You Can’t Create From a Life You Avoided

Key Insights — Jevon Boreland & Emidio Lopes Acting, directing, and what happens when two creatives trust each other completely

• Your second film matters more than your first. The fact that Jevon and Emidio's second films were each other's second films is not a small thing. They found each other early, before either had a reputation to protect. That early history is the foundation everything else is built on.

• The tagline of Welcome says it all: we're all a villain in someone's story. Neither lead character in the film is the hero. Both think they're doing the right thing. Emidio writes characters who are complex over characters who are likeable, and that choice is what makes the film actually worth watching.

• Jevon started acting at 24 after studying hotel management. He didn't plan this. A public speaking exercise at George Brown sparked something, a professor noticed it, and a short film gig he did for free while working as a security guard sealed it. He went home on that bus ride home feeling like himself for the first time. That was enough.

• Emidio learned to direct through pure tenacity, not a traditional path. He came from photography. No PA days, no industry ladder. One day someone told him to put the camera down and direct, and he figured it out from there. His ten-person team has been working together for years, and that depth of trust is what made shooting a feature in eight days even possible.

• The film was supposed to be a short. Then it became a feature with three weeks' notice. A team member read the script and told Emidio it was a feature. He called her back and said she was right. Then he rewrote it, kept the same shoot days, and figured out the rest while they were moving. That's not recklessness. That's conviction.

• When the shoot was about to fall apart at midnight, Jevon looked over and Emidio was just trying to get the next shot. That was the moment. Not a speech, not a rally. Just locked in on what was in front of him. The lesson: the person next to you on a hard day either lifts the room or drains it. Choose your collaborators like that matters, because it does.

• Emidio always writes from the lie first. Before characters, before world, before plot, he asks: what is the deeper truth this story is trying to reach? Everything else is built around the answer to that question. It's a writing process that keeps the heart of the work honest even when everything around it gets complicated.

• The core creative team lived in the house where they shot the film for the entire production. Heads of departments, lead actors, the director, all under one roof. It meant they could pick up shots at midnight if they needed to. It also meant the film was genuinely a shared experience, not just a job. Jevon's mom showed up unannounced with trays of food for 30 people. That's not a crew. That's family.

• Collaborative to a fault is still a strength. Emidio knows it about himself. But what it actually means is that he trusts the people around him enough to hear them, while still protecting the vision. That's not weakness. That's how you get performances that surprise even the director.

• The first feature is something you can never replicate. Don't try. Both Jevon and Emidio talked about missing the shoot once it was over. Emidio told the crew during production: we're never going to have this feeling again. He was right. The right move after something like that is not to chase it. It's to grow from it and build what's next.

Guest: Jevon Boreland & Emidio Lopes Find them: @directorjevy on Instagram | @e.mi.dio on Instagram