IN Really good driverwhich debuted at the Oscar qualifiers HollyShorts Film Festivalan Asian American mother (Keiko Agena) teaches his adult child (Alex Song-Xia) how to drive, forcing them both to confront easy dangerous task at the same time as the tensions between them previously resurfaced. Song-Xia, who wrote, directed and stars in the short film, also has writing credits for television shows such as Rick and Morty, Exploding kittens and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Here, the filmmaker talks about his inspirations and the creation of his first short film.

DEADLINE: Can you tell us a little about your filmmaking journey? What inspired you to get into this field? I know you have a background in comedy.

ALEX SONG-XIA: This is my first short film as a director. But as an actor/writer I came up through comedy in New York. It wasn’t what my parents wanted to happen, but I was always drawn to acting as a kid, but I never really got the chance to pursue it until I moved to New York to study. With the freedom of living in New York, I started going to UCB, the Upright Citizens Brigade and doing weekly shows, signing up for improv classes and finding any day job that would help pay for it. I then started working as a comedy writer and got acting jobs, but mostly I worked for other people. This was the first time I directed something that I wrote.

DEADLINE: The premise of the short is pretty simple on the surface. It’s about a driving lesson, but then it actually evolves into this confrontation about acceptance in having already come out of the closet. Plus, as if there wasn’t enough therapy for this character already, you’ve added a conversation about toxic relationships and learning self-worth on top of that. Can you talk about how you came up with this idea for the short film and how the themes evolved throughout?

SONG-XIA: I’ve taken to joking at film festivals that this short is completely made up and non-autobiographical, but apparently it’s quite autobiographical. It’s based on my mom teaching me to drive as an adult after forgetting that the reason I never learned as a teenager was because I came out, and she kind of freaked out and wouldn’t let me learn to drive. And for years I joked that she also forgot that I came out and I had to come out to her again at 26. But working on this movie and with the other actor, Keiko Agena, she asked me questions about the mother character. And I realized that my own mother didn’t forget so much when I learned to lie to her and date men and try to be who she wanted me to be. Then I was also very drawn to the idea of ​​not telling an upcoming story but kind of what happens after that, especially coming from a family that doesn’t really like to talk about things.

DEADLINE: I thought about that too when I was watching. How interesting is that it’s not a regular come-out scene: your character had already come out before the movie started. Do you think we need more stories focused more on the aftermath? Where do you land on queer storytelling these days?

SONG-XIA: I feel the same way I do with other underrepresented stories that we see where it is, I don’t think we’re on the quota for coming out stories or any stories, but I think maybe there’s a cultural understanding of that Now. a little more. And it’s interesting to see the step past that and that the base reality is already that this has happened and just watch the characters live their lives after that.

DEADLINE: What’s something you’ve learned about yourself writing for fictional TV shows and late-night shows and now making your own short film?

SONG-XIA: It has been interesting to be the one making all the decisions. I am very happy to come up with as many jokes as many choices for someone else. But it’s been interesting (while working on the short film) when everyone has to look at you and say, “OK, which one is it?” And I’ve slowly come to realize that I had an opinion all along, and I do have an opinion, but I’d just spent so much time saying, “Well, what everybody else wants.” And there’s a time and place to serve someone else’s vision but also to just be able to get closer to hearing that voice that I didn’t know I had in my head of, “Oh, this is what I’m drawn to,” or “That here is what I see for (the vision).”

DEADLINE: What kind of media are you currently consuming?

SONG-XIA: I just watched the TV show The End of the F***ing World on Netflix for the first time. I loved it. I loved the dark humor and even the little supporting characters who would have rich lives that added to the humor and depth of the scene, even if it wasn’t about them. I have also watched the last season of Hacks. I also saw this documentary called Lift about this ballet program that provides scholarships to children in residences. I really liked that.

DEADLINE: In what ways do you think you relate or don’t relate to your character? It sounds like, from what you’ve already said, you relate pretty well to your character?

SONG-XIA: It was cool for me to be able to write a fuller character for the mother through the rehearsal process with Keiko. And so much of that is brought forward by her performance as well. And I think it really helped me understand the perspective from both sides a little better than just my own version of the story. In terms of relating, I think both characters are slightly braver versions of whoever the real life versions of these characters are.

DEADLINE: What do you want audiences to think about after watching Really Good Driver?

SONG-XIA: That as much as there are queer stories that kind of focus on the pain of (the experience), I like to be able to end on a little bit of a hopeful note that even though not everything was fixed or resolved that day, that the two characters are on a hopeful path .

DEADLINE: What’s the next step for you?

SONG-XIA: I’m on the current season of Dimension 20: Never stop inflating on Dropout TV and I’m currently working on writing a feature.

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity)