Chloe and Theo Producer Monica Ord on Dakota Johnson, Climate Change

You just saw the new trailer for Chloe and Theo available now on to being all major streaming platforms a very topical film for the times we’re in I’m pleased to be joined by producer Monica Ord Monica. Thank you so much for the time here we are all these years later, not only is the film more relevant than ever. But starting to be more popular than ever. How do you feel about that I couldn’t be more thrilled? Honestly, we were really lucky because it was a small indie film with a big heart. And I had Richard branson and John Paul de jouria, as the funders and executive producers.

So I was extremely lucky to be able to put put it together, and we cared a lot about the message and about climate change. And Theo is just such an amazing human being and we really wanted to get his message out, but we brought it out at a time when obama was going to the arctic there was a lot of politics and things going on. And it really didn’t get kind of the surge that we wished it would have and now all of a sudden it’s on every station everywhere and Dakota Johnson blew up which was absolutely. Fantastic because this was a film she did before, you know, she got all the other big films and she did a fantastic job.

So, I couldn’t be more happy honestly when I was watching this film. I partially forgot at the time, wait a minute. This is based on a true story and Theo the inukus one of the main characters of the film is actually Theo in real life. And it’s literally based on his story and him trying to warn everybody about the dangers of climate change and how our world is changing how we should all wake up. So for you when it came to getting involved what came first for you was it trying to get theo’s story out there in real life or did it later come in when you decided.

Okay, you know what maybe the best way to tell a story and get out there is through film. Yeah, you know, the making of was just such an amazing journey because my background is disease research. So I had really no business coming in and making a movie, but I met Theo in real life. And he was an amazing character. And he just wanted help. He just wanted to get his message out there was a lot going on in the arctic with climate change. And they were seeing a lot of changes that were really affecting their lives in fact in one inuit village. They could no longer have female babies because the toxins and pollution that we do to the oceans.

It’s magnetic. So, it goes to the poles and unfortunately the animals there and also the fish and everything. That is, you know, their livelihood that they’re eating every single day is affecting them where it’s poisoning them because it’s so much stronger. And so I felt like we’re victimizing them. So when I heard his story. And he was so passionate about getting it out. I honestly just wanted to help him there was no idea of a movie or anything, but then he asked me to try and find someone famous. And I had worked with Richard branson on some of the disease research in Africa, he had helped me tremendously and I knew he might be up for a dog sled journey.

So Theo was going on a three-month dog side journey. And he felt that we could come up there and we could actually witness everything that was going on firsthand. So Richard said. Yes. And a month later. We were in minus 45 in the arctic traveling by dogsled and sleeping on the ice and it was just the most incredible journey of my life. It was incredible. But it also showed us a lot. That’s going on and how bad it’s getting and how the glaciers were all melting and we learned a lot. So when we came back, we looked at the footage and it’s beautiful. It’s absolutely incredible footage, but we decided that we should make a feature not a documentary because we really wanted enough, people to see it so then we decided to cast it and we got cassian elvis who was an incredible help.

He came on board and helped me through all of it. Basically he helped produce it. And he got us, the casting agent and everyone and Dakota tried out for it and at the time she wasn’t the huge success. She is now. But she did a fantastic job and she wrote me a personal letter of how badly she wanted to be the lead because of how she felt about climate change. And that she really wanted to be an actress to make a difference and she it was amazing. It really touched me and the director was blown away by her. So she came on board. And we shot it in the arctic we shot in new York and we shot in LA.

And then we got it out. But yeah, it was a journey and at the very end John Paul de jouria. I’m sure, you know, who he is from patron and Paul mitchell he came in and funded everything we needed in the end to get it out. So, he did an incredible job and was an absolute angel as well. So it was amazing even at one time. James cameron was involved for a minute because we they invited me to speak at a Ted turner climate change. Event. And I showed little clips of it. It wasn’t anywhere finished yet. And he invited me to his house to sit and watch it and he we watched it down and I spent about five hours with him at his home theater.

And he gave me tips on what to do, you know, to add some narration in and you know, do different things. And I just couldn’t thank him enough. So a lot of people did a lot, you know, the crew was amazing. It was it’s true it takes a village that’s fantastic. Now obviously your main goal was to get theo’s story out there. And in general. I mean, you’re helping people every day with what you do and you do incredible work and you know just much respect to you and everybody in your field for work. They’re doing, especially the last last couple of years, but I would imagine it was also an incredible experience being a part of this film producing this film learning firsthand.

Not just from experienced professionals, but some of the greats. I mean, as you mentioned seeing five hours with James cameron getting these various tips and everything that kind of opened a new door for you that you didn’t realize in your career like, hey, maybe I could pursue this film thing and positively impact people at the same time. Oh my god, it really did it was tough it gave me a huge appreciation for filmmakers because what you see on the screen takes a hell of a lot of work to get on there. And I did not realize that when I jumped in, but I was there every day.

I was the producer, that was on set and I had a lot of help. I mean, every person in the crew helped me with different things. And we managed to pull it off and our crew had a lot of heart. They each one of them wanted to be in it for the right reasons a lot of them took lower pay because they wanted to be part of it and Theo was amazing. And most people don’t even know today that Theo plays himself in the movie because try to cast an inuit in Los Angeles and you’ll see what we went through. So we asked Theo if he could do it.

And he jumped in and I don’t even think he realized what he got into because there were moments where he was literally terrified because he wasn’t used to being around. The amount of people. We were around or any of the atmosphere that we were in this man was born in an igloo literally and lived his whole life in the arctic. So, I can’t say enough for him, he did a fantastic job. And when you see him, he was an incredible actor. He did such a good job, but a lot of the little things in the movie we wrote because of things that actually happened in real life the director.

Was very smart the way, he did it because something would happen in real life. And then he’d throw it in the next day into the scenes, just for example one of the little things. We when he was eating in Los Angeles. We would have to order him literally kind of raw food raw fish raw everything because that was his diet. And he was getting physically sick from eating the food in the United states and they don’t eat a lot of vegetables. They don’t eat, you know, starches just nothing they live a lot on a meat diet and funny enough. They’re healthy, but he was eating sushi one day and we had ordered him a roll and it had fish in the middle and then it had rice on the outside.

And so while we were talking. He was busily taking all the rice off and only eating the fish in the middle and there’s a scene in meera’s apartment where he does just that in the scene. So, and even there’s a scene where he said is that what you do to your old people because he realized that we put them in homes and they’re there to just get old on their own, which is so sad and in his village. If there’s an elder they’re revered. So, if a family doesn’t isn’t able to take proper care of them then they just go from family to family you would never think of sending them away or not taking care of them.

So, his culture really came out in the film and I loved that because it’s a beautiful culture the inuit are just fantastic. Amazing people incredible people. So sure. So, yeah, it was a joy, I loved it. And I want to make more films I’m already working on another one and I loved it loved every second of it. So looking back at 2015 to now obviously, I’m sure you would have loved to have you know, the support you have now back then, but how does it feel all these years later to have this film fondly remembered and now discovered by so many more people. Oh my god, I’m honestly in heaven.

And I never thought I’d get another chance like I’m getting now and that’s due to vision films there our distributor and they jumped in and they’ve just done a fantastic job. There’s a girl there named Kristen and she is trying to move heaven and earth just, you know, trying to get the word out about it. And they’ve re-released it everywhere. It’s on every channel. I can’t go on a channel without seeing my own film and you have no idea how that makes me feel but also because the message was so important. And I felt in a way the first time around around that I had somehow let it down.

It was out of my hands because Hollywood is the way Hollywood is and unfortunately the first distributor we worked with they actually unfortunately took advantage of us and they did not pay any money nobody got the money that they were due and then that company went under. And so the film was just unfortunately a victim of all of that. And so I always felt like god, I wish I had done it different I feel so bad because Theo just wanted his message out and to get a second chance is just mind-blowing. But it also, you know, helps the planet bottom line because it has a big heart.

And when you see Theo and see what he’s like and you get to know him through the film. I mean, people write to me every single day saying. Oh my god, I was crying my eyes out I laughed through it, I loved it. So I’m in heaven right now and I can’t say enough about vision films because they really have moved heaven and earth to get it out. Shout out to vision films expose the they expose this awesome movie to so many different people. So I know definitely a great job. Thank god because usually I mean I didn’t even realize this, but a film doesn’t get a second chance like this.

So, I feel really really fortunate in a million ways I first got to make it. I had incredible people involved and now it gets to come out a second time. So there’s miracles happening every day in this movie and also the social media like you said when it first came out social media was amazing. And it was very it was young people everybody who was under, you know, 30 loved it and on social media every morning you could open it up and there was hashtag Chloe and Theo you have to see this movie. I don’t know why, but what happened was it was partially my fault I didn’t raise enough for advertising because there was the first movie I’d ever done.

And I didn’t even realize that you need an advertising budget. Sometimes bigger than your actual movie budget and I hadn’t done that properly. So this time around they’ve they’ve done a fantastic job. So, I’m thrilled and people like it and I just want them to get a message a good message that, you know, we all need to care about each other more than anything else. I’m just wondering, how is Theo doing these days he’s doing good. Oh, god unfortunately after the movie he got attacked by a Bear a polar Bear. Yeah, it was a really bad situation him and his cousins were out on the ice and you know, because of climate change.

A lot of the bears aren’t getting the food, they need. And so they’ll come into the towns closer than they ever would and he was telling us that they would have to walk the kids to school with shotguns now, which they never had to do before just to protect themselves. And so he they were out on the ice and a polar Bear came along and attacked his cousins and him and it was just an awful experience, but he’s recovered now and he’s doing good. He’s an elder and in the village and we had a green carpet up there. So there was some celebrities that came and it was the first film and premiere that was ever in this little village in the arctic like all the villagers came from all the villages around to see it.

And so theo’s kind of a big deal up there, he’s a hero. Well glad he’s doing better that this that was scary to hear, but I’m glad he’s recovered and yeah, that’s amazing. Now the irony right now. He now he’s the elder in this whole deal. Yeah, that’s right? That’s right. Yeah. And I love the fact that the film highlighted this and just your work with Theo also highlighted this, you know, when we talk about climate change. We talk about the atmosphere, right? We’re talking about all the weather. I mean, I live in, new Jersey. And I mean, our weather is just unpredictable. It’s ridiculous, new York same thing where we’re at and then, you know, you talk about the animals, and obviously that’s important as well, right?

For food for everything the life cycle, but a lot of people don’t talk about inhuman people. They don’t talk about the indigenous people who are truly suffering like as you mentioned like polar bears coming closer and everything. That’s not something I think that crosses the mind like of the everyday person. You know, in a normal society. So, how important was that for you to highlight not just okay, this is bad for all of us, but that we should worry about these specific groups of people that are indigenous it was extremely important in my you know in my biomedical life with the disease research I’ve worked in I worked in Africa for years and you also see a lot of problems there with climate change.

Because when climate change. Hits people can’t grow what they need. They can’t get the water that they need they’re affected by it a hundred times more than we are and what made me feel kind of sick as an American a spoiled American is we just go to the grocery store we’re on our cell phones. We pick out anything that we want in the world to eat we throw it in our baskets still talking. We have no reverence for our lives and how lucky extremely lucky that we are. And it’s sad because we should kiss the ground every morning because we were born here because in the arctic for one.

It’s the arctic. So you really can’t grow anything up there. It’s just ice even in the summertime when it melts. It’s not like you can grow oranges or grow apples or something. So, the only time the inuit get fruit or vegetables is on these huge ships and they only come a few times a year. So once all the produce and everything has spoiled there’s nothing for months all they have is meat to eat. So Theo would point things out, you know in real life. Like when we were even when we were flying on the plane. He was watching everybody just kind of throw the food away because you know, we one thing off our tray and then they throw it away and he was just blown away like god, if we could put all this in bags and bring it to the inuit people.

They would have food they and our director noticed, right away that there’s a definitely a kind of twin thing that they do that the homeless do the reason. He made the homeless kind of the heroes in the movie is because every day homeless people. They just walk with what they have and they use what they have and if they find a tin can and they can use it for something they do. It’s exactly the same with indigenous people in the arctic they’ll use everything the bones of an animal the teeth of the animal the hair of the animal everything. Whereas we waste and waste. We don’t use anything we just throw things out left and right?

And so it was a real wake-up call for me because I realized how spoiled I am and how everything is just at my fingertips. And I just hope that other people can get the same kind of message out of the film because the more we waste the more it impacts the whole planet. And it impacts people in other countries in a horrible way that we would never want to hurt people like that. I truly believe that it’s just people don’t realize it and right now there’s so many apps out there where you can really look at your climate footprint. You know, you can Google apps for climate change.

And they’ll go through your whole day and they’ll tell you where you’re wasting and where you aren’t and it’s just important that we all do something like when you learn something you need to do something about it. So that’s why I’m just so glad the film’s out again, I really am and Theo when people see him they’ll just I mean you can’t help, but love the guy in the movie and you can’t help, but love him in real life. So, it really does make a difference. I gotta ask you not to give too much away the film. But there is a part of the film where Theo refuses to use the elevator and decides to take the stairs and there’s an obscene amount of stairs did.

He actually take the stairs the whole time. He actually did and like I said the director was so smart the way, he did it because he would see something in real life and he’d add it in and that was one of the things that he added in not only was Theo scared of elevators because he didn’t want to get in the box and go up, but he also just felt like people should walk. Like when you can walk you should walk. And he did that everywhere he walked all over Manhattan whenever we were filming, he would walk from one scene to another instead of, you know, being driven.

If it was close enough to walk. He would walk and I would walk with him. Most of the time and it also gave me a chance to know him a lot better as a human one time. We were in new York and times square and he saw some homeless people. And he walked up and he literally sat down with them and started talking to them and wanted to know why they were sitting on the street and what was going on. And he listened to their whole story and I mean, he’s just such a lovely human being and afterwards he made me didn’t make me because I was happy to do it.

But he took all the money, I had in my purse and gave it to the homeless person because that person was having a hard time and I agreed with him a thousand percent, but that was another thing I learned there are no homeless in the arctic. They do the same thing as they do with the elders if somebody isn’t doing? Well because of drugs or alcohol or whatever the problem is each family takes that person for a short period of time to try and help the person get back on their feet. It’s really a beautiful thing it’s a community. And I think in the United states we’ve kind of lost that, you know, we don’t have a sense of community.

Like we could or should Chloe and Theo now available to stream. You can stream it on 2b or you can watch it commercial free across all the major streaming platforms Google play Prime video apple you name it. They got it starring Dakota Johnson the incredible Theo Monica, we really do appreciate the time. It’s been an absolute pleasure learning about your story and the making of this film. Before we let you go, where can fans find you online and where can we find you next? I’m on social media, I also do art. So my social media is Monica Ord art and anybody can contact me anytime and I have another movie coming up which I’ll come back to you and you can interview me.

Again, there we go. Okay, okay. Awesome. I appreciate that I will hold you to that. I’ll do it. You’re awesome. Thank you. Excellent Chloe and Theo available to stream now.