VIVIAN KERR TALKS "SCRAP"

Actor, writer, producer and now director Vivian Kerr brings us, Scrap a new drama that really hits home.

Making her directorial debut, Vivian Kerr wrote, stars in, produced and directed the drama Scrap. Following its world premiere in competition at ​​Deauville-American Film Festival, the film continues to make the festival circuit with next stops including LA Femme IFF, Napes IFF, and more.

Scrap co-stars Anthony Rapp (STAR TREK: DISCOVERY), Lana Parrilla (THE LINCOLN LAWYER), Khleo Thomas (HOLES), Beth Dover (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK), Brad Schmidt (THE BIRTH OF A NATION), and Julianna Layne (A CHRISTMAS STORY CHRISTMAS).

The film centers around Beth, who has recently been laid off and struggles to maintain the appearance of a successful middle-class lifestyle as she bounces around Los Angeles. Hoping to land a new job and change her situation before her estranged older brother Ben (Anthony Rapp) finds out,

Beth must confront her own pride in order to reconnect with him and provide for her young daughter Birdy. Meanwhile, Ben and his wife Stacy (Lana Parrilla) consider a third round of IVF and Stacy, a successful attorney, must re-evaluate her own conflicted relationship with motherhood.

Vivian Kerr is an LA-based actor, writer, director, and producer. SCRAP, her feature film debut, world premiered in competition and was nominated for the Grand Prize at the 2022 Deauville-American Film Festival and is currently on the festival circuit.  She recently won a Special Jury Prize in Acting Achievement at the Phoenix Film Festival, Outstanding Actress in a Feature at the Micheaux Film Festival, the NYWIFT Award for Excellence in Narrative Directing at the SOHO Film Festival, and the MINT Spirit Award at the Montana International Film Festival. Her screenplay for SCRAP was a Top 10 Finalist in Final Draft's Big Break Screenwriting Competition. ​

Her second feature film, SÉANCE, a Victorian-era psychological thriller, was selected for Wscripted’s Cannes Screenplay List and is currently in post-production. She was a Finalist in Sony Pictures TV’s Rising Storytellers Search with her pilot FIVE POINTS, about the female-led gangs of 19th century New York, which was also invited into the Stowe Story Labs, the Story Incubator Writing Lab, and selected as one of eight pilots for the inaugural Women's Weekend Film Challenge TV Pilot Accelerator. 

Her feature script EXCHANGE has placed in the Top 20% of the Nicholl Fellowship and her pilot NEWSPAPERWOMAN was a Second-Rounder in the Austin Film Festival. As an actor, her work includes episodes of GREY'S ANATOMY, RIZZOLI & ISLES, SUPERSTORE, MASTERS OF SEX, CRIMINAL MINDS, NEW GIRL, CASTLE, FRANKLIN & BASH, and THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL.  She has a BA in Theatre from the University of Southern California, during which time she studied Shakespeare in London.  She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, Actors' Equity, and Film Fatales.

I spoke with Vivian about the inspiration for the film and what it was like to get it to the big screen.