by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport & Editor in Chief

Given that most film fare spawning from franchises or well known properties tend to be mediocre at best (or for that matter a bunch of flim flam) I had grave concerns about a Rosemary’s Baby prequel. Fortunately, all my reservations were put aside once I witnessed the opening frame of Apartment 7A (find my full review here).

Set in 1960s New York, Apartment 7A opens with dancer Terry Gionoffrio (Julia Garner) preparing to perform a stage musical. Sadly, all of her dreams come literally crashing down when she succumbs to an injury mid performance. This unfortunate incident finds her out of work, deeply depressed, and hooked on pills to numb the pain physically, as well as emotionally. When a chance encounter leads her to the eccentric, elderly couple Minnie (Dianne Wiest) and Roman (Kevin McNally) Castevet, her life is forever altered in the most unimaginable way possible. Suddenly the pain in her leg vanishes, her aspirations of being on Broadway with her name in lights is within reach, and her financial problems are behind her. Of course, this all comes with a heavy price tag and as the tagline of the film states, “Rosemary was not the first”.

I am enamored with Natalie Erika James’ sophomore feature. So much so, that even with the motion picture only releasing last month, I have managed to view it twice. The overall production exudes a golden age film style that hypnotizes, making it perfect for spooky season. The magnificent backdrops along with the expertly crafted script make this prequel worthy of the viewer’s time. Following the world premiere at Fantastic Fest I had the opportunity to speak with two of the three writers of Apartment 7A, Christian White and Skylar James (Natalie Erika James also penned the screenplay). Christian has worked with Natalie previously on shorts and co-wrote her directorial debut Relic and the duo were brought on board after John Krasinski (A Quiet Place) signed on to produce. The trio of writers worked together to bring Skylar’s initial idea to life. Our conversation may have been brief, but it provided a vast amount of insight behind the scenes of the production, the inspirations, influences, and why they chose to tell Terry’s story. Apartment 7A is now available to own digitally and stream compliments of Paramount+.

Rosalie Kicks (RK): I absolutely loved that the story involved this dancing background and had plenty of musical nods. Where did these ideas stem from?

Skylar James (SJ): I had been a huge Rosemary’s Baby fan since I first watched it when I was a kid and always loved it. I had written this twelve page treatment—it was kind of a loose thread of Terry that was just kind of hanging. And what do you do with the loose thread is you yank it, right? Or at least, I do. I had grown up in New York, would always pass The Dakota (famed apartment building of Rosemary’s Baby) and sort of imagined the stories that could live in that universe.

Christian White (CW): Skylar had this idea about that loose thread that is Terry and it seems obvious now… but I would never have thought oh, let’s make her character the protagonist. This is one of the many things I responded to when we (Natalie James) came on. I’ve always been so interested in Terry and what a good way to do something within that universe while saying something different as well. We really wanted to avoid repeating any of the story… we needed to make something different, tell a different type of story. Rosemary was a wonderful character, but things were happening to her, whereas with Terry, her ambition drives the story and that was such an interesting point of difference. Well, I thought it was wonderful.

RK: I think that the prequel works so wel, because you chose to go in a different direction from Rosemary’s Baby. There were several moments that were reminiscent of an old Technicolor picture. I have been curious what inspired this?

SJ: The dream sequence was heavily inspired by Diamonds are A Girl’s Best Friend with Marilyn Monroe. This scene was supposed to be a spooky twist on that. This was such a fun sandbox to play in: that Busby Berkeley style, very much like old Hollywood. The costumes, especially the headdresses that Julia wears, were also very cinematic and brought the story to life.

CW: The story is not just set in Broadway, it is Broadway in the sixties… which was such a visually iconic time. I rewatched a lot of old musicals, sometimes the same scene over and over. Suddenly, I would realize I am not even working, instead I am just sitting and watching it. They are so iconic and weird… there is a strangeness to them.

RK: Speaking of strange… something in particular I have been dying to know: Who’s idea was it to make the devil glittery?

CW: I think that came from the twisted, dark mind of Natalie James. Natalie thinks visually, she’ll put together these sort of horrific, nightmarish collage of things, digest it all and weird things come out.

RK: What led to the three of you coming together to write Apartment 7A?

CW: It was Skylar’s baby. Natalie and I came on after Skylar had been working on it for years—this beautiful, passionate script that we got to build on. It started with us doing our passes and then Skylar came back on, but we were never in the same room together (writer’s note: they only met in person the day before this interview took place). Partly there was a geographical divide, as I live on the other side of the world (Australia), but it is also just filmmaking. The assumption is when seeing the credits that the writers must have been in the same room nutting it out and sometimes that is the case, but often it’s not.

RK: Were either of you involved when the film was in production?

SJ: Unfortunately no, as it was filmed during COVID. I was involved when we went back and did some reshoots. Providing a fresh pair of eyes.

RK: Do you think the three of you will work together again on another project?

CW: I would like to do that. But actually be in the same room this time.

SJ: We gotta find something.

RK: Were there any happy accidents for the script that may have gotten changed at the last moment and ended up working out for the better?

SJ: Roman’s (Kevin McNally) speech at the end of the film was a late addition. The great thing about Roman is he’s this satanic nepo baby… he was born into this. Adrian Mercado is a legend though, and a a big shadow. The speech that Roman delivers - without spoiling anything - is where he justifies how he sees himself and why he does what he does. The best villains are the villains who don’t think they are doing anything wrong. He says, “I pray to a different God than you”, which does not make him evil necessarily. This idea came late in the process, and it does humanize him a bit, but also shows there is foundational trauma. He has got stuff that he is dealing with, which also makes him that much more dangerous and deranged given that he sleeps just fine at night.

CW: If you purchase the digital copy of the film, there is a deleted scene which does cast Roman in a different light and it is rather interesting.