There is an old adage that says, ‘crime doesn’t pay,’ but countless film and television creators have spent a good deal of their creative energies dissecting the ins and outs of that proverb. John Patton Ford, an MFA graduate of the American Film Institute, turns his imaginative eye to law-breaking with the film Emily the Criminal, premiering at Sundance.

Born and raised in South Carolina, Ford had his thesis short Patrol premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and made the shortlist for the 2011 Academy Awards. Since then, he’s directed commercials for brands like Toyota, Audi, Pepsi and Tide, but always knew his course was to direct films. With that in mind, he turned pen to paper and wrote Emily the Criminal to take himself behind the lens.

The film centers on Emily (Aubrey Plaza), who is saddled with student debt and locked out of the job market due to a minor criminal record. Desperate for income, she takes a shady gig as a ‘dummy shopper,’ buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a middleman named Youcef (Theo Rossi). Faced with a series of dead-end job interviews, Emily soon finds herself seduced not only by the quick cash and illicit thrills of black-market capitalism but also by her ardent mentor Youcef. Little does she know the personal awakening this act of desperation will have on her.

“I knew I wanted to make a thriller that moved in a certain way, and I knew that I wanted to get the central character doing things relatively quickly,” Ford explains during a post-premiere interview. “I wanted her to be doing things by … I think in pages because I’ve written so much. So, I wanted, page 12, she’s stealing already. So how can I make that happen? And I back-engineered it from there.” Ford understood that for the thriller component of the story to be taut, certain turning points of the story couldn’t be telegraphed to the audience. “You can end up with a paint-by-numbers situation where you are forcing characters to do things that no one would do.”

From the opening sequence, audiences can feel the desperation of the film’s lead protagonist and know here is a woman willing to take risks, unafraid of confrontation to get what she wants. It was that kinetic energy that attracted Plaza.

“The story moves so fast,” she chimes in. “The first time I picked it up, I was like, I couldn’t wait to meet John. I was given it by someone else, another producer, and it wasn’t a real project or anything. It was just kind of like, ‘Hey, you might like this,’ and I just became obsessed with it. I think every scene in the movie is so good.”

For Plaza, who has made a comedic name for herself with such projects as Parks and Recreation, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, and The Happiest Season, the chance to step into the dramatic shoes of Emily was a challenge.

“I think I’m very conscious of that. I think that the things that are most exciting to me are the things that are the scariest to me. And I think that’s why I love to do movies because I like to escape. I think that’s why a lot of actors like to act because you get to be somebody else. So, it’s always a huge factor in everything that I do. It’s just trying to find something that scares the shit out of me.”

After viewing the film, and her presentation of a character richly complete with anxiety, ambition, irritation and antagonism, there is no doubt that the 37-year-old actress has succeeded.