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Charlie McDowell and Justin Lader look like regular guys; guys who could easily pass as friends of mine dressed in casual t-shirts and jeans, with a welcoming presence to boot. We sit at the roundtable in the SLS Hotel to talk about The One I Love, McDowell’s directorial debut and one of my favorites of the year so far. Its twist has been preserved until the film’s release, which makes for a very interesting press day. While we don’t talk about the plot of the film, one key theme is prevalent throughout our entire conversation: Not everything is as it seems. McDowell’s stepdad, Ted Danson, stars in the film. Lader doesn’t know how to play poker, despite writing a scene that revolves all around poker. And as another interesting fact, credited costume designer “Bree Daniel” is none other than McDowell’s real life girlfriend, Rooney Mara. We begin:

 

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE GENESIS OF THIS PROJECT?
CHARLIE MCDOWELL: Mark [Duplass] sent Justin and I a one-line idea that just hinted at the tone and genre to play in. I sent it to Justin and he was like, ‘I think you cut off the email ‘cause there’s no story here,’ and I was like, ‘No, that’s all he gave us.’ We took it from there and started building characters and ideas.

 

WHY WERE MARK AND ELISABETH [MOSS] PERFECT FOR THIS FILM?
CM: To me, they felt like real people, a real couple. There are so many actors in L.A. that are talented, but they just have a look of, “I moved to L.A. to be an actor.” I don’t really respond to that look because that doesn’t feel real to me. Mark and Lizzie feel like real people that we can all connect to. And they’re both incredibly talented. Mark feels very comfortable in this space of independent film and improving dialogue, and I think Lizzie was really excited to try this [improv] thing out. Also, we haven’t seen Lizzie really as a contemporary leading girl.

She had texted Mark saying she saw him in Safety Not Guaranteed and wanted to do something like that with him. So Mark brought up her name and the idea that she’s been on this iconic show [Mad Men] and people see her as this specific character, the idea of making her this contemporary leading girl was really exciting because it’s fresh and new.

 

WHAT IS THE TRICKIEST PART ABOUT KEEPING THE FILM UNDER WRAPS?
CM: It’s hard to discuss a lot of it in order to protect the twist that happens, which has become our marketing campaign. We like to keep it under wraps because we think the best experience to see the movie is to go in knowing very little.

There were a lot of challenges [technically] shooting this film; we shot in 15 days, so there wasn’t a lot of time to [waste]. There was a lot of preproduction work. Each day before we shot, we would go over all the scenes and talk about what we wanted to accomplish and let the actors [feel it out]. Justin would start scripting pages for the next day, so it was a really bizarre, interesting way to make a movie but it felt really organic and natural.

JUSTIN LADER: Something that I didn’t consider when I’m writing it that really surprised me when I watched it was what Charlie and our cinematographer [Doug Emmett] brought to it. [The film] is like a Ping-Pong match between the two locations, and one of those locations is much smaller than the other. The fact that Charlie and [Doug] were able to compose shots that were never redundant was something that blew me away.

 

IT SEEMS LIKE THERE WAS A BIG COLLABORATION BETWEEN YOU AND THE ACTORS, AND THAT’S ALSO BEING FELT NOW AS JOURNALISTS- WE’RE WANTING TO KEEP THE TWIST A SECRET  SO AUDIENCES CAN ENJOY IT FOR THE FIRST TIME TOO. HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL WITH THIS OVERWHELMING SUPPORT?
CM: It’s so cool, and wasn’t even something we thought about. We thought we’d premiere at Sundance, the cat would get out of the bag, and everyone would know from there. The next day we started reading reviews, and [no  one gave away the twist]. We [wanted to] continue that. The next screening we had at Sundance, there were like 300 people waiting in the wait-list line, whereas before it wasn’t even sold out. We realized that was a cool, exciting and fresh way to see the movie. To get people that had that same feeling and agree with how we want people to see it is amazing. That’s kind of the greatest compliment we could ever get.

It’s become a thing where people say, ‘Oh that’s such an ‘indie film’,’ and that terrified me. I didn’t want to make a generic “indie” film, I wanted it to feel like something bigger.

CAN YOU TAK ABOUT THE DYNAMICS OF THE FILM’S GENRE?
JL: We knew that we were dabbling in sci-fi, but a lot of people have been talking about romantic comedy. Of all the conversations Charlie and I had when we were creating the story, we never once said to each other ‘Let’s take two genres and smash them together.’ I think if we did do that, at least for me from a writing standpoint, I might have drowned. I was never very good at math and I didn’t like puzzles, but for some reason I love thinking, ‘Ok, what if this happens… what if that happens,’ basically creating a puzzle of structure and making it connect. Charlie is amazing at grounding the characters and what they’re feeling within the confines of that [structure].

CM: I think it terrified us to go into something that didn’t have an actual definition, but it also made it really exciting because there are so many indie films being made now, it’s become a thing where people say, ‘Oh that’s such an ‘indie film’,’ and that terrified me. I didn’t want to make a generic “indie” film, I wanted it to feel like something bigger.

 

JUSTIN, WERE THERE ANY CHALLENGES IN WRITING A FILM THAT HAD A SHOOTING SCHEDULE OF ONLY 15 DAYS?
JL: There was only one day where I felt like it was going to be tough, and that was the poker scene. Originally it wasn’t supposed to be poker, it was supposed to be… a board game, but there were issues about rights. The morning of, when we realized we couldn’t [use the board game], now I had to rewrite the scene for poker.

CM: You freaked out! You were like, ‘I don’t know poker…’

JL: I play Blackjack! One of the people that worked on our set gave me the cliff notes version of poker, and to this day in the poker scene, we cut to the hand Mark’s character has and, with every time I see the movie, there’s an eruption of laughter when the camera cuts to his hand. It’s a terrible hand, but to this day, I don’t know why people are laughing!

[Laughter]

 

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR MUSICAL CHOICES FOR THE FILM, SPECIFICALLY THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS SONG?
CM: The score really defined what the tone was. I saw the movie Martha Marcy May Marlene and it was such a weird, atmospheric score with dark chilling tones, but there was also something really beautiful about it. My first obvious idea was, ‘This is a quirky story, it should have a quirky score,’ and then I quickly threw that away because it was the obvious idea. When I saw [Marlene] I thought to go darker, hit the dramatic tones and support the emotional journey of the characters.

The Mamas & the Papas song, called “The One I Love,” was just, our editor Jennifer Lilly just looked it up in iTunes and she brought this song [to us] and I became so obsessed with it. Our poor producer Mel [Eslyn] was trying to get the [song] rights from six different people.

 

CHARLIE, IT’S NO SURPRISE YOU COME FROM A SUCCESSFUL ACTOR FAMILY-  HOW HAS YOUR FAMILY SUPPORTED YOU DURING THIS FILM?
CM: Yeah, I come from this bizarre family- Ted [Danson] is my step-dad, my mom is Mary Steenburgen and my dad is Malcolm McDowell, but I grew up in this very normal house and they were just my parents, you know? For me, it was an incredible experience because I was exposed to being on a set and watching great directors work.

To work with Ted, it was one of those things where, I just called up my parents house and my mom picked up and I was like, ‘Hey mom, so umm, I want Ted to be in the movie,’ and she was like, ‘Ok, hold on, let me put him on,’ and he was like, ‘Oh, are you sure?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re in it,’ and he was like, ‘Fine.’ It was the easiest way to get an actor.

[Laughter]

Ted came on our last day of shooting and I think he was a little nervous ’cause we had all connected and he was coming into this thing so nervous. I was like Ted, you’re the most veteran person here! He was like, ‘I know, but what am I supposed to do?’ But it was great! The only embarrassing thing was my mom- I let her come into the room where the monitor was and I could see her with this huge grin on her face. She was turning to people being like, ‘That’s my son directing!’