Interview With "Love Of Your Life" Director Rachel Morrison

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Matt (1:30)

You were listening to The Next Best Picture Podcast, and this is my interview with the director for Love Of Your Life, Rachel Morrison.

SPEAKER_1 (1:37)

So, um, who brought you to Europe?

SPEAKER_4 (1:40)

Distraction. I put everything I needed in two suitcases, and I threw my phone away, and then I just didn't go back.

I got the thing that everyone wants. And then...

SPEAKER_2 (2:07)

I know he was the love of your life, but who's to say you can only have one?

SPEAKER_5 (2:18)

What if we'd acknowledge that there actually is something here?

SPEAKER_4 (2:29)

Sometimes I wish I could just forget, but I can't.

SPEAKER_2 (2:37)

You left, Maya.

SPEAKER_5 (2:38)

I mean, you didn't say goodbye.

SPEAKER_2 (2:39)

Do you know how long we spent looking for you?

SPEAKER_5 (2:43)

You don't know if you made the right choices. That's why you really have to stay in love with your own life while it's happening.

Matt (2:59)

Rachel, thank you so much for joining me to speak about Love Of Your Life.

Rachel Morrison (3:03)

Thanks, Matt, for having me. Fan of your state of New York.

Matt (3:07)

I appreciate that. I was a fan of this movie as well when I saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival. In fact, I actually remember telling one of the publicists on my way out and they were asking me what I thought of it. I took a deep, really long pause. I had to choose my words really carefully because I was overcome with so much emotion regarding this story which you think is starting off with Maya feeling like she's lost the love of her life and then discovering a new love of her life and then that kind of bounces around. But I really feel like it's a story of the love of your life is the love that you have for yourself and for life all around you with its ups and downs. And I just thought that was such a beautiful story to tell. So thank you so much for giving us that.

Rachel Morrison (3:52)

Well, thank you so much for understanding the message so clearly. That is exactly what I want people to take from the film.

Matt (3:59)

I would love to know how much your directorial style, if one would call it that, evolved from your previous film, The Fire Inside, because something that I drew between the two is that you really give your actors space to breathe and deliver these really nuanced and grounded performances. So if you could just elaborate on that, that would be great.

Rachel Morrison (4:23)

Yeah. I mean, I think I'm only just discovering what my style is by the choices I make. What's interesting is I have these films that are two very different genres, but actually both do something very similar in that they subvert expectation.

Genres that can kind of fall into these tropes and then they make hard pivots. Fire Inside was a sports film that also towards the end, it's really about everything that happens when winning isn't enough. It doesn't end the way that the sports movie typically ends, it becomes much more about life. And now with Love Of Your Life, the pivot happens earlier. But again, we sort of start down this one trail and then end up twisting and turning throughout the film. I think as far as the actors and the performances, I'm somebody who really cares about experiential filmmaking and kind of a subjectivity that allows, yeah, to your point, the actors and characters to breathe, but really for the audience to take a journey with them. And I think there's a grounded quality so far to the work that's like an authenticity that people, the audience can kind of find their way into experiences through relatability. And in both cases, my main characters are flawed and messy and imperfect, but well-intentioned as opposed to, I think, often with movies, you have these like, your hero's journey and the hero's a hero and the hero doesn't ever do anything other than be a hero. And this is like some pretty complex, messy heroes that we are still rooting for.