Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff talks with The Surrender’s stars, Colby Minifie and Kate Burton, and writer-director Julia Max at SXSW 2025.

Max talks about the real-life inspiration behind the film’s resurrection ritual and working with a death doula.

Burton and Minifie discuss their on-screen chemistry, and Minifie teases what she gets to do in The Boys Season 5.

The only thing certain in life is death. But as The Surrender shows, there might be a way to reverse it — if you dare.
When their family patriarch passes away, an already fragile mother-daughter relationship is put to the test when the former enlists the help of a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back to life. On paper, everything seems straightforward. However, such is the nature of rituals and resurrections – everything does not go according to plan. Torn between the living and the occult, both women not only have to confront the supernatural but also the shared pain they’ve buried deep for far too long.
Collider’s Perri Nemiroff had the opportunity to speak with The Surrender’s writer-director Julia Max, Kate Burton, and The Boys’ breakout star Colby Minifie at the Collider Media Studio at the Cinema Center at SXSW 2025. During their interview, Max shares how the movie was inspired by her own real-life experience of having a death doula, Burton praises how the filming process felt “organic,” and Minifie teases what to expect in the fifth and final season of The Boys.
The Surrender’s distribution rights sold to Shudder after the festival, so you’ll be able to catch it on the streaming platform on May 23.
‘The Surrender’ Is Based on a Real-Life Experience

“The chant that we used in the ritual is actually a Sumerian chant.”

Image via SXSW

PERRI NEMIROFF: I already know and love your movie, but because we’re celebrating it as a film festival debut, I must ask for a brief synopsis to catch our viewers up if they do not know what The Surrender is yet.
JULIA MAX: The Surrender was loosely inspired by the experience my mother and I went through when my stepfather passed away. My mom brought on a death doula, and I was like, “I don’t know what this is or what this will entail.” So I just kind of imagined the worst-case scenario, and that is exactly what The Surrender is. It’s a mother and daughter, it’s a brilliant two-hander with these lovely actors who experienced the death of the patriarch of the family, and good ol’ mom leads them in a very bizarre and brutal resurrection ritual.
KATE BURTON: Down a slippery slope
That’s putting it lightly!
I have to follow up. So in that answer, you just explained where the story started. Did you have a break story moment when developing it, something you came up with along the way that made the idea feel whole to you?
MAX: You know what’s really crazy? I haven’t actually told them this. Initially, there was a whole subplot thing with thieves who come in dressed as the death doula who were planning on robbing the house. Because, in real life, we kept leaving the door unlocked when we were taking care of my stepfather because we just weren’t paying attention, and I kept wondering, “Oh, what would happen if a burglar came in right now?” So it took this whole other turn, and our producer and my wonderful husband, Ian MacDonald, was like, “That’s very interesting, but what if you only focused on the mother and daughter story and didn’t delve into that at all?” And I was like, “Yeah, yeah. Yep, let’s go with that.”
Because you’ve brought up the death doula a couple of times, just in case people don’t know what someone in that capacity does, can you walk us through it a little?
MAX: In real life …
It’s not just like this?!
MAX: [Laughs] Not just like this shockingly. In real life, like a doula in childbirth that helps you through that process, a death doula helps you with the dying process. I have to say, it was actually really wonderful having a death doula, and I highly recommend having someone there to support you and guide you through that, because it is a wild experience that is sad and darkly funny, and all of the emotions all at once. So, having a guide is helpful.

Image by Photagonist

I’ll preface this question by saying your movie doesn’t need this. I do think the streamlined approach is right, and the amount of information you gave me is all I needed. But, when I get obsessed with a story, I can’t help but want to know every single detail, so I am curious, do you have a Surrender bible? Do you know every single thing about the ritual and other things that maybe I shouldn’t say out loud right now?
BURTON: You know I do.
COLBY MINIFIE: You know she does. She’s the most prepared director I’ve ever worked with.
Can you give me one non-spoiler fun fact?
MAX: The chant that we used in the ritual is actually a Sumerian chant that our occult consultant Kevin Wentmore found for us. We did change a couple of the words just in case, but that is a straight-up real resurrection.
I’ve heard of a lot of sets out there that take those precautions very seriously. The one I think about all the time is, one of my first set visits was to The Conjuring, and they avoided saying Bathsheba’s name on the set!
MAX: You know what? It can’t hurt to take those precautions.
Meanwhile, I just said it.
MAX: But there’s all that lore in theater, as well, where you can’t say Macbeth in a theater. You, [Kate], said that the reason for that is because there are actual real spells in Macbeth.
BURTON: Yes, actually. There are. That was told to me by one of my most important acting teachers. He said that the spells in Macbeth—we’re not in the theater—many of them are real. So, what can I say? And you know it has a very bad reputation, so we’ll just leave it there.
MAX: Gotta be careful!
The Mother-Daughter Chemistry is the Soul of ‘The Surrender’

“It feels very safe, actually, having a theater legend be opposite of you.”

Image by Photagonist

Colby and Kate, I am also endlessly fascinated by your collaboration because it’s a wonderful script, but your chemistry is key to making this whole idea work. Can you each tell me the first thing you saw in the other that made you say to yourself, “Yes, she is the mother to my daughter,” and vice versa?
MINIFIE: I mean, it’s Kate Burton, you guys. When you had said, “I think Kate wants to do it,” I was like, “What?” I couldn’t imagine anybody more perfect. I’ve said this a couple of times today, but when you do theater, there’s something really…
BURTON: We get down to business.
MINIFIE: It feels very safe, actually, having a theater legend be opposite of you in something like this, in particular, where there are these long scenes. They are beefy. You wanted us to play as much as possible. And to have the safety of somebody who knows how to really show up in those spaces, how to learn the hell out of their lines, and be present to whatever is happening in that moment and continue on is really special.
BURTON: Honestly, one of the things we did was we rehearsed for about four or five days.
I love that. I feel like I’ve been hearing, at this festival in particular, more people putting the emphasis on rehearsal.
MAX: It’s so important.
I understand why it doesn’t always happen, but it just feels so vital.
BURTON: It doesn’t always happen. Sometimes it’s scheduling, but this was a situation where it was going to be all of us all the time—the two of us, Julia, a lot of the fantastic producers and crew that were with us—and we just started. The minute we started, it just felt like breathing. We were reading Julia’s script, and we were making tweaks as we went, sometimes huge tweaks, and we were saying, “This is how we feel. We don’t know if, at this point, we would do X or Y,” or whatever it was. Honestly, it’s very rare to have that experience as an actor, to be able to be part of the process. Oftentimes, the script is given to you and, like, “This is it. You’re not changing a single word.” Not that you necessarily always want to, but there was something about telling the story authentically, and that was the thing that you were really going for, [Julia].
And Colby and I just met each other, and that was it. I mean, it was like, “Oh. Oh, hi!” It was not even a question of, like, “Let’s get to know each other. Let’s hang out.” We did try to get together, and then we’re like, “We can’t do it. Okay, we’ll be fine.” So, that’s the thing, and it is so rare. And isn’t it incredible to be in a film with two female protagonists with a fantastic female director, writer, creator? We had so many members of our crew who were of our gender, and we all are making these movies together. It’s just thrilling. I’ve been doing this for an incredibly long time, and it’s really so refreshing and wonderful to have this experience.

Image by Photagonist

One thing that crossed my mind by emphasizing your willingness to let them play a little bit is, I often find that whenever I talk to actors who play family, there’s great opportunity to find things about your character through the person that you’re working opposite. Can you tell me about something you only found in your own character through your scene partner?
BURTON: Fearlessness. Colby Minifie, hello? One of the most fearless actresses I’ve ever worked with.
You speak the truth!
BURTON: And she sure is, from everything we know about her. That’s a thing that’s just very liberating for me, playing her mom. I also have an actual fearless daughter in real life. So, it didn’t honestly feel like work. It felt like breathing. And we just hung out. We hung out whenever we weren’t on-screen. We were in my room or in your room, just going, “Anyways, so blah blah blah blah blah,” and yakking and talking about everything from soup to nuts. So, it was great.
MINIFIE: I know I’m just, like, parroting her, but I have to say the same thing. There is nothing like when you call action and just flying, and not worrying about any of the constraints. So many stories that we tell in this industry have to do with external things that we don’t want to have to worry about. The beautiful thing about this movie in particular is we didn’t worry about makeup, we didn’t worry about … I mean, we had an amazing makeup artist, Bunny, but it was all natural. Nothing was under the male gaze.
BURTON: Real.
MINIFIE: To be able to freely not worry about anything external and just be fully focused on this very complex mother-daughter relationship and fly with that is just the dream.
MAX: I’ve got to say, they keep complimenting the script, but honestly, the script is nothing without these two. The movie does not work without these powerhouse performances of these incredible actors. I just had to keep up with them with the camera. I’m just like, “Do what you want. We will get it.”
MINIFIE: You can see we play this game.
BURTON: It’s true, actually.

Image by Photagonist

Julia, I’ll tee you up to give them even more flowers right now. Also, I haven’t even emphasized that this is your feature directorial debut. One of the things that I clocked while watching it is just how assured it feels. That’s very, very impressive at any stage of one’s career, but in particular a first feature.
Now, giving them flowers. I often hear the phrasing, “What does the director bring out of the actors,” and that can be applicable and I think it’s important, but I love talking about it going the opposite way. What is something about the two of them as actors that brought something new out of you as a director, maybe something that you can now carry on to your next feature film?
MAX: Oh, I love that question. Working with these two was so freeing because I trusted them so much. Honestly, I felt that way with all of our cast. We had a really wonderful cast on this, and wonderful crew. Getting to work with them and getting to play with the script and brainstorm with them, it really gave me the freedom to… I’m such a big fan of prep, but it allows me to step back when we actually get there and then to be like, “I trust you both completely. These are your characters now.” I wrote it originally about me and my mother, but it’s not us anymore. It is very much characters they’ve created, and that was such a gift.
MINIFIE: But that is also the hardest thing to do. It’s like being a parent. The hardest thing about being a parent—not that I’m a parent—and being a mother in particular, is releasing your child to who they are going to be. I’ve worked on so many things where people do not know how to let go. That is the biggest gift you gave us.
BURTON: You mentioned “assured,” that you were watching it, and you thought, “Who is this assured filmmaker?” That’s the thing. Because Julia had so meticulously—I keep using that word, but it was so true—prepared the script, the shots, we knew she knew exactly what she wanted. It gave us freedom, and that is very rare. I’ve worked with some amazing film directors, and you are one of them, through the years, and I had never felt so free to just explore.
This ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ Star Had the Hardest Job in ‘The Surrender’

“He brought this inner intensity.”

Image via Disney

I also wanted to make sure to highlight Neil’s [Sandiland] work, because that role also feels like something that lives or dies based on the person inhabiting the character. Why specifically him, and then what kind of conversations did the two of you have to make that as pitch-perfect as it feels in the final film?
MAX: Oh my god, I’ve got to say with Neil, this is a low-budget indie film, right? It’s crazy to hire someone and fly them out from Cape Town to be in a little indie film. But when we did our auditions—there’s not a lot of dialogue for him, as you could tell—he did a monologue from Macbeth, and oh my god, just the intensity that he brought. Because I think whenever you do rituals, we’ve seen it a million times where people go really big, and you’re like, “Oh, okay.” Sometimes that works. I’m not making judgments on films that do that. But he brought this inner intensity. He did the exact opposite, and I was like, “You’re perfect! I must have you!”
We didn’t get a lot of rehearsal with him because he was on tour and his schedule was so short. So, he came from the airport, and it was like, boom, into costumes. The next day, we were recording. We got to do so much rehearsal with them, and then everything with Neil was just kind of like, “This is our first time.” It added a really nice, surprising intensity and different energy.
MINIFIE: He had the hardest job, which is to sell that this is real.
I feel like the quiet nature of that character put me on edge, but it made it feel more real, especially because it’s different from what I’ve seen in other movies. The other way does work sometimes, but it also screams “movie” to me.
MAX: Yeah! It’s just that we’ve seen it a lot before, and it’s really hard to take a concept that you’ve seen a lot and try to give it its own unique spin.
How This Cast Found Joy on the Set of a Horror Movie

“We get to dress up and put ourselves in other worlds. That’s the biggest joy.”

Image by Photagonist

Here’s one of my absolute favorite questions that I started asking a lot recently. It was inspired by another horror film director who heavily emphasized how happy it made him to see his cast and crew have such joy, even when working with dark material on set. Can you each recall the single moment of making this movie that brought you the most joy as an independent filmmaker?
MAX: Oh god!
MINIFIE: You ask amazing questions.
MAX: Honestly, making this film from start to finish is the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life. Hands down. I don’t know how to even choose just one. I think probably our first day on set, just because it was the very first day. There’s all the nerves and energy and excitement. Just shooting that first scene, there’s nothing quite like it. It’s like, “It’s real. It’s happening.” Because with indie films, you can get shut down at any time, so I was like, “You guys, it’s real now!” [Laughs]
Now it’s more real than ever.
BURTON: For me, it was definitely some of the scenes we did in the bedroom before he dies. I just found them just so incredibly—we use this word in acting a lot—organic. It just felt so true and so real, and again, just like breathing. I thought, “Oh, this is great. I really enjoyed that.”
MINIFIE: I have to say this is my favorite thing I’ve ever worked on. We get to play pretend for a living. We get to dress up and put ourselves in other worlds. That’s the biggest joy. I played dress up when I was a kid forever, and now I get to do it and make money doing it. What the hell? The joy of making this was entirely dependent upon Julia and these producers having collected some of the greatest crew I’ve ever worked with, and some of the greatest cast. Every single person who was on that set was amazing. The best AD, the best AD ever, Vaughn and the second AD, Thatcher [McMaster], that team. Vaughn Armstrong having to play dead all day and waking up, being like, “Hey baby, what’s up?” Just the greatest group of people.
Honestly, the way that I find joy in this is by diving in, going hard, doing 100%, and as soon as they call cut, making a big fart joke because that’s the way that I like working. Hopefully, everybody else enjoyed those jokes! But I really feel that the reason why I love this job so much was because that joy was inherent in every moment. That’s all really the truth.
Colby Minifie on ‘The Boys’ Season 5

“I’m terrified.”

Image by Jefferson Chacon 

Touching on The Boys briefly, I’m excited about all of the character arcs and how they’ve evolved, but you, in particular, get teed up for what I imagine are some especially big swings. What is a big acting swing for you that maybe is an acting first that you get to do with that character in Season 5 compared to the prior seasons?
MAX: That’s sneaky. Good job.
MINIFIE: Ooh, I can say that I’ve gotten to embrace a lot more physical comedy this season. The thing that they chose really allows me to have some fun physically, which, being a theater person, is, like, my favorite thing. So, I’m really excited about it.
I’ll squeeze in one more question, one I’d be curious to ask you now and then again when the season comes out. You’ve worked on that show for a really long time. It’s exciting to close the door and know that it’s seen itself through to its natural conclusion, but probably also a little sad. How do you think you’re going to feel when you have to say goodbye to this thing that’s been such a big part of your career for so long?
MINIFIE: Oh, I’m terrified. I’m like, “So, I’m going to be unemployed.” The industry at this moment, what’s happening, it’s hard to motivate about anything really right now, considering everything that’s going on in the world. It’s the longest time I’ve ever had a job, and I’ve had this job since 2018. I never knew it was going to last this long, and it’s been the greatest gift to get to explore this character in this world for as long as I’ve gotten to, and I’m going to be incredibly sad to say goodbye to that crazy girl. You asked me something about the future. How am I gonna feel?

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That part I’ll back-pocket! When the show does come out, I do an interview series called Collider Ladies Night, and I would love to have you on it.
MINIFIE: I would love to be there. You’re a great interviewer.
But also, I ask that question with confidence, because while it is sad to let something go, I do think closing the door on that will open the door to a lot more time for you to go and do other things. I think if anybody sees this movie and sees you headlining something like this, it’ll allow you to do more of that, which you deserve.
MINIFIE: Thank you. I really am so grateful to this movie for casting me because it feels very, very good to exercise a different part of my ability.
MAX: It’s wonderful getting to see you in a whole new light because this is such a different character.
It’s so good.
MINIFIE: I didn’t have to wear any stilettos in this movie. [Laughs]
Special thanks to our 2025 partners at SXSW, including presenting partner Rendezvous Films and supporting partners Bloom, Peroni, Hendrick’s Gin, and Roxstar Entertainment.

The Surrender

Release Date

March 8, 2025

Runtime

95 Minutes

Director

Julia Max

Writers

Julia Max

Producers

Mia Chang, Robert J. Ulrich, Susan Gelb, Ian MacAllister-McDonald