Among them isHala, from writer-director Minhal Baig.
That was something I wanted to document in the story.
The most significant relationship in the film is with her and her family, Baig realized.
Credit: Parrish Lewis/Sundance Institute
So that story which was more on the periphery came to the center.
This is a coming-of-age story first, and it happens to feature a Muslim-American, Pakistani-American teenager.
She really responded to it, Baig says.
It felt very personal to her.
I was really just reading scripts and seeing what I wanted to do.
It was like, I love this script, and I want to work with Minhal.
Watching [Viswanathan] I could always sense that [she was] a young person, wrestling things.
Ive played a lot of outgoing, very big characters, and I think she was just different.
After the premiere screening, however, I felt so completely naked, the actress admits.
Its kind of incredibly vulnerable.
There is this sense of isolation, and I think that is kind of relatable as a teenager.
The familiarity of that teenage experience was paramount to Baig.
The female perspective is important, and you need women to share those stories.
And once you do, youll recognize that those stories are special because of that perspective.
Halawill be released by Apple.
