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The combat in the film is not particularly realistic, but it is rather gory and quite unlike anything Heche or Oh has ever done. "We went to them and met with them and they were like, 'Fuck yeah, we love this script,'" recalled Tukel the day after his film's premiere. A burly, gregarious painter, actor, and filmmaker, he had planned to make the film for under $200,000 with actresses he was familiar with from the New York indie film world, but when production company MPI and the talent agency UTA approached him about "scaling up" the production, he jumped at the opportunity.Since appearing in Michael Tully's Sundance favorite Septien five years ago, Tukel has increasingly made a niche for himself in the indie scene making freewheeling micro-budget comedies. But he was unsure the actresses were ready for his run-and-gun approach. "You all come from Hollywood, real fucking movie sets, big shit, I'm a small-time fucker with two little video cameras, running around with a tiny crew, is that OK with you?" Tukel remembered saying to his leads, before suggesting that they watch his last film Applesauce to get a sense of the production's size and aesthetic. "They watched it, and they loved it and were like, 'Yeah, we just want to make something cool.'"Neither of these women earns our sympathy or outright scorn in Catfight. They, and the world they live in, prove to be cruel, ironic, and deliciously funny.
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