Joe Swanberg (JS)<\/strong>: A lot of the story came from conversations my wife and I were having in our lives. Many of the conversations were about motherhood and pressures she was feeling about being an artist and entrepreneur, as well as being a woman and a great mom. As we were talking about it, it was a conversation I realized I wasn\u2019t seeing on television or in movies, and it felt really essential to me.<\/p>\n
So the movie really started with Anna and Melanie being invited into that process, which is usually how I work. I tend to cast pretty early on, and work with the actors. So we talked about those issues when they were first cast. I felt Melanie\u2019s motherhood issues would be most sharply contrasted by a younger woman who was on the flip side of the equation. She theoretically had everything Melanie was missing. Anna had spare time, energy, optimism and excitement, and in Melanie\u2019s mind, Anna\u2019s squandering that. That frustration felt exciting to me.<\/p>\n
SY: Why was it also important for you to explore the feminist issue of how becoming parents, especially for women like Kelly, affects their professional lives and identities?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: Well, I always want to be making films in a territory where I feel like people aren\u2019t working. I want to continue making stories I\u2019m not really seeing. I\u2019m also really fascinated by women. Their lives are really unexplored in movies, and we don\u2019t get many movies with female characters. So it\u2019s always been satisfying and fun to tell stories that aren\u2019t being told a lot.<\/p>\n Also, with actors that good, every day is a pleasure on set, especially when I can give them space to do their work. As a director, I get to be surprised, excited and challenged every single day. It\u2019s a different kind of thing from having to get through a script.<\/p>\n SY: Speaking of Melanie and Anna, who you mentioned earlier, what was the process of casting them and the rest of the cast for \u2018Happy Christmas?\u2019<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: Well, I had just worked with Anna on \u2018Drinking Buddies\u2019 before filming \u2018Happy Christmas.\u2019 I not only knew that I wanted to work with her again, but also that she hadn\u2019t been cast outside of characters who were very well put together and had Type A personalities. She was a lot more dynamic than that. That was a big early feeling about that character.<\/p>\n With Melanie, I had met her during the casting process of \u2018Drinking Buddies.\u2019 I didn\u2019t cast her in that film, but knew right away that I wanted to work with her. So the second I was finished making \u2018Drinking Buddies,\u2019 I was right back in touch with her, seeing if we could work on something together.<\/p>\n Lena\u2019s been a friend of mine for a long time. I had acted in a web series she had done, and we run in the same circle of friends, so we\u2019ve known each other for a long period of time. So I wrote the part of Carson, knowing that I wanted to work with her as an actor. I also thought she and Anna would have a really fun rapport together.<\/p>\n With Mark, I had been a fan of his work, and had been talking to him around the time I was starting to put the movie together. I asked Anna if she had any recommendations of actors she thought would be fun to work with, and would be good in that role, and she brought Mark\u2019s name up. That was perfect, because he was already on my mind.<\/p>\n SY: Like you mentioned, Anna was also in \u2018Drinking Buddies,\u2019 which also featured Olivia Wilde, and it\u2019s also a female-driven film overall. Do you enjoy working with actresses to tell these stories about strong women?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: I do, but I think my motivations are always actor-driven first. But I do think there is a big discrepancy in the movies that we see. So until that equalizes, I think I\u2019ll be more driven to focus on stories driven on women than men. Also, I know what it feels like to be a man, but I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be a woman. So there\u2019s a discovery element there that\u2019s more exciting as a filmmaker. It\u2019s also exciting to be able to dive into a project where I hope I\u2019m going to learn things.<\/p>\n SY: What was the process of reuniting with Anna on the set of \u2018Happy Christmas?\u2019 Overall, what are your working relationships and experiences of working with actors on several films been like throughout your career?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: It\u2019s really great. I feel like as you keep doing projects together, your relationships become deeper and more complicated. A lot of filmmaking is getting to know somebody. When you come into a project already knowing someone, I feel like you can get to the more interesting stuff quicker. I\u2019ll try to put Anna in every movie I make, if she\u2019s up for it. I think she\u2019s incredibly talented, and definitely one of my favorite actors.<\/p>\n That also goes for a lot of the people I\u2019ve gotten to work with lately. Jake Johnson, who was in \u2018Drinking Buddies,\u2019 and I are working on another movie together (called \u2018Digging for Fire\u2019). I\u2019m also trying to make another film with Olivia. These ongoing relationships are important to me, and I think we can continue to tell cool stories.<\/p>\n SY: While there are some actors you have worked with on several films so far, are there any actors you haven\u2019t worked with yet that you would like to collaborate with on a future project?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: Oh, definitely. I really like Joaquin Phoenix, and he\u2019s someone I would love to have the chance to work with. I also really like Amy Adams. There are a lot of actors I\u2019m excited about right now. Shailene Woodley and Dave Franco are also really good.<\/p>\n That also goes for a lot of the people I\u2019ve gotten to work with lately. Jake Johnson, who was in \u2018Drinking Buddies,\u2019 and I are working on another movie together (called \u2018Digging for Fire\u2019). I\u2019m also trying to make another film with Olivia Wilde, who was also in \u2018Drinking Buddies.\u2019 These ongoing relationships are important to me, and I think we can continue to tell cool stories.<\/p>\n SY: Like with many of your films, you didn\u2019t write a fully formed screenplay for \u2018Happy Christmas,\u2019 and instead allowed your co-stars in the movie to improvise most of their lines. Why do you feel it\u2019s beneficial to write more of an outline, instead of full script, and allow the actors to improv their lines while you\u2019re filming?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: Well, I like to let actors speak with their own voice, and I think that\u2019s why I continue to do it. It\u2019s also a way for me not to write women\u2019s perspectives, and allow them to be themselves. It seems when I film that way, rather than solving the problems as a screenwriter, there are five or six of us on set, solving those problems. It\u2019s always felt to me that the accumulation of ideas in the moment and real space, with other people, is a more natural fit than the solutions I would come up with if I was sitting alone with my laptop, and trying to come up with scenarios.<\/p>\n \u2018Happy Christmas\u2019 was very well outlined, and the whole story was in place before the actors came on the set. But all of the things I love about the film are the details they brought to it, and not necessarily the story that I\u2019m telling. That\u2019s continued to be a fun process on all my films.<\/p>\n SY: Did you speak with the actors about their ideas for their characters\u2019 backgrounds and arcs before you arrived on the set and began filming?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: We definitely did speak before we began shooting. I did have a lot of real-life things to base the story and characters on, so the skeletal structure and outline of the story was there. I would say the outline is 25 percent of the finished movie, and the actors brought in 75 percent of the finished movie.<\/p>\n SY: Since you both starred in, and directed, \u2018Happy Christmas,\u2019 did working on both sides of the camera influence each other?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: I think so. I go back and forth between acting in my own films and appearing in other directors\u2019 movies. I like to act, and it\u2019s fun on a movie like this to be in there in a small role. I think there is a way to influence the tone of it, and direct from within a scene. There weren\u2019t really big days for me as an actor in this film, so I could mostly be a director, and once in a while jump in front of the camera. JS<\/strong>: Yes, I would like to keep doing that. It\u2019s really nice for me as a director to get to act in other people\u2019s movies. It\u2019s a real privilege to get to be that close to the action on someone else\u2019s set. So I would hate to lose that access.<\/p>\n SY: Your son, Jude, plays your character\u2019s son in the comedy, and had a natural ability to entertain, such as when he stuffed dozens of Cheerios into his mouth. Why did you decide to feature him in the movie, and what was it like working with him?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: It was really fun having Jude in the movie. As a dad, it was so special for me to capture him at that age. When we filmed the movie, he had just turned two-years-old, and he was really great, in terms of not camera shy or conscious of it. He was having fun and playing with the actors, and we had a lot of freedom of filming him in those scenarios. So I thought it was really great.<\/p>\n As he gets older, I don\u2019t want to pressure him into acting, and don\u2019t want to make him do something he doesn\u2019t want to do. So I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s something we\u2019ll keep doing. But he\u2019s old enough now to have seen \u2018Happy Christmas,\u2019 and we talk about it. He says he likes acting, as much as a three-year-old can say he likes acting. (laughs)<\/p>\n SY: Like with \u2018Drinking Buddies,\u2019 you set and filmed \u2018Happy Christmas\u2019 independently in your home in Chicago, where you grew up. What has the overall experience of filming independently your home and in Chicago been like on both films?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: It was great to film independently and in Chicago, and it\u2019s how I\u2019ve made most of my movies. It\u2019s a nice return to the earliest ways in which I worked. We filmed with a very small crew.<\/p>\n It was fun to work in my house, and it was nice to wake up on the set in the morning and know what we were going to do that day. The stuff we didn\u2019t shoot in my house was mostly filmed around my neighborhood. I like that comfort and familiarity, and I want to keep making movies that way. I love Chicago, and it\u2019s not put on screen all that much. But it\u2019s also fun to go somewhere new, and that\u2019s a different discovery process that I really like.<\/p>\n SY: How does filming in Chicago compare and contrast to maybe shooting here in New York, or in Los Angeles?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: Filming in Chicago is really nice, as it\u2019s really film-friendly. The people in Chicago are still really excited about making movies. There\u2019s a weariness of shooting movies in New York and L.A., because there\u2019s such a history of independent movies and industry presence in those cities. So from homeowners to restaurant owners, everyone has been asked a million times if they can have a movie shot in their businesses or homes.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t feel like that\u2019s happened as much in Chicago, so people there are more open to allowing you in. That\u2019s really useful when you don\u2019t have a lot of money, and if you want to come in and capture people\u2019s spaces. I\u2019m not a big art department person, as I don\u2019t like to come in and repaint all the ways and move all the furniture and totally re-decorate. It\u2019s nice to pick a spot that already looks like what the characters\u2019 places would look like, and work from that.<\/p>\n SY: Speaking of utilizing natural spaces and filming independently in general, do you feel that added to the creativity of the film\u2019s story?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: I hope so, and would like it to ground the story in a story that makes sense to people. Especially with \u2018Happy Christmas,\u2019 I wanted this cozy feeling of a city at wintertime, and people are bundled up on the streets. I wanted the film to capture this intimate family feeling. So I feel like filming in real spaces adds to that.<\/p>\n We also shot on 16mm, and there\u2019s something about that which feels nostalgic and homey to me. It looks like old home movies, and there\u2019s something really comforting in that.<\/p>\n SY: Speaking of shooting \u2018Happy Christmas\u2019 on 16mm film, that choice helped give the overall movie a natural look. Do you think shooting on film, instead of digitally, was beneficial to making this type of story?<\/p>\n JS<\/strong>: I think so. There are two things I noticed that happened on set, which were really nice. We didn\u2019t have a lot of film, so we couldn\u2019t do a lot of takes. That made (cinematographer) Ben (Richardson) and I really focus on what we wanted to visually capture.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to say this, because it makes people sound unprofessional on a digital set, which isn\u2019t true. But when you know there\u2019s film running through a camera, it creates a different atmosphere. Everyone\u2019s really conscious that we\u2019re making a movie, and that we\u2019re working now, and I liked that. I also like having a casual set, and want the atmosphere to be relaxed.<\/p>\n But when the camera was rolling, there was something fun about feeling that energy in the space. We thought, okay, we\u2019re really doing this now, and it\u2019s costing money. We don\u2019t\u2019 have a million cracks at it. It felt more to me like film school, or when I first started making movies.<\/p>\n Written by: Karen Benardello<\/a><\/p>\n
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\nSY: Are you interested in continuing acting in other directors\u2019 films in the future?<\/p>\n
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