Julia Stiles has built an impressive body of work with her 30+ years on screen since her debut on the PBS series Ghostwriter and the Cyndi Lauper music video Sally’s Pigeons. Appearing in over 60 titles, some of her most memorable roles were in Touchstone’s 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Paramount’s Save the Last Dance (2001), and Lionsgate’s The Prince and Me (2004). While she’s still active on screen, Stiles has occasionally directed, with her debut in the 2007 short Raving and the WIGS web series Paloma, and her latest is her feature debut in Lionsgate’s Wish You Were Here. Based on the Renée Carlino novel of the same name, the film follows Charlotte (Isabelle Fuhrman), a woman searching for a spark in her life who experiences a whirlwind night of romance with a man (Mena Massoud) she meets. The next morning, she discovers he is terminally ill and commits to helping him spend his remaining time meaningfully. Stiles spoke to Bleeding Cool about why the novel was the perfect opportunity, collaborating with Carlino on the script and asking if her previous experiences directing shaped her time on Wish You Were Here and casting.
Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about “Wish You Were Here” and what prompted you to direct this first feature film?
I had wanted to direct for some time and was still looking for the right story to tell. At first I was a little embarrassed to direct, but then someone, an actress (Gabby Kono-Abdy) in the film, told me that she had sent the e-book five years ago and I thought, “This is it! I can completely see it visually as a movie. I had a visceral reaction.
Sometimes I laughed and then cried, which gave me the confidence to say, “Okay, now is the time. “In the five years since I directed it, the film has become deeper and more meaningful. Some things got better here to the surface than I even had a clue about when I first read the eBook, adding the adulthood of the love story, even though the main characters are young. It touches on much more adult and universal concepts and emotions, so when I went to adapt it, I took elements from The eBook and highlighted them. What caught my attention the most was this playful game that the two characters play together, in which they tell the story of their imagined relationship. They are two versions of a love story. It’s the love story they have in genuine life, and then it’s the love story they dream of.
Did you adapt this script or collaborate on it with Renée?
Renée had me read her script, then I talked to her and I was like, “As a director, I have to start over. “Part of my task as a director is to visualize this for myself, paintings in the script and visualize it moment by moment. She was very sure of herself and let me do it. When they gave me the first draft, I showed it to them. She gave me notes and then in the years leading up to production. , I did some rewrites on my own and then asked for your approval.
What were the most valuable lessons you learned while making “Paloma” and the short film “Raving” (2007) that occurred to you while you were there?
My God! My short ‘Raving’ and the ‘Paloma’ series were so long ago that I look back on them, and I’ve learned a lot since then. They were good experiments because the first thing that I learned was, “You can’t have a bazillion locations because that’s not practical for a shooting schedule.” I went into thinking ‘Wish You Were Here’ about what I could accomplish. That’s one thing. I also spent so much time on films as an actress; I was soaking in what I saw what the directors were doing on the film set, like in blocking rehearsals, watching a director and the cinematographer talk about where they’re going to put the camera that you take a lot.
Did you draw Isabelle from the beginning in the role of Charlotte?Was it because of your shared experience in “Orphan: First Kill” or was it a coincidence?Can you also tell us about others like Mena, Gabby and Jimmie and their compatibility with the cast?
This is not a coincidence. I adapted the script of “Wish You Were Here” while executing “Orphan: First Kill”, I pay special attention to my work as an actress. These are COVID times, so there’s nothing we can do. You can faint. You still can’t socialize. He had just returned from filming and had free time to work on the script. I pass by the set every day and I saw [Isabelle] as an actress, a 23-year-old girl who has an 11-year bet. I thought, “Wow! He’s so talented!” I also saw that she was a real painter, very committed and tireless, and I wanted someone with that stamina for “Wish You Were Here. ” If you’re in every scene all day, every single day, moving, putting your focus on it, and transforming, you want someone who is dedicated and has the power to do that, and I knew that she would do it.
Mena, I didn’t know him personally. I saw ‘Aladdin’ (2019) and I watched his TV show [‘Evolving Vegan’], which is not scripted, but it gives insight into maybe who he is. I felt like he was an old soul, and I wanted that grounding with [him as] Adam. I thought maybe the two of them would get along, and luckily, I was right, and then I wanted to cast my friends. There weren’t enough parts, but a lot of the smaller parts were friends of mine or people I worked with before. Jimmie Fails, I didn’t know, but I loved him in ‘Last Black Man in San Francisco,’ and I needed that part of Seth to be like, “Oh my God! He’s the perfect guy, and he’s so kind.” He sees her, he’s patient, and he’s showing interest in her, but he’s not pushing it too far. He wanted to get to know her, and I felt Jimmie would embody that.
Gabby is the genesis of this whole project. She slid into my DMs five years ago and then went through my agency. She said, “I’ve read that you are interested in directing. What about this book?” She was 25 years old but had a vision and chutzpah, and she was right. I loved the book, and she is why this whole movie started.
Wish You Were There, which also stars Kelsey Grammer and Jennifer Grey, will now be available in theaters and digitally on February 4.
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