Troian Bellisario knew there was a grave duty when bringing director Jorey Worb’s traumatic expertise to life in her new brief movie, BITE.

“I felt answerable for honoring her expertise, however most significantly I needed to guard Jorey and ensure that in capturing this, we’d not be placing her in a harmful place,” Bellisario, 38, solely informed Us Weekly. “This was a piece of auto-fiction, however for each of us, it was much less about recreating the precise occasions and extra about ensuring the emotional journey was portrayed honestly.”

She added, “The extra particular you could be in your storytelling, the extra common the story turns into. Our purpose was to depict the transformation from sufferer to hero, emphasizing that psychological well being heroes deserve admiration.”

Within the 15-minute brief – which premiered at Tribeca Movie Competition earlier this month – Bellisario’s character Alexa, loses and makes an attempt to achieve again her id after being sexually assaulted by a dentist. She struggles to resolve find out how to transfer ahead in a wholesome manner, consulting her buddies, her household and her husband in hopes of discovering the correct path between therapeutic and standing up for herself.

The movie is predicated on Worb’s private expertise, and Bellisario informed Us that the duo had six months of prep and conversations earlier than manufacturing started.

“We delved into what occurred through the assault, and he or she was very open and trustworthy with me about her historical past and life experiences,” Bellisaro defined. “Trauma isn’t simply the story of what occurred; it’s about how the physique and psyche be taught to reply primarily based on the preliminary response to the trauma.”

Bellisario famous that Worb “emphasised that an important a part of depicting the character was staying true to the common emotions, feelings, and experiences that every one abuse survivors share.”

The brief has already been in comparison with the works of Wes Anderson and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Younger Girl, utilizing a heightened, surrealist lens to drive the message dwelling. For Bellisario, Worb’s otherworldly artistic decisions helped “seize the expertise of dwelling with trauma.”

“She defined that the main signs of Advanced PTSD (C-PTSD) — dwelling in battle, flight, freeze, and fawn — are successfully depicted by means of these stylistic components,” Bellisario stated,  A tense courtroom scene, wherein Alexa will get verbally accosted throughout a Victorian-era fake trial, was her “favourite” to play.

“It portrays the fawn response [in which a person attempts to appease their attacker] and processing life whereas toggling between flashbacks and actuality,” she stated.

Bellisario believes the movie is akin to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Every thing In all places All at As soon as — 2023’s Finest Image Oscar winner — and its means to keep up “emotional and narrative authenticity” whereas additionally being each “visually and stylistically heightened.” The Fairly Little Liars alum defined that it was “liberating” to play up the extra “surreal” elements as a result of they had been extra “truthful” to her character’s “emotional expertise.”

“They had been her inner life, made exterior,” Bellisario defined.

As for why Bellisario selected to tackle the complicated position of Alexa, she informed Us that she’s occupied with championing “tales that matter.” That features holding up a magnifying glass to the nation’s ongoing “psychological well being epidemic,” which has led “suicide charges” to succeed in an “all-time excessive.”

Bellisario additionally discovered herself in Worb’s story. Regardless of her and Worb having completely different experiences, she associated to ladies being informed when and what to really feel about their very own life and trauma.

“As a girl I can relate to being [told] to maintain our voices down, to swallow circumstances we shouldn’t be informed to swallow and be woman,” Bellisario stated. “That’s how I discovered myself on this character. BITE is a verb, and I’m grateful that Jorey and I found it collectively.”