I recently saw Nightbitch with Amy Adams and I loved it so much. Like my new movie, Wish You Were Here, it’s a book adaptation, and I'm in the process of reading the book of Nightbitch right now. I watched the movie first, though, and I’m really rooting for its success. Amy Adams is just riveting to watch. I think she's always captivating, and she's also so bold in this performance. The film makes you laugh, and I relate to many elements of its depiction of motherhood – other than thinking that I'm turning into a dog!
I didn't know much about the film beforehand, only because I've had my head buried in the sand with my own movie for a while and just don't have the bandwidth to keep track of things. I also have three kids, so if I have the bandwidth or time to watch or read anything, it's usually Dr. Seuss or Bluey! But somebody sent the trailer to me and then I learned about the book and it suddenly snowballed into, I have to see this. I have a very short attention span right now, so oftentimes what I veer toward is comedies, or just something that's quick. But with Nightbitch, I was particularly drawn to the film’s subject matter and also the wackiness of it.
The book that the movie is based on, Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, is hard for me to describe, even as an English major! It's not written in the first person, it's not in the third person, it has a kind of zoomed-out narrator. Even the other characters just call the protagonist “Mom.” And then there’s the whole hilariously psychotic thing about her thinking she's turning into a dog! It just totally sucked me in, and it’s a testament to how good the writing is that it can keep my attention right now. Reading the book totally stokes the fire in me and makes me think, “Oh, it's out there. I gotta find the next great book.” It's exciting. It's also exciting to see that it's possible to make a movie like that in this current moment. I find that really encouraging.
I am totally hooked on directing now. I loved directing Wish You Were Here and I would love to do it again. A movie like Nightbitch only encourages me to be more bold and to pick material that's maybe a little more unconventional. But fundamentally – and I felt this with Wish You Were Here – I believe that whatever the genre is, you have to stay authentic to your own voice and your own interests, as it has to be a subject and a story that's going to sustain your interest for many years. If you start with that as the kernel and the core, then audiences will respond. You can't go into a project thinking, Other people will like this, you have to really fundamentally love it and connect to it yourself.
As I said, watching Nighbitch encourages me to be bold, as there is a need for original voices out there, but at the same time, what I'm looking for is something that will be authentic to me. And if I'm interested in it, then that's the place to start, rather than outside of myself. You never know how long it's going to take to get a movie in production and then into theaters. With Wish You Were Here, I was sent the book five years ago and in that time, the story has only gotten deeper and more meaningful for me. Things have surfaced that I didn't expect when I first set out to make the movie, so I'm looking for material that can remain resonant to me for that amount of time, or more. In other words, something that is not just of the moment.
