Interview: Amy Rutledge on ‘Rent-A-Pal,’ fate, and loneliness

Jon Stevenson’s directorial debut, Rent-A-Pal configures the long-standing paranoia and loneliness of mankind through a late-80s stylized lens (read our review). In using the very real Rent-A-Friend video tape, created by elite Chicago news reporter Ben Hollis in 1987, Stevenson is able to sift through his own mental health struggles in a brutally cathartic and disturbed way.

There are brief flashes when you think David (Brian Landis Folkins) could possibly be saved. He’s a 40-something live-in caretaker for his ailing mother Lucille (Kathleen Brady), whose slow descent into Alzheimer’s has left him drained, defeated, and even more alone. His new love interest Lisa (Amy Rutledge) is a lifeline amidst a raging, relentless hurricane, and as the waters feverishly rise around him, it’s Lisa who arrives as a lighthouse on the shoreline.

Where Rent-A-Pal excavates Stevenson’s personal journey, the film strikes upon a much broader reach. “I think a lot of people can relate to loneliness and [David’s] mental health decline. It’s sad and disturbing,” Rutledge tells B-Sides & Badlands over a phone call last month.

There’s an alarming sense of dread that fills the screen, cutting to the core that, in truth, humans have always been lonely. In today’s digital age, we peer into black mirrors to find connection ─ it’s a vicious cycle in which we find ourselves hooked. It’s a bottomless pit, one could argue, of instant gratification and low rate of return. “We can just swipe right to date someone. And it’s great we can pick up the phone and talk to someone in another part of the world ─ but we’ve lost the authentic human connection. We all need that to survive. While we’re so obsessed with social media and looking at other people’s lives, we’re reflecting on our own and constantly chasing some things out of our reach. When we get it, we’re disappointed or sad.”

Rent-A-Pal excels with is agonizing depravity, shimmers of light peeking through Stevenson’s exquisitely unsettling script. Having grown up on such classic horror films as Jaws, Halloween, Jason Goes to Hell, and Children of the Corn, Rutledge fully embraces that “scary, almost sickening, feeling you get. Especially with this film, it’s able to show you what your worst nightmare is and what the end really is,” she observes. “You can see how someone pushed to the edge can snap. I can see this happening to people in real life, if they are the sole caretaker to a loved one that’s abusive.”

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In the film’s final act, David becomes so distraught over his mother thinking his Rent-a-Pal VHS tape is actual tape, and he shoves her to the kitchen floor, leaving her writing in misery for hours. Panic-stricken and flushed, he rushes off to the local video store to buy another and returns, unable to see exactly what he’s done. Reality and fantasy intertwine, and he soon can only see red. When his mother reaches out for help, he shoves her down the basement stairs, and she’s all but dead ─ only able to let out blood-curdling screams.

Lisa arrives with a dish of lasagna, and the grisly scene is almost too much for her to bear. Here is where the film delves deeper into the theme of fate. Had Lisa come sooner, she may have been able to save David. Or not. “It could have gone a few ways. I could have shown up and soothed him before he started drinking. Maybe he could have snapped out of it,” Rutledge offers. “His mom’s already been on the ground for quite a few hours, and maybe I could have saved her and gotten him help. It’s hard to say, though. He’s pretty far gone by that time.”

There’s also a startling moment when it appears Andy, David’s imaginary best friend, has possessed David and is speaking directly through him. What you see is not always what it is, exactly. “As far as Lisa’s concerned, she’s just confused. She’s never seen that side of him. She’s only seen him laughing. Now, he’s a completely different person than when they first met,” she dissects the ending. “I think he’s become so obsessed that it is actually David. When I read the script and watch the film, it’s just David. As the audience, we don’t even know if what Andy was saying is real. That just might be David in his head. That’s what he’s making up in his mind. He’s morphed into this person.”

Fate, a concept long studied in film and literature, plays on Rutledge’s heart. “I think we can create it. I don’t think we’re born and this thing is going to happen, and it’s our fate regardless of what we do. It’s a matter of creating our own,” she muses. “You can keep yourself stuck in a state of misery or you can take the steps to move out from that. We all have that choice. Some people don’t realize we have that choice because they’ve been stuck in such a limiting mindset their entire lives.”

As it handles its own version of fate, Rent-A-Pal sinks into gutting despair, and it seems David has little or no control over the many tragedies in his life. He self-soothes, as well, which Rutledge says is like “patching up wounds and never really taking the time to discover what’s going on underneath.”

Given its very grim state, a heavy dose of melancholy for good measure, it was largely a fun, light atmosphere on set. Rutledge’s career spans back more than a decade, including work in Eyes of the Dead and The Death of April, and while it’s quite evident she has a knack for going into some truly terrifying territory, she’s not really a method actor in approach. “In my younger years, I would definitely have considered myself a method actor. I would let myself simmer in the world of these dark characters, and that would last an entire day or a week. That was very unhealthy,” she says.

“Nowadays, learning meditation and how to self-care, I use some aspects of my real life in my scenes. It’s very cathartic and beautiful in that way. But I am able to turn it off. I know sometimes when people think about method acting, they think about Daniel Day-Lewis in the ‘Lincoln’ film. He would play that all throughout the day and have people call him that. That’s awesome, but for me, in this film, I didn’t need to take it that far.”

Rent-A-Pal also saw her being free from crippling disease for the first time in her adult life. At the start of her career, she had been diagnosed with Lyme Disease, Babesiosa, and Bartonella, and it took years to get the proper treatment. So, you could say this new film is, indeed, very special. “I’ve been learning that anything is possible. Miracles are possible and to not give up, even when things seem hopeless. Things can change around in an instant. I was completely grateful to be part of this film and feel good and confident about my skills. It gives me a lot of hope for the future, as well.”

Looking ahead, Rutledge is currently writing a sci-fi, dystopian web series and working with her sister and filmmaker Veronica on an upcoming short they hope to shoot over the winter months. She continues her mediation work, recently shifting to teenagers and helping them gain confidence in navigating difficult emotions that come with growing up.

Rent-A-Pal is out now on demand.

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