I got a chance to chat with the extremely talented writer and comedian Maddy Foley about her wonderful short Fivehead which has its world premiere this Sunday, September 13.
Fivehead follows Eve, played by writer Maddy Foley, whose childhood insecurity resurfaces after an arcade caricature artist draws her with an impossibly oversized forehead. What begins as a playful joke quickly spirals into a dark obsession with transforming her appearance. Convinced the size of her forehead is ruining her life, Eve resorts to desperate measures that push the film from absurdist dark comedy into body horror.
Karen Shute: First and foremost, I just want to say how much I enjoyed your film.
Maddy Foley: Oh, thank you. I’m glad you watched it because I’ve talked to some folks who like haven’t watched it yet, which is also fun because I spoil it every time I talk about it.
Karen: I myself have a bit of a fivehead, so this film was like, peak big forehead representation. I have also been in the situation where I’ve had someone take a photo of me and I’ve looked at the photo and been like, oh god, that forehead! So I have lived this exact moment.
Maddy: I love to hear that. It was hard because I wanted to write something about body dysmorphia because I struggle so much with it. But I don’t want to do something that’s too triggering to people because there’s a lot of other things, like weight, that are really hard to get into when you’re trying to do comedy. But “fivehead” I remember was like the first time I got teased for my appearance. It’s like one of the core memories I have as a kid. And so I was like, that one feels safe that we could still do in a meaningful way, but it’s still a comedy sort of. It wasn’t something I struggled a lot with, but I remember it was like the first time as a kid that I was aware of my appearance.
Karen: I think the first time I heard the phrase “fivehead”, I was at the mirror with my hand up to my head going like, oh my god…
Maddy: …and you count fingers.
Karen: Yes!
Maddy: Yeah, you get it. I love talking to a fellow fivehead.
Karen: Do you find that the industry you’re in sort of amplifies feelings of self-criticism?
Maddy: Absolutely. It’s gasoline on an already bad situation. I think the biggest thing is it’s never so much comments from other people. It’s always my own self criticizing myself when I have to watch myself back on camera, because that’s how you get better at acting for TV and film. In those classes, you watch yourself much more intently. I think it’s a combo of a couple things, like being a woman in general, I think we’re just more aware of how our appearance affects how we move through society and then being an actor, I can get really hyper focused on it and not being able to get off of it, like really being hyper fixated. I think that’s the 3rd layer to it. So, I was like, I think this is something people are going to relate to, but obviously the level it goes in the movie is like the extreme end of it.
Karen: Years ago, I read this book on a particular subgenre of Canadian clown tradition, and the idea of it is that you find whatever insecurities and foibles are already within you, and you amplify those to an extreme degree because the comedy comes from the people in the audience recognizing that and seeing themselves in it, but it goes so far that it makes it ridiculous.
Maddy: I love that, and I actually think, when I did stand-up [comedy], one of the things they would say is like, if you have something really obvious about yourself that you’re insecure about, address it right out the gate, make it a joke, and that’s how you take your power back, as a performer, if you’re wearing a weird shirt or like, if your hair looks weird that day, use that to your advantage because it’ll make the audience more at ease and less focused on it. So, you don’t have to make fun of me for it, I’ll make fun of myself way worse than you ever will. I think that’s actually so cathartic because being a woman is like, there’s some violence to the way we view our body, right? And I feel like the sort of the ways we torture ourselves by not liking something about ourselves and how that eats away at our self-esteem can get really violent. So, I was leaning into that and like, okay, you hate your forehead, let’s see how far we can take that and how does that play out.
Karen: And your film does combine two great Canadian cinematic traditions, comedy and body horror. So why specifically did you choose these genres to tell this particular story?
Maddy: I think the genre actually came out of the story itself. So, I kind of put the story first and then now that the story’s out there, I’ve actually been struggling a lot with what to call this because I know true horror people would be like, this isn’t horror, but there is a body horror element in it, but it is ultimately a dark comedy.
Karen: I’m a lifelong, hardcore horror movie person and I love a good comedy break in a horror film. It’s a good tension release.
Maddy: I think all horror (movies) now are kind of comedies too. I do think the stories that I tend to want to write are a blend of a bunch of different things, and I think that’s just because that’s how life usually is. It’s never a clean, you know, this is funny or this is sad. In real life, things can be both at the same time, and I’m always trying to capture what feels real to me, and so I think that always kind of leads to a genre blending naturally. I think comedy is so needed right now in a lot of ways, and it’s always been the thing that I feel most connected with when I’m storytelling. It’s like that’s the thing that connects us all in a way, like that relatability through comedy.
Karen: I think just existing in the world with social anxiety feels like someone has dropped a horror filter over everything you see.
Maddy: When you’re anxious about something and you’re playing the situation out in your head trying to get ahead of it and you imagine the worst-case scenarios happening. So, I’ve always found that interesting to be like, existing in the world with anxiety, and you’re just sort of experiencing these horrifying feelings, but if you zoom out, you’re just sitting at lunch with your friend. So that dichotomy is really funny to me and being self-aware of it has helped me get through it a lot. Just being like, oh god, this is really funny that I’m having this reaction and I’m just sitting with a friend talking.
Karen: So, this movie was also entirely self-funded. What would you say are the pros and cons of self-funding? Did it afford you any freedom apart from being probably incredibly stressful?
Maddy: The pros were the creative freedom for sure. Like, I didn’t have to sell this idea to anyone. I basically said, this is what we’re doing. This is the tone. I’m welcome to feedback, but I have a pretty clear idea of how I want this to go, so let’s all get on board with that. That was new for me, especially working as an actor where you actually feel like you have zero control over the project in a lot of ways. The cons of self-funding is that you will have multiple moments throughout the day where you’re just really staunchly reminded of the fact that you’re paying a bunch of adults to come play make believe with you, and you have no idea where it’s going to go and it’s not an investment in the traditional sense of like you can guarantee something’s going to happen. It might just be money down the toilet in a lot of ways. So, you have to let go of that, and I had to work a lot on being like, this is art for art’s sake. I’m making this for people to enjoy, and then everything else you kind of have to let go of, but yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard to stay confident. It’s hard to be like, I’ve gathered all these people here for this silly, silly idea that I think is going to be really cool, but it might not be. It might be awful. It’s a lesson, I guess, in a little bit of faking some confidence while you’re doing it for sure.
Karen: And now you’re having your world premiere at TIFF! What was your reaction when you first found out that it had been selected?
Maddy: Oh, I obviously thought that they had the wrong email or like the wrong person. TIFF was such a Hail Mary for us, it was the first festival we applied to and I actually felt like it was too early for us to be applying to fests because we didn’t have everything ready, and so there was no way in my mind that that was going to happen, but I was like, it’s TIFF, it’s Toronto. We have to at least try. So getting into it and being recognized by the programmers as having something that they think is going to be entertaining for people was just really nice confirmation for all of us that we’re onto something, and to keep going and to celebrate the thing we’ve made. And I’m happy that the team gets to experience it. That was kind of my first reaction was I was just like, oh, I’m so stoked for everybody on the team to get to experience this. That feels so fulfilling and worthwhile for me. And then it is really cool to just kind of feel like you’re part of a tapestry of this festival that’s existed for so long, and this industry can be really lonely and can be really challenging and there are times where you want to quit so having wins like this is really meaningful. So it was awesome. It was such a great feeling, but I genuinely was like, I got to take a second before I respond to them because I do think that they have the wrong email and they’re going to take it back.
Karen: At the end of the day, what do you hope people take away from the film, especially people who have a complicated relationship with their own self-image?
Maddy: One thing I hope is just that someone feels seen. I think it can feel really isolating to hyper fixate, especially on something about your appearance. Whether it’s because someone’s made a comment or you’ve seen a bad picture of yourself. So, the first thing I would love is for someone to just be like, oh, thank God, I’m not the only one who spirals like this, because that’s always been for me, like, the, the reason why I love TV and film so much and storytelling is because it just teaches me so much about myself when I connect with something and I go, thank God I’m not alone because it would be so sad. And then, I think the message is essentially, you know, trying to meet the beauty standards of society is impossible and will cause you to lose your mind and so there is not really any point in trying.
Fivehead will have its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Short Cuts programme. The film will have its first public screening on Sunday, September 13 at 5:45 p.m. at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto. A second screening will take place on Thursday, September 17 at 8:30 p.m.
