Sometimes a person’s well-intentioned romantic getaway with their partner to shift their focus away from their demanding work can ultimately lead to the surprising key to their success. That’s certainly the case for Joe Thomas’ character in the new sci-fi dramedy, ‘Universal.’

The film was written and directed by Stephen Portland. Besides Thomas, the movie also stars Rosa Robson and Kelley Mack, the latter of whom also served as a producer.

‘Universal’ follows Leo (Thomas), an academic who goes on a romantic getaway with his partner to a remote log cabin in an attempt to shift his focus away from his stressful DNA research. However, their vacation is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious woman who tracked them down. She seems to be the key to his research, as she’s seeking their help with what could be the biggest discovery in history.

‘Universal’ had its World Premiere on June 21 at the TCL Chinese Theater during Dances With Films: LA. In honor of the dramedy’s premiere, Portland and Mack generously took the time to talk about penning, helming, starring in and producing the feature during an exclusive interview over Zoom.

Film Factual (FF): Stephen, you wrote the script for the new sci-fi dramedy, ‘Universal.’ What inspired you to pen the screenplay for the film?

Stephen Portland (SP): The movie came together pretty quickly, actually. I think it was the start of last year, and I just felt the urge to make something with a micro-budget.

So when you’re talking about micro-budget, you can move pretty quickly, as long as you’re working within the constraints of not having any money. When you don’t have that many moving parts, you can piece it together pretty quickly.

So I came up with the story by combining a few other ideas that I had that were not micro-budget. I retooled them to be very small and contained. I set it in one location with just three actors.

It’s kind of hard to retrace what the thought process was on how the actual story came about. But I wanted to do something I’ve been feeling for a long time. There’s this anti-intellectualism going on, and I wanted to push back a little bit against that.

I didn’t necessarily know how to frame it. So I started to think about the way that I handle comedy and the drama. Then it sort of clicked for me that it could be a more comedic story, but still retain the dramatic, serious side to it.

So once that clicked, I pretty quickly thought, well, let’s just make it. I didn’t want to muck about doing rewrite after rewrite and polishing it, because it’s not that kind of film, it’s more of a film that I wanted to make quickly.

So after I decided that, I think the first person I cast was Joe. While that was going on, I did a casting call, and that’s how I found Kelley. Kelley, do you want to jump in about that side of things?

Kelley Mack (KM): Yes, it was just a normal audition process for me. I actually submitted myself on this. I have representation, but they only submit on certain projects. Since this was an independent, micro-budget film, like Stephen said, I submitted myself. I thought it looked extremely interesting.

Then, of course, I was proven right when I saw the character breakdown. I told Stephen this – he wrote this super long breakdown, which is not normal. It was amazing, though. I could tell there was such a passion for this character, and for the story. I was like, “Ricky’s so complex.”

Then I did the audition, and I remember being like, “I have to memorize this. It’s a super long monologue, and it’s an important part of the film. This is so much effort going into an audition, but I feel very passionate about it.” Then he liked it, I guess. (Mack laughs.)

SP: I did, yes.

FF: Kelley, after you were cast in the movie, how did you connect with the character and the overall story?

KM: Well, Stephen was great about hearing feedback regarding the dialogue. The story in general is very complex and scientifically in depth, so I did a lot of research on DNA. I didn’t think that was ever going to happen in my life! (Mack laughs.)

I was on Wikipedia a lot, and just tried to take tons of notes. I really tried to understand what Ricky is saying because she’s such a dedicated codebreaker. She’s brilliant and knows all these things. So I felt like I needed to know them at least a little bit so that I could talk and say the dialogue convincingly. So it was definitely the biggest challenge I’ve ever had as an actor, in terms of the dialogue itself.

But it was so exciting to learn about all these things, and be like, “Oh, I don’t know if this is necessarily correct.” So Stephen would allow me to change a few things.

I actually dug up my script. (Mack holds her script up to the screen.) I took so many notes on it about all this DNA stuff, so my script is totally marked up. It was just so much fun to do that.

SP: Honestly, she wrote more notes on the script pages than there were words typed on it. It was incredible. (Mack laughs.) I’ve never seen anything like it. The amount of preparation and thought that she put into it was mind-blowing; she put in more effort than I put in. (Mack laughs.)

But that was really good. Of the three characters that are in the film, Ricky’s the one that I wanted to nail down the most in terms of getting it right.

That was so good with Kelley, as we had quite a bit of back and forth before the production. We crafted the character a little bit. Kelley had ideas, and then I had some more ideas. So I’m really happy the way the character came out.

Before I saw Kelley’s audition, I didn’t really know what Ricky looked or sounded like. But then I saw her self-tape, and I was like, “That’s it, there she is.” (Mack laughs.)

That process was amazing. Finding Kelley for the role is what I think makes this movie. She’s such an important part of the story and of the finished film.

FF: ‘Universal’ only features two other characters besides Ricky, who are played by Joe Thomas and Rosa Robson. How did you all work together to build the characters’ relationships?

SP: There wasn’t a huge amount of preparation between all of us, really, because Joe and Rosa were in the UK and Kelley was over here in the U.S. So we had to work out the scheduling.

We did do one read-through on Zoom. I just let them read through the whole script. I recorded it through Zoom at the time and then watched it back.

I then just made a page of notes for each of them, in terms of general direction. I don’t give a lot of direction overall, because on a micro-budget film like this one, you’re busy doing other stuff. So, I wanted to pre-load that side of things. But we didn’t have a lot of time for rehearsals.

KM: Well, Joe, Rosa and I stayed in an Airbnb together while we were filming. Since there was so much dialogue for them, we just read through the script before we went to set, to try to get it memorized.

FF: The film combines dramatic sci-fi elements with comedy. How did you blend the comedy with the more serious elements of the story during the production?

KM: Well, working with Joe, who is hilarious, brought a different tone to it, which was helpful for me. Comedy kind of freaks me out sometimes. I knew this was not like, “Oh, we have to get laughs every other page.”

But it was definitely an interesting tone. I was just trying to play it as grounded as possible. Then the comedy usually comes from the situational elements, which Stephen wrote quite well. There are some very funny moments in it that were hard to keep from laughing at on set. Then Joe would improvise and have us cracking up again.

So it was fun to blend everything together. But I felt like it was really just based around being really attached to our characters and going after what we wanted, and then the comedy came from that.

FF: Stephen, besides scribing the script, you also directed ‘Universal,’ What was your approach to helming the dramedy?

SP: I’m not a very experienced director, and I don’t consider myself a very good director. I just basically try to cobble everything together.

KM: He’s very self-deprecating.

SP: Well, there only nine of us present on set, including the three cast members and six crew members. So there are roles that traditionally would be handled by certain crew members, but they weren’t present on the set.

But that doesn’t mean that that function didn’t happen. If it doesn’t happen, it just means that you have to just do it yourself. Otherwise, you just don’t get the film.

So many times, my attention was all over the place. So that’s why I was very lucky to have a cast that could just turn up and do it. The actors were rehearsing and nailing it down the evening before they turned up on set every day.

So, I didn’t feel like I had to do a lot of directing. They just kind of brought their characters, and we just pointed the cameras at them.

I felt like when we turned up and started filming, and there was so few of us on set, a lot of people were looking at each other going, “This isn’t going to work. He’s not going to be able to get a film out of this.”

I was kind of like, “Well, we’ll figure it out, don’t worry, We’ll get something.”

I remember saying to the crew, “We’re not going for perfection at all here. We want to get good enough, but the reality of it is there’s going to be polish missing. We’re going to have to just get a take or two.”

Once you can live with that, then it’s not so bad. You get what you get, and that’s great. From that point of view, I think it turned out incredibly well.

FF: The movie is set in a remote log cabin. How did you decide where you would shoot the film? How did having the one location influence the way you made the movie?

SP: Well, the cabin was known to me, so that was kind of the starting point for the idea for the story. So the location was kind of there before anything else was there for the film.

Then we had three Airbnbs during the shoot. One of them was where we were filming. Then we had two others – one for some of the crew, and one for the cast. So there were three people in each cabin.

I was staying in the one we were shooting the movie. So my time was spent just tidying up after each day, as there was just stuff everywhere.

We weren’t really supposed to be filming in the cabin where we were shooting. We had the permission of the property, but not the Housing Association.

So we couldn’t really have trucks and vehicles parked outside. So all the gear needed to be inside where we were shooting, which made it very challenging

We had all the cases and the lights in the cabin. So when we wanted to turn the camera the other way, all that stuff needs to movie.

So it was a nightmare dealing with that. But I’m happy to say everyone was okay with that, and we just got on with it.

It sounds like life in the actor’s cabin was really nice. Do you want to talk a little bit about that, Kelley?

KM: Yes, it was totally fun. I loved filming up there, because that little town in the mountains was just so peaceful.

At one point, I think it was Joe who said, “I could see myself buying a cabin here. I see why people would come out here to get out of L.A.

It was just so nice. We’d wake up, and one of us would make the coffee. Then we’d walk up the street to set, get some fresh Pine Mountain air, and then film.

How many days did we film, Stephen? Was it eight?

SP: I think it was eight days of filming. We had a ninth day planned, on which we were going to do some pickups. But we couldn’t really use that because Rosa had to leave. But I think the rest of us were there, and we just did some little some extra bits.

KM: Right. So we bad eight days, which is, like, nothing for a feature. I was very intimidated by that. But in a sense, if we were in the cabin for longer than that and filming for two or three weeks, we probably would have become stir crazy in the same location.

So it was cool that we got went in and got it done so quickly. We did one or maybe two takes of a lot of scenes, so I was like, wow, did that actually happen? Did we just film a movie? But it was very fun and interesting. We became a very tight little knit family there for a week and a half. (Mack laughs.)

FF: Kelley, you also served as a producer on ‘Universal.’ How did you balance your producing and acting duties during the shoot?

KM: Well, I didn’t contribute as much as a typical producer would. But I felt very passionate about the script, and I feel like I contributed a little bit to my character’s dialogue.

I’ve also produced three short films. I’m also in development on three to five features that my mom has actually written with me. We’ve co-written several features together, and I want to produce a feature next. So my interest in producing is just is there. I also enjoy helping with post-production of projects, so I’ve been helping on that end, as well.

I’m just getting into it because I studied film production in college. I knew that that passion for the entire project was always there. How a project gets made is way more than just the acting, so I like to have a little bit of say in the entire production.

FF: ‘Universal’ (had) its World Premiere at Dances With Films: LA. What does it mean to you both that the movie (premiered) at the festival? What was your experience like at the festival?

SP: Well, I know Kelley’s been to Dances With Films before, as she had a film there last year. So she probably (had) a better idea of what to expect.

KM: Yes, I kind of know the layout of the festivals. I’ve been to the festival a couple of times before, just as an audience member, having lived in LA for 10 years. Then I had a film premiere there last year called ‘Delicate Arch,’ so I (knew) how it goes.

I love the venue – it’s very fun and huge. So there are a lot of people who attend the festival every year. It’s also very exciting, but I (didn’t) know if Stephen would like or not. (Mack laughs.)

SP: I just (imagined) empty seats. But I (attended) a couple of the mixes they held, and they were fun. I met up with Alyssa (Mcginley), who worked on the hair and makeup on our film. I don’t want to minimize her contributions; she did the hair and makeup, and she also just filled in everywhere else.

KM: Yes, she was like a pro PA (production assistant) on set.

SP: If we hadn’t had her keeping a list, I don’t know how we would manage because it kept things together. So I definitely want to give her a shout out.

So I met up with them, and we went to one of the Dances With Films meet-ups. After that, I (was) really looking forward to the festival. It (seemed) like such a fun, involved festival with the filmmakers at the center of it, having a good time as they met each other.

KM: Yes, it (was) a good time. I also reconnected with someone from college who’s also a producer during last year’s Dances with Films, just out of the blue. It (was) really cool to premiere the movie the festival because a lot of people know about, and attend, it.