In her feature-length directorial debut, SCRAP, Vivian Kerr delivers a poignant story of humanity and understanding.
In this independent film, Kerr stars as Beth, a single mother and PR executive who suddenly finds herself homeless and living out of her car after an unexpected layoff. Out of fear of disappointing her older brother Ben (Anthony Rapp), Beth struggles to maintain an intricate facade of stability. Meanwhile, Ben and his wife Stacy (Lana Parrilla) grapple with the emotional toll of a painful IVF journey yearning for the opportunity to become a parent, a role that Beth struggles to embrace. As Beth’s fragile facade starts to crack and Ben and Stacy receive devastating news, they are all forced to face their own realities and decide how to move forward. Honest and deeply emotional, SCRAP is a story for anyone who feels alone in whatever life has thrown at them.
ECHO had the pleasure of sitting down with Kerr and Rapp to chat about the evolution of the script from short to feature film, their personal connections to the story, and what they hope audiences take away from this powerful production.
ECHO:
I watched the film last night and I absolutely loved it. Vivian, I’d love to know, who or what inspired the film SCRAP.
Vivian:
Well, first of all, thank you so much. So many things [inspired the film]. I think I’ve always loved movies about brothers and sisters, like You Can Count On Me and The Savages, and The Skeleton Twins of Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig is another great one. And yeah, so I always kind of wanted to do a film like that, but never really had a framework for it or a specific story in mind.
I have lived in LA basically my entire adult life and my neighborhood in Hollywood had changed a lot. There were a lot more people sleeping on the sidewalk or sleeping in their cars. And there were people who were sleeping in their cars or RVs and then going to work and coming back. And some of them had children with them. It was just really hard to see. So then I kind of thought: how does that even start? What would it take? What would have to go wrong in my life for that to be me? And then I realized we hadn’t seen a lot of films about someone being at the precipice of that kind of spiral. So that was the genesis of the film. And then I thought, it would be really interesting if like a character was just beginning to sort of fall into that, but like was in total denial about it and then figuring it out.
ECHO:
And I know this started off as a short film in 2018. Anthony, you actually were in it as well. Can you talk about the evolution from that short film into this feature length?
Anthony:
When we did the short film, it was just a really cool little project that the timing worked out to do. I think we shot it in one day, two days.
Vivian:
I think you were there for one day, but I think we shot it three days or maybe four days. I can’t remember.
Anthony:
And then I guess it was like two years later, a year and a half later that I got sent the feature script, which I didn’t even know was going to be a thing. Then I was very, very relieved in a way, but also gratified and glad to see how strong the feature was and how much it had built on what was so strong about the short, which I think wouldn’t always be the case. There would be people who would take a short and try to expand it, and then it kind of falls apart and it’s the opposite that happened here.
That was like a gift being given as an actor: we’ve expanded your role, expanded the story in this really, really good way. And then for it to actually get made! Independent films are really hard to get made, especially since we filmed it during COVID, like during the second year of COVID protocols and all sorts of challenges in terms of just the logistics of that. And we came together and put our heads together and put our hearts together and made it.
ECHO:
And what initially drew you to the story of Ben?
Anthony:
I mean, I have siblings. I’m the youngest of three. Then my dad remarried and had two more kids. And so we have complicated and interesting relationships. I wouldn’t say that my relationships are like Ben and Beth’s relationship, but just anything about siblings in and of itself that just feels alive and rich, that’s cool to get to explore that. I haven’t really got to do that much of that kind of material as an actor, actually, for whatever reason. So that was one of the things. And then just any material that feels truthful, and it’s shining a light on the human experience in a way that I can get behind that interests me.
ECHO:
There’s a really interesting parallel between Beth avoiding taking care of her daughter, Birdie, and then Ben and Stacy so desperately wanting what Beth has. Why was it important to juxtapose those two stories together?
Vivian:
Well, I think just as an added pressure, I think, on Beth. I thought, God, if she has a child, there’s a very short period of time where you could get away with anything before the kid is gonna start to call you out on it. And to have a child that’s kind of at that age where she’s becoming really aware of her surroundings and what’s going on and asking really hard questions. I thought that would just be interesting to kind of put a lot of pressure on my character. And then for sure, I thought it would be a really interesting counterpoint as well to have Ben and Stacy be unable to conceive and kind of Beth having had a child by accident almost. It’s just sort of an interesting pressure on both sides of their relationship.
ECHO:
Part of the story relies so deeply on the relationships between the characters. I know you guys were on a tight timeline with filming, but was there anything you guys did to connect outside of filming to create those relationships and that camaraderie and connection?
Anthony:
Well, when Lana was cast as Stacy, she reached out to me and asked if we could have lunch, which doesn’t always happen. A lot of times an actor just shows up on set and then you just go for it. I was really grateful for her to do that, that we had the time to get to know each other before working together. And that she showed up at that lunch with so much openness and open heart and a real eagerness to make a connection as human beings before we did this work together. That was really, really special and rare in my experience. I think it really helped a lot.
ECHO:
That’s so wonderful that she did that. Anthony, I know you’ve been very open with your and your husband’s journey to parenthood and surrogacy. How did your own personal story help you bring Ben to life and give that layered story for him?
Anthony:
Thank you for naming that. It didn’t really directly coincide with us – the timing was just a little off. I think, [we had begun] the journey of looking for “a match,” is what it’s called, but we hadn’t really started to try to get pregnant yet. So in a way, getting to do Ben’s story, I don’t know if it prepared me exactly, but it was more like a creative imaginative exercise than a lived experience exercise. I’m just now in hindsight, I’m grateful for that, in a way, kind of preparing me in some ways. And thankfully, our efforts to get pregnant were much less fraught than Ben and Stacy’s.
Vivian:
But we never thought about that. But actually, yeah, like in hindsight, because your character is the one who is like baby fever, baby fever, you know, like he’s thinking about it all the time. That’s kind of weird. Sort of like. randomly coincided with like this time in your life, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And, know,
Anthony:
I do have a very, very, very close friend of mine and she and her husband had a harrowing IVF journey. They had literally one possibly very like iffy embryo one only and they got pregnant and this and their child is about to turn one, you know, so that’s so wonderful. Like these things, these things, but there was a period during that process where they were fully prepared not to be able to have kids. It wasn’t going to happen. So I I just think that this story being told as honestly and as authentically as it is about IVF, it’s something that almost, I don’t even know how many, I don’t think there have been any or many stories that really explore this very common experience. So I’m grateful that our film also talks about that for people.
ECHO:
Yeah, and kind of jumping off of that too, Vivian, how did you work to capture that in the script, this very nuanced and very relatable, unfortunately, story for a lot of women and men as well?
Vivian:
Well, I’m glad you think it’s authentic—hopefully, it comes across that way. I’ve never been through IVF, obviously; I’ve never gone on that journey. When I started working on [the script], I think I was in my early thirties, so it was a time when a lot of my female friends and I were having conversations about making decisions around motherhood: Do we want to be mothers? Do we not want to be mothers? If we do, what does that journey look like? Do we want to have our own children? Do we want to freeze our eggs? It’s just one of those topics that women really start discussing when they get into their thirties.
Through those conversations, I heard a wide variety of experiences. And I think, yeah—even women who are young and healthy can really struggle with fertility. I had a dear friend who went through so much just to get pregnant. I mean, the financial cost is significant too, and people don’t often talk about that.
It just felt like it would be inauthentic not to present that experience as realistically as possible, especially in terms of the emotional toll. But I also wanted to avoid melodrama. Ben and Stacy are both really healthy people—sorry, I don’t mean physically healthy, but emotionally healthy. They have a strong marriage, they communicate, they love each other, and yet it’s still hard. It still takes a toll. That’s what I really wanted to show.
ECHO:
I also love the mention of Billie Holiday, and that’s the through line through the movie. specifically her song, “I Can’t Get Started.” Can you talk a little bit about what the importance was to adding that to the script, and if you have any story behind why Billie resonates with you?
Vivian:
Well, what’s funny is that I do have one sibling—my sister—and she actually loves music from that era. Those are her favorite artists and singers. She’s really into people like Sarah Vaughan and others from that time; she just loves it. Not that I don’t too, but it was always her thing.
When I was thinking about the idea of juxtaposing Beth’s version of LA—the one she lives in—against the reality, I thought it would be interesting to include music from that era. It’s so dreamy and aspirational, and I liked the idea of overlaying that kind of music onto these images of Los Angeles as a recurring theme. I also wanted to bring in more of that music at moments when Beth is slipping back into that version of her reality.
On another level, Billie Holiday, as an artist, represents the ultimate example of taking pain and trauma and turning it into something beautiful. Who has done that better? She created value out of suffering and turned it into something that inspires people in a very profound way.
I remember thinking, We’re never going to get this song. So when we actually got the clearance for it, I was like, Oh my God, I’m so happy. And then, of course, the lyrics to that song— “I Can’t Get Started”—are so fitting because these are characters who are struggling to get started in the next chapter of their lives.
ECHO:
Absolutely. And I also am very curious about the title because I feel like there’s so many interpretations of what the title could be. For me, it was the idea of piecing things together or even starting over. I’m curious what the meaning of the title is for both of you.
Anthony:
I like that a scrap can be something that feels tossed away or thrown away. It’s also like a little bit of a fight—not a knockdown, drag-out fight, but more of a shoving match, you know? And being scrappy means having to make your way through difficult moments.
Vivian:
I think all of that—all of those meanings—felt so right. It was one of those titles where I thought, This is definitely it. But then I also thought, Is it weird? I don’t know. Still, I could never think of anything better, and it just really felt like the right word for the story—for all of those definitions.
ECHO:
And I have one more question to wrap things up. For all these people that can relate to the story. what advice or takeaways do you hope they get from the film?
Vivian:
I guess one thing I’ve been thinking about lately is just how precious time is—you don’t get time back with people. Seeing Ben and Beth arrive in a much better place in their relationship by the end of the film really highlights that. I hope people can take away the idea that if there’s someone you love, even if the relationship is fractured or distant, it’s worth putting in the effort and time to see them and repair things. You never know when you’re going to lose someone.
SCRAP is now streaming on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube.
This interview has been edited for clarity.