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Dec 03, 2023

Exclusive: Unidentified Objects Stars Took Big Risks in Their Offbeat New Indie Film

Sarah Hay and Matthew Jeffers on how real-life vulnerabilities fueled their

Sarah Hay and Matthew Jeffers on how real-life vulnerabilities fueled their performances in Unidentified Objects.

Twists of fate are par for the course in Unidentified Objects, both on and off the screen. The new road trip film from director Juan Felipe Zuleta tracks the unlikely friendship of a gay dwarf (Matthew Jeffers) who agrees to go on a road trip with his bubbly, alien-obsessed neighbor (Sarah Hay). The mission: To find an alien visitation site Winona (Hay) claims to be the spot of her first alien encounter when she was a teen. Cranky Peter (Jeffers) isn't so sure.

Surprisingly, Jeffers almost wasn't in this film. He received an email from his agent saying that there was this small indie film he could audition for. It was in the height of the pandemic and, "I was living at my boss' loft in Soho, and very detached from the creative space," the actor explained. "My grandfather was passing away and I felt very deeply disconnected from my creative muscle. About two weeks went by, and my agent was like, ‘Hey, they'd really love to see you.’ And my ex-partner was like, ‘Just put yourself on tape. Who knows?’"

He did just that. A week later, there was a formal callback and a zoom session with co-writer Leland Frankel, and suddenly things clicked. Jeffers realized the catalog of talent he was dealing with. "They were young and ambitious, and talented, and they had vision. And suddenly I was like, ‘Oh, yes, this is the team that I have been looking to find. It took me another week to read the script because I was so overcome with self-doubt. I was like, if I don't read it, then it's not there, and I don't have to worry about it. But I'm so glad I did. And I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it. I cannot imagine what my life would be like had I let this slip through the cracks."

Matthew Jeffers and Sarah Hay shared more about their unique experience making the film with MovieWeb.

Audiences will most likely recall Jeffers' breakout role as Dr. Mark Walsh on the television series New Amsterdam. He's also appeared in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Blacklist. In Unidentified Objects, he offers a distinctly original take on Peter, a little person grieving the loss of a friend. Of the role and the film itself, Jeffers said he was jazzed to take on such a unique character.

"In college I wrote my senior thesis on Peter Dinklage, because at the time, he was experiencing this meteoric rise in Game of Thrones, and I read this Rolling Stone article that came out back then, and it talked about little people (LP) representation, and the heading was ‘Peter Dinklage was right to say no,’" shared Jeffers shared.

In college, as an actor, you're taught just say yes to everything, right? This is how you propel your career forward. Suddenly, I was having this seismic watershed moment where it was like if I can decide what stories I want to tell, [then] what stories are important to me? And how do I want to represent myself and the greater LP community on screen, and that inspired me to say no to a litany of commercials and opportunities that came my way in my early years.

He also noted because he passed on all of them, it helped bolster his belief in himself to tell stories were the characters had, "a beating heart and a soul, and passions and fears and loves — three-dimensional characters."

Peter in Unidentified Objects is wonderfully three-dimensional, in fact. As he moves through his own grief, his odd pairing with neighbor Winona somehow helps him come out of his shell.

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"I hope people see themselves in these characters,"added Jeffers. "We’re in a time in the world where people are really feeling lost. There's a lot of information being thrown at us from all different angles. There's AI, and everything that's scary and confusing about that, and more. I hope people relate to these characters trying to find purpose and meaning in the world. And that doesn't mean you have to be anything else than just who you are and find the right people you ought to be people with."

In Unidentified Objects, Winona is an upbeat soul who's riddled by her past. A scar on her abdomen reminds her of the "alien visitation" she had when she was a teen. Desperate to return to what she believes will be the alien's next visit in rural Canada, Winona drags neighbor Peter into her frazzled world. It's a road trip film unlike any other.

"I hadn't done a ton of independent film. I've mostly done TV, and I didn't know what to expect with this crew of people. But I saw the creative deck, and I was like, ‘Whoa, these people know what they're doing. This is beautiful. It was just compelling,’" said Hay of the film. "And then I read it and the writer had my sense of humor — super dark and super weird. And the film had sci-fi elements to it. It was like everything I wanted to do in a little package with a bow on it. I had to do the film."

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Hay, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for Starz's Flesh and Bone, mirrored Jeffers’ thoughts about how audiences might respond the indie film, noting some universal chords it strikes.

"There are moments in scenes where Peter is incredibly vulnerable, and it feels literally and figuratively that he's naked and exposed," explained Hay. "I think there's a reason why people were struck by the vulnerability, I think we do a really good job building up protective layers in our lives, but it's good to be vulnerable, it's good to let people in, and that doesn't have to exist only in the therapy room. Life can be therapy and therapeutic. And if more people embraced vulnerability and fear and the softer parts of ourselves, we might feel love and actually love more."

Here's to that. As for working alongside Jeffers in this oddball buddy movie, Hay said, "Matthew is like a classically trained actor, he does Shakespeare, and he has so much more theater experience than I do. It's like I got to take a Master Class by being with him." She continued:

"Our director put us in a room and the first few days, we were getting to know each other and started doing acting class exercises, which were extremely intimidating for me, because usually, it's just like, ‘Okay, I turn this on now, and I'm going to do it.’ I don't have any kind of preparation, which might sound crazy, but somehow, it kind of works for me. But we had to do these exercises together that we were both a little reluctant to do, and somehow it made us grow even closer. We discovered a natural chemistry that took place on screen, which is really special."

So is the film. Catch Unidentified Objects, from Quiver Distribution, will on June 2 in theaters and June 9 on VOD.

GREG ARCHER's reviews and interviews with TV and film personalities have appeared in USA Today Network, Huffington Post, The Advocate, and other media outlets. ​