00:00I know this story and this book has a lot of heavy themes in it, so what do you hope
00:07that audiences take away from seeing this film?
00:10I hope that anyone who has suffered through a reality like this might feel inspired to
00:17be able to ask for help.
00:19I also feel like friends of victims.
00:22I really love when Atlas hides his number in her phone.
00:26He doesn't force his help, but he offers his help, and he renders himself a safe place
00:32and a lifeline, and so I hope that this film also inspires people to do that for their
00:36friends as well.
00:38Was there any scene in particular that was challenging to work through?
00:43Yeah, you know, as a writer, probably the most difficult scene for me to crack was the
00:48rooftop scene, because I have to say Colleen wrote it perfectly, and I wish I could have
00:54just lifted it from the pages and just put it in the film, but it's a little too long
00:59for film language, and so my first crack at it, it was like a 10-page scene, which is
01:05a little impossible, so the question became, what do we keep?
01:10What do we shave off?
01:12There's a lot of heavy lifting in that scene, and I'm so proud to the performers for really,
01:17I mean, there's just a lot of things that have to happen in that scene.
01:20Just kicking over a chair all the way to them starting to get a little intimate, and
01:25if you really look at the emotional beats of the scene, it's incredible how many layers
01:29there are, so on the page it took a long time to get right, and then I have to say, Justin
01:35and Blake just killed it, yeah.
01:37I know Blake also talked about not wanting to play Lily like a delicate flower, so how
01:43were you able to incorporate that into the writing?
01:47Well, there were a lot of conversations early on before we cast, honestly before we even
01:53were at Sony, it was supposed to be a really small indie movie at Wayfair, and then Sony
01:57got involved later, Blake got cast, and it snowballed from there, but we had a lot of
02:01conversations about aging the roles up a little bit, because I wanted audiences who maybe
02:06who have never been victims of abuse, I didn't want them to necessarily think that Lily is
02:13stuck in this relationship because she's young, it's like, oh she's just young, she
02:17doesn't know how to draw boundaries yet, she doesn't know how to say no.
02:21It's like, no, what happens when you're a fully realized grown woman, you have your
02:25own business, you know who you are, you're fun, you're funny, you're smart, but you're
02:30contending with a reality that feels familiar, and it is reminiscent of your childhood trauma,
02:36and that's the piece of your heart that you have yet to heal, and that's the journey of
02:40the film.
02:41Sure, and very quickly, I know some of the cast had talked about advice that they would
02:44give to their younger self, so I was curious to know, what is advice that you would give
02:48to your younger self about love and finding the right partner?
02:53I think you have to learn to love yourself first.
03:00If you're looking for someone else to justify your worth, I think that there's more work
03:06to do.
03:07Especially not until you love yourself, you date yourself, you buy yourself flowers, that
03:13you can really be at peace with yourself in silence for not just five minutes, but for
03:19a couple of hours.
03:21I feel like that's when you're ready to choose wisely and find a partner that is worthy of
03:25you.
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