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mmy-winning director, writer and producer Stephanie Laing's latest project is the upcoming feature film Tow, which she both directed and produced under her newly-launched Cake or Death Pictures. Starring an all-star cast that includes Emmy- and Golden Globe- nominee Rose Byrne, Dominic Sessa, Demi Lovato and Oscar winners Octavia Spencer and Ariana DeBose, Tow is the harrowing and inspirational true story of Amanda Ogle (Byrne), an unhoused Seattle woman who fought her way out of tow-company hell to reclaim her life and the car she's been living in (a bat- tered 1991 Toyota Camry) after receiving a tow bill for $21,634. The film, which had its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, marks the latest addition to Laing's long and diverse list of credits, which include Veep; Apple TV+'s Emmy-nominated series Palm Royale; Physical, starring Rose Byrne; Mammals; Your Friends and Neighbors; the feature film Family Squares, starring Henry Winkler and June Squibb; and the Netflix film Irreplaceable You, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Kate McKinnon and Christopher Walken Here, in an exclusive interview with Post, Laing talks about making the film and her love of post. What was the appeal of this very timely story, and what sort of film did you set out to make? "When I read it, I fell in love with her story and her tenacity, and I just was so blown away by the fact that no one was kind to her at all. And then I met and talked to the real Amanda very soon after I read the script, and she actually said to me that if someone had said they were sorry, she probably would have given up. Obviously, the stakes for Amanda were very high. But I think that we're living in such a bro- ken world in so many ways that it's about fighting a broken system and the tenacity you need to just take it on." You got an amazing cast and reunited with Rose Byrne. What did she bring to the role? "I worked with her on Physical for three seasons, and I was on the phone with the writer as she walked by me, and I just said, 'I think it has to be Rose.' I just knew she would disappear into the role, and she does. You really don't see Rose, and she's just fearless, not afraid to do anything, and has mastered that micro expression like no one else I've ever seen." How did you prep for this? Your long career in TV must have helped? "Yes, especially as I produced before I even directed, so I knew as it's an indie movie, we're not going to have a ton of money. We wanted to shoot in Jersey, doubling for Seattle, and we scouted and found this great location for the shelter in Cranford, NJ, and then all the rest of the key locations we needed within two blocks of that shelter. It was our 'mini hub' and the town really welcomed us, and we stayed there for 11 of the 19-day shoot, and then we went on-location, and that's the physical part of prepping and shooting. And then for the performance part of prep, I worked really closely with Covenant House. We visited a lot of shel- ters, and we interviewed a lot of people, including the real lawyer who helped Rose with her court case, played by Dominic." What were the biggest technical challenges of pulling all this together? "We had a great-but-tiny crew of about 30, so I worked closely with the DP, Vanja Cernjul, as we just didn't have the time or the crew for even putting a camera on a dolly if it wasn't necessary. We didn't want to shoot anamorphic. We just want- ed it to feel like an older '90s movie in a way, and then to also challenge ourselves not to move the camera much unless Rose was moving, or we were moving for a good reason. So, it was all extremely motivated in terms of camera moves, ex- cept for maybe a few places, and it was all very specific." Talk about working with the DP and getting the look you wanted for this story. "We wanted it to feel real — not glossy — but not depressing either. And in terms of the color palette, we did a lot of plan- ning, like at the end of the movie, when we reveal the real Amanda. I think there's this stigma against unhoused people that they don't care about how they look, and she does, and everyone does to a degree. And we really embraced that pink color palette for Rose. And then we also tried to (define) the other characters, played by Demi, Octavia and Ariana, by their colors, which were built into the ward- robe and into the design by our costume designer and production designer." It must have been quite a difficult shoot, given you did not have a lot of time to cover a lot of locations and night shoots? "Yes, and we even went to Seattle with a small crew of just ten for 24 hours, and we used every shot we did in Seattle in this movie. New Jersey did surprisingly well doubling for Seattle, but having the scope and adding real shots of Seattle meant everything, as it took place there and we definitely wanted to make a statement about that. In the end we had over 25 locations, and we used scenes from every location. There's only one scene that we cut from the movie. That's how specific and precise we were in terms of only shooting what we knew would further the story." Let's talk about post. Where did you do it? "I love post and we did it at Goldcrest in New York, and they did all our sound. Our supervising sound editor and mixer was Ryan Price, who coincidentally had mixed Palm Royale that I had done earli- er in the year, as well as The Better Sister, which I also directed. He was incredible, because the sound design is so import- ant in this. We're counting the days that she's without her car, and the sound of STEPHANIE LAING — TOW OVERCOMING A CHALLENGING SHOOT TO TELL A STORY ABOUT TENACITY E DIRECTOR'S CHAIR www.postmagazine.com 10 POST JULY/AUG 2025 BY IAIN BLAIR Stephanie Laing