Contrary to popular belief, the seaweed isn’t always greener in somebody else’s lake. In the case of Ali Cook’s Oscar-shortlisted short film The Pearl Comb, the county of Cornwall is flourishing in the midst of sickness at a dark cost. Set in 1893, the tale follows a fisherman’s wife (Beatie Edney) who has discovered a cure for tuberculosis, much to the skeptical chagrin of the local doctor (Ali Cook). When the doctor decides to take a visit to investigate the woman’s mysterious medicinal skills, mostly to reinforce the belief that a woman’s place in society is to be a homemaker rather than highly skilled, he gets more than he bargained for when he learns the source of her power might involve a siren (Clara Paget).
In addition to landing the shortlist, the 21-minute short film has taken home awards for Best Short Film at the Cleveland International Film Festival, Best After Dark Short at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival and the Horror Audience Choice Award from the Indy Shorts International Film Festival.
Here, Cook speaks to Deadline about the fun, creative challenges of bringing his unique directorial debut to life and the importance of showcasing women in STEM.
Dunninger Films
DEADLINE: There aren’t a lot of recent tales dealing with the more vicious, traditional lore of mermaids. Where did the idea of The Pearl Comb come from?
ALI COOK: A couple of things spring to mind. I was on holiday in Cornwall with my two young daughters. We went on this storyteller’s trip and ran into this guy, a storyteller who collects old folklore, and one of the stories was about sirens in Cornwall. As I listened, I thought it could be a good tale. Disney princess aside, the real siren stories are absolutely terrifying. They’re vicious killers. So, I ended up adding a vampiric quality to [my siren] as well. The second thing is that I happened to hear about the true story of the Edinburgh Seven, the first seven female doctors to qualify in the U.K., who came out of the University of Edinburgh, and they weren’t allowed to practice. So, I combined that very real, tragic drama with the mermaid legends.
DEADLINE: With your background as a magician and comedian, stepping into this directorial debut, how did you work through that?
COOK: As a live performer, you’re used to editing in the moment. For example, when you’re doing a one-man standup show, like at the Edinburgh Festival, if the routine you’ve come up with about your mom is not going down very well, you can take three minutes and chop it to half a minute and get onto the next topic. That’s why you’ll hear about Chris Rock doing 50 warm-up shows: he’s using the audience to guide the show. The thing I found terrifying when editing [the film] was trying to predict what the audience is thinking and how to manage their expectations, tension, and surprise. I did loads of rough cuts and asked [anyone I could find] to watch it and then asked for real feedback. Also, as a live performer, you’re so used to controlling everything. Then, suddenly, on a film, you have whole departments doing individual tasks. But that’s the beauty of film, isn’t it? The fact that you get to work with so many brilliant people.
DEADLINE: Beatrice Edney does such a great job playing this unassuming lady who has this dark secret. What was the collaboration between the two of you like?
COOK: My associate producer, Amy [Lockley], who worked with me on a lot of the logistics and script, her mom was a massive fan of Beatie. She used to be on a BBC One series called Poldark, a period drama set in Cornwall, where everyone has a Cornish accent. So, we knew she would be a great fit in this world. We met with her and made a direct offer, and she was spell-bindingly brilliant. It wasn’t until afterward that I found out her mother was the great actress Sylvia Syms, so she comes from a proper showbiz family. I just thought that Beatie was brilliant simply from watching clips of her on YouTube – and that was most of our casting process [laugh].
DEADLINE: What was the collaboration with Clara Paget like? Especially considering she had a lot of water work to do as the mermaid.
COOK: Those water scenes were an absolute nightmare – mostly because I’ve never directed a film before. In my naivety, when I was creating this project, I was like, “This is going to be simple. I’ve got a mermaid, she sits on a rock, she flies out of the water.” And then suddenly you get a budget back, and you’re like, “Oops” [laughs]. We filmed in November in the middle of Cornwall, and it was absolutely cold. Clara, though, is very athletic, as she’s also a model. We spent quite a bit of time getting really good waterproof thermals that she would wear, and then on top of that, she’d wear a green screen tail cut into the shape of the mermaid’s tale.
Dunninger Films
DEADLINE: Talk more about the design of the tail. Did you pull inspiration from another film like The Shape of Water or something?
COOK: During my time as a magician, I learned not [copy others]. I try not to take from other films, or I deliberately try to force myself to think, what would my version of a mermaid look like? I wanted the mermaid to look like she was in a documentary of real mermaids, so she’s quite cold and blue. For example, if you look at her lips, they’re slightly blue, so we know that her dwellings are cold. I also wanted her body to look like a rainbow trout, silver and slightly iridescent, making her look as much like a fish as I could realistically make her. We had a design artist who hand-drew every single scale, and we copied that green, silvery-blue in the grade so that when you see the film, you see her within it, and she doesn’t stand out but rather blends in with the atmosphere.
DEADLINE: What about the shape of the comb?
COOK: I had a brilliant production designer named Izzy [Isabel Pirillo], who only came on two weeks before we started filming. She was incredible. I designed a tragically bad pearl comb. But the idea that remained was that the comb should look spindly and sharp. So, she went to an antique shop and bought an old Victorian comb. It kind of looks like a man within a starfish.
DEADLINE: What would you like people to consider when watching this film?
COOK: It’s a fantasy film, but at its heart, there’s a very real drama about a woman feeling overlooked, and I think we tried to balance the two together.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]
