'Lorelei' Director Sabrina Doyle Discusses Fatherhood and Second Chances
Love is one of the most powerful forces in the world. While it’s easy to love those we know and are related to, the love we show others we don’t know is arguably more important, because it’s rarer, and requires a degree of selflessness that not everyone is willing to tap into. That selflessness is something Sabrina Doyle explores in her latest film, ‘Lorelei.’ Speaking to FilmSpeak’s very own Kaleena Steakle, Doyle explained that it was that kind of love that helped to finance the film, when an investor who had been a stepfather for most of his life took a chance on it. “He’d raised four children who were not [biologically] his,” Doyle explained, “and he said it was the hardest thing he's ever done, and also the most rewarding thing he's ever done. He felt that that version of masculinity, that sort of tenderness and softness that it takes to love a child who is not your own flesh and blood is something that he hadn't seen in cinema.”
Lorelei follows Wayland (Pablo Schreiber), a newly released convict, who rekindles his love with his high school sweetheart Dolores (Jena Malone). What starts off as a teenage fever dream quickly turns into a nightmare - albeit a brief one - when he learns that she has not just one but three kids, with three different fathers. With none of them in the picture and nowhere to go, he slowly becomes a surrogate father for the kids. Despite his reluctance and clear lack of preparation, when Dolores decides to leave the kids with him to pursue the dreams she always missed out on, Wayland is thrown for a loop. He doesn’t know these kids. They aren’t his. But, like him, they need a fresh start, so he tries to give that to them one the best way he can.
“‘Lorelei’ is a story about second chances, and not getting your dream the first time around, but getting it maybe later in a way you didn’t expect,” said Doyle. The film’s production is actually kind of a beautiful embodiment of that itself. After initially being accepted to the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020, the film’s premiere was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fittingly enough, it finally got to have its time to shine during the 2021 festival, where Doyle and the rest of the cast were invited to return.
Not all second chances happen under happy circumstances though. There’s one sequence in which Dolores and Wayland get into a fight about him having to care for the kids. For most of the film, he doesn’t want to. The way he sees it, they are not his blood, so he shouldn’t have to. However, while the way he becomes a father isn’t as glamorous as he had always hoped or dreamed, he slowly steps up and into the role better than others around him expect. “She [forces] him to change through sheer force of will,” Doyle says. Similar to the sea siren that derives the film’s title, Dolores does lure Wayland to death, but not a physical one. “A little bit of Wayland dies to make space for the new Wayland,” Doyle explains. “He has to let something of the old him go to become the new him.”
As nuanced and beautiful as the message behind Lorelei is, however, it wouldn’t land without the performances of its lead actors. Even though their two characters love each other, Schreiber and Malone couldn’t be more different from one another, but opposites attract, and as Doyle says, “with [attraction] comes a little bit of friction.” With Schreiber being a classically trained actor and Malone being a disruptor, the complimentary acting styles make the conflict feel natural. Despite being separated for 15 years, the two characters fight like a long-married couple, and even at the end of it all, you still believe that they love each other, even when Dolores walks away.
The kids in the film are an equally important part of its success. Doyle cites Malone as being a crucial source of inspiration on set because of her own experience as a child star. She says that, in one sequence that calls for one of the kids to spit on her, the kids were so respectful that they were scared to do it, until Malone turned it into a game. “She demystified it. She de-stigmatized it,” Doyle said, “and she was like, come on, show me how much space you have. Let's practice. Oh, that's not enough spit. You can do better than that. Spit at me! Come on!”
Aside from love, the color blue also plays a significant role in the film. For one, the kids are all named after different shades of blue. While one might easily point out that the color could also double as an emotion, Doyle explains that it’s much more than that. Blue is, instead, the physical manifestation of water. “You know, the saying goes, you never step in the same river twice. Water in the film represents change. It kind of washes things away and brings in new things.”