“It was really important to us to present diversity and queer characters out there without making any of those things an issue,” says Stacey Maltin, who co-wrote, directed, and starred in Triple Threat, a progressive musical romance drama. “These are people who are living their lives, who are falling in love—or out of love—and who have dreams just like everybody else.”

Triple Threat is a heartwarming story that follows the tireless journey of three vivacious best friends, Chloe (Maltin), Maggie (Margarita Zhitnikova), and Gus (co-writer Jay DeYoker) who have dreams to make it big on Broadway. Now in their 30s, when the trio’s Broadway show Firefly becomes a smash hit 10 years later, they suddenly find themselves at a crossroads between fame or putting their careers on hold to try and start a family. It’s an inspirational movie that could ring true for many aspiring artists who think they might have to proverbially throw in the towel and put their biological clocks on hold in lieu of their careers, or vice versa.

But luckily producer and co-star, Zhitnikova (they/them), has a message of hope for viewers of their dynamic new film. “Your gender, sexuality, or how you want to build your family doesn’t define you. You can’t play small just to keep other people happy. There may be some discomfort, but things will be good in the end.”

We talked with Maltin and Zhitnikova about their musical inspirations, telling LGBTQ+ stories, and the perseverance they had to take the movie to the finish line.

Black Cape: How long did this movie take from conception to birth, wink, wink?

Stacey Maltin: I would say the very first beginnings of it, I was writing the script in maybe October 2018. And we had it fully in the can in February of 2021. The pandemic definitely slowed things down because we did all of the post-production during the pandemic, which was crazy.

How much of Triple Threat is autobiographical for both of you? No one has any new three-way surrogate babies, do they?

SM: I would say that thematically it is incredibly based in truth. It’s very based in how I feel about the world, and how I think about the world, and how I see relationships and chosen family and friendship and ambition. But we did not have a three-way baby. That is not autobiographical. There’s no actual baby. There’s many art babies, but no human babies. [laughs]

Margarita Zhitnikova: Yeah, I don’t have any human babies. I have only the furry kind of babies. It’s not autobiographical for me, but it does touch on a lot of things that I care about as a human, which isn’t babies. [laughs]

Let’s talk about the process of making the music for this, because wow! The songs are powerful. Was there anything that inspired you in particular? I know in the film there’s a Lin-Manuel Miranda name drop… but what were you both listening to?

SM: I listened to and took inspiration from a lot of musicals. Spring Awakening was a big one that I was listening to when we were working on the music and thinking about the choreography. These characters [in Triple Threat] were in their twenties, so not that early teenage years that Spring Awakening is based in, but I feel like that same sort of energy from that show of, everything is new, everything is a dream, everything is that energy of that time of your life when sex and dreams and love and relationships are all sparks. And then you hit 30 and things are a little bit different. And then we had some other references, too. I mean, I’m a huge musical nerd. I love musicals. I listen to a lot of them on repeat. I’m into Six, the musical, right now. I was listening to that when I was working on this, too. And a lot of Sondheim stuff.

I [also] went back to my writing days because that took me back to 2008, I think was when Rent officially closed on Broadway. And Jay [DeYonker] and I actually saw the closing cast in it. And [Triple Threat] takes place in 2009, so Rent inspired me a lot during this time period too.

MZ: Stacey’s baseline is listening to a lot of musicals. She lives and breathes musicals. It’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. [laughs]. Me, not as much. So we like to think of Triple Threat as the movie for both [types of people] because there is singing and dancing, which is effing phenomenal. But then also the singing and dancing is contained to a stage or a rehearsal space, so if you’re not a person that’s thrilled by musicals, you will still love Triple Threat.

You both live in New York! I didn’t think it was legal to live there and not like musicals. I’m not much of a musical person myself, but you both really balanced that well here in this film. You know, because sometimes movies can be like “Enough with the singing, please!”

SM: It was really important to me in the film that all of the music pushed the story forward. The characters don’t sing and dialogue to each other. You only see the music in the context of the musical that they’re creating, and it all serves the larger story of the film. It’s not a gratuitous musical, I would say.

Oh, and by the way, we do have a soundtrack that is out now. You can stream it on Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. Wherever you listen to music, you can listen to our original motion picture soundtrack right now, so that is cool.

MZ: And if you’re reading this interview, I dare you to post a video of yourself on social media dancing to it and tag Besties Make Movies.

What do you think the breakout song of this movie is?

SM: “Piece of Me.” I mean, “Piece of Me” is such a, I mean, I love all the music in it, but “Piece of Me,” I think it bridges the gap again between musical [showtunes]and pop in a way. Anyone can appreciate those gorgeous melodies and the theme and Aury [Krebs], the actress who sings it, is just killer. I mean, her voice is just everything. Look, I could listen to her sing to me all day.

Perseverance and life not going the way you planned are one of the resonating themes in this movie, I would say. How did making this movie present you both with your own challenges?

MZ: I just found an email that we had sent initially inviting our costume designer to come on board. And it just changed so much from conception. Not necessarily the story changed, but just how big we thought the project would be changed so much from when we started shooting it to what we ended up with, which was incredible. But there were also a lot of challenges that came with that because we went from being like, ‘let’s make this guerrilla-style movie with our best friends,’ and having fun on the weekends to; we are suddenly needing a Broadway theater, and we’re needing all of this music recorded. We need a choreographer, we need all of these things.

Those were all challenging things, but I think we were able to overcome them because Stacey and I, as Besties Make Movies, have made so much work together, and we have this ease between us, and we know how to encourage each other when one of us is feeling overwhelmed or stressed or there’s an insurmountable-seeming task ahead of us.

What do you hope audiences get out of this story? It’s so progressive. You got non-binary, queer, just all the things. What do you hope audiences get out of this story?

SM: I hope people watch it and they see a universal story about love and hopes and dreams and the way that following your dreams can maybe lead to new dreams, or following your dreams can give you exactly what you want. It was really important to us to present diversity and queer characters and put that out there without making any of those things an issue. You know what I mean? These are people who are living their lives, who are falling in love or in and out of love and who have dreams just like everybody has dreams.

It was really important to us that we did not want their queerness to be an issue. It’s not an issue that Gus has this threesome with another guy and you see them together. But then the bigger romance is with him and Chloe. But none of that is a problem. It just is because this is who they are and this is how they are.

MZ: My answer’s not going to be as coherent as Stacey’s, probably, but definitely agree with what she said. And to add to that, I think the idea of taking up space as a human being and that your gender, sexuality, or how you want to build your family doesn’t define you, and that you can’t play small just to keep other people happy. And the people in your life that really love you for the long haul, there might be some discomfort, but things will be good in the end, and you got to follow your dreams.

Triple Threat will be available in select theaters and VOD, June 21.

[edited for length and clarity]

[This interview was originally published for The Black Cape magazine]