On April 24, the Focus on Women Committee (FOWC) meeting featured the event, In Conversation with Director Maureen Bharoocha. During a discussion moderated by FOWC Co-Chair, Director Annetta Marion, Bharoocha spoke about her career and the making of her latest feature film, The Prank.
Set in a small-town high school, Bharoocha’s comedic thriller tells the story of overachiever Ben (Connor Kalopsis) and his carefree best friend Tanner (Ramona Young), who decide to exact revenge on their strict physics teacher, Mrs. Wheeler (Rita Moreno) when she threatens to fail them. They frame her for the murder of a missing student on social media, but the plot yields unexpected results.
During the conversation, Bharoocha spoke about how she chose the tone of the film. “I was playing with [the tone] the whole time when we were making the movie. When I read the script, and I did my Director’s pass on it, making sure there were moments that were thriller, and then more comedy. It’s technically a high school movie of students battling their tough-as-nails teacher, and there was a route where it was brightly colored, and I was sick of watching that in high schools, so I wanted to make something more grounded and real. Then, you can go heightened when its comedy or when the thrills come.”
She also spoke about working with the legendary EGOT, Rita Moreno.
“She was my first choice. She hadn’t got to play a devilish, fun character. We sent her the script, and she read it over the weekend. She called me on Monday, and said, ‘I want to do the movie, but I have two questions. Can I smoke a cigarette? And can I wear leather pants?’ We worked together a lot on infusing things that she wanted to do and play with. When she would ask, ‘Is this too much?’ I would say, ‘Let’s go further.’”
Bharoocha’s other directorial credits include the feature films Golden Arm and Fatal Flip and episodes of Saved by the Bell, Drama Club and Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin. She was previously a segment Director for three seasons on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Bharoocha has been a DGA member since 2016, currently serves as a Co-Chair of the Asian American Committee and co-created the Women’s Steering Committee’s WSC Squad Mentorship Program.
See video from this event in the gallery below.
About the Committee:
Originally a sub-committee of the Eastern Directors Council, in 2020 the Focus on Women Committee (FOWC) was designated an official and permanent committee of the DGA National Board for women members residing in the Eastern Region. The Committee would like to remind members that while their events are designed with a special focus on women Directors, all DGA members are welcome to attend.