Sweet Girl director explores father-daughter bond in action-thriller

There’s no shortage of father-daughter duos in action films. Exploring further the seemingly unique and unbreakable bond between daddies and their girls is what Brian Andrew Mendoza does in his directorial debut Sweet Girl.

Jason Momoa plays the loving family man Ray Cooper who’s seeking justice against a pharmaceutical company for removing from the market a potentially life-saving drug just before he loses his wife (Adria Arjona) to cancer, according to the film’s synopsis. Ray’s search for the truth turns into a quest for vengeance as his only family left, teenage daughter Rachel (played by Dora and the Lost City of Gold star Isabela Merced), is put in harm’s way.

Sweet Girl also stars Justin Bartha, Amy Brenneman, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Raza Jaffrey, Lex Scott Davis and Michael Raymond-James.

In an exclusive virtual interview with The STAR, Brian noted that the opportunity to offer another take on the ties that bind fathers and daughters was one of the two main reasons he did Sweet Girl (the other one is the theme about the power being wielded by big pharma).

“I had done a short film with Jason called Canvas of My Life that was about fatherhood, and I really just enjoyed the exploration of the relationship between father and child, and I wanted to explore that further in Sweet Girl,” he said.

The STAR learned that he’s been in the entertainment business for over 20 years and a producing partner with Jason under the latter’s production company Pride of Gypsies for more than a decade, but it wasn’t an immediate yes to directing the action star.

“Jason and I had just wrapped the last season of Frontier for Netflix when Jeff Fierson and his partner Brad Peyton brought us the script for Sweet Girl as a new project to produce with them and for Jason to star. We both loved the script. We started looking into directors, but ran into a couple roadblocks. Then one day outside his house he just said to me, ‘Why don’t you direct it?’ He’d known for a while that I was interested in directing,” he recalled.

“I began my career as a photographer and a DP (director of photography) before producing, and I had started directing commercials for Pride of Gypsies for a few years — but I just hadn’t thought of directing a film of this scale the first time out. For a first-time director to take on a film this size, felt unprecedented. So I said, ‘Let me think on it,’ and I went back and looked over the script and thought, OK, if I were to direct this, this is how I would do it. I put a pitch together for Jeff and Brad, and they loved it.”

Besides the fight scenes and stunt work expected of the actor best known as Aquaman, what Brian is also excited for audiences to see in this film is Jason’s emotional turn that audiences have never seen from him before.

“Having worked with Jason for so long, and knowing how important family is to him, I knew there was an emotional side to him as an actor that people just haven’t been able to see. I thought the character, Ray Cooper, was a great opportunity to show a different side of his talent, a more subtle and emotional side. Jason is a phenomenal actor and I can’t wait for people to see him in this film.

“So, the conversations we had were about really making sure that there was a palpable connection between him and his onscreen family. We both knew that the opening of the film was pivotal in that we really had to lay a solid foundation with him, Adria, and Isabela. That’s where the emotional journey of the story really begins.”

Here are excerpts from The STAR’s one-on-one with Brian ahead of the actioner’s premiere on Aug. 20 on the global streaming giant Netflix.

How was the experience directing your first feature film?

“You know, it was amazing. I had an amazing support from Netflix, from our crew and our cast. You know, my wife gave birth to our son a week before production so it was... we were really prepped and it was a smooth ride. It was a wonderful production and we shot a lot on set and in the studio. We shot a lot in actual locations. There was a big school, we closed down a stadium and a bridge, and had extras where Jason was running through, you know, thousands of people and fought on a live subway. So, yeah, it was fun.”

When Jason asked if you could direct it, you said you will think about it first. Why the initial hesitation?

“Yes, I think there are two (reasons). One was, would any studio let a first-time director, you know, take on a movie of this size? No matter what talent, that’s not done very often. So that was sort of the (reason behind the) hesitation. But also, you know, we want to make sure that you can get it right. It’s a big film and so I really wanted to do a lot more research on the pharmaceutical companies, really dissect the script and look at it, like how I could contribute to the film and make sure that it was a story that I felt like I could make that would resonate with an audience and that’s important. Like, I personally love movies and I really want to make a good one so that you’re not wasting anybody’s time.”

What was your reaction when you first read the script?

“I love the pharmaceutical side of it but I love the father-daughter aspect the most. I really wanted to explore that within an action film and I thought that having those two characters was something unique that you haven’t seen in sort of that revenge stories or films that are abundant, that are out there.

“Jason and I did a short film called Canvas of My Life, years ago. That was about fatherhood. And it being just a short film, I felt like there’s a lot of themes that we connected with that this film allowed us to explore and do in an exciting way.”

I read in the production notes that you’ve been working with Jason for 12 years already. Can you just share, how did the work dynamics change or evolve through the years and especially now, with you being his director?

“Yeah, I don’t know if it’s changed much. You know, our relationship has been the same except for the fact that I’m on set and when I am directing I’m the one that’s, you know, making the decisions rather than not. But it really hasn’t changed much. This is our third film (after Road to Paloma and Braven) together. We’ve done two other films that we produced and I was actually a cinematographer on them. So, you know, this was just in a larger scope but it was a lot bigger than anything that we had done before. But we just have a very collaborative style and we very much see things the same way, like our tastes are very similar.”

Besides the action scenes, why do you think Asian audiences will enjoy your film?

“I think that’s going back to the father-daughter aspect of it. It’s that we’ve wanted to make a film that was, you know, globally attractive to all countries, and I think everybody can relate to the father-daughter side of it. And there’s always some sort of big company in every country that you’re fighting against and so there’s like, a lot of universal themes that people will be able to gravitate towards and be entertained by the film.”