Rational Creatures; A Persuasive Argument for More Diverse Modern Adaptations | Featured Filmmakers Series
"Too good, too excellent creature!" - Jane Austen, Persuasion
Rational Creatures is a modern retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion with a bisexual Latina lead and a whole cast of inclusive characters created by a team of talented women; Ayelen Barrios, Hazel Jeffs, Jessamyn Leigh, and Anya Steiner. The successful web series is launching its second season and so I spoke with the Writer/Directors about the process of taking a classic and redefining it for a modern audience.
For Jessamyn being drawn to creative pursuits like crafts, theatre, and more from a young age led to a natural gravitational pull towards filmmaking, especially once she found a community of people creating their own work in the form of web series. Hazel always loved writing but found the collaborative nature of filmmaking a welcome shift from writing alone. And Ayelen always wanted to tell stories. A niche little corner of the internet soon brought these women together and they found themselves collaborating on what would become Rational Creatures. “I like to say we met through the magic of the internet!” Jessamyn said, “We were all involved as both fans and creators in the fairly small community of people making indie web series based on classic literature.” Hazel added, “Over the last few years, we've had a few projects together where one of us acts as the showrunner and the others helped out remotely as writers or editors or sorting through casting. Since we came up with the idea of Rational Creatures together, it felt right that we should all be equal co-showrunners this time. Even when time zones can make that a bit tricky! The last stretch of shooting season 2 was the first time we all met in person after about 6 years of video calls.”
Jane Austen has become synonymous with the word classic with multiple interpretations of her works being created over the many years since the books were first published. For Hazel, many of Persuasion’s themes and characters still ring true today prompting the idea for a modern retelling. “The way [Austen] captured characters and relationships still feels deeply relatable, and it feels like her plots have inspired so much that we see in romance and family stories today.” she said, “As a group of millennials in their mid-late 20s, I think we were also in a place to relate to Anne in particular. She starts the book as someone who knows she's outgrown her situation but can't find a way out of it. She has all these people around her hitting the traditional milestones but can't see a path to them herself that feels right, so she's stuck in this strange limbo of being both too old for this shit and still stuck with her family with even less social capital than she had as a teenager.” But adapting a classic for the modern age is about more than just changing the costumes and sets. I asked Director Anya Steiner what sort of things went into consideration when it came to reimagining the story as a web series. “We approached the adaptation process by trying to make a show that captured the soul of the book while also reflecting our own lives and experiences. We put a lot of ourselves into these characters and the plot lines, hoping that other modern Austen fans can also see themselves in the adaptation choices we’ve made,” she explained. “For example, in our version, Ana isn’t persuaded by a Lady Russell figure to break off her engagement. Rather, she feels pressured by her family, herself, and society to not go to college with a long-distance high school boyfriend. We’re eager to see the reaction to how we have adapted the Louisa in Lyme situation, which will be a storyline in this upcoming season.”
One of the biggest changes from the original source material is the inclusion of a more diverse cast. Arguably one of the best ways to bring the story into the modern age is to have a cast that reflects the world in which the story is now being told. Anya agrees stating, “Contrary to what Hollywood will have us believe, the default shouldn’t just be white, cis, heterosexual, etc. Many people out there don’t get the feeling of being seen in media, and it’s a great feeling, which is why we’ve incorporated aspects of our own lives that we were hoping to see reflected in fiction.” Aware that their story is only a small piece in the puzzle toward a more inclusive screen industry Rational Creatures is an important adaptation nevertheless. “No single story can reflect everyone, which is why we believe it’s important for more stories to be told across the board,” said Anya.
The show has already had a successful first season prompting the production team to collaborate once more on season 2. However, the series was affected by the covid pandemic splitting up the cast and crew and extending the production time by nearly two years. “We already were working with a tight budget, but when covid hit not only did we have to start from scratch again but things became nearly impossible.” Ayelen said, “We had planned to make this thing together and as a team and not being a part of two of our filming sessions was the best decision to make the project, but the one that definitely broke my heart. Seeing my friends make this thing we worked on together from afar and not being able to participate was super hard.” In the end, the team was able to reunite to see the project finalized. “I still find it amazing that covid made the production 2 years longer than we intended and we only lost one cast member, despite people changing situations and even moving to different states,” Hazel added. “We're so grateful that our cast stayed so committed and passionate and made it work.”