If it wasn’t hard enough to juggle starring in and directing her debut feature film, Nina Conti gave herself an extra challenge – do it all in a giant monkey suit in the blistering heat of the New Mexico desert.
Best known for her ventriloquism work, she combines her usual hectic Fringe schedule this year with premiering dark comedy Sunlight at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
In it she goes further than just lending her arm and voice to Monkey and goes for full immersion, playing Jane, a woman who refuses to leave the costume as it’s her happy place away from a toxic relationship.
As Monkey, she ends up hitting the open road in a motorhome with suicidal radio show host Roy – played by Nina‘s co-writer and real-life partner Shenoah Allen – and hatching a risky plan to help finance their new life together.
“The monkey head came off between every take,” Nina laughs. “It was stuffy. I tore my rotator cuff getting in and out of that thing all the time, it was ridiculous.
“Maybe it’s something about the physical discomfort of the suit, you don’t sweat the small stuff. I’ve five minutes of oxygen for this take, so we’re going to do it right!”
‘We wrote it into life’
She met Shenoah during a 50-hour marathon improv show and the film is the culmination of five years’ work together.
“I had just got that monkey suit made,” she recalled. “We got thrown on stage together after about 40 hours of no sleep to do a bit and it was really funny.
“I really wanted to work with him. We started doing a little stand-up thing together, Monkey and Roy.
“They’d start going out in the world and had such good chemistry. Almost instantly I was like, do you wanna make a film? A love story between a man and a woman who doesn’t want to come out of the monkey suit? Because that’s us. This is actually kind of happening.
“We became partners, so we wrote it into life!”
© Steve BestShenoah is from New Mexico, where Sunlight is filmed, and Nina insisted she wanted to make an American-style film.
“It looks to me like a proper film,” she laughed. “You know what I mean, those big skies and everything. It breaks you out of reality and you think I’m watching a movie!
“I want that experience. I don’t want to feel like I’m watching a long version of a British sitcom or something.”
© Mason McDonaldSunlight takes inspiration from Nina’s long on-stage career as a ventriloquist, often alongside primate side-kick Monkey.
“I just recognised that character being a happy place for someone,” she explained. “A place of disassociation from present day fears and responsibilities and a place of sanctuary that’s also kind of funny and funky.
“I think it was a step further than I go with Monkey because I could get rid of Nina altogether. I did find it very uninhibiting and I did draw on it for sure.
“20 years of talking to a monkey led to that point. What if I do really like being Monkey so much more?”
Premiering in Edinburgh
Nina is delighted to have the film’s premiere as part of the relaunched Edinburgh International Film Festival.
“It feels the most organic and authentic place to premiere the film. It’s really the home city for my comedy and it’s where my whole comedy voice was grown. It’s the same for Shenoah.
“I don’t really care if I don’t make another film. I made it for its own sake, something I needed to do.
“I made it in a way where I didn’t have anyone to report to. We were allowed to improvise. If you’ve got studio people bringing their doubt or their spreadsheets with them it can spoil the vibe.”
© Cherrita ThaoA family festival
Nina’s parents, actors Tom Conti and Kara Wilson, loved the film (“They were kind of astonished and they enjoyed it – my mum cried,” she says) and this year’s trip to the festival will also be a family affair.
As well as the premiere and her ventriloquism show Whose Face Is It Anyway, Nina is helping out her mum’s Fringe debut aged 80 in a one-woman play about Beryl Cook.
“It’s a crazy one this year. I love Edinburgh, it’s very close to my heart. My grandparents lived there all through my childhood. It feels like a second home.
“Our house this year is mad. There’s my mum and Shenoah’s got a show too, so there’s the three of us and my two sons. I’m bringing my cat because everyone I know is in Edinburgh so there’s no-one to look after her.
“I’ve helped mum design some of the posters and the blurb and stuff like that. I told her not to use a clip mic, she should use a headset.
“I can’t believe I’m in the same venue as my mum, it’s very sweet. She paints an entire portrait in every show. To remember a script she’s written and do an oil painting every night at the same time isn’t bad. I can’t doodle and hold a conversation!”
Spinal Tap casting
Also in the pipeline for Nina is a role in the upcoming sequel to This Is Spinal Tap expected early next year.
It sees her team up again with Christopher Guest (a.k.a. the spoof band’s guitarist Nigel Tufnell), who was an executive producer on Sunlight.
“It’s probably all secret, I think. But I can say I’m in it,” Nina said. “It was very exciting because I had that film learned off by heart.
“Every line I can hear the next line, and I just love that band so much. That was cool.
“It’s scary because they’re so good at improvising. They’re not jostling for supremacy in scenes, they’re very generous performers and there’s plenty of space for everybody.”
Sunlight premieres at EIFF at The Cameo, August 17, 9.15pm. Nina Conti: Whose Face Is It Anyway? is at Pleasance Courtyard (Grand) throughout August.
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