Meet New York’s next great writer/director/actress
In “Bunnyluvr” Katarina Zhu does the impossible.
I saw an early screening of Katarina Zhu’s directorial debut Bunnyluvr about a year ago. For a WHOLE YEAR I have had to sit around, bite my tongue, and wait impatiently for Bunnyluvr to have its theatrical release and the gen pop to get on board. Zhu does triple duty as writer/director/star, playing across from real-life best friend and producer Rachel Sennott. The film is an absolute squirmfest of emotion, teeming with verve and love. It lives in that moment right after being sucker punched by life—when you’re flat on your back and realize that, maybe, that’s the best view of the stars. Bunnyluvr is in theaters now and Zhu stopped by to chat about it.
I know everyone’s probably asked this but you directed AND starred in Bunnyluvr. How did you switch between the jobs? Tell me about your mindset.
I say this all the time, but what made it possible to toggle between the two roles so seamlessly was having the support of a really amazing crew. From my producers to my DP, Daisy, I feel like everyone was giving 200% to help make my vision come to life. That and I prepped like crazy. I had these one-pagers for every scene that mapped out the arc my character was going through, where she was coming from or going, what her relationship was to the person in the scene, etc. There was a section for directing notes that I wanted to remember to give to the other actors or general notes about the scene. I remember one of my producers, Ani, in our first meeting together said, “My goal is for you to walk onto set and only have to worry about acting.” Obviously that wasn’t entirely what ended up happening, but I feel like it got pretty close.
What’s your writing process like? What were you watching for inspiration?
I’m very regimented in my writing routine. I have to get up at 6 a.m. and write for a couple hours—then I’m pretty much useless the rest of the day. To get a full first draft of anything out, I need to go away for 2-3 weeks and completely immerse myself in the thing. The two movies I’m constantly rewatching whenever I’m writing are Phantom Thread and American Honey. Specifically for this movie, I was watching Tiny Furniture, Somewhere, Beach Rats, and Nymphomaniac.
What was it like directing a bunny? Have you ever spent that much time with a bunny?
Directing animals is basically just you bending to their will. You can’t really direct an animal. Especially a bunny. We sort of made whatever the bunny wanted to do work. I’ve NEVER spent that much time with a bunny!!! I feel like I learned so much about myself from working with the bunny. I really don’t think of myself as someone with a lot of patience, but working with the bunny taught me that I actually do.
You have such a strong group of incredibly creative friends. Tell me about collaborating with your friends.
The only thing I ever want to do is make movies with my friends—whether it’s theirs or mine. It’s so special to be able to make things with people who know you so intimately. Especially on a shoot like this one—where I was playing multiple roles and the performance had to be quite vulnerable—it was really important to be surrounded by people I trusted and felt comfortable around. Also, the life of someone who is making movies can be all-consuming and extremely unpredictable. My friendships with fellow filmmakers are so important because there’s just an inherent understanding.There’s no question when I disappear for weeks on end and then re-emerge. They don’t take it personally. They just get it. They’re like, “Of course you weren’t responding to texts, you were in back to back-to-back meetings and then in the sound mix for 12 hours.”
Where did you shoot? Any fun stories you want to share?
We shot all over New York. We would go from deep Brooklyn to Long Island to the Upper West Side in one day. The thing about making a no-budget indie film in NYC is that it is only possible because you are constantly calling in favors from friends or friends of friends. Most of the locations, someone on the crew had a special relationship to—we shot in the hospital that my producer Roger was born in.
How much time do you spend online? Do you have any favorite digital places?
My relationship with being online has only gotten better as I’ve gotten older in that I am much more boundaried with it. In terms of digital places, I am returning to YouTube lately and I really like Miranda July’s substack, browsing The RealReal, and endlessly watching clips of Clavicular & Woah Vicky on TikTok… that’s maybe the one thing that I could be doing less of
What do you want people to feel after seeing Bunnyluvr?
I feel like this sentence at the end of Rayne Fisher-Quann’s essay ‘No Good Alone’ sums it up better than I could: “It’s hard, certainly—it’s painful and exhausting and fundamentally terrifying to rip yourself open and leave the guts at the mercy of the people you choose to love. But if I know anything, I know this: It’s better than being alone.”
What are you looking forward to this year?
I’m looking forward to throwing myself into new projects and to taking a REAL vacation.
