John Early and Kate Berlant on Old-School Cinema and Influencer Culture in 'Maddie's Secret'

John Early and Kate Berlant, longtime friends and collaborators, discuss Early's feature writing and directorial debut, 'Maddie's Secret,' releasing in June 2026. The film follows Maddie, played by Early, a dishwasher turned talent at a Bon Appétit-esque test kitchen called Gourmaybe, who struggles with bulimia. Early conceived the idea in February 2024, wrote it in a month, and shot it in February 2025. The film employs vintage 1940s lenses and heavy haze to create a dreamlike, old-school cinematic aesthetic, inspired by directors like Adrian Lyne. Early initially planned a satirical take on food influencer culture but found the film became more tenderhearted, especially after changing the protagonist from a gay man to a woman. Berlant plays Deena, Maddie's best friend, and her mother Helen appears as a front desk worker. The film aims to inject contemporary phone-based ephemera with cinematic romance, using wider frames to show more of characters' lives. Early cites influences from early John Waters and Albert Brooks. The conversation also touches on Berlant's starstruck encounter with Albert Brooks in Brentwood, the symbolism of milk chugging as a Freudian act of self-nurturing, and the parallels between binge eating and phone scrolling.