Morgan Rojas

Drake Doremus Interview: "When I watch a movie, I want to cry my ass off"

It’s as if Drake Doremus has the ability to look directly into our collective minds and at the anxieties and desires that trouble the modern young person. In his newest film Endings, Beginnings, Daphne (Shailene Woodley) finds herself troubled when she becomes entangled in two different relationships with friends Jack (Jamie Dornan) and Frank (Sebastian Stan). Each man offering something the other can't, Daphne’s growing sense of guilt and secrecy only makes her question a deeper desire: is she okay without depending on a partner at all? In our exclusive interview, Doremus talks about his signature filmmaking style and why he loves a good "ugly cry." Endings, Beginnings is on digital April 17, 2020, and on-demand May 1, 2020.

I just want to start off by saying happy belated birthday! Did you have any sort of quarantine party?

Oh, thank you so much! I had a game night with my friends the night before my birthday. I'm a very social person and it was nice to be able to see everybody. I just chilled on Sunday, my girlfriend and I went to Palos Verdes and walked by the ocean. It was a good birthday.

I've been a big fan of yours since the very beginning, and I'm always fascinated by your process. Do you take the same approach with every film, and prefer a treatment vs a script?

Definitely prefer the treatment or outline, it feels more exciting. You're working backward, essentially. The idea of dialogue being last is so exciting as opposed to a script where the dialogue leads you and then you fill in the blanks with subtext and objectives and all the stuff that I'm obsessed with as a filmmaker.

It's a challenge, but every time I do it, I learn more and I just want to do it again and again and again.

The actors in your films are so honest and raw, the performances don't even feel like performances in the best way possible. And in this film especially, Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan, Sebastian Stan, and the OG - Matthew Gray Gubler - everyone is so grounded in these truth-based performances. Do you feel bonded with these people after having gone through this experience with them?

I hope so! Each movie is different. Sometimes you end up being close, sometimes you don't. But I feel like I ended up making really good friends on this one. I think this is probably one of my favorite experiences making a movie and one of the most special ones. It's like going in the foxhole together when you do something really emotionally naked and you get to see parts of each other that no one else gets. I think that bonds you in a really special way.

[For Endings, Beginnings], we shot all the big surf sequences first. Shailene, Sebastian, and I took a road trip up to Big Sur together and just had the most amazing experience getting to know each other. By the time we started shooting the movie, it felt like we'd been friends for eight years. Their energies just matched, I knew they were somebody that I could really explore with, no boundaries, nothing off-limits. It really just opened up the door to do something special.

There are so many similarities in this film that mirrored my own life, it's wild. I took a road trip up to Big Sur with an ex-boyfriend to see Beach House at this really intimate venue. So seeing that and having Beach House on the film's Music To Suffer To playlist, I was like, 'Oh my God, how did you know?'

Haha! It was made for you!

To that point, the music in the film is awesome. Beach House, Hayden Thorpe, fantastic choices. Did a music supervisor help with that?

I always pick my music before we shoot. I'll make playlists and give it to my actors, my crew, and certainly my editor [Garret Price], so we started to stockpile music. I worked with Chris Douridas, he's an incredible music supervisor. He's on KCRW and he always gets exciting music. We've done a couple of movies together now and he can fill in the blanks when I'm a little stumped trying to find something. We got pretty much all of [the music I wanted] and it really kind of gives you the texture I wanted.

How would you say that music inspires you as a filmmaker?

It's amazing because you can't even describe why it makes you feel a certain way. It just does. You can't say in words what a song can convey, emotionally. That's why I love using music really specifically. We just talked about Hayden Thorpe, his Love Crimes song– there's nothing that words could say that that song does for you. It's almost the dialogue. I love using music as a kind of dialogue sometimes.

A lot of your films deal with this search for love. With each film, do you feel like you come closer to discovering it?

It depends on the day you get me. Some days I feel like I'm getting closer to it. Some days I feel like I'm getting further away. I mean, that's the human experience, right? It's like sometimes you just feel good and then you don't, it's a roller coaster. I'm trying to balance my life, not getting too high and not getting too low, especially with love and relationships. So that's interesting to me, the idea of Daphne trying to find that balance. This movie was such a cathartic experience. Trying to just be okay with things not being okay. And being able to go easy on yourself and forgiving yourself, trying to learn and grow.

That's why I made the movie.

That last line too, 'It's okay to not be okay.' Powerful.

I think a therapist said that to me at one point and then it just ended up in the film? I stole that from him.

It's so relevant right now! We can't do anything about our current situation, so we just have to accept the fact that it's okay. We may be alone experiencing this movie, but we'll still feel connected because of its universal feeling of heartbreak, longing, and love.

Totally.

I was noticing on Instagram that a lot of people are commenting that they're excited this film will be available to stream online because they can now ugly cry in the comfort of their own home.

Hahaha those are my people! I wouldn't be able to make movies without those people. When I watch a movie, I want to cry my ass off. And if I'm not crying, then I don't really like the movie. I love watching Dumb and Dumber and it makes me happy. But man, I just want to go cry. So I love those people and I love those comments.

I hate what's happening to the world and it's tragic and so heartbreaking. But at the same time, I'm hoping that this movie gives people an outlet and a sense of peace and can be somewhat of a gift in this crazy time. It's certainly hard to let go of theatrical, but at the same time, I love that we bumped up [the release date] and we're giving it to people this week.

I'm a big believer that you can emotionally experience the movie any way you want, whether it's on your phone, your computer, your TV,  whatever. It's still the same emotional currency, and that's what it's all about.

Thanks Drake, I appreciate you talking with me. I loved the film and I have to admit, I did ugly cry at the end.

Oh my God, you made my day!

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

by Morgan Rojas