Posted in: Movies, Paramount Pictures | Tagged: carlson young, Republic Pictures, trust, twisted pictures

Trust Director Carlson Young on Finding Balance in Survival Thriller

Director Carlson Young (The Blazing World) spoke to Bleeding Cool about her latest survival thriller in Trust, Sophie Turner & more.

Carlson Young is always looking to dive into creative opportunities in front of and behind the camera. Since making her debut in the Disney Channel series As the Bell Rings in 2007, the actress has worked on some of the biggest TV franchises, including NBC's Heroes, Freeform's Pretty Little Liars, HBO's True Blood, CBS's CSI, Comedy Central's Key and Peele, and MTV's Scream: The Series. In recent years, she's hopped into the director's chair, acting and directing Vertical's The Blazing World (2021), which she also wrote, and acting and directing in the Prime Video rom-com Upgraded. Her latest project is a survival thriller, Trust, with the script by Gigi Levangie (Stepmom). The film follows a Hollywood starlet (Sophie Turner) who retreats to a remote cabin to escape the backlash of a scandal she finds herself in—but she's not alone. Betrayed by the man she trusted most, she's trapped in a brutal game of survival. She can hide, but she can't run. Young spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with the Game of Thrones star, how The Blazing World became the learning experience she needed to helm Trust, if she considered starring herself, her unique perspective as an actor-director, and the cast.

Trust Director Carlson Young on Navigating Turner's Perilous Journey as Lauren Lane

What intrigued you about 'Trust' and what would appeal to you about Gigi's script?

I connected to Sophie's character deeply, and the challenge of a contained survival thriller inspired me. I thought there was a lot to navigate, and I had just done a rom-com, and I was up for the challenge, frankly.

What did your prior experience with directing 'The Blazing World' help guide you in your time in that horror thriller space, and how did that help you with 'Trust?'

I keep saying this, but it's so true. 'The Blazing World' felt thematically and spiritually like a dress rehearsal for 'Trust' in this amazing way. Each movie that you do, you get to bring your toolbox of things you learned, and I feel like I was able to paint with a lot of colors I was previously working with. It was creatively fulfilling to bridge the two.

Was it something ever in the cards that you potentially might have also starred in, or was it something that Sophie was always attached to? What made her perfect to play Lauren?

When I came onto the project, we were looking for Lauren. When I met Sophie, it was just like one of those moments where we connected immediately, and the whole movie unfolded in our heads from there. It was such an obvious and deeply exciting idea to work with her in the first place. When we started talking about the script and the character, it was obvious that she was our Lauren. I can't say enough good things about Sophie. She's a tremendous actor.

Do you like wearing multiple hats on a project, and what challenges does this present to you on the occasions when you direct and star in projects?

I do like wearing a lot of hats; I feel like I can communicate between the sides of things, and I enjoy it. I've been on the other side of the camera, and now I'm over here. I have an immense amount of respect for every part of the process, and that helps me to communicate via respect.

As an actor who's also a director, do you feel it offers that unique perspective that traditional directors wouldn't have?

Yeah, I'm sure that it does. I feel like acting was like my education, so I understand. I try to set the parameters as best I can based on some sense, what I would have been looking for to feel creatively safe and to do my best work, so I try and provide that.

Can you talk about some of the rest of the cast, like Billy (Campbell), Peter (Mensah), and Katey (Sagal), about how they fit and working with them?

There was like an element of like, "It's heavy material, but how do you find the levity in the comedy, and Katey Sagal's character (Loretta), for instance, is this breath of new energy and fresh air in the third act where we incredibly need it. We needed it, and so there were a lot of pieces of the puzzle that came together, where the actors were so generous with their performances. They brought this great tapestry to the script and the roles. I "trusted" them a lot, and pun intended. They were amazing.

What was your biggest challenge while doing 'Trust? Was it the particular scene or the aspect of production that was difficult?

The whole movie was challenging because there was this spirit of "necessity is the mother of invention." There wasn't a huge budget, and we had to get creative. How do you make everything work within these constraints and confines? I actually got locked personally in a bathroom just last week, like a broken record telling the story, but it's possible it can happen.

Paramount Pictures, Twisted Pictures, and Republic Pictures' Trust, which also stars Rhys Coiro, Forrest Goodluck, Gianni Paolo, and Renata Vaca, is available in theaters.

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