Paul And Ben China Talk “Dream” Collaboration With ‘Night Shift’s’ Phoebe Tonkin

Paul and Ben China wrote and directed the new suspense/horror/thriller Night Shift. Phoebe Tonkin is Gwen, a woman who is working her first shift at a remote and possibly haunted hotel. This is a feature that all of us at CinemAddicts recommend (our review is also in the post), and I had the chance to chat with The China Brothers about Night Shift. The twins talked to Deepest Dream about why their collaborations, in general, are “seamless.”

Lamorne Morris co-stars as the co-worker who shows Gwen (Phoebe Tonkin) the ropes before he departs for the evening. Madison Hu is Alice, a young woman who gets more than she bargained for at the All Tucked-Inn. Check out our review on this week’s CinemAddicts (listen on Apple Podcasts or YouTube):

Writing and directing Night Shift for Ben and Paul China was free of the drama that plague many a collaboration.

“It feels strange to answer this as a twin, because we don’t know what it’s like to not be a twin,” said Paul China. “This question kind of comes out to siblings who work together, and they always end up fighting, or you hear all these comedic stories. But with Ben and I, it seems very seamless. We never run into any issues with each other, it almost feels like we barely make up one person.”

“It’s like our interests are the same,” said Ben China. “And creatively speaking, whatever we’re, you know, conjuring up, it just feels we’re always in sync and then we can sort of play off each other and come up with new ideas that the other would be excited about. I think that excites us massively and I feel it really does feel two heads are better than one.”

One of the film’s greatest strengths lies in Phoebe Tonkin’s performance. Although characters and ghosts populate the feature, this is ultimately tour de force work from the Boy Swallows Universe actress.

“Phoebe, she’s the protagonist. She’s on screen alone for almost like, you know, 85-90% of the the movie by herself,” said Ben China. “And we had to have someone who was completely captivating, who could really nail that role and take the audience on the journey. It was a dream collaborating with her.”

“It goes beyond just her acting capabilities because, you know, she does hold such depth,” added Paul China. “But we really needed somebody who had terrific screen presence, who as Ben was saying was on screen by herself for certain scenes wandering around the motel. (She) needed to be captivating enough to hold the audience’s attention and to flip between drama and comedy seamlessly. Phoebe has all of that in spades.”

Full interview with The China Brothers:

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