If youre unfamiliar with the word gallus, you havent met Krysty Wilson-Cairns.
I had somewhere I had to be, recalls Wilson-Cairns.
I didnt know where, but I was in a rush to get there.
Krysty Wilson-CairnsPhoto courtesy of Myles Standish Pettengill III
And I said, Of course no problem.
Her debut feature1917, which she co-wrote with Mendes, earned her an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA award.
And thats what happened to me it was one good thing after another.
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And then you meet her, and I was like, Oh, whats her story?
Shes the most interesting person.
Its crazy how sanitized our version of them is.
Very rarely are those women shown as heroes, so this became a bit of a crusade for me.
We really hit it off, she recalls.
It was a kind and creative collaboration that was just really fun.
Sams got such a brilliant mind but hes very giving with that.
Right off the bat it was this fun game of table tennis over a script.
He said to me, Its a World War I movie loosely based on my grandfather.
Do you want to come to my house and we can talk about it?
Oh, and by the way we are doing it in one shot.
I was just thought, Shit, thats great.
The two came up with the outline for the story in just two days.
It would follow two young British soldiers given an impossible mission to deliver a critical message to another battalion.
That trip was a sobering experience for Wilson-Cairns, who was just 28 at the time.
I wrote the script as I was seeing all of this.
At the time, Wilson-Cairns was in prep for1917but jumped at the opportunity.
It was an unbelievable couple of years, she says.
She adds, I dont mind being told Im wrong and I dont mind my work being criticized.
But Im not insecure in my position.
Im happy to confront people and Im happy to have difficult conversations.
I know the people I work with either like me or they move on.
Being on set is an important part of the creative collaborative process for Wilson-Cairns.
Things change when they are being filmed.
Sometimes its by miles and sometimes its by millimetres.
She adds, You have to remove your ego during the process and forget the script exists.
The script is not something to prove as correct.
The script is a blueprint to create.
You learn on the job and find what youre good at and grow into that.
Building those pipelines is so important to me.
