Summary

Collider’s Steve Weintraub talks with the team behind I Really Love My Husband at SXSW 2025.

I Really Love My Husband follows a couple on a tropical vacation in Panama, where their marriage will be put to the test.

In this interview, director and co-writer G.G. Hawkins and co-stars Madison Lanesey, Travis Quentin Young and Arta Gee discuss what drew them to the project, making out, flying planes, and more.

Nothing is more exciting than a threesome to save a fading marriage. I Really Love My Husband is a complete antithesis of its title. A year into their marriage, Teresa (Madison Lanesey) and her utterly, completely perfect “golden boy” husband Drew (Travis Quentin Young) book a honeymoon trip to the tropical paradise of Bocas del Toro, Panamá—but even before their plane arrives at their destination, trouble brews.
By the time they’re sipping on piña coladas at the bar and basking in the sun, Teresa’s not happy with how her people-pleasing husband hasn’t been able to please her. In a desperate attempt to spice up their marriage, Teresa enlists the help of their free-spirited host, Paz (Arta Gee), to reignite the couple’s long-lost spark. But no amount of intimacy could salvage dying matrimony unless Teresa’s willing to confront her deepest feelings about the relationship.
Collider’s very own Steven Weintraub had the opportunity to speak with director GG Hawkins and cast members Lanesey, Young, and Gee at this year’s SXSW at the Collider Media Studio at the Cinema Center. Throughout the conversation, the group shared what got them interested in the projects (besides vacationing in Panama), Young’s surprising ability at flying planes, and how making out with their co-stars was “rough” for Gee.
“We Don’t Often Come Across a Character Like Paz”

Image via SXSW

COLLIDER: No one watching this interview will have seen the movie yet, so how have you been describing it to people?
G.G. HAWKINS: I Really Love My Husband is a movie about a woman who goes on her delayed honeymoon to an island in Panama and becomes disillusioned by her people-pleasing golden-boy husband. Instead of dealing with her issues, she convinces him that they should seduce the rental host—a free-spirited expat who lives on the island.
You did very well with that.
HAWKINS: Honestly, we practiced it, and this is the first time we’ve gotten to say it in any of the interviews.
ARTA GEE: I think that was great.
That was rockstar.
HAWKINS: Thank you!
What was it about this story and material that said, “I need to make this”?
HAWKINS: I knew I wanted to take a big swing, and I knew a superpower that I had was access to this location in Panama where I grew up going. My stepdad lived there for 16 years and is actually the inspiration for the character Paz. I also collaborated with Madison on a couple of sketches, and we made this short film that Madison wrote and acted in called Yes Daddy. Some folks on the team, including Ryan Thomas, our DP, and Christina O’Sullivan, our editor, were like, “There’s something really good happening here.” Scott Monahan, who was the actor and helped us develop the character Drew, joined, and then finally, we got a producer attached, Elle Roth-Brunet, and I was like, “Okay, it feels like we have all the things here to make a ‘movie’ movie, so let’s do it.” I thought it was going to be a tiny, micro-budget, mumblecore thing with just those people I listed, and then it became this much bigger thing. That was the origin of it. It was like, “This is a good thing that we should just go for.”
For the two of you, what was it about the script and material that said, “Oh yes, I want to do this?”
TRAVIS QUENTIN YOUNG: The script had really clear intentions from the characters, and the characters were very well-developed and [there was] very clear conflict, like massive conflict. I knew that would be a compelling story if executed well, and I saw their Yes Daddy film, and I had a lot of faith that they could make films. The script was wonderful to read, and I enjoyed it, and so I was gonna go to Panama.

Image by Photagonist

GEE: I also loved the script from the first read. Also, I feel like we don’t often come across a character like Paz, who plays with gender identity and queerness. I personally, just stepping into the industry, have had trouble finding roles that I feel comfortable playing that aren’t very much like soccer mom or man with beer or of that sort. So, I felt seen. I was really happy knowing that there is a character out there that I would be able to play and that I could bring to life.
With Travis, was it his portrayal of Johnny Ramone in Vinyl that got him this role?
HAWKINS: You know, it wasn’t! I hadn’t seen that portrayal yet, but it was a delight. Actually, I rewrote some elements of the character, like Drew playing guitar, after I saw that Travis could play guitar. I was like, “Well, we’ve got to maximize on this talent.”
‘I Really Love My Husband’ Only Had 11 Days to Film

And they did it all on location in Panama.

I read that you were involved in the writing. What was it actually like knowing you wouldn’t have tons of money to make this? How did you figure out the story, what you wanted to accomplish, and how to write knowing the limitations of the schedule and budget?
MADISON LANESEY: What’s hilarious is that one of my favorite things about working with GG is that she listens to my best ideas and completely ignores my worst ones. I pitched that when the three of us have a threesome, we switch bodies, and that would be the story. GG was like, “That will make it so much more complicated. Why don’t we just do it as the human story that we already have?”
HAWKINS: “Let’s do that for the next movie.”
LANESEY: That’s the sequel—they’re going to trade bodies. The limitations definitely provided a focus for this story. It allowed us to actually explore more very simple moments through the use of improv and workshopping the characters through really getting it on its feet and acting it out, then taking that session and transferring that to the script.
HAWKINS: We did all of our rehearsals in California, knowing we would not be able to explore in the same way once we were in Panama because we only had 11 days to shoot most of the movie. In terms of the locations, because I’ve been to Bocas del Toro before, I was like, “Let’s write for these locations that I know exist.” So, shoutout to Bibi’s on the Beach and Coquitos, which are these amazing restaurants where expats and people from Bocas and Panamians who are vacationing there and locals come together to have a piña colada.
True or false: you took the movie purely because it was a vacation in Panama.
GEE: True.
YOUNG: True.
LANESEY: Tralse.
GEE: Completely false!
LANESEY: The vacation element of it was so cool until we got on a plane that was the size of a toy plane and I started to panic.
YOUNG: She broke my hand as she was squeezing it deathly tightly.
LANESEY: I had just met him, and I was like, “I’m so sorry, but I’m terrified, and I have to grab onto you a lot.” And then he was like, “Don’t worry, I know how to fly planes.” I was like, “That can’t be true.” And he’s like, “It is.” And it is true. He’s like, “If a plane goes down, I literally know how to pilot a flight.”
YOUNG: Of that size plane.
It’s no 737? Was it a propeller plane?
YOUNG: Yeah.
Yeah, that’s not for me.
LANESEY: Terrifying.
Kissing Their Co-Stars Was Rough for Arta Gee

“Hated every second of it.”

Image by Photagonist

Filming in Panama really adds to the film because you’re not on a sound stage or in the normal locations you always see in a movie. So, what was it actually like trying to accomplish everything in those 11 days? Also, by being on location, there’s nature, you’ve only so much light, and 11 days is not a lot of time to do a movie.
HAWKINS: It’s so interesting. One of the biggest surprises was how much we were chasing the light and having to move the schedule around. Every moment, every minute was scheduled out, and we had an extensive prep period. Our line producers are based in Panama, and we also had team members based in Panama—they have a really robust film industry there—so we got to take advantage of that. But we also had to be quick to pivot because it’s a place that can suddenly burst into rain. In those moments of having to pivot, we got everything we needed, but we’d also find these amazing moments during blue hour and we really had to take advantage of that.
I remember one particular moment where we had one day where we were shooting on boats because of the budget—boat day—and I was getting into the mode where I was like, “We just need to keep going,” and our DP, Ryan Thomas, turned to me as we were wrapping. We had one more shot we maybe needed to get, and it was a boat-to-boat shot. It’s Travis as Drew, riding in this boat, shooting from another boat. I was like, “I don’t think we need that.” And Ryan goes, “We’d be dummies not to get it. We’re in Panama.” And I was like, “You’re right. Let’s get it.” And thank God, because it’s iconic. So, yeah, the production value of being there in such a beautiful place definitely shows on screen.
So you see the shooting schedule, and you know you’ve got 11 days. For each of you, what day or scene did you have circled in terms of, “I can’t wait to film this,” and what scene was like, “How the F are we going to film this?”
GEE: Oh, I’m going first on that one. “Shrimp Trip” was probably my favorite. I was like, “I’ve never tripped before, and I just gotta tap in.” I was like, “Alright, let’s be method actors.”
YOUNG: [Laughing] We weren’t really tripping just so you know.
GEE: No, no, not actually tripping!
When you say “method” and “acting,” that means like you really did it.
GEE: No, we didn’t didn’t really.
I was like, “That’s pretty impressive—tripping balls and actually filming this.”
LANESEY: Not while the camera was rolling.
GEE: No, “method acting” was the wrong term, but I did tap in. And it was believable according to the audience! I don’t know if I can actually say what part I was most worried about.
HAWKINS: You could say it in a vague way. Was it an emotionally vulnerable scene?
GEE: No, it was physically intimate.
LANESEY: Try it in gibberish.
You’ve already said things happen in this movie between characters, so I think it’s okay.
GEE: Okay. I think because we became very close as friends and almost offset it became like a sibling connection between us, making out with both of them was really rough. Hated every second of it. Oh my God.

Image by Photagonist

Did you suggest they use mouthwash?
GEE: I said, “Brush your teeth and fucking take some mouthwash. And meet me outside.”
HAWKINS: We were chasing after with the camera.
GEE: No, honestly, because you don’t realize, [it’s] just sitting there, making out with someone, and there’s, like, 20 people looking at you.
LANESEY: We had to keep retaking it because Arta would go, “Ugh, gross.”
GEE: I was just dry heaving.
HAWKINS: To your credit, I feel like you guys were so… I think we got that in three shots. It’s one long shot where we really let the scene play out. You were locked in. You were tapped in.
GEE: Tapped in. So, yeah, that was the scene I was overthinking about, just thinking about how it’s visually perceived.
I’ve heard this from tons of actors. Everyone says you’re sitting in front of a huge amount of people, and you’re being intimate, but it’s pretend, but you’re still doing it.
GEE: Yeah. That’s it for me.
YOUNG: The scene I was looking forward to the most, for kind of a different reason, was the Secret Island scene. It didn’t terrify me, but the one that I just wanted it to be as great as it could be with everybody involved because it’s a very important moment. The reason I was looking forward to that the most is because I wanted to get through that and finish the rest of the movie. It’s the one that I think we focused on a lot, Madison and I did, because of the demands of the script. That’s the scene that I was not dreading but I knew what we had to accomplish as a team.
LANESEY: Yeah, Secret Island was definitely our Goliath. Every night, no matter what our sides were the next day, we made sure to go over Secret Island. We really wanted to do service to that moment and the story. As my castmates and director know, any scene that took place on a boat was my favorite. I love being on a boat. If I could do the movie again, I’d be on a boat in every scene.
HAWKINS: The Bocas Express is our full boat, all shot on, next movie. I want to call out Secret Island because, obviously, it’s something that had to deliver.
Do you want to tell people who are watching, without revealing what happens in Secret Island, why it’s such an important scene?
HAWKINS: Secret Island is where Paz clearly goes to bring special people for some special reasons. It’s something planted in the beginning. You kind of have to watch the movie, but it’s an island that nobody knows about, and it’s impossible to get to unless you know. It’s beautiful. We actually shot it on a separate island. It’s the only place that we went outside. I have to credit our producer, Elle Roth-Brunet, who helped us scope out two different locations and execute a day of shooting where we turned it into a closed set after bringing over all the gear and everything we needed to be present on the island, which we all needed to be. It was really kind of this magical protected space because of the work that the team did to give us that space to be present. I was like, “Are we gonna be able to pull this off?” And then being able to be there in that space… Actually, on my boat ride over, we saw dolphins along the way!

Image by Photagonist

Like I said, vacation.
HAWKINS: Exactly, exactly.
Yeah, thanks for the invite.
HAWKINS: You can come next time! For The Bocas Express.
No, for where everyone switches bodies.
HAWKINS: That is the boat movie, too.
LANESEY: Whose body would you want to switch with the most?
I’d be watching as a reporter, so I’d just let you guys do it.
LANESEY: You’re in your same role.
Yeah, I’m always the person sitting on the sidelines, ruining takes from laughing.
LANESEY: We’ll do that, too.
Madison Lanesey Has a “Chevy Chase Moment”

“My dream in life is to do a Chevy Chase-style monologue.”

Image via Warner Bros.

So you improvised, and I read there’s a “Chevy Chase moment?” Let’s talk about that. For people who don’t realize, what’s the Chevy Chase moment of this movie?
LANESEY: I call it the Chevy Chase moment. It’s when Teresa goes on an angry monologue about something Drew does to piss her off early in the film, and a waitress is present for the entire monologue, which Teresa is giving to her instead of her drink order. I call it my Chevy Chase moment because my family and I grew up watching Christmas Vacation, and there’s that moment where he gets the Jelly of the Month Club instead of a check, and he goes off on his Chevy Chase monologue. I told GG, my dream in life is to do a Chevy Chase-style monologue, but not in his real personality—his personified character in Christmas Vacation, to be clear. I guess it could probably apply for both.
I’m always curious about the editing process. It’s all refined, figured out, and made or broken. After you got to a cut you were happy with and showed it to friends and family, did you want to jump out a window, or were you like, “Oh, these notes, I can do this?”
HAWKINS: I love iterating and working through notes and getting feedback a lot at different stages. One of the first things I did after three weeks of getting the editor’s first cut and working with Christina O’Sullivan in the edit was bring over our neighbors for a screening. That’s when I could sense which moments were clicking and which weren’t working. Actually, I do want to speak to the improv in the Chevy Chase moment. We had the written monologue, but sometimes, you just have to let Madison do her thing. As you can see on Collider.com, which exclusively released our clip, the Chevy Chase moment, we had to carefully craft it. It could have gone even further off the rails, but there’s this one line she improvised, which is, “He’s a golden boy. He’s perfect. Even my mom has a crush on him, and she doesn’t even like me that much.” That was an improvised thing. So, when we were crafting that monologue, we were able to pull these off-the-cuff moments that you can really only find in the moment that I loved, and I loved that discovery process.

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“He took the blame for our keto bar.”

Did you end up making any big changes in the edit, or was it a lot of small things?
HAWKINS: After our first editing phase, we locked everything from the 25% mark to the end. Then, we waited on the beginning. I was like, “I need to take a break. I need some space. We also need to lock this in that it’s Teresa’s perspective.” So, we ended up cutting down a lot of the scenes where they get to the island and added the opening scene, which was Madison’s idea. I think it perfectly sets up who Teresa is and what’s going on.

Image via SXSW

For all four of you, what are you most excited for audiences to experience with the film?
YOUNG: One thing that I really loved about the story and reading it was I found myself laughing at a lot of circumstances. Then it went from that to, like, “Oh, ouch,” like the struggles and all the conflict. Then, sometimes, right after, you would laugh again. And in the end, I think everything just lands in a way that I really respond to in the type of movies that I like. I think this movie asks questions rather than just lays everything out, and it involves the audience a lot more. I hope people take that away and leave thinking about it and asking themselves these questions, and do they identify with the characters individually or a little bit of all, as I do? There’s a Drew, a Teresa, and a Paz. I’ve experienced all of that.
LANESEY: I think GG crafts a really unsuspecting story that is so exciting. When I was watching it with an audience for the first time, I was like, “Oh, they don’t know yet that this kind of has, like, an emotional weight that’s gonna creep in right at the end.” I think that’s one of the most fun parts of the movie. We’re on an island, we’re dancing, we’re having a threesome, and then it kind of drops into this more real place that I think is the heart of the movie, and I’m really excited for audiences to get to experience that and the discussion that will come as a result.
HAWKINS: I’m excited for audiences to get to know the talent in this movie. I mean, what the hell? Madison Lanesey, Travis Quentin Young, Arta Gee, Lisa Jacqueline Starrett—I feel spoiled because these folks are so talented and just leave it all on the court in a way that is really powerful. I want to see them in more movies, so that’s what I hope everyone takes away. I hope some casting directors are watching.
GEE: I wanna shout out two important people: Jennifer and our casting director and wardrobe stylist, Alabama Blonde, for trusting me and bringing me into this audition, and trusting that I will perform somewhat on my first feature film.
Special thanks to our 2025 partners at SXSW, including presenting partner Rendezvous Films and supporting partners Bloom, Peroni, Hendrick’s Gin, and Roxstar Entertainment.

I Really Love My Husband

Release Date

March 7, 2025

Runtime

79 minutes

Writers

G.G. Hawkins, Madison Lanesey, Scott Monahan

Producers

Janek Ambros

Madison Lanesey

Uncredited