'True Blood's Carrie Preston talks about directing

“I like to say that it’s not a bromance, it’s a womance,” says Carrie Preston, director of That’s What She Said, which opens today in New York and Los Angeles.

Preston, (whom you’ll recognize from True Blood and guest appearances on The Good Wife) has been working to bring this raunchy female comedy, starring Anne Heche, Marcia DeBonis, and Ali Shawkat, to the big screen for close to a decade. “[Screenwriter] Kellie Overbey gave me this play called Girl Talk. I read it and totally fell in love with the characters,” says Preston. “I told her she had to let me direct it and put Marcia DeBonis in it.”

Preston directed it for the stage and then worked for the next six years with Oberbey on the adaptation. “It’s really about friendship,” she says. “And it has my kind of humor — really smart, witty, and acerbic.”

Preston shot the film in New York City, her home for the last 22 years. “I wanted New York to be a character in the film and I thought it was important to portray New York in an unromantic way because so many movies romanticize it so that everything is wonderful and we all walk around in five-inch heels.” She laughs. “That is so not the case.”

Of course, on an indie budget it’s also not the easiest of cities to shoot in. “We did a lot of rogue shooting in the subway where we’d steal some shots because of low budgets. That was fun.”

But fans of Preston’s acting work should not worry: though she said she’ll continue to direct (she has a few projects in development) she’ll still be found in front of the camera. In January she’ll return to filming True Blood‘s sixth season, and next month she’ll shoot a three-episode arc on The Good Wife.

Check out the trailer for That’s What She Said:

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Carrie Preston at Sundance — VIDEO