About this episode
Mike sits down with director Stephanie Laing to discuss Tow — a true-story drama about one woman's year-long legal war against a predatory towing company and the system behind it.
Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne) is living in her 1991 Toyota Camry on the streets of Seattle when the car — her only lifeline — gets impounded, leaving her with a bill for $21,634 she has no hope of paying. What follows is battle for dignity against an indifferent bureaucracy, with support from a pro bono lawyer (Dominic Sessa) and a shelter manager (Octavia Spencer) who believes in her. Laing, a veteran of Palm Royale and Physical, brings an empathetic eye to the material without flinching from the grinding reality of homelessness and addiction.
Mike and Laing discuss adapting a real person's story, the challenge of making systemic failure feel intimate, and what drew her from television to the feature format.
Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne) is living in her 1991 Toyota Camry on the streets of Seattle when the car — her only lifeline — gets impounded, leaving her with a bill for $21,634 she has no hope of paying. What follows is battle for dignity against an indifferent bureaucracy, with support from a pro bono lawyer (Dominic Sessa) and a shelter manager (Octavia Spencer) who believes in her. Laing, a veteran of Palm Royale and Physical, brings an empathetic eye to the material without flinching from the grinding reality of homelessness and addiction.
Mike and Laing discuss adapting a real person's story, the challenge of making systemic failure feel intimate, and what drew her from television to the feature format.
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