Although social media allows fans to interact with their favorite creatives more than ever, there’s still often a barrier between the famous and... well, everyone else. But the writer of the new indie flick The Sunlit Night got lucky when she had a brief exchange with Jenny Slate that later turned into a filmmaking partnership thanks to Twitter. Yeah, I’m surprised too, I don’t say “thanks to Twitter” very often.
When Rebecca Dinerstein Knight was a guest on CinemaBlend’s podcast ReelBlend this week to talk about Sunlit Night ahead of its release on VOD this Friday, she gushed about the moment that changed her life and why she’s not sure it could have happened today. In her words:
I tweeted at Jenny in 2014 when Twitter felt very young and fresh to me. Who would know what would happen today. Jenny is so exuberant and so generous that maybe if it happened again at another time she would still respond. But there was certain innocence to tweet 6 years ago just landing at its target and being received with a lot of warmth. If there's any celebrity out there who's gonna still do that is Jenny Slate, but I’m really happy it happened when it happened.
Here’s how the story goes: Rebecca Dinerstein Knight and Jenny Slate were both in New York. Knight spotted Slate and proceeded to clap for the former Big Mouth star in Brooklyn Park. The stand-up comedian and actress was on the phone with her mom during the exchange, but she took a moment to blow Knight a kiss as she walked away.
Later on Twitter, Knight took to social media to immortalize the sweet moment and Jenny Slate actually responded. Yes, I actually dug up the actual 2014 exchange. Check it out here:
What’s amazing is Jenny Slate responded to a tweet with three likes in one hour. The novelist was certainly surprised by the happening, and yes, this feels like a one-in-a-million response now that celebrities are @ed at I’d guess thousands of times a day. What's even more amazing is what happened soon after: a second exchange on Twitter! How? Take a look:
Five years later, the Twitter conversation has turned into the realization of Rebecca Dinerstein Knight’s novel coming to life on film. The Sunlit Night is about an aspiring painter who ventures to Norway to become an apprentice of a muralist. It's there where she meets Yasha, a man who is in the middle of burying his father in the land of the Vikings. Other than Slate, the film features Zach Galifinakis and Gillian Anderson. Check out the full episode of this week’s ReelBlend episode with Knight here:
The Sunlit Night premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year before finding a place on VOD this weekend. Check out what other movies are coming out this year with CinemaBlend’s 2020 Release Calendar.
