"Yes, God, Yes" Writer/Director Karen Maine Talks Catholicism, AOL, and Stanley Tucci

YES, GOD, YES is the based-on-a-true-story of Alice, a girl in Catholic school who discovers masturbation and sexuality after an accidental exchange on AOL. The story is loosely based on the upbringing of writer/director Karen Maine, who had previously written the indie film OBVIOUS CHILD starring Jenny Slate and makes her directorial debut with this film.

Maine sat down with FilmSpeak to talk about her experiences of being raised Catholic, the cathartic experience of re-creating these scenes from her childhood, and the importance of casting a lead actor who could emote their thoughts without relying on dialogue.

One of the challenges that Alice faces in the film is trying to understand—and ultimately hide—her crush on a camp counselor named Chris (brilliantly played by Wolfgang Novogratz). There is a great visual gag in the scene which involves a close-up of Chris’ arm hair as Alice marvels over his masculine features. When asked about what inspired this particular moment in the film, Maine said:

“I used to work in a publishing workshop one day a week when I was in London, and I was unpacking books and we got this Stanley Tucci book. His arms were crossed [on the cover] and his sleeves were pushed up and I just found it so attractive! Like, this guy’s got great arm hair and I just remembered that I just wanted to touch them with my lips, which is weird, but…I wanted to feel them on my lips!”

Running at just 78 minutes, the film moves quickly and has a relatively short script. As a result, the success of the film relies a lot on the performances of the actors. STRANGER THINGS star Natalia Dyer plays Alice and does so with such expression and animation that it is impossible to not immediately love her. In speaking to the emotive performance being a key element to the film, Maine said that conveying what she referred to as “Catholic guilt” was a necessity when casting. “[It’s] an internal conflict,” she said. “I knew we were gonna need someone who was gonna be able to express sort of what the character was thinking without actually having a lot of dialogue . . . it was really vital, of course, to find someone who could pull that off and Natalia is immensely talented and can do so much without even speaking.”

The film brings attention to both female sexuality and the negative repercussions that can occur from growing up in a heightened religious environment. In addition to Alice not really being properly taught sexual education, she is made to feel by every adult around her that even her thoughts are sinful and could lead to eternal damnation. This is another element pulled directly from Maine’s upbringing, and the film does not shy away from it. Maine shared that earlier drafts of the script were much more critical of the members of the church and that the self-proclaimed chip on her shoulder made her conscious to not create caricature versions of these characters once they started shooting. “I was kind of wanting to show the duality of these characters,” she shared. “Father Murphy [played by Timothy Simons] and Alice have similar character arcs; they just have different conclusions with different endings. But ultimately, they are struggling with the exact same thing.”

By sheer nature of the plot, many of the scenes with Alice involve masturbation. Some of the scenes are comedic and lean into the visual gag, while other scenes are more serious and contribute heavily to the development of her character. When asked about any potential pushback she had from the studio or the financiers, Maine shared:

“They definitely had notes on stuff, but…I mean, the essence of the film is female sexual pleasure and masturbation. The script was completely written when they came on board and the short film was [already] made, so I think they knew what they were getting into and they were really progressive and wonderful people to work with. There was no pushback there at all. I think everyone knew from the get-go that it was going to be this kind of film and it was going to showcase that women do often discover themselves first and discover themselves for themselves. I really wanted to focus on the moment where you’re on your own and you discover it yourself first.”

Maine was also in a unique position being the subject of the story, the producer, the writer, and the director. In question of whether or not re-living these moments made her remember things differently as an adult, she stated: “I wouldn’t say I had a new takeaway. I will say that it was interesting, though, being on set and recreating this retreat that I went on which had a very strong formation in my memory. [Or] in between camera resets looking around and being like, ‘Ahhh! This looks exactly like it and the people are dressed like it’. It kind of gave me the heebie jeebies in a really interesting way. But that was a good thing! The fact that I felt uncomfortable—I knew that would translate. I think every day is an experience in that realm of just wanting to look back with fresh, adult, mature eyes and I think every day I’m doing that.”

YES, GOD, YES is a sweet, thought-provoking, and comedic coming-of-age film that leaves Maine as a filmmaker to keep an eye out for. Co-starring Timothy Simons, Alisha Boe, and Francesa Reale, you can watch the trailer below and be sure watch the film which is streaming now on Amazon Prime.