones and he's like, "Take down my phone number!" He became a part of the Blerd brunch group.
Two or three months later, I was casting for Definition Please and thought this role was perfect for him. [I] built up the nerve to text him to come in and do this cameo for my film. He said to go ahead and send him the sides so he could look at it. He said, "Yes," and came in to do the one day of greenscreen that we had. After he was done shooting his monologue, we had wrapped and we were sitting up there with our cast and crew. He said, "This was a really fun day! Does anyone want to get their picture with me?" Of course, everybody said, "Yes!" [laughs] I think it was really cool of him to be aware that people wanted a picture with him. He put it out there so it wouldn't be awkward.
We've been friends ever since. I worked with him on a YouTube series called This Is My Story where he narrates stories about everyday personal racism that happen to people. I really hope we work together on different things.
With Definition Please having run the festival circuit and now available to stream on Netflix, how has the response been from audiences? Has this reinvigorated you creatively moving forward?
The response has been unbelievable! I'm getting messages from people all over the world saying this is something happening to their family or friends, or that they relate to these characters and thanking me for representing them on-screen in a way that feels real and authentic. I'm also getting emails saying that this inspired someone to make their short film into a feature film or inspired someone to write a poem or short story, to get out there and create something. That's the main goal I want from the film, for people to watch it and just be inspired in their own lives to create something wonderful and artistic because I've been inspired by so many people in my life like Issa Rae, Matthew Cherry, and Justin Chon. I'm happy in being able to pass the inspirational torch to the next generation of creatives.
I don't see myself stopping. I wrote three scripts over the pandemic. I wrote my next feature film, which is getting ready to shoot in Pennsylvania where you don't need permits apparently. [laughs] I'm pitching a couple of TV shows that I'm excited about. [Definition Please] is definitely something that has lit a fire under me to keep doing what I'm doing.
Sujata Day's Definition Please is available to stream now on Netflix.