It was a beautiful film! Was it filmed in Australia?
James Frecheville: In Cedar Rocks, which is a seaside town. I think it’s got a resting population of about 28 people a year.”
XS: Yeah, it’s literally one of the kind of untouched places in Australia.”
JF: It’s about a four-hour drive north of the city.”
XS: It’s just a magical kind of place to work and stay. It’s great.”
For so many scenes, you guys are surfing together and you’re both great. Did you go to surf school?
XS: We told the director we could surf, so she sent along a secret video camera person to the beach to film us surfing, to see if we were actually good. She ended up watching the tapes and basically accused us of lying. That’s pretty much how we got to know each other—just out there learning to surf.”
JF: It was great. Our working week for a good part of our spring was flying out to Sydney and surfing Monday to Friday. then flying back for the weekend.”
XS: Pretty amazing gig.”
JF: And it was great because it really calcified a friendship between us.”
Where do you guys live now?
JF: ”We float.”
XS: ”The running joke is that we’re homeless. It’s just because Australia is so far away, you can’t really go back on the weekends. You end up spending some time in Sydney, and some time in L.A.”
JF: ”It’s also sort of what your year is looking like too. After I finished a job in America in the middle of last year, I just went back home and hung out there for six months.”
XS: ”It’s good to go back and refuel and process what’s been going on.”