ILY, Bye is a short comedy by Taylor James that packs a lot of punch into its 13-minute runtime. Meg Stalter plays Siobhan – a girl who thinks her luck is turning around when she finally lands an interview for a great job. A cringey voicemail to her would-be boss threatens her dream gig, and she’s forced to go to great lengths to undo her mistake. During the short’s run at the Milwaukee Film Festival, Cassie Hager sat down with the movie’s writer/director to talk about set design, audience reaction, and why Stalter feels like the best friend you’ve never had.

Cassie Hager: I was super drawn to this movie because I just love Meg so much. I say that like I know her, but I obviously don’t. She’s just one of those types of people who are hard not to love.
Taylor James: She has that personality where it’s like, you fall in love with her. Also, she’s somebody you feel close to even though you don’t know them. I felt close to her before I met her. Yeah, she’s just so relatable.
Cassie Hager: Yeah. And I feel like that’s kind of lacking these days when it comes to a lot of actresses.
Taylor James: She’s just the most earnest and authentic person. Like, she’s genuinely the most earnest person I’ve ever met. She’s so pure and so sweet and very down to earth and loving.

Cassie Hager: I absolutely loved the aesthetic of this film. Her bedroom. All of the pink. I felt like I could just spend my entire life in that room.
Taylor James: Thank you! It was a labor of love, for sure. I brought in like six or seven friends and we spent an entire day painting. We did the kitchen, wallpapered everything. The only room we didn’t have to change, other than adding a shower curtain, was the bathroom. We shot at this rental property owned by a woman next door who rents out the house for music videos and things like that. It was really scary looking at first. We just had to customize it. I even had to buy a fridge.

Cassie Hager: Benito Skinner has a voiceover bit in the movie. It’s funny, I followed him on Instagram when he only had about 5,000 followers. I was like, this guy is funny. And then, like a year later, he was super famous. That happened really fast.
Taylor James: Yeah, a lot of online comedians really blew up in the last five years. You know, I’ve lived in L.A. for a long time and a lot of my friends are in comedy. That’s why I had access to those sorts of people because they’re just in my network and part of my friend circle.

Cassie Hager: What about Rainn Wilson? Are you friends with him?
Taylor James: Ha! No, that was a bit of nepotism I was able to flex in the film. I had one of my friends who knows Rainn call in a favor. Even though it’s such a small part and you only hear his voice, it was important to me that it was someone you immediately identify as being straight. So that when there is a twist, it can really feel unexpected and a little bit more shocking. I’m here to shock people!

Cassie Hager: You said the movie was a labor of love. Tell me a little more about the work that goes into directing a short film.
Taylor James: No matter what the budget is, it’s always going to be challenging. I never directed anything narrative before. I sort of brought in a whole gay army to help. We didn’t have a lot of money to make it. $25,000 sounds like a lot, but it’s not when you consider the scale of what we were trying to make.

Cassie Hager: Some of the dialogue is just so funny. How much of what Meg said was scripted, and how much of it was her just adlibbing?
Taylor James: A lot of people have asked me this! Meg is such an incredible improv artist, and I really wanted her to be able to play. And she really wanted to stick to the script. But, you know, I didn’t write anything like, “my boss doesn’t finger me.” That was all her! So, it was a pretty good mix but overall, she was pretty faithful to the script.

Cassie Hager: What type of reaction have you had screening at festivals? How was the Milwaukee crowd?
Taylor James: It’s fun watching with an audience, especially, like, the audience here. I would say, like the demographic is a little bit older, but I feel like it plays really well with an older audience, weirdly. I wouldn’t have thought that.

Cassie Hager: The old people here are pretty cool.
Taylor James: No, yeah. People are down. I definitely think I can take credit for teaching a good amount of people over 50 what the word “bussy” means. But I’ll take it, if that’s my claim to fame.

You can watch ILY, Bye here.