Filmmaker Zelda Williams talks to Vogue Philippines about finding her lane behind the camera, bringing the world of Lisa Frankenstein to life, and her lifelong passion for lumpia.

On her last night in Manila, Zelda Williams witnessed the glittery extravaganza that is O Bar. She had heard about the legendary drag scene of the Philippines, and if there was one thing she did not want to miss on her first trip to the country, it was a drag show. Her good friend Liza Soberano arranged everything, and even though they both spent the entire day at photo shoots, they made sure not to sleep this night out.

The energy and theatricality of the performances at O Bar revived everyone’s spirits. “She was definitely in her element!” Soberano says of the evening, describing how Williams was put on the spot, being called on stage to be serenaded by one of the opening acts. “Despite her stage fright, she was so game, and it was so fun to just watch her let loose.”

This was a kind of payback for Williams taking Soberano to see her first burlesque show at a bar in Los Angeles. The two friends, on the surface, couldn’t be more different; Zelda is outspoken and LA-hardened while Liza is gentle and admittedly more conservative. But the two have developed a deep bond, along with Liza’s co-stars Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse, throughout the filming of the ’80s teen zom-com Lisa Frankenstein, Zelda’s riotous feature film debut.

BITAGCOL top, CARL JAN CRUZ trousers, ROGER VIVIER shoes. Photographed by Gabriel Nivera for the August 2024 Issue of Vogue Philippines

Zelda, daughter of the late Robin Williams and Marsha Garces, was in Manila not to promote the film, which hit the theaters months earlier in February, but to see what pieces of herself she could find in this country. Her grandfather, Pantaleon Garces, was a Boholano who moved to the United States in 1929 where he served in the US Navy. After the war, he earned a living working in kitchens, eventually settling with his Finnish wife Ina Mattila in San Francisco, where Marsha was born. The veteran lived up to the age of 92, so Zelda and her younger brother Cody got to spend their formative years partaking of their grandfather’s cooking, which developed in Zelda a lifelong passion for lumpia.

But coming into an era where racial discrimination against Filipino immigrants were at an all-time high, her Lolo tried to pass off as Spanish in those early years there. It was a time when the USA occupied the Philippines and allowed Filipinos to easily migrate as laborers but afforded them no rights as citizens. “So now I’m trying to undo the erasure,” Williams says.

It was more than a coincidence then that Soberano’s audition video would land in Williams’ inbox. Two days later, the Filipino actress was cast, and within a week she was on set in New Orleans. “When I met Hope [Soberano’s real name], she had this really wonderful kind of sweet earnestness that a lot of people in Los Angeles—without insulting my hometown too much—just don’t have anymore,” Williams says. “It was really refreshing for me.”

KELVIN MORALES top, CARL JAN CRUZ trousers, ROGER VIVIER shoes. Photographed by Gabriel Nivera for the August 2024 Issue of Vogue Philippines

In a way, they were both stepping into something new together: It was Liza’s first foray into Hollywood, though she comes with years of experience acting in Philippine cinema and television. She is, in fact, a major star. For Zelda, it was her first feature-length film, but as a child of Hollywood’s most beloved comedic actor, film sets were her playground and de facto film school. She could not not make movies.

“I’m very fond of the quote that ‘all filmmaking is student filmmaking,’” Williams says. “I like discovering things without someone telling me if it’s right or wrong.”

Besides Newton’s astoundingly unhinged portrayal of the title character and Soberano’s breakout performance as the popular cheerleader with good intentions, Lisa Frankenstein stands out for its nostalgia-rousing soundtrack, pulling no punches with When In Rome’s “The Promise” as the opening track.

Williams hoped to place a Filipino song in the film, particularly in the scene where Soberano’s character breaks down in her car. “I wanted Taffy to have a little bit of herself in that because we never meet her [Filipino] father in the film,” she says, sharing how she had been obsessed with Sampaguita’s “Bonggahan” and VST’s “Awitin Mo at Isasayaw Ko.” Acquiring the rights to these old songs from the Philippines proved to be just too complex, and so they remain, for now, on Williams’ personal playlist.

BITAGCOL top. Photographed by Gabriel Nivera for the August 2024 Issue of Vogue Philippines

In the two months they shot Lisa Frankenstein, Liza found a lifelong friend and older sister in Zelda. “She’s such a brilliant, quirky, and nurturing person, and you see that in her work. As a director, she’s really easygoing, but that’s because she’s so clear with what she wants and what she’s thinking at all times,” says Soberano. “What I think she does an excellent job at, as a first-time filmmaker, is steering the wheel of the ship while empowering everyone to take control of their lane.”

Williams found her own lane behind the camera. In her younger years, she appeared in a few movies but stopped acting when her father passed away in 2014. Writing, however, is one thing she hasn’t ceased. She writes every day, and not in the journaling sense; she writes screenplays therapeutically and abundantly. “It’s how I clear my brain at the end of the day. I like being in a different mind state and focusing on fiction,” she says. “It’s always fiction, I’ve never really written about myself.”

BITAGCOL dress, KELVIN MORALES top, ROGER VIVIER shoes. Photographed by Gabriel Nivera for the August 2024 Issue of Vogue Philippines

Though she had a lot of fun bringing to life screenwriter Diablo Cody’s world of Lisa Frankenstein—creating a colorful, campy, parallel ’80s universe where a glitchy spray tanning bed can bring one’s Promethean fantasies to life—Williams is also looking forward to inhabiting worlds of her own creation. “What I like writing about is a lot darker, so it’ll be interesting to play in that, too.”

She shares a story about the monsterphile director Guillermo del Toro, who had very bad nightmares as a kid. One night, he stood up on his bed and told his monsters: I will always be your friend and I will tell your stories, as long as you stop haunting me.

Through bringing imagination and fantasy to the screen in the vein of Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, and Guillermo del Toro, Zelda too hopes to befriend her monsters. “I’m not the person for reality, or for heroes. I like the stranger. And the darker,” she says. “It’s just always been where my heart lies.”