‘The State of Us’: In Conversation with sam Bottomley, Callum Scott Howells, Ollie Gardner and Jake Harvey

Ahead of The State of Us’ Edinburgh International Film Festival premiere, Mason Potter speaks to directors Ollie Gardner and Jake Harvey and stars Callum Scott Howells and Samuel Bottomley about the five-year journey behind the film, its exploration of male friendship and vulnerability, and the extraordinary challenge of making an independent feature in just 12 days.

Callum Scott Howells and Samuel Bottomley lead ‘The State of Us’ COURTESY OF EIFF

The State of Us is a film about two best friends facing the possibility of losing each other.

Directed by Ollie Gardner and Jake Harvey, the film follows Frankie and Taylor through one final night together after Taylor is diagnosed with cancer. What begins as a reckless night out gradually becomes an exploration of friendship, grief, masculinity and the things young men often struggle to say to one another.

Set and filmed in Bradford, the film is rooted in a very specific sense of place, while its themes are much broader. At its centre are Samuel Bottomley and Callum Scott Howells, whose performances give Frankie and Taylor the kind of lived-in chemistry that makes their friendship feel as though it existed long before the cameras arrived.

But the story behind The State of Us is almost as compelling as the film itself. Gardner and Harvey spent five years bringing their debut feature to life, drawing on personal experiences of friendship, illness and grief before assembling a cast and crew capable of making the film under extraordinary production constraints. The entire feature was shot in just 12 days.

Ahead of its Edinburgh International Film Festival premiere, I spoke to Gardner, Harvey, Howells and Bottomley about the friendship that inspired the film, finding Frankie and Taylor, creating a more vulnerable depiction of male friendship, filming in Bradford, working with cinematographer Yunus Roy Imer, the contribution of Tom Ogden of Blossoms, and what they hope audiences take away from the film.

The film is about two best friends, but it was also made by two best friends. How did that friendship begin, and when did you know you were the right people to make this together?

Jake Harvey: We actually met in uni playing sport, and I think we were probably the only two lads that were interested in the same thing.

We had the shared experience of having friendship groups that had gone through having one of them suffer with cancer, and we decided to look at what those relationships look like between young lads who aren't equipped to deal with these types of struggles at such a young age.

So we made our first short together, which was a movement piece based in a pub. It was about these lads that meet up every Sunday and one of them is diagnosed with cancer. It was about how their physical dialogue with each other is their way of telling their truth and how they're coping with the experience.

Then I wrote the film in lockdown, at a time when, like everyone, we were surrounded by death. There was something about the idea of two young lads breaking out of this conventional place of death, seizing their last moment and going on their big night out together and just celebrating life.

The first draft of the script was a bit of a grieving process in itself. It was an outpour of what my friendship groups had dealt with, and in lockdown, you have the time to process those things. That happened on the page.

Ultimately I wanted it to be like this love story about these two lads at the end of their life and sort of what to make of what time they have left.

Naturally, Ollie's my best mate, and when we started talking about it, it just felt natural that we'd do it together, because if you can bring that love behind the camera and then sort of forward the script with that feeling, I think there's an incredibly special experience.

Ollie Gardner: I would say it was very early on. As you said, it's a film about two best mates, made by two best mates.

We knew that this film lived or died off the relationship between these two lads, and there is no film without that. It's an incredibly contained story outside of these two boys and everything exists between them.

For us, there was only the chemistry that we needed to find, and we knew that from day dot. We knew we had to find two actors who had chemistry not only with each other but with us, because this has to be a unit.

We're also dealing with incredibly deep, intense and potentially triggering topics. We knew that this needed to be a supportive environment where we could all be vulnerable, we could all open up and we could also just carry each other through that.

We found that in abundance.

We keep saying this is a film about two best mates made by two best mates, but it's really a film about best mates made by four best mates. Really that's what it felt like this entire time, which has just been an absolute joy.

FINDING FRANKIE AND TAYLOR

Sam, your character in this film is such a departure from your recent role in California Schemin’. What parts of yourselves did you bring into Frankie?

Samuel Bottomley: I think it's focusing more about not what you leave behind, but what you take with you from yourself.

I'm quite close to my character anyway. Not obviously identical, but I'm very much like a laughing, jokey boy. So there are a lot of things that I could take with me quite easily, and it made it very, very easy to step in and out of him.

The film asks a really big question about how you would choose to spend your final day. If you had one day left with someone you loved, how would you spend it?

Callum Scott Howells: I reckon I'd want to do like a massive sort of Hogwarts dinner on a massive table with all my people who I love and have cherished memories with.

I would just want everyone to get up and do whatever, sharing of a memory we have probably, and have just a shit-hot dinner and get really drunk. That's probably what I'd like to do.

Ollie Gardner: I want to go have a pint at a pub. I just want to go have a little pub crawl or something. See what happens.

Samuel Bottomley: I think I'd just have a big barbecue. Big barbecue, big fire, everyone's around the fire, listen to some good music, a few beers, everyone you love around you. That's how I want to die.

“THE CANCER JUST CATCHES YOU OFF GUARD”

One thing I took away from the film is that Frankie doesn't really know how to live, whereas Taylor, despite knowing that he's dying, seems to understand how to appreciate life. Which perspective were you most interested in exploring?

Ollie Gardner: I don't think either perspective we're trying to lean in on.

I think this film is what we really wanted to have, two lead characters who both are the same person but through the circumstances they've lived have gone down two very different paths.

We always wanted Callum's character of Taylor to feel like, in a different life, he could have been Frankie.

That was really important to us, because it meant that we never were playing to the cancer, or playing to the trope of cancer for want of a better word, or playing the sympathy card.

It was always actually about how can we find the banter, how can we find the jokes, how can Taylor draw the vulnerability out of Frankie, and that's what he's trying to do the entire film.

Callum Scott Howells: I think the film starts and I think Taylor, for me, has accepted what's going to happen.

As soon as Taylor enters the frame, it then becomes about Frankie.

Taylor wants to know that, because he knows deep in his heart what's going to happen, but he wants to know Frankie's going to be OK, because he's like the love of his life, in a really, really beautifully brotherly way.

For me, it was about me and Sam knocking it back and forth and just dealing with the shit that goes on.

The beauty of Ollie and Jake's extraordinary script is that it really isn't about the cancer.

The cancer just catches you off guard. That's the extraordinary thing about this piece, and that's why I think it's one of the most sort of heart-wrenching scripts I've ever read.

Jake Harvey: There's something about the cancer element which is so interesting. Films get branded as cancer films and that's instantly a film about a sad topic.

But I think when you're surrounded by a group of lads who are faced with someone dying immediately in front of them, it's quite interesting exploring the fact that other lads might have equally sort of terminally troubling illnesses, but they're mental and they're invisible.

Young guys especially aren't equipped to deal with that as an illness.

The saddest person in the film is not the person who has cancer. It's the other friend. That's what the film is about.

MAKING AN INDEPENDENT FILM IN 12 DAYS

You filmed the entire film in just 12 days. What were the biggest challenges of making it happen in such a short space of time?

Jake Harvey: Everyone around us was the reason we could do it.

Our DP was amazing and more talented, to be honest, than anyone I've ever met. He's just phenomenal. He gave us the confidence to try things and take risks.

Our first AD, Rob, felt like one of us. At no point, even when there were challenges, did it feel like we couldn't get through them.

Ollie and I could always lean on each other. We always knew that these two could get through anything.

Then you look to your left, you look to your right and everyone on set is just hungry and pouring their best into it.

Ollie Gardner: It was really true. Find a crew who are all going to rally around each other and pick everyone up, because there's always going to be someone who's going through the ringer or struggling.

That sort of trust that we had with each other was the reason we could do it for 12 days.

It's worth highlighting what these lads did. The hilltop scene is an 11-page scene. It's a ten-minute scene and they played it out in one take.

We did not have the luxury to do it in sections. We very early on knew that and we said to them, we really want this to run as one. We're going to do three setups, a single each and a two shot, and we're going to roll with it and see what happens.

In the edit, the only footage that is used is their first takes, which is bonkers.

Ollie Gardner: I think Jake and I are just so incredibly proud of their performances in this film.

If anyone walks out with anything, every single person walks out of this film and just goes, "Oh my God, those two boys are amazing."

And it's true.

Our job was really just to keep momentum high, keep everyone's spirits high, just sort of have a laugh.

Samuel Bottomley: Vaping was the real challenge, to be honest.

WHY BRADFORD?

What was important about telling this story in Bradford rather than somewhere more traditionally associated with British film?

Ollie Gardner: We knew quite early on, Jake and I, that we wanted to take the story outside of London.

It feels like we're seeing less and less northern or regional voices in British film. Back in the '90s, some of our favourite films of all time, like Billy Elliot or The Full Monty, all have this really clear northern voice that was just beautiful, and it feels like we've sort of lost that a bit.

It felt really important that we took this out of London, and it felt really authentic to this story.

What Bradford gave was this, it's hard to say it, it just made sense. And if it makes sense, why fight it?

Callum Scott Howells: What Bradford really allows you to capture is that sort of nostalgia of it all.

You really see the history of it. When we're driving around and when we're through the houses, or whether it's on the hilltop with the fireworks, you can just feel the history there, not only of Bradford but of these boys existing in this community.

As a person who's from the South Wales Valleys, that's the connection I felt.

CAN FILM CHANGE THE CONVERSATION AROUND MASCULINITY?

The film shows something we don't see enough on screen, young men being vulnerable with each other. Do you think that is changing in film and media?

Callum Scott Howells: I hope so. I really hope so.

I'm so proud of that in this film. I'm so proud of the way we've portrayed it, because I think not only Ollie and Jake helped us portray it, but what I'm so proud of is that we're four young men.

I'm so proud of the conversations we had whilst making the film. They were done with such respect and love and care for not only each other and the characters and the story, but also for the people we're representing as well.

I just hope that when people see the film that they can connect to it and they can sort of see themselves and their friends in it.

Ollie Gardner: We're not trying to make a definitive statement. We're just trying to add to the conversation and try and move it forward in a way that feels positive.

We were asked this question about masculinity a lot, and it's a real tough one because I personally think masculinity is basically synonymous with toxic masculinity as we currently know it in our society.

What we were trying to do with this film was slightly different. It was sort of going, OK, we understand that's where the problem is now. Can we try to show something which is two men being vulnerable with each other that is a really beautiful relationship in a very platonic way between these two men that people and young boys can aspire to?

It was true. It's very true in Jake and I's relationship. It's true with all four of us. I would tell all of these boys that I love them. And we're incredibly vulnerable with each other.

It felt like if we could just show young men that that is possible, whilst also having a character who inherently has incredibly toxic traits in Frankie and the jokes, it was like, can we further that conversation and try something to show more positive?

ADVICE FOR ASPIRING FILMMAKERS

For people trying to break into film or struggling to find their way into the industry, what would you say to them?

Jake Harvey: To be honest, it feels like it's hard to give advice when we're in it and we're all just trying to make it up as we go.

That's the best advice I can give. No one knows what they're doing. If they say they do, they're lying.

The best thing you can do is find a piece that you really care about, love and want to make. Find the people that feel the same, that you also can have the same care for, and go, make that thing.

This was a labour of love for five years and we're just getting to the point where we've got the premiere next week and it's exciting, but that's five years of just real heavy grind.

Finding someone that you can do that with is incredibly important, because it can be a lonely and tough journey in the industry at times.

Ollie Gardner: Find the story that's most personal to you, because it's a horrible roadmap to try and get your film made.

In everything, you have to trust in everyone around you and you have to trust in your love for the project.

I don't think there's now any easy first film that gets made. So you have to find something that you love more than anything and champion it and put it ahead of you and give it over to other people and trust in the fact that they're doing the same thing for you.

Callum Scott Howells: I'd also just say, look after yourself.

It is tough. It's really, really, really tough.

Be kind to yourself. Be kind to one another, and we'll all get through it and we'll all do some really great stuff and we'll see some great stuff as well and absorb some brilliant stuff.

Samuel Bottomley: I think just be nice and try and work as hard as you can. And that's it. Just try your flipping best, man.

We're all doing that and just about getting away with it, you know. So, like, just try your best and be polite.

At the end of the day, we're not doctors. We're not saving someone's life. It's meant to be fun, and the best stuff came about when we were all having fun.

It's such an amazing thing to be doing, so you should just cherish it while you're doing it.

WHAT THEY DON'T TAKE FOR GRANTED

The film is ultimately about appreciating your life and the people around you. Since making it, what is one thing you don't take for granted anymore?

Ollie Gardner: These boys on the call, if I'm honest. Not only these boys but the other friendships in the crew, but also my friendships outside of this.

Really cherishing those friendships, because ultimately that's all we're doing in this life, just finding our way through with people that we all want to spend it with.

Callum Scott Howells: That's exactly the same. Life is the people that you meet and the people you love and the experiences you have with one another.

I don't take any of that for granted.

Samuel Bottomley: My mum and my dad and family. My dog's getting older, so I'm appreciating her more.

You've got to check yourself, haven't you? You've got to check yourself with how grateful you are for the things around you.

‍ ‍I've sort of took that mantra on in life. Just be grateful for everything you get.

Like water. How cool is it that we can just sit and drink water and stuff like that?

THE FILMS THAT SHAPED THEM

To finish, if you could recommend one film that everyone should watch before they die, what would it be?

Ollie Gardner I was actually going to go with a film called A Ghost Story by David Lowery. It's a beautiful film with Casey Affleck in where he basically gets, I mean, it's not a spoiler, he dies in the opening scene and then has to watch his family mourn him and then he becomes a ghost in the space.

It's an incredibly beautiful film. That film, when I watched that, it made me think about my life and appreciate the small things and it really existentially moved me.

I'm going to go and say that.

Jake Harvey: There's a lot of films I would go to for connections to this, but for me, About Time just speaks to the beauty of the world and the relationships that exist within them.

I rewatched it the other day and the message it gives you, it's the perfect film about love and relationships and the value of the time you've got.

If I had to recommend any film to someone just for the rest of their life, it would probably be that.

Samuel Bottomley: It's a Wonderful Life.

Callum Scott Howells: The Worst Person in the World by Joachim Trier is, I think, deeply, deeply affected me.

The State of Us screens as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2026.