Angus MacFadyen:   Your movie has sharks in it, but to me, it wasn’t just about the shark. It was about the group of women trying to survive and how they were tested. How do you feel about the shark comparisons to Jaws?

Hayley Easton-Street:Well, I was very conscious not to make the shark too much of a villain. After all the problems that Jaws caused for sharks - so many of them were hunted and killed after Jaws was released, and I didn’t want anything like that to happen again. I think this is almost like a shark film, for people that don't really watch Shark films, because it's really about those women and their friendship and how they survive this extreme situation together - they happen to be in the ocean and there are sharks.

Angus MacFadyen:   Looking outside the industry, it’s often said that it’s hard for women to succeed in film. You’ve made a film as a female director, with female producer, and all-female cast. Was that challenging?

Hayley Easton-Street:   It wasn’t really challenging, to be honest. It just happened naturally. We had a female writer, Cat Clarke, and the story had a female protagonist, so I think it made sense for Studiocanal to bring in a female director and producer. Before I was directing, I worked for a lot of years on other people's movies, and I never once worked with a female director. So it felt brilliant to have this experience. We hired the best people for the job, in all roles, and that happened to be women for a lot of the heads of department. Which was amazing.  

Angus MacFadyen:   Your next project—another female-driven story, right?

Hayley Easton-Street:   Yes. Almost everything I write has a female protagonist - I'm a woman, so I guess that's going to happen. And I’m working with some of the same HOD’s as Something the Water, in fact. So a lot of female film-makers again - this isn't something that I've particularly set out to do, it's just a natural thing that's happening with the the projects that I'm doing, and the stories I'm telling, which is great.  

Angus MacFadyen:   Can you tell us a bit more about that project?

Hayley Easton-Street:   I've got an action movie about female environmental activists, and an action thriller TV show about a female black-ops agent, who ends up in the corrupt world of deep sea mining. All my projects tend to have an environmental slant, again, not really intentional, but that's the world I'm interested in.

Angus MacFadyen:
What got you into films in the first place? What sparked your interest?

Hayley Easton-Street:
I've always watched films relentlessly, in my house growing up, no one policed it. We had VHS tapes of everything, and I’d watch it all - including very scary horror films, that still give me nightmares. My favourite films were things like Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Jaws - all of those Spielberg films, I just loved them. I'd literally watch them hundreds of times. I could probably still recite all the script for Back to the Future, Jaws, The Wizard of Oz and Young Frankenstein. I was also really into animation and stop-motion films - I loved Ray Harryhausen’s work. At age 11, my parents bought me a video camera - I didn't know how to do stop frame animation, but I thought, it can't be that hard. So I taught myself how to do it. For my GCSE art exam, I did a whole animated film, it was just something I really loved doing. When I left school, I did a film and photography foundation. And around then there was a new wave of visual effects happening, which was really exciting.

Angus MacFadyen:
Did you have any mentors who helped guide you?

Hayley Easton-Street:
When I was starting out I didn’t really get any help from anyone. It was pretty difficult - so I know what that’s like, and now I help everyone! After film school I got a job as a runner in a VFX company, making tea, and I taught myself how to use the VFX software when I was on the night shift. I got a showreel together and managed to get a job as a junior animator at a commercials company. It was great as in commercials you get to be pretty creative - modelling, painting, camera work, lighting, animating. But then I moved to film VFX, I worked on things like Harry Potter and it become more specialised and technical. So I decided I wanted to design sets. I worked on short films for no pay. I did standby art directing. Then I did some previz for a film and I realised that there was a big gap between VFX and the art dept - they didn’t understand each other, so I kind of made up this job of VFX Art Director - I offered to build sets in the computer for the art dept and help them communicate with VFX. I got a job on a Roland Emmerich movie. And I found a niche. I’d do everything - work out practically which bits of the sets we should build for real, which bits would be visual effects, and how that would look, work out the green screen, I'd set up cameras on the computer, and then I'd take the whole thing and I'd paint over it, light it and produce concept art. I was writing all the time as well and I just thought, I don't know why I'm not making my own films. So, while I was still doing the ‘day job’, I went and made a short film. I sold a feature script and eventually I got a feature to direct. But it took a long time.

Angus MacFadyen:
Did you ever think about quitting and doing something else?

Hayley Easton-Street:
No. Not really. There's been some pretty low points, lots of times where it has felt like I’m not getting anywhere. But I never thought I won't do it. When I have an idea or write a script, I just can't leave it alone. I think about it all the time, it’s not a chore - it’s something I just want to do and I’m always excited by.

Angus MacFadyen:   You mentioned your son earlier. Does he have an interest in movies as well?

Hayley Easton-Street:   Yes, he really likes the idea of film-making - he makes little animations with his Lego, that I help him with. And he loves being on set. When we were filming Something in the Water in the Dominican Republic, he was there with me, he loved everything - especially the stunts. He says he wants to be either a marine biologist or a film director!

Angus MacFadyen:   What’s the best place you’ve traveled to?

Hayley Easton-Street:   Australia is one of my favourite places in the world. I spent almost a year there in my 20s, so it feels like home.  

Angus MacFadyen:   That’s fantastic. It’s been amazing catching up with you, Hayley. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us.

Hayley Easton-Street:   Thank you.