Neil McDonald: Chelsea, you’re not only the writer, producer and director of this film, but you also graduated summa cum laude from Webster University with a degree in English and a minor in Screenwriting and Film Studies. Add to that ten film acting credits, eight producer credits, three as casting director or assistant, and co-writer of the animated feature Aero (produced by Raymax Studios in India), you have written for Independent Film Quarterly, and were writer/producer/director of the short film Translucid. You are quite the ambitious young lady.
Chelsea Zotta: Well, thank you. But if you’re doing what you love, it doesn’t feel like work.
NM: Can you give our readers a general synopsis of I Miss Me?
CZ: Entertainment attorney Calvin Masterson (Brock Roberts) has addictions of all sorts: sex, alcoholism, drug addiction. The story starts with him at the highest point in [his] career, but lowest in his life. He is estranged from his parents, hasn’t seen them in years. He has a lot of women, but none really care about him, only his money and what he can do for them. Early in the film he is hit by a car, is almost immobile, which sends him into this really inward state where he looks deep into himself and his soul. Then this girl next door helps pull him through. For the first time in his life he has a real relationship, with Ava Gaddison, a children’s book author. She’s wonderful, really sensitive, and brings out the best in him. But he struggles with relapses.
NM: What inspired you to start this project?
CZ: The inspiration was about addiction. I’d had a couple of relationships where my boyfriends were alcohol addicts. Then I thought it was a choice, but then realized it was an actual problem they had to resolve. A lot of people avoid confronting the problem and say it’s just a way to relax, which is one of the things Calvin says. When he finally recognizes the problem, then he can take steps to overcome it.