Writer/director Pete Ohs is keeping his unique filmmaking process alive with a group of talented performers for the genre-bending body horror movie, the Julia Garner-starring sci-fi fantasy film Everything Beautiful is Far Away in 2017, having since helmed the witness protection dramedy Youngstown, the dark comedy thriller Jethica, which also previously premiered at SXSW, and the surreal comedy Love and Work.

The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick reunites Ohs with frequent collaborator Callie Hernandez, as well as Creature Commandos' Zoë Chao, Sistas' James Cusati-Moyer and Zola co-writer Jeremy O. Harris, all of whom are also credited as co-writers on the film. The story centers on Chao's Yvonne, a woman who travels to her friend Camille's remote country home after a tragic accident in an effort to escape the anxieties of the city, only for a tick bite to result in troubling symptoms, and Camille's other two friends, AJ and Isaac, creating a bizarre experience for them all.

In honor of the movie's SXSW 2025 premiere, ScreenRant interviewed Pete Ohs, Callie Hernandez, Zoë Chao, James Cusati-Moyer, and Jeremy O. Harris to discuss The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick. The group broke down their unique approach to putting together the film, including how they pulled from their own existential fears as millennials and real-world dynamics to influence their characters. They also shared their hopes for the movie's creatively fluid development process to inspire other young filmmakers, while Chao also addressed the possibility of her DC Universe future.

Warning: Mild SPOILERS lie ahead for The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick!

Ohs Always Approaches His Creative Teams With A Freeing Mentality

"I'm A Big Believer In Not Trying, Like The Yoda-Type Thing..."

In putting together The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick, Ohs turned to a process he's utilized over the past few years, referred to as the "table of bubbles", which he describes as being "a really efficient way" to make a film as he and his crew get to "leapfrog over a bunch of logistical hurdles". This process begins by "starting from the location" in which the production will take place, which in this case came from a house Hernandez was "renting specifically with the purpose of making a bunch of movies."

From there, Ohs and Hernandez found themselves immediately immersed in "a quick mini-version of the movie", in which Yvonne and the audience "see the nature", "go on a walk through a field" and then "do tick checks", as "you become aware of the fact that every step in nature is a risk you are taking that could ruin the rest of your life". This, Ohs says, became "the seed of the story" and one of the main inspirations for the rest of it.

He then went on to infuse his own "existential millennial terror" into The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick's characters, which he describes as being both "scary" and an important part of "the nature of making art". "If you're being present, and you're bringing yourself to it, the things you're experiencing, without even you trying, become part of it."

Ohs also says one of the main mentalities he has during his productions is a "Yoda-type thing of, 'Do or do not, there is no try.'", in which he doesn't "try to be funny" or "try to be cool", but instead just showed up and made "a movie about being afraid of ticks and the metaphoric implications that brings."

While Hernandez may have previously teamed on an Ohs-directed project, that being Jethica, the movie marks the first big collaboration the filmmaker had with Chao and Cusati-Moyer. The other sole exception to the group is Zola co-scribe Harris, for whom Ohs did serve as the Editor on the latter's Slave Play: Not A Movie. A Play. and directing the Erupcja, which was similarly made with the table of bubbles process, as Harris both starred and co-wrote it with Ohs and co-stars Lena Góra, Will Madden, and three-time Grammy winner, Charli XCX.

In reflecting on putting together his Tick creative group, Ohs acknowledged that there were "lots of different reasons" he found himself drawn to those sitting with him at the table in our interview, expressing his appreciation for "when things are holistic" and essentially looking for "people that are around who naturally feel good." Rather than hold auditions or sort through options, Ohs instead found himself "asking the universe" who he should team with for the movie, immediately being drawn to Hernandez after their past great experience, while Cusati-Moyer actually came from Harris recommending him.

Chao proved to be something of an interesting outlier for the group, not only because it was her first teaming with everyone, but also because the original, unnamed actor Ohs had spoken with had to pull out of the production due to scheduling, which the filmmaker assures has not impacted their relationship.

The director praised the conversation he and the Afterparty alum had, in which he "tried to be as honest as possible about what I'm doing, why I'm doing it" and she "described what she wanted to do", finding that it "aligned with the thing we were doing", and feeling for him as though the universe told him, "this is going to be the group of people making this movie."

The Cast All Had Their Own Unique Means Of Creating Their Characters

"It Takes A Second To Earn Trust..."

When it came to collaborating with Ohs to develop their characters and the movie's story, Hernandez, Harris and Cusati-Moyer all had unique intentions for what they wanted to bring to the table. For Hernandez, she describes wanting her character, Camille, "to feel kind of otherworldly" and that she sees her as "an alien creature" in her mind, while also having pitched Ohs the idea of her being "a biodynamic interior designer", which "made him laugh" and she sees "laughing is a good sign" to continue to expand her concept.

Harris similarly found a more humorous angle to determining who Isaac was in the film, as he recalls becoming enamored with the real estate in the area they were filming in, which even led to him having a funny experience with a local agent. "I got up there, and I was like, 'Whoa, these houses are nice,'" Harris shared. "I mean really, psychotically obsessed with the real estate, I was on Zillow. I got a walkthrough of a house up there by this real estate agent who I think thought I was actually going to buy one. I wasn't. [Chuckles]"

Cusati-Moyer began by praising Ohs for having "encouraged us to do whatever we wanted" as they embarked on "this experiment that we wanted to try." Initially describing his desire for a sense of "simplicity" with both the production and his character, AJ, particularly as he infused his love of cooking and "appreciation and knowledge of the natural world, herbs, plants around me", he also compared his and Harris' characters to the leads of a beloved and Oscar-nominated LGBTQ+-focused film:

I was thinking if we were in partnership, I was thinking about The Kids Are All Right. I was like, "Okay, well, if Jeremy's more the Annette Bening [character] and a doctor, then I have to be the Julianne Moore version, who wants to start a planting business, or landscaping business." That's how I saw us, almost two lesbians. [Laughs]

With Chao being the newcomer to the group, the star recalls her character's arc having "really mimicked my own experience in this movie", for which she ultimately decided to use as "coming in like an outsider" was very parallel to Yvonne's storyline. "I didn't know what our chemistry or dynamic was going to be," Chao expounded. "I'd never worked on a Pete Ohs movie before, and actually didn't know when I could really let down my guard. It takes a second to earn trust, but it quickly became evident that these are trustworthy people, and I was safe, but it was really fun to use what was available to me."

She went on to recall how she was "so taken by James' beauty" that she sought to learn about his skin care and body regimen in order to follow suit, in which he would include a "shot of olive oil in my coffee". Unfortunately for Chao, she "immediately felt ill for about 14 hours" and Hernandez was the first to recognize such, asking her co-star if she was okay, to which Chao, laughing while recalling the story, responded, "You don't know me that well, but I'm not. I'm really not okay."

Despite the discomfort she felt during this time, though, Chao actually found a bright outcome from the situation as she compared it to a point in the film in which Yvonne falls into a nine-month-long sleep, with the star feeling as though she "was in a new world with these new people." She did acknowledge that she "was still exorcising the demon out of me" that was her fear, and that it was "wild that it informed, subconsciously, what would be Yvonne's arc."

The Movie's Dinner Scene Is Where Everyone's Dynamic Clicked

"...[Pete] Was Lowering Us Into The Pace Of This Film."

One of the first major scenes in which we see the group acting together comes within the first 15 minutes of The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick, in which Yvonne, Camille, AJ, and Isaac share an awkwardly quiet dinner before playing some parlor games. This is the scene in which the stars all quickly clicked into the dynamics of their characters, particularly as Ohs kept delivering the group the note that be "slower and slower and slower and even slower", which Cusati-Moyer recalls leading to lots of "giggling", particularly since it was done late at night:

"I think that experience of the note, we all sort of felt a bit high as we were sitting there filming it," Cusati-Moyer describes. "Suddenly, we sat there, and our brains shifted, and the new neural pathways to landing in this tick movie made sense and locked in, and we were having fun. But that sort of slight humor in the back of our brains, or that fight as an actor to not, as they say in the UK, corpse — to not laugh during a take, to not break up. You can see it, Callie has a little bit of a smile. I'm about to crack up when I'm talking about zucchini, but that landed us in the house all together for me."

Hernandez also shared her thoughts on filming the scene as being Ohs' means of "lowering us into the pace of this film", which she describes as being "actually an entirely different universe with its own rhythms" and "its own timeframes." Harris also celebrated when he watched the scene in the final film as he not only felt that it was "authored by Pete", "in spite of even our protests", but that he could still feel his co-stars' work as co-writers and "was so fun to witness" while watching the movie.

Yvonne & Camille's Backstory Twist Was Also A Surprise For Chao & Hernandez

"I'm Actually Really Glad We Didn't Know."

As the getaway continues, and tensions begin to rise among the group, it's revealed that Yvonne and Camille have a deeper backstory than just a conventional friendship, which is itself a point of tension for the former as she holds regret for her actions. Audiences aren't the only ones who might be surprised by this sudden plot twist, as both Chao and Hernandez didn't know there was a deeper backstory for them both, and didn't learn it "until halfway through the scene."

Instead, Chao reveals that she and Hernandez thought a very different romantic dynamic was in the works, during Tick's plot in the form of AJ and Camille, which led to the former having "this moment of panic" after realizing they hadn't laid clues to it earlier. However, she then explained that Yvonne's reaction to learning of AJ and Isaac seemingly living with Camille is a clue in and of itself, as her character thinks she's going to "an old, trusted, important person in her life alone", and finding them there is "this betrayal" to her, which Chao notes is "already within the vocabulary between them" due to their past.

Cusati-Moyer also takes note of another sequence earlier in the first dinner scene between them, in which Yvonne notes to Camille that the latter always told her she "never wanted kids", only to now see the "reverse of that." Chao was quick to agree and note that, even though her acting process has been to "know everything that's come before and everything that's coming after", the twist was one in which "If you're really committed, and all the collaborators are in, then there are things that are being planted that you don't even really know until you name it."

Ohs went on to explain that part of the process for crafting this twist was the fluid approach he and the team took to making the film, comparing it to "you enter a room with a bunch of open doors, and as you make decisions, doors close." The group very intentionally kept in mind that "if we had made a decision that would've closed that door" about their relationship, "then that option's no longer open to us", and instead wanted to ensure that they could "still go through that door."

Harris & Cusati-Moyer's Dynamic Has Been Building For The Better Part Of A Decade

"We've Always Joked That We Were Husbands."

While Yvonne and Camille's history is a surprise reveal late in the film, AJ and Isaac's dynamic is something of an evolving rollercoaster throughout The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick. The duo can be seen being overly affectionate with each other one moment, while the next they are either coldly casual or spending a surprising amount of time with someone else on screen, keeping viewers intrigued alongside the wider ambiguous atmosphere of the film.

For Harris and Cusati-Moyer, working on Tick is something of a unique venture as they have known each other going back to Summer 2016, when they became friends after meeting while on a play, with the former saying they've "always joked that we were husbands", while the latter notes that now Harris is engaged, they are "ex-husbands." Cusati-Moyer would go on to explain that he and Harris are very different from their characters in the film, particularly as the latter has "a different way of socially moving through the world", but praised the differences as "beautiful", while also playing into their characters.

"That naturally creates, onscreen for these characters, a bit of tension or difference," Cusati-Moyer explained. "And yet, AJ is in Isaac's lap just leaning against his head, carving an apple. There's a comfort they've found, and they've found their home, their biodynamic relationship up there."

Harris would go on to refer back to Ohs' mention of ensuring that no doors were closed in the creative process, making particular note of how he and Cusati-Moyer sought to depict a long-term gay couple living upstate. The playwright/star took note of the fact that there is a "sort of off-stage Greek tragedy" happening for many similar couples the duo know in real life, which became an influence on them to "try to present a complex and nuanced queer couple without making it too loud", as he believes "some things are more fun if they're left unspoken."

Both Harris and Cusati-Moyer specifically pointed to a scene in which AJ and Isaac host a barbecue party at their home and have a small group of friends over, including a character played by Jack Ferver, who Isaac can be seen physically cozying up to. The duo recalled "having fun with some of that complexity" in what that specific dynamic was, and how they hoped to raise questions in the audiences' minds of "Do they like each other?", "Do they hate each other?" and "Are they just anchored to their real estate, and that's the only reason they're together?".

"And it's only something I could have done with him because he is someone that I trust," Harris lauded. "I think we observe similar dynamics. But one of the great moments of being friends with James was giving him a piece of text for my first project at Yale and saying, 'Will you read this out loud to me? I just want to see if the rhythm makes sense.' If you know the way my plays look, they're written in a very specific way. For me, I write like I speak, and I hear it, or I write as the character speaks, and I hear them speaking when I'm writing it, but sometimes I want to hear someone do it. And he's one of the only actors who's ever picked it up cold and read exactly how I read it, and it was really amazing."

Cusati-Moyer also praised Harris' writing on that particular play he's referring to, noting it's "rare to feel text so easily in your mouth and in your body" as that of said project. He also celebrated his ongoing creative relationship with Harris as being "the greatest gift and reward" given that they "understand each other" and "look out for each other" and "believe in the other person."

The Group Has A Few Big Hopes For What Viewers Take From The Film

"I Would Love For Them To Reflect On The Power Of Fear."

With the movie offering everything from an uncomfortable body horror thriller to a mysterious suburban tale, reflection on millennial existentialism, meaningful queer couples and complete creative control, there's certainly a lot for viewers to take away from The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick. For Ohs, his biggest hope is for audiences to "reflect on the power of fear", pointing to the movie's theme of "how it controls us and ruins our lives", that it "stops us from doing the good things" and "makes us do the bad things", while also opining that "We need to be aware of it so we can act in thoughtful ways."

Both Chao and Harris also looked on a broader scale for how they want the movie to make an impact, though from a creative perspective more so than a thematic one. The former hoped audiences would "find your collaborators and make things with them", while also allowing themselves to "relieve yourself of pressure or expectations" and their days when they were younger and "the stakes were low."

Harris expounded on that with his delight at the process he and Ohs have utilized now for multiple projects, denoting that they've gotten them made "not because we are so much farther advanced than any young person", but rather that "we just said yes, and then gave into our impulses." He went on to point out the multiple movies that have been released in the past few years that Ohs has been a part of and how he wants Tick to inspire "five young people, or two young people, to go out and do the same":

He's inspired three films that have premiered at major film festivals around the world. This process has inspired and sparked different things for three films that exist in the world now. Callie's award-winning Invention that was at Locarno; Obeks, which was just at Sundance; and now, this movie. I think there's a real danger right now where people feel very left behind by the film industry, and I think that he has created some sub altar for people who want to him and not make [films] to make a billion dollars, to make endless capital, but to truly explore and enrich ourselves in each other by asking questions with collaborators that haven't been asked in the same way before.

Check out our other SXSW interviews for:

• The Ballad of Wallis Island
• Another Simple Favor
• American Sweatshop
• The ant 2
• Surviving Earth
• The Surrender
• The Threesome
• The Astronaut
• The Dutchman
• Hallow Road
• Drop
• ASH
• O'Dessa
• Sweetness
• The Studio
• It Ends
• Clown in a Cornfield
• How Was Your Weekend?
• The Rivals of Amziah King
• Bella Ramsey & The Last of Us
• Pedro Pascal & The Last of Us

The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick premiered at SXSW on March 7, and is currently awaiting acquisition by a distributor.