Can wandering Toronto streets in winter be sexy? New film ‘Stay the Night’ tackles the ‘one night’ romance story

Tamil Canadian writer/director Renuka Jeyapalan’s new film “Stay the Night” tackles the “one night story” idea where the film is told over the course of 12 hours with Toronto being a central character in the story.

Filmed in the wintry Toronto streets over two years from 2019 to 2021, the film is clearly a love letter to the city. “Toronto in the winter can be romantic, especially at night with the snow or the ice or the non-snow or the non-ice just the breath in the air. Taking off and putting on your coat, your scarf, and protective layers … there’s just some kind of thematic visual stuff that you could mine that you don’t really see in movies because they’re sort of always set in the summer or spring, but just a one night, Toronto winters romance felt kind of cool to do,” Jeyapalan said in a virtual interview.

The film follows chronically single Grace (Andrea Bang), who feels like an outcast at a time when dating apps and casual hook-ups are the new norm. However, when she meets NHL hockey player Carter Stone (Joe Scarpellino), she starts to wonder if he’s the solution to her problem.

“They kind of wander in downtown Toronto in the core, financial district. What I really enjoyed about it is that they go to all these different places … I was getting introduced to all these really cool hidden spots that I had not heard of before,” she said in a joint interview with Jeyapalan.

Among the places that she remembers, she notes that the Mahjong Bar and The Cloak Bar “were really cool.”

Another very Canadian aspect of the romance is the fact that the lead character Carter is an NHL hockey player. While initially the character was an actor, Jeyapalan then rewrote him as a hockey player, even though she says she doesn’t know much about hockey. “I had to research it and I talked to a former NHL player and realized that when a player is sent down, that they’re stuck in the city for 24 hours, and then they find out where they’re going, and then they have to go there. That just really all fit for our story.”

For Bang, it was the journey of the character that appealed to her most. “I think what’s exciting about her too is that you start off with someone who is more reserved and very protective of her heart. She’s very hardworking. She’s a perfectionist. I just love the journey of her going from being someone closed off to being someone more open and willing to put herself out there.”

“What I really connected with and what was really exciting about this role specifically was simply about two people connecting.”

While Jeyapalan wrote this film 11 years ago, modern romance and dating culture has changed and that made her want to revisit the script again. “About 10 years ago, all of these apps, it was all on technology. It was all texting and messaging and there was less of an emphasis on meeting people in real life eventually, and forming these connections and kind of committing. It seemed like dating was a minefield of problematic things and I kind of missed the romance and the excitement of just connecting with someone in person. That’s kind of what made me want to make the movie again, and have a return to that.”

Jeyapalan and Bang previously worked together on “Kim’s Convenience” and they have formed a mutual trust and respect for each other. Bang shared that without trust, there’s no relationship between an actor and director.

Jeyapalan added, “Andrea is so brilliant I want to work with her over and over again. It was really nice to work with her on a different tone than ‘Kim’s Convenience’… something more grounded, more real and something longer form too.”

Marriska Fernandes is a Toronto-based entertainment reporter and film critic. She is a freelance contributor for the Star’s Culture section. Follow her on Twitter: @marrs_fers

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