Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sat with Descendent’s producers David Lawson and Caleb Ward, director Peter Cilella, and star Sarah Bolger at SXSW 2025.

Cilella explains the challenges of bringing the film to screen and why he nearly quit the industry.

The cast and crew talk about making magic (and teary eyes) on set, finding their characters, and thematic inspirations.

It isn’t easy getting a first feature off the ground. In fact, sometimes, even after getting the go-ahead, a project can fall apart. That’s exactly what happened to Peter Cilella with his directorial debut, Descendent, and that big bump in the road almost made him quit the business. However, fortunately, he had the best possible collaborators at his back. Not only did star Sarah Bolger stay firmly attached to the project every single step of the way, but Cilella’s top-tier producing team, including David Lawson of Rustic Films and Caleb Ward of Highland Film Group, made sure the passion project would see the light of day. And now it has in one of the most spectacular ways – with a SXSW premiere.
The movie stars Ross Marquand (The Walking Dead) as Sean Bruner, a soon-to-be father who is struggling with his own childhood trauma while making ends meet as a school security guard. Bolger (Mayans M.C.) steps in as Sean’s wife, Andrea, who’s also preparing for the birth of their child while trying to manage the wealth of uncertainties the experience holds. One night, a beam of light flashes across the sky, and after waking up in a hospital, Sean has the unnerving ability to draw extraterrestrial landscapes with an uncanny talent. As the line between reality and his visions blurs, Sean has to escape his family legacy before he fully relinquishes his grip on his sanity.
While in Austin for Descendent’s World Premiere, Lawson, Ward, Cilella and Bolger sat with Perri Nemiroff at the Collider Media Studio at the Cinema Center to talk about the challenging process of getting the movie off the ground. They reminisce on their favorite moments from set, talk about the inspirations behind the story and characters, and explain what makes Descendent a sci-fi standout. Hear about all of this straight from the cast and crew in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.
‘Descendent’ Is an Alien Abduction Story About Parenthood

“There’s always an element of something strange going on.”

Image by Photagonist

PERRI NEMIROFF: Because Descendent is a film festival debut, our audience might not know about it just yet so, Peter, would you mind giving a brief synopsis to catch everyone up?
PETER CILELLA: The movie is about the anxiety of becoming a father, becoming a parent, and it is wrapped in an alien abduction story.
Oh, you were ready for that. Short and sweet. Very effective.
CILLELLA: I’m a rambler, so thank you.
This is one of my favorite writing questions to ask, especially with such an interesting scenario like this. When you first sat down to write this, what was idea number one, the thing that started it all, but then I also want to know if you had a break story moment along the way, something you came up with that made it feel whole?
CILLELLA: So, I started writing in March of 2020, right when the world shut down. I was in a dark place, and that’s reflected in the movie. I’ve always wanted to do some sort of alien abduction story, but Take Shelter was always a big influence of mine and inspiration. I knew I wanted to do something small. I knew I wanted to do it with the Rustic guys, so I had to keep the budget small. I started with that, and then all of the elements of anxiety and depression and dealing with everything that was going on in the world seeped into it. I’m a father, I’m a parent of two, and so it just naturally evolved.
As far as a breakthrough moment, I don’t know if there was, like, one specific moment. It was just everything going on in the world that all coalesced, and it just all came together. It made sense to have the uncertainty of parenthood and then the uncertainty of what’s out there.
DAVID LAWSON: I remember when you were writing this, because we were helping along the way. He was sending us outlines and first drafts. Every single bit of it was great. There was no breakthrough because it was just all brilliant from the jump, and we wanted to do something with Pete for years. Obviously, we have a long history with him, but it was phenomenal.

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I’ll stick with the directing-producing team. First, I’ll pose this question to you, Peter. What is it about the team at Rustic that not only helps you get your movie made, but gets it made in a way that feels true to you as a filmmaker?
CILELLA: I love grounded comedies or dramas that have an element of weirdness to them. Reservation Dogs is one of my favorite shows, and when the Deer Lady comes in, I’m like, “I did not expect this, but I love that kind of thing.” Things seem kind of okay and normal, and it’s a drama, and then there’s always an element of something strange going on. These guys, this is what they do. They have made so many of these incredible indie films with that, and so I think that’s why we connected on Resolution so well. When I first read it, when Justin Benson sent me the script, I was like, “Yes, I have serious existential dread, let’s do this.”
SARAH BOLGER: It’s one of my favorite films. I’ve been to the cabin, the Resolution cabin.
You wear that as a badge of honor, and I like that.
LAWSON: She stayed there too.
CALEB WARD: She still has the hazmat suit, too.
BOLGER: I stayed there and watched Resolution in the Resolution cabin.

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Honestly, I would do it in a heartbeat.
LAWSON: Honestly, you can. We’ll make it happen. It’s easy. I’m gonna text him when we finish this interview.
Deal! I’m very into this idea.
Without ‘Descendent,’ Peter Cilella Would Have Quit the Business

“That’s all you were born to do.”

Image by Photagonist

I’m going to make the two of you give Peter some flowers back. Actually, I’ll give this a more general angle too, because I also wanted to mention Touch Me because we covered that at Sundance and I think it deserves a great home. You work with so many filmmakers that I love. Do you see a shared quality in all the directors you work with that signals you will pair well with them, but then can you also tell me something about Peter that makes him one of a kind?
LAWSON: In general, I get the question all the time, like, “What are you all looking for?” And that’s a hard one to answer. And I’m like, “What I’m looking for is a voice.” It’s what we’re always looking for. If anyone else can direct a movie, to be honest, it’s not something that is probably going to interest us. It has to be like, “Peter’s the only one that could have directed this. Addison’s [Heimann] the only one that could have directed Touch Me.” That is the reason that I’m drawn to it originally.
We have a rule at Rustic that if myself, Justin [Benson], and Aaron [Moorhead] don’t like a script, if any of the three of us don’t like a movie, we don’t do it. All three of us have to love something to do it. It’s gone a long way in solidifying what exactly our taste is and who the filmmakers are that we like working with. If I’m gonna be honest, I wish there was more opportunity because there’s a bunch that we haven’t been able to do that are phenomenal filmmakers. A lot of this year was, “Hey, look, we can do stuff.” Justin and Aaron are phenomenal directors. But we’re also phenomenal producers of other directors, as well, and giving people their chance to tell their story has been a real push of the last year. I’ll let Caleb talk from the Highland side.
WARD: I’ve been friends with Dave and Justin and Aaron for a really long time, and we’ve been trying to find something to do together for years now. I guess it was like Fall 2021 when Dave first sent me the script, and I just immediately fell in love with it, and I was like, “This needs to get made. This is an incredible voice.” Pete, as a filmmaker, truly is one of a kind. He’s able to tap in, he’s great with actors. From a technical perspective, he had this thing shot-listed down to the T. It’s beautifully shot by our DP, Alex Chinnici. I was so honored to have an opportunity to collaborate with all these people. Everybody, the cast and crew, just blew me away. It took us a really long time to get this thing off the ground, and we had a couple of false starts, but the crew held on for a full year. When we were almost getting ready to go, the whole crew stayed on and got this thing into production last year, and here we are.

Image by Photagonist

LAWSON: This movie died before the strike. So, this movie got yanked out from under us almost a month before we were about to shoot.
CILELLA: And I almost quit the business.
LAWSON: When we came back almost exactly a year later, we came back with almost the exact same crew and almost the exact same cast.
[To Sarah] I knew when you were nodding that you’ve been involved from the beginning.
LAWSON: Oh yeah, Sarah — no one else plays Andrea.
Just to follow up, Peter, if this hadn’t gotten back off the ground, would you have quit the business?
CILELLA: I don’t know what else I would do. Seriously. Because this is all I want to do. This is all I care about.
LAWSON: That’s all you were born to do.
CILELLA: I don’t know. I was in a spin-out because I really just want to make movies. I wanna tell stories. I wanna connect with people who I don’t know. I wanna share what’s inside of me and see if you have that same thing, and you feel the same way. That’s why I got into this business in the first place as an actor, as a writer, a director — because it’s a shared human experience. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t do that.
I think the same thing about the work I do. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t do this.
BOLGER: Right? It’s like part of your DNA.
LAWSON: And you do it very well.
WARD: So well.
I love it and I find it to be a great honor to sit in this seat, so I appreciate you saying that.
Sarah Bolger’s Performance Brought Tears to the Set of ‘Descendent’

“Make movies with friends.”

Image by Photagonist

Sarah, I’m gonna come your way now with a big two-parter. When this opportunity came your way, what single thing about it were you most excited to do, maybe the thing that kept you involved even though it stopped and started again? And then the other half of that question is, can you tell me something about making Descendent that wound up being more creatively fulfilling than you ever could have imagined at the start?
BOLGER: Okay, so first and foremost, I love Rustic. I think they make incredible films, films that push boundaries in a way that no one else does. They have a certain look to them, a feel to them, a tone to them that I think can only be replicated by the team in question. I respect them so much that it was an honor to be part of that family. They have a motto: “Make movies with friends.” To be part of that friend group meant something more to me than you can imagine. So, to be part of this film and this company meant the world to me.
There was a story I wanted to tell, because I feel like Andrea is a person that I haven’t come to that point in my life yet, where I’m dealing with bringing a new life into the world, where I’m struggling with an illness that is debilitating. I haven’t come to that part yet. But I know Andrea is someone who, she’s not a superhero, but my goodness, that woman does super things, and my goodness is she powerful, and my goodness does she show up. I aspire to be more like Andrea.
To speak to the fulfillment, myself and Pete have had so many conversations, be it on Zoom, be it in person, be it in rehearsal, where I felt the most fulfilled an actor could possibly feel. I felt heard; I felt wanted; I felt needed; I felt important to the process; I felt like I could say a thing, and you would hear me. I could pitch a note, and you would be like, “Let’s talk about that.” Nothing was off the table. It was so collaborative. I couldn’t have had a better experience.
I love those qualities in a filmmaker. That makes me so happy.
CILELLA: When she has an idea, you should listen to it.
LAWSON: They’re fucking brilliant. Sorry, am I allowed to cuss? I don’t care. I’m going to. They’re fucking brilliant.
I feel like as long as we are a few minutes into the interview, curse away, because YouTube won’t flag it. I might have made that up though. We’ll find out! The funny thing is, the last time there was a lot of cursing in one of these interviews was at Sundance for Touch Me. I’m pretty sure there was a record amount of “F” bombs dropped in that interview.
LAWSON: That checks out. To be fair, I wasn’t in that interview.
No, it was Addison.
LAWSON: We do have a type. [Laughs]

14:28

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Sarah, I’ll stick with you for another moment because this is a question that I love asking. Someone recently put in my head that when an actor jumps aboard a new project, you’re on unstable ground, you don’t quite know who your character is, but then you do that thing, either in prep or on set, when you stop and say to yourself, “I have just found who they are.” Did you have that with your character on this film, and if so, when?
BOLLGER: Okay, so there’s a scene in our movie. It’s infamous within our community of saying…
LAWSON: “Scene 109.” We’re never gonna have a 109 at Rustic again. We’re retiring scene 109 from the schedule on every film from now on because of how good it is.
BOLGER: It was a scene that made me not only understand the character, understand the movie, but understand me as an actress, and me as a collaborator, me as someone who loves film. There was a scene in this movie that cemented for me the realization of… I’ve been acting since I was 6 years old; I’m not going to do the math, but it was several years, like nine. [Laughs]
LAWSON: I hope more than that.
CILELLA: We broke some laws.
WARD: I need you to add a lot more years to that.
LAWSON: Not a lot, just a couple.
WARD: All right, just a handful.
BOLGER: No, YouTube will be fine with it. And I remember thinking, “This is everything I want to do. I want to be a part of the process. I want to care more than I care about anything else in that week, that month, that 3-month set, however long the shoot is.” There was a scene in this movie that was so important to me that I remember walking on set, not looking at my script that day, and knowing exactly what I wanted to do because it was the epitome of her and the epitome of Andrea’s role in this film. To create that and have that and own that was a dream come true.
LAWSON: We all cried. Not even joking. When we shot that, there were legit tears while we were watching it happen.
CICELLLA: She’s being a little bit modest, because it’s the moment in the movie where her voice really comes through the strongest. I was rereading it shortly before we were shooting, and I was like, “I’m missing something. It’s not coming off the way I want it to. Sarah, will you read this and give me notes? What changes would you make?” And she gave me notes, and I rewrote it, and that’s when it became the thing, because I needed that to come through. Again, this movie is through the lens of the father, and that’s my world, that’s what I know, but it doesn’t work unless she’s represented, her voice is heard, and her strength comes through. I needed her to be a part of that.
It’s so good. It’s one of my favorite performance beats of the whole festival. I mean it sincerely.
BOLGER: That means genuinely the world to me. There was all the effort put in, all the effort in the world.
Ross Marquand’s Comedy Made ‘Descendent’s Story Feel Earned

“A husband-and-wife dynamic that’s lived far past page zero.”

Image via SXSW

You brought up the father perspective, so I’ll loop in Ross [Marquand] now because this is one heck of a lead performance from him. You just mentioned the idea of the story being told through his eyes, his lens. Peter, is there anything unique to him as an actor that reshaped what you had in the script? And then also for you, Sarah, can you tell me a little bit about what makes Ross a unique scene partner, maybe someone who helped you crush a tough scene that you wouldn’t have been able to do without him?
CICELLA: I think Ross is incredibly funny — his impressions, if you’ve seen them, they’re on YouTube. What we discovered in the rehearsal process, and thank god, we had a week of rehearsal leading up to it, because we discovered all these things, and his character was coming off just a little too dour and brooding, and we needed some levity and some light. We also needed to see that love, that fun, and we found that in the rehearsal process. That then allows the audience, once the shit hits the fan, and he goes into a downward spiral, it’s earned; you care about him more because you’ve seen the lighter side of him. So, that was a big breakthrough in the rehearsal process and, thank god, we didn’t have to discover it on set.
LAWSON: I will say that’s one of the things that we’ve found doing our films is, like, you and Vinny [Curran] rehearsed for, like, 6 months for Resolution. We try to do as many rehearsals as we can because when you have everybody on set, you have the lights, the camera, that’s time, that’s money. When it’s just people in a room, that’s when you get to explore. That’s when you really get to play and find things and dig in and be like, “Oh cool, this is what we wrote, but is it what we meant?” Then you can really start chiseling away.
WARD: It’s filling out that shell essentially, which I feel like Pete laid down such an incredible foundation for both Sean and Andrea. Seeing Ross and Sarah bring those characters to life and fill them with flesh and blood is truly a miraculous thing to watch.
LAWSON: Perri, have you ever watched two of your really good friends be so phenomenal at what they do? Actually, three with Pete. It’s really a cool fucking thing to get to watch your friends be really great at what they do.
You know some of my friends. I see them soaring in this space right now. It’s the best feeling in the world!
LAWSON: It makes me so happy. To get to help that makes me over the moon.

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I can’t believe I never knew the Rustic tagline.
LAWSON: Oh, I got stickers. I’ll give you a sticker.
BOLGER: “Make movies with friends?” It’s genuinely something to live by.
I think that should be every production company’s tagline.
LAWSON: No, it’s “Make money from artists,” I think, is their tagline.
WARD: Survive and thrive, baby—I’m not talking about myself.
BOLGER: I’ll answer your question about Ross. I’d never met Ross before, right? We had text exchanges, and we had FaceTime calls. Ross travels more than any human you’ve ever met in your life. He is more on a plane than he is on land. I sat down with him. He came into my kitchen, and we sat down for a whole week, like every single night after rehearsal, we would sit, and we would fill in backstory and create loving moments and create history and create first dates and create how he proposed to me.
I swear to god, never have I talked to someone where I was like, “Wait, how long have I known you?” There was something about him and I, when we started talking, that was so similar, that was so oddly simpatico that it almost felt like, “This is the thing people talk about when they’re like it’s chemistry on set.” It just worked so well, and he was able to create history with me in the most beautiful way. He’s a brilliant artist because he’s a comedic genius, but also drama comes out of his pores. It’s just wonderful to act opposite him and to create a husband-and-wife dynamic that’s lived far past page zero.
‘Descendent’s Cast and Crew Reminisce Their Favorite Days on Set

“I want my friends to succeed.”

Image by Photagonist

I gotta wrap with you soon, and this whole conversation is making me think of this particular question. I feel like it’ll well suit all of you as filmmakers, as a filmmaking family. I was talking to another horror movie director recently who heavily emphasized how happy it made him to see his cast and crew have such joy on set while doing the work. Can you each recall the single moment of making Descendent that brought you the most joy as an independent filmmaker?
BOLGER: I will say that there was a moment where I had the pregnancy belly on for the first time, and I walked on set, and there was this moment where everyone was like, “Wait, will we sit down? Will we get you a chair?” There was just this loving energy of a family looking after someone who [was] really in character. I walked on set and wasn’t Sarah, but I was Andrea to all the people who know me so well as Sarah, which was just this mythical switch that happens. To be supported as a person who can walk off set and make a joke as Sarah and then be on set and with your friends who treat you as Andrea is the craziest experience that is so fulfilling and joyous and happy and supportive.
I love that answer.
CICELLA: I think it was actually before I got on set, and I remember I was driving to set, and it had been so hard to get this movie made, and it’d been through a lot. These guys had called and texted, telling me how proud they were that we were able to make this movie. I remember driving to Santa Monica in the pouring rain; it was the first day of shooting, and it was all on the beach and under that pier, and I burst into tears just because I was so happy. Then every day we were on set, I was just so appreciative that everybody who showed up, the cast, the crew, came in every day wanting to make this the best that they could, and the attitudes were so positive. We had a lot of fun on set. The movie gets dark, but it was light. It was such a collaborative experience with everybody, and I was just eternally grateful that I actually got to make it.
Beautiful answer, as well.
WARD: Just to bounce off of what Pete’s saying…
LAWSON: Don’t cry.

Image by Photagonist

WARD: No, I’m so soft, and it takes nothing to make me cry, so I’m gonna be so fast with this. I will not end up a meme, I swear to god. It’s my life goal to not be a meme. Damn it! No, no, I’m good. Bouncing off what Pete was saying, the weather was horrible for 60% of the shoot. It was just wild LA rain, which is unforgiving and incredibly punishing, but the energy was always so high. I was so truly honored to be brought onto this with Rustic because, as a fan of their films and as a fan of Dave and what he does and what he brings to a set, I just wanted to glean off of that and be a sponge.
Seeing the way that he runs a set, I’m like, “I’ll never run a set any other way ever in my life.” Because everybody goes 110% because they know that they’re making A., something special, and B., the people that are making it happen are truly looking out for their best interests. I just felt that every day. That’s why it’s so hard to pinpoint one moment. We shot through Valentine’s Day, and we shot through rain, and we shot through cold, and we shot through Sarah’s birthday. There were just so many events, and it was just so beautiful. It’s one of the most proud moments of my life, genuinely.
LAWSON: Mine wasn’t one specific moment. Caleb hasn’t gotten to be a producer on a film, and it was really fun to do that with him. Pete hasn’t gotten to direct a movie as a feature, and I was really proud of him. I became a father right after he finished writing this. My wife was pregnant during the writing of this. In fact, I sent him a bunch of the material for the classes that we went to as research material while he was developing this. Sarah obviously was acting long before I ever knew her because I didn’t know her as a six-year-old. I know her as a friend, and I love her, and to get to watch her succeed, that’s all I ever want. I want my friends to succeed, whether it’s with me or with someone else. I just love it. I love watching people do what they were put on this earth for, and I got to do that three times last year, for three separate movies, and I almost quit the business. I was this close to getting out during the strike, and this movie was the one I was like, “This is what I’m for.”
Special thanks to our 2025 partners at SXSW, including presenting partner Rendezvous Films and supporting partners Bloom, Peroni, Hendrick’s Gin, and Roxstar Entertainment.

Descendent

Release Date

March 8, 2025

Runtime

93 minutes

Director

Peter Cilella

Writers

Peter Cilella

Producers

Aaron Moorhead, Arianne Fraser, Henry Winterstern, Justin Benson, Mark Ward, Delphine Perrier