Interviews

2015 Sundance Trading Card Series: #36. Mya Taylor (Tangerine)

Published on February 5, 2015

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries” …
Mya Taylor: I discovered my husband Nathan. He’s amazing. Favorite album: Aaliyah By Aaliyah
Favorite song: Toni Braxton: Hands Tied. Favorite recording artist: Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Toni and Tamar Braxton, Aaliyah. Favorite video game: pgr4, Grand Theft Auto 5.

Lavallee: Could you tell us about the casting process, and how Sean and you workshopped the character of Alexandra.
Taylor: After Sean and I met up, we decided that Alexandra should be sweet and funny but with an attitude. ‎There are similarities between the character of Alexandra and myself…. We don’t take no for an answer, we take business seriously and we have a low tolerance for BS.

Lavallee: Could you describe how your character perceives the relationship she has with both Alexandra and the outside world. How does she differ from Sin-Dee?
Taylor: Alexandra has aspirations and hope… while Sin-Dee has almost given up. Alexandra believes there’s more out there for her while Sin-Dee has been let down so much that she believes her life will not improve.

Related Topics:2015 Sundance Film Festival, 2015 Sundance Trading Card Series, Mya Taylor, Sean Baker, Tangerine, top-stories

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).