‘Fingernails’ director Christos Nikou: ‘Nobody’s bad in this movie, nobody’s evil’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

For his breakout romantic comedy “Fingernails,” co-writer and director Christos Nikou wanted to avoid many of the genre’s obvious trappings – including the idea that for the audience to want its core relationship to work, the film needs to demonize the other characters.

“Fingernails” stars Jesse Buckley and Riz Ahmed as Anna and Amir, co-workers at an institute where a couple’s compatibility is determined by removing their fingernails and running the detached ungues through a device. But as Anna and Amir begin to possibly fall in love, it shakes Anna’s beliefs and makes her question her relationship with Ryan (Jeremy Allen White), her supportive boyfriend and love match based on a previous fingernail test.

“We wanted to create something that doesn’t make the decision for the audience or for Anna very easy,” Nikou tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview as part of our Meet the Experts: Film Directors panel. “If it was a very typical American film, Ryan probably would have been played by, I don’t know, Danny Trejo, who was always playing the bad guy in every movie. But of course, we didn’t want to have that. We wanted to have something that looks much more like life. Nobody’s bad in this movie, nobody’s evil. Everybody’s trying for their own things and for their own sanity in this crazy goal. So that’s what we tried to show with Ryan, and I feel that it’s much better to show it with an actor like Jeremy rather than to have somebody that would be very easy for everybody to discard.”

“Fingernails” debuted at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this year and its performances from Buckley and Ahmed were highlighted as standouts. So too was the film’s depiction of the fingernail removal necessary to complete the love test, which had audiences literally squirming in their seats in anticipation of the act. Nikou says the key was making sure the sequence had a balance between the body horror of the removal and the romantic tone of the film.

“We wanted to make something that for sure will make the audience feel a little bit uncomfortable in that time, and for sure will make them feel a little bit the pain of love. Because that’s what we’re trying to portray with this test,” Nikou says. “But, at the same time, without making it a body horror film because it’s a romantic movie and we want it to keep you there.”

Nikou says at screenings of “Fingernails,” he witnessed first-hand many audiences shifting in their seats as the act drew closer. But not everyone was grossed out by the mere prospect of the nail removal. “It’s funny because I did some Q&As and some people asked me why we didn’t even show more. I was like, ‘You wanted me to show more?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, yeah to see the blood and everything,’” Nikou recalls. “I was like, ‘No.’”

“Fingernails” is streaming on Apple TV+.

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