x darby forever x

A while back I wrote that I got to work on something really cool that I couldn't talk about.
That cool thing was Darby Forever.

Darby Forever is a short film written by Aidy Bryant who plays the titular character, Darby. Aidy reached out to me via email over the summer, told me about her idea, asked if I was available/willing to play a part, and sent me the script. It was so hilarious and beautifully written, I felt like I could see the exactly what Aidy had in mind. Obviously, I was thrilled to be a part of it, and got to play Bad Girl 2 alongside my longtime best friend/former bandmate, Katy Goodman, and real-life badass, Natasha Lyonne. A few days before shooting, Aidy came over to my house and she, Katy, and I wrote a song for the movie called "I'm a Bitch."

You can watch Darby Forever on Vimeo here: Darby Forever.

Click through for some ~behind the scenes pix~.

Katy and I filmed our first scene in the fabric store, the fictitious Bobbins and Notions (really SAS Fabrics in Hawthorne, CA). There, we spent most of the morning and afternoon in a very sweaty break room with Natasha, Retta, Aidy, and crew. The shooting of Darby Forever took place during a particularly brutal heat wave in late July, days before Upset's west coast tour with LVL UP.

 makeup-check selfie

 down time = phone time

 Retta surfin' ASOS

 I had a lot of time to rummage through the countless knick-knacks

at SAS Fabrics

 Katy and I wore our own clothes. Natasha wore a 

Buried Diamond x Print All Over Me blouse with a cigarette motif.

Two days after the scene in the fabric store, we shot Darby's dream sequences. We shot the musical performance in a sweltering garage in Van Nuys, stepping outside between takes to breathe fresh air devoid of second hand herbal cigarette smoke.

 an obsession with Buried Diamond is born

Bad Girls getting into character

Once we were done shooting there (where Darby's dream duet with her tiny daughter was also filmed), we reconvened at a baseball field in Sherman Oaks to film the final dream sequence.

 hate smoking, love the aesthetic of cigarettes

 fearless Coach Dog

Retta photobombed me

Ali-Aidy-Katy

Once Katy and I wrapped, my band picked me up
and we got on the road to Seattle to start our tour with LVL UP.

Making Darby Forever was so fun, that I didn't even think of how fun it would be for everyone to actually see the finished product! And the Bad Girls got *Betty Turbo'd!

*phrase coined by my adorable, hilarious, original friend, Caroline Anderson

You can buy or rent Darby Forever on vimeo. It's cute as hell and totally worth it. Trust me.