Mixing up sexuality, youth, homecoming, and escape, Highway One is about a New Year’s Eve party set in Cambria, where long-lost friends and messed-up lovers connect and disconnect. “This movie is such a love letter to California, and although mainly filmed in Southern California, I wanted it to be set somewhere rural, a small town that had a fishing-village mentality but also felt like a fairy tale, an escape — a representation of something,” said director Jaclyn Bethany, who also wrote the film. “To me, Cambria stands in for a place we leave and go back to in our lives as changed people.”
Bethany and producer Rebecca Morandi answered more of my questions below.
How did this story develop? Is it based on any personal background?
Jaclyn Bethany: It was actually developed from a 50-page outline where only the scenes between the lead characters were scripted. It was sort of inspired by the world of a Chekhov play, one of those endless dramatic parties, if you know what I mean. All the characters have Russian names as an ode to that world.