If there’s an example of a successful multi-hyphenate, it’s Alice Levine: TV/radio presenter, podcast presenter, model - and now, following her film Sleeping With The Far Right, she’s a serious documentary maker too. Here, the My Dad Wrote A Porno podcast presenter speaks to Grazia Online all about why she chose to work on such a heavy-hitting documentary, in addition to her more light-hearted work. (Hint: there’s definitely more documentaries to look forward too.)
Living With The Far Right was something a bit different to what you usually do, did you have any reservations about doing that?
Exactly that, I guess - that’s it a complete departure from the things I usually do, which are very much entertainment shows or something which a tongue-in-cheek slant. Although I think the film has that too, so I guess that’s what marries all the things that I make is that. Even though the subject matter isn’t out and out funny, it’s certainly not that, there are these moments that break up the tension - there are these brief little moments of dark humour. [The] reservations I had was just doing a good job, like with any project you do - you want to do it well.
How did you find the reaction to the film?
The reactions were really interesting and really great, we had some lovely reviews about it and a lot of people understood what we were trying to do with it, because it’s not really like a film I’ve seen about the far right before. It’s a different tone, so I feel people took it really well, which was a huge relief because the night before that kind of thing goes out, [I was] like, oh maybe I’ll just do funny light stuff all the time.
How did you feel when the film went out?
I was quite relieved when it went out, because we were really proud of it and I just wanted it to be out there. When it’s just in your mind and in an edit suite, you just kind of want people to see it.
Did you get any negative reaction, and how do you deal with that?
Yes, of course. I don’t imagine the far right loved it. I’ll be honest, I try not to read loads of stuff on Twitter, because I think it’s really distracting and also, you know, if you’re not going to enter into a discussion about it, I think it’s quite hard to accept people’s opinions in 140 characters. It’s such a complicated film, I don’t really know if you can have that discussion there.
It was so well recieved. Will you be doing more documentaries in the future?
I will definitely be doing more factual films. Yeah I will definitely do another documentary - but you have to find the right story. We don’t know exactly what it’s going to be on yet. But we’re working on what it might be. I don’t think it’ll be another week with a member of the far right!
Any more clues on what you're going to cover in your next documentary?
I think there are loads of issues and subjects, and sometimes you just have to decide if you’re going to tell that story the best - and obviously that was a conversation about the far right, like should it be me, or an activist or a journalist, like somebody else who has done more in that area. And I think that’s something you always have to ask yourself. I think with there was a certain aspect that it was disarming as I wasn’t a journalist, it wasn’t somebody that he’d come into contact with before. Although our opinions were completely different, I do think the fact I wasn’t a person who makes a news programme usually did change the mood of discussions... When you think about the things that you’d like to see films on, you have to ask if you’re the best person to tell it.
When is season three of My Dad Wrote A Porno coming out?
This year. I promise it won’t be like the 24th of December. It will be nearer to now than to then - we just filmed our live show for HBO, so that’s been taking up our time.
Alice Levine has partnered with Irish chocolate brand Lily O’Brien’s to act as a brand ambassador for their ongoing Share Wisely campaign. Visit www.lilyobriens.co.uk for more information.