Wesley Loses His Penis happens to be about a man who loses his penis. Fueled by self-hatred and writer’s block, Wesley indulges in a shameful act and and finds himself in an Alice-in-Wonderland of humiliations spearheaded by a supernatural ram.
Director’s Vision for ‘Wesley Loses His Penis’
Wesley was born of my strife as a writer to finish a project for the life of me, I couldn’t. The script went through a series of title changes: Game Boy, House, Desk, before arriving at Wesley Loses His Penis. I was living at home during the lockdown and my mental health was at an all time low.
Naturally I fell further into spirituality and Eastern philosophy, and I kept coming across this idea of ‘starting again.’ It’s the idea that any past unholy deeds you’ve committed don’t need to define who you are as the current software version of yourself. You can start again and forget the past; It’s why Christians confess, Buddhists meditate, and writers drink.
Because I’d already tried out being an alcoholic and it didn’t turn me into Stephen King, I developed a practice of self-forgiveness and as I did my mental health improved. The process was fairly all-consuming, and they say to write about what you know, so I wrote about that. It became less about the writing being good or bad and more about the writing being authentic. Wesley’s arc toward self-forgiveness mirrors mine, the small difference being his penis is taken away from him by a supernatural ram and that has not happened to me.