Writer and director Emma Forrest is a force with with her newest film Untogether. It has a brilliant cast of actors such as Ben Mendelsohn, Billy Crystal and Lola and Jemima Kirke. A romantic drama of sorts about people dating and living their life in an urban city. It’s a realistic picture about how humans need desire, but not exactly a relationship, until one day they do. Forrest realizes the depth for the human desire for love in this drama out February 8th, 2019. You can stream it on Prime video and wherever it’s sold.
Website: www.UntogetherFilm.com * Facebook: @Untogetherfilm * Twitter: @Untogetherfilm * Instagram: @Untogetherfilm
Here’s an interview with the fabulous writer and director Emma Forrest below!
Who are you and what do you do?
Emma Forrest writer/director/novelist/memoirist
What do you love about directing?
Knowing that you constantly have to make a decision, and accepting that it won't always be the right one.
Ben Mendelsohn and Lola Kirke (courtesy of Production)
What were some challenges making the film?
I don't know where to begin, only that it would take an entire memoir. I do know Alice Eve saved our ass (and stole her scenes).
Billy Crystal (Courtesy of Production)
If you could go back and change anything about the film what would it be?
I'd have shot the concert sequence with two cameras instead of one, I'd have let Ben Mendelsohn have the extra take he wanted so he didn't stop talking to me for three days, I'd have written Jennifer Grey a meatier role (I just didn't know I was going to get Jennifer Grey!)
Ben Mendelsohn (courtesy of Production)
Was there any funny or exciting moments on set you’d like to share?
When Jamie Dornan saw that the modesty pouch he'd be wearing for his love scene, had an advert on the back that said "As worn by Jamie Dornan”.
How did you navigate the festival circuit?
Like Ava DuVernay before us, we got turned down by Sundance. Every female film maker I know got turned down by Sundance last year and we did gather to try to get some transparency about how many of last year's programmers were female. Tribeca was wonderful and they were passionate about the film and I ended up showing alongside two female directors who've become real allies: Eva Vives and Nia DaCosta. All three of us got distribution offers out of Tribeca.
What was your idea behind the sound in the film?
Do you mean the sound mix or the soundtrack or the score? The score was meant to evoke Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk which the composer Robin Foster did beautifully. It's a wild, melancholic, ghost-y, non-linear, spiritual album and I hope my film is, too!
In an over saturated world of romance movies how did you make yours distinct?
I tried to use the sex scenes in progression to show character development for Jemima and Jamie. She stands completely differently the final time she undresses. And, by then, he's so vulnerable he can barely look at her.
Fun questions
If you were stuck on an abandoned island what five items would you have?
No rules. A duvet. Satin eye mask. Ever-charging unbreakable ipod and headphones full of music. Any 12 Step book, I don't care which tradition. Everlasting notepad and pen. I'd get a lot of work done.
If you could have coffee with any film director living or dead who would it be?
Dead: Ida Lupino. Alive: I'll say Almodovar. Even a lesser Almodovar film is still better than everyone else's. Plus, I saw him once in the supermarket and he radiated delightfulness.
