In a lively conversation that crackles with the same chaotic energy as their film, director Jenna MacMillan, writer/star Susan Kent, and co-star Robin Duke sat down to reflect on The Snake—their off-beat dark comedy that stormed South by Southwest in March 2026. Fresh off Susan Kent’s Special Jury Award for Performance, the team shared memories of a joyful shoot on Prince Edward Island, the surreal buzz of SXSW, and the deeply human story at the film’s core.
The Snake marks MacMillan’s feature directorial debut. As an award-winning producer (named one of Playback’s “10 to Watch” in 2025) and co-founder of Club Red Productions, she brings a producer’s eye for collaboration to the director’s chair. The film, written by and starring Susan Kent (Who’s Yer Father?, This Hour Has 22 Minutes), follows Jamie—a 40-something “ungovernable wild child” whose life spectacularly unravels after clashing with her venomous mother Anne (Robin Duke, Saturday Night Live). Evicted from her late Nana’s bright-pink house, dumped by her boyfriend, and tumbling into an affair with her best friend’s husband, Jamie careens through a fiery crash course in self-discovery. The stellar Canadian cast also includes Emma Hunter (Slo Pitch), Dan Petronijevic (Letterkenny, The Trades), Jimbo (RuPaul’s Drag Race), and comedy legend Jonathan Torrens (Letterkenny).
A Club Red Production produced by Sharlene Kelly and Melani Wood, with executive producers MacMillan, Kent, and Bill Lundy, The Snake was shot in Charlottetown, PEI—the first film from the province to screen at SXSW. It earned selection as one of just eight titles in the Narrative Feature Competition and premiered on March 13, 2026.
A Dream Debut at SXSW
For MacMillan, landing at SXSW felt like destiny. “SXSW was the festival that inspired me to tell stories like this,” she said. “We’ve always seen it as the dream festival for The Snake to have its world premiere. To be the first film shot in Prince Edward Island to screen there, and to share my home with SXSW audiences is a real honour.”
The entire team echoed that excitement. When the acceptance news came while they were scattered across provinces, they jumped on a group call—bracing for anything, then erupting in tears and cheers. Kent’s Jury Award win added the icing: “It’s more than I could have ever asked for in my entire life,” she shared. “Honestly.”
Duke, a comedy veteran, lit up recalling the shoot: “I didn’t want it to end. It was so much fun. And then it hasn’t ended—we get to keep gathering and seeing one another.”
“We Were Never Tired”: The Joyful Chaos of Filming
The set sounds like a dream—gentle schedules (no calls before 8 a.m., rare in film), constant laughter, and a crew that felt like cheerleaders. Kent and Duke’s mother-daughter dynamic stole the show, especially in their physical fight scenes.
“I love Robin so much,” Kent enthused. “We had never met before. I actually attacked her in makeup the first time I saw her—snatched her from behind going, ‘I can’t believe you’re here!’ Then we fought.” Duke, who did many of her own stunts, was game for anything: flips, headbutts (which they joked they still owe each other), and raw kinetic energy.
MacMillan remembered directing her first fight scene with nerves, only to watch the chemistry between Kent and Duke explode. “I was not worried about anything after that,” she said. “That relationship really needed to be believable, and it was just clear there was something special.”
The film’s tone balances “rotten hard stuff” with irrepressible fun. Kent explained her inspiration: “I started The Snake wanting to write about ungovernable women, bad girls—but not the fantasy trope created by dudes. I wanted a woman who came out of the rubble of reality.” Jamie draws from Kent’s life, her friends, and the resilient women around her—people who keep “swinging in the face of shitty circumstances.”
MacMillan added that the empathy in Kent’s script is key: audiences might start judging Jamie, but by the end it’s hard not to root for her. “You’ve seen how she got there, why she got there, and that she’s really trying her very best.”
Advice for Aspiring Storytellers
When asked what they’d tell a young filmmaker inspired by The Snake at SXSW, the trio offered grounded, heartfelt wisdom:
- MacMillan: “If there’s something you just can’t stop thinking about—it’s an itch you have to scratch—then that means something. This project took like ten years to get the nerve to direct… and it was worth everything.”
- Kent: “It’s okay to get beat up along the way emotionally. Keep going, keep being true to yourself, and stay open. Don’t be closed and defensive about your losses.”
- Duke: “Just say yes—if it’s right for you. Trust your instincts. Know when something’s good because you identify with it, you relate to it.”
Duke’s advice carries extra weight coming from a legend who stormed New York and joined Saturday Night Live after starting in Toronto. “Just agree,” she laughed. “If it feels good.”
What Audiences Take Away
Beyond the wild rides, tussles, and dark humor, The Snake invites empathy. “Understanding where someone else is coming from and really being inside that person’s experience can help you navigate life,” MacMillan noted. Kent hopes viewers see the privilege in portraying a woman who makes everything worse yet keeps swinging—scarred by childhood and life, yet fiercely human.
The film’s success at SXSW, packed houses, and audience reactions proved the vision resonated. “There was no tension on the set,” Duke recalled. “Everybody was in it to win it because they believed in it.”
The Snake is a love letter to ungovernable women, messy families, and the stubborn bonds that refuse to break—even when they’re headbutting outside a bar. As Kent imagines for Jamie and her mother: “I hope in my imagination they’re together for the rest of their lives… fighting.”
With its world premiere behind it and the buzz still building, The Snake slithers into audiences’ hearts with laughter, bruises, and surprising tenderness. Keep an eye out for this PEI-born gem—it’s a riotous reminder that life’s wildest crashes can still lead somewhere worth cheering for.
Support for The Snake was provided by Telefilm Canada and the Prince Edward Island Film Fund. A Club Red Production.
Interview excerpts adapted and edited for clarity from the conversation with AMFM Magazine.
