How the ‘By Design’ Team Turned Juliette Lewis Into a Chair | Video

Filmmaker Amanda Kramer melded a number of different art forms in her new feature “By Design,” but her tallest order was turning Juliette Lewis into a chair.

“I think of it as it’s a body swap movie,” Kramer told executive editor Adam Chitwood at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt, explaining her approach to the film that follows a woman played by Lewis who turns into a chair. “I think of it as the kind of body horror film that is about the terror and wear of desperation rather than the blood and gore of violence. I mean, desperation, I think, is pretty horrifying.”

Fashioned as an epic fable featuring diminutive characters, “By Design” recounts the story of Camille (Juliette Lewis), a woman sustained by friendships with women who use her to talk about themselves. When Camille falls in love with a chair she can’t afford, she becomes the chair, which gets gifted to a beautiful piano player-for-hire, Olivier (Mamoudou Athie), by his ex.

The film incorporates movement through choreographer Sigrid Lauren to help tell its story.

“I was really excited by the choreography and the choreographer that she picked, Sigrid, is spectacular and strange,” Lewis said. “But also it’s subtle, because it’s so specific to the telling of this story, the love story of the chair, so I just wanted to honor it and do a good job.”

The cast had high praise for Kramer, but the filmmaker insisted the experience of bringing “By Design” to life was a collaborative one.

“I also think Amanda’s just an incredible leader and director,” Robin Tunney, who plays Irene in the film, said. “I feel like that’s why everybody trusted her. There was never a moment about it — it was like surrender. How do you want my hair to look? What are we doing? And I felt so loved, I would have done anything.”

In his review of the film, TheWrap’s Chase Hucthinson wrote, “This is the first film Kramer has shown at the festival and it also feels like the one she’s spent her whole career building up to. Rather than compromise her ideas that she’s explored with spirited, if sometimes a little scattered, verve in past works, she deepens the emotions she’s tapping into just as she dives further and further into absurdity. Merging a somewhat similar visual style to ‘Please Baby Please’ with the thorny introspective elements of the smaller-scale ‘Pity Me,’ it’s not just her funniest film yet, but also her best.”

Watch the full interview in the player above. For more of TheWrap’s Sundance 2025 coverage, click here.

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