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Perri Nemiroff is the 2025 Press Award winner at the ICG Publicists Awards.
She's the senior producer at Collider where she hosts and produces the interview series, Collider Ladies Night, a show geared towards highlighting the need-to-know female voices in film and television.
On top of that, Perri frequently moderates post-screening Q&As and panels at film festivals and conventions including San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, and can be seen on the big screen in the Noovie pre-show segment, Close-up with Perri Nemiroff. She’s also a Top Critic on Rotten Tomatoes, a proud member of the Critics Choice Association and is a Gold Derby Expert.
Perri splits her time between Los Angeles and New York. Wherever the film and television coverage takes her, she goes!
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Summary
- Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Thora Birch!
- During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Birch looked back on growing up in Hollywood and starring in beloved films like Hocus Pocus, Ghost World, and more.
- She also talks about her newest film, Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut, The Chronology of Water.
I’ve welcomed many actors I admire to Collider Ladies Night, but Thora Birch feels different. I grew up watching her. All I Want for Christmas, Hocus Pocus, Monkey Trouble, Now and Then — they all played on repeat in my home. From there, I followed her to the roles that earned her significant industry acclaim, a BAFTA nomination for American Beauty and a Golden Globe nomination for Ghost World.
Since then, Birch has appeared on The Walking Dead and Mayfair Witches, made her directorial debut with The Gabby Petito Story, and now continues to make bold career choices, joining Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut, The Chronology of Water.
Based on Lidia Yuknavitch’s acclaimed memoir, the film follows Imogen Poots as Lidia, a young woman who finds escape from her abusive home thanks to competitive swimming. However, that safe haven is rocked when she runs head first into a dizzying string of loss, addiction, and self-destructive choices before finding healing via her sister (played by Birch) and also through writing.
With The Chronology of Water gearing up for its nationwide release, Birch visited the Collider Ladies Night studio to discuss her journey in film and television, beginning with early formative experiences on sets like Hocus Pocus and Patriot Games.
The Acting Icons Who Shaped Thora Birch’s Approach to Her Work
"The care and dedication that I saw was something that rubbed off on me."
Image via Paramount PicturesBirch was a wildly gifted actor right out the gate, but there’s no doubt that the veterans around a young artist can heavily influence how they choose to wield that talent and navigate this industry. Fortunately, not only did Birch have hugely supportive parents in her corner, but also acting veterans setting the best possible example, like Harrison Ford and Bette Midler. “I was incredibly lucky to work with Harrison Ford at a very young age, nine, and then the next year at 10 with Bette Midler.”
Birch also made a point to highlight the cumulative value of going from Paradise with Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith to Patriot Games with Ford and then Hocus Pocus with Midler:
“Coming off of that role, Paradise, that I previously mentioned, that new realization that this was a job and was work made me watch the other actors that I was working with much more intently. Instead of just being so happy to be there and like a big fan, I really wanted to be like, ‘Well, how do these guys operate?’”
What did Birch notice with a keener eye on Ford and Midler in particular? She continued:
“What struck me was the dedication and the complete immersion, not in a method-y way, but in just giving the show and the process their full attention. Not just hitting their mark, doing the shot, ‘Okay, cut,’ and go home. No, they were highly involved in a lot of the decisions being made. The care and dedication that I saw was something that rubbed off on me. I kind of had that realization that if I didn't put forth that effort, A, and then, B, have the desire to put forth that effort to do the job, then I would be in the wrong place.”
Thora Birch Has Finally Accepted the Impact of Her Work on Fans
"I think I fought that realization for a while."
Soon after soaking in all these lessons from Midler, Ford, and then some, Birch was a certifiable star. However, it took her decades to fully accept the impact her work made on people.
"I think I fought that realization for a while. It didn't really fully sink into my thought process in a way where I could be appreciative of it until maybe my early 30s. Because prior to that, if I had heard praise, light praise, intense praise, however it came about, I instinctively didn't want to hear it or would shut my little ear off because I did not want to think that I had achieved anything yet. You want to have the desire to keep exploring, going into new areas, and trying out new things.”
Eventually, Birch came to embrace it via a sentiment that I started this article with.
“That realization came I think when I realized that [with] Hocus Pocus, people started saying, ‘I grew up with this, and now I share it with my kids.’ Or maybe the first time someone said, ‘I grew up with you.’ The first time somebody said that, which I don't recall the exact moment now, but the first time somebody really said that, and I finally connected with their experience of that, it was very, very humbling. Because, for me, to look at the people that I've admired, I know how that feels for me. So to have made other people feel that, it's something that's so rewarding, it's kind of scary.”
Thora Birch on Kristen Stewart: “I Don't Know If I Ever Saw Her Sit Down”
"She had that sort of burning inner ferocity and energy."
Image via Les Films du LosangeBirch continues to make an impression on moviegoers, but in new ways. The Chronology of Water is an incredibly bold and ambitious swing for any filmmaker, let alone for someone's feature directorial debut.
One of the first things that struck Birch about Kristen Stewart? Her dedication to the material. When asked for burning questions she had for Stewart after signing on, Birch said, “I think maybe my only question, because I didn't want to have too many for her, poor girl, was, ‘You stuck with it seven years, at that point. Seven years with this one? Okay. Wow. Let's see what we're doing.’”
And sure enough, Birch was very impressed by Stewart’s clarity of vision and also by how she operated on set. Birch continued:
“Her energy on set was very calm, but you had the sense that that calmness was a lie. She had that sort of burning inner ferocity and energy. I don't know if I ever saw her sit down. She might be incapable of sitting. But I knew that she was making deliberate choices and that she had something in mind. When we wrapped, if you were to ask me if I felt like I was synced up with it or knew what we had done or how it's going to be, I would have said, ‘Maybe. I don't know.’ And then when I first saw it, I was just so blown away. I was like, 'Oh my god, that's what we were doing? Oh, this is awesome! When’s she going to make another one? Let's get her on set again.’”
Related
Looking for even more from Birch on The Chronology of Water and her journey in film and television? Be sure to watch her full Collider Ladies Night interview in the video at the top of this article.
The Chronology of Water plays in theaters nationwide beginning January 9.
Release Date January 9, 2025
Runtime 128 minutes
Producers Charles Gillibert, Michael A. Pruss, Dylan Meyer, Yulia Zayceva, Max Pavlov, Maggie Mclean, Svetlana Punte, Christian Vesper, Andy Mingo
English (US) ·