Directed byJulia Hart, who co-wrote the film with husband/producerJordan Horowitz, the 1970s-set crime dramaI’m Your Womanfollows a suburban housewife named Jean (Rachel Brosnahan), who must learn to fend for herself after her thief husband (Bill Heck) goes on the run from some really bad men. With an infant and few survival skills, Jean ventures into a criminal underworld to find out what happened and what to do next.
Collider recently got on the phone to chat with filmmaking duo Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz about releasing a movie during a pandemic, experimenting with very different types of stories, the differences between shootingI’m Your WomanandStargirl(which came out through Disney+ earlier this year), how they split up the work, and having the film’s star Rachel Brosnahan really be a partner in their collaborative process. They also talked about the development ofFast Colorfor Amazon and what they’re looking forward to with turning that film into a TV series.
COLLIDER: What’s it like to release a movie during a pandemic? Is there a push and pull between wishing that you could get people in theaters at a time when they could really use some escapism, but also wanting to make sure audiences are as safe as possible? How hard is that to deal with?
JULIA HART: It’s funny because we also released a movie right at the beginning of the pandemic. We had a movie [Stargirl] come out on Disney+ in March. Until you asked me that question, I hadn’t actually really thought about the fact that really prepared us for this. We had already experienced that.I’m Your Womanis our second streaming film that we’ve made. So, I think having a little bit of experience with what that felt like was very helpful, but of course, it’s sad. We made the film knowing that it was gonna be on Amazon Prime, but also that it was gonna be in theaters. We definitely were really excited and looking forward to watching all of those fun ‘70s crime drama set pieces with an audience on a big screen. But at the end of the day, we just feel really grateful that we were able to finish the film and that we do have a platform like Amazon to release it. I know that having new movies and television shows to watch during all of this has been so uplifting and so rejuvenating. We just feel really grateful that we get to do the same thing, and that we get to share our movie with people right now. I think we need art and new content more than ever.
JORDAN HOROWITZ: I really have nothing to add to that. That was very well said.
HART: Thank you.
You mentioned havingI’m Your WomanandStargirlboth come out in the same year and those are films that very different tones. How did it happen that they both ended up in the same year?
HART: We really like making different movies. It’s really fun to experiment with and get lost in and educate yourself about completely different types of movies, in terms of tones and genre. Actually, one of my favorite things that any writer has ever said to me, I had the privilege of knowing Tony Kushner, who is an incredible writer, and he said to me that someone once said to him that you never pop out of the same foxhole twice and that’s how you stay alive in combat. He was talking about that because he’s obviously a writer who writes wildly different types of things. I just always loved that idea of getting to just go on these completely different journeys in completely different worlds and different time periods. It makes an already exciting profession that much more exciting and fun and interesting.
HOROWITZ: The things that we try to pursue, in each of those genres, we try to hold consistent with where our interest lies, primarily in character. I like to describe Julia as a humanist filmmaker. I think she’s interested in the inner lives of authentic people, and that’s something that holds true across, not just acrossStargirlandI’m Your Woman, butMiss StevensandFast Color, as well.
Did those two films feel very different when you were shooting them, or is the shooting of movies the thing that feels the same?
HART: They were very, very different experiences, even though a lot of crew members came fromStargirltoI’m Your Woman. We made them pretty much one year to the day later. They felt so different becauseStargirlis a YA Disney musical and our cast were these bubbly, lovely teenagers. It’s a musical, so there was a lot of music and dancing. And we had just had a baby right before we went into production. Our youngest son was eight weeks old when we started makingStargirl. And we were in New Mexico, which is much warmer than Pittsburgh at that time of year. And then,I’m Your Womanis an intense, dark movie. The set pieces inStargirlare all fun marching band and musical numbers. WithI’m Your Woman, there was a lot of really intense stunt work and a lot of really complicated camera work to go along with that. It was also 17 degrees when we shot.
HOROWITZ: And we shot 15 straight full nights over three weeks. They were hard nights that started at 7pm and wrapped at 7am the next morning, which you can’t do with minors. So, the schedule was really different, the location is really different, and the vibes were just really different, even though it was a lot of the same people.
HART: I guess the consistent thing was that we were working with people we love and trusted and that definitely made the difficulty of making this film easier.
HOROWITZ: The DP, production designer, and costume designer were all the same, and then a bunch of people underneath them. Our crew has now become our family.
When it comes to working together, what does that look like? What does your writing process like when you’re working on the script and the development of the script together, and then how does that transform once you’re on set and producing and directing together?
HOROWITZ: We start with an idea. Usually, Julia is the idea generator, although once or twice, I’ve had an idea, but mostly not. When we’re kicking an idea back and forth, we’re wearing all the hats, both as co-writers, and Julia as the director and I as a producer. I’m thinking about how we make it, and Julia is thinking about what it will feel like and what it will look like to make it. We’re also thinking about it from the point of view of outlining it and how we tell the story. It’s a collaboration. It holds true across all of the various stages of Julia’s filmmaking and our filming together that we start from a place of collaboration. Julia and I are not the kind of people that share a brain. There are some people who work together that share a brain, and they both know what each other’s thinking. We kind of know what each other is thinking because we’ve been together for so long and we’ve worked together so often, but we’re never really thinking the same thing.
HART: Unless it’s what we want for dinner.
HOROWITZ: Then, we usually want the same thing. But with storytelling, there are a lot of times that we have similar instincts, but our ways to things very often differs. We start from a place of collaboration. We’re also married, so we start from a place of family, and that’s something that we try to carry forward in the writing process, in the casting and production process, and in the post-production process. Our key crew is our family. That tends to be the way Julia likes to run a set and the way I like to run a set, as a producer. Once we get to a place on the script that we’re happy with and we start to do casting and move towards making it, I definitely head into producer mode, in a pretty aggressive way. Julia stays in writer/director mode a little more than I do. Other than keeping the formatting good during production, which is definitely my responsibility, I definitely am very much in producer mode once we get to prep and production. I very often forget that I co-wrote a script.
HART: I think that also comes from the fact that you started out as a producer on set. Your comfort and history on set is being a producer. You didn’t start producing films that you wrote until much later in your career. It’s probably just a force of habit.
HOROWITZ: The person who needs the writer on set, in my opinion, is the director and the actors. But everybody needs the producer to be present on set, I think. So, it’s habit, but it’s also preference.
HART: We’re also lucky that there’s two of us. If I’m working with an actor on a scene, I can be the writer and the director in that moment while Jordan’s having to take care of things as a producer. If I’m too exhausted at the end of a shooting day, from being on my feet with the actors, but now the scene needs to be rewritten, Jordan can do that. It’s a really great process for us that’s definitely evolved a lot over time. We had very distinct roles early on in terms of our writing process, but that’s the place where we have morphed and evolved the most. Who Jordan is, as a producer, has been so consistent, and who I am, as director, has been so consistent, but our writing process is definitely the part of our partnership that has evolved the most.
HOROWITZ: It’s changed the most.
HART: We’re both really doing everything at the script level, as opposed to taking on separate jobs.
Jordan, have you ever considered trying your hand at directing, or do you feel like your skill set is more suited to being a producer?
HART: He directed second unit on this movie and he did such a good job.
HOROWITZ: I don’t think we need another 40-year-old white guy directing, to be totally fair. I’m very satisfied with our creative relationship. We work very hand-in-hand. I’ll produce movies for other people, and that producer relationship is very different from the producer relationship that Julia and I have. Our relationship as writer/director/producer is much closer to [Michael] Powell and [Emeric] Pressburger than it is to the way I produce a movie without Julia. They always take the credit, “Written, directed and produced by Powell and Pressburger,” and I like to think of our work as Julia is on set as the director and she’s the person who is very much at the front of production and editorial. She’s driving the process, but it’s very deeply collaborative.
HART: As is every relationship on set. As Jordan said, we view every single aspect of filmmaking as a collaboration. I will never take a “Film by” credit. To be totally honest, I find it offensive for directors to take a “Film by” credit. The film is by all of us. We are all working together to tell this story. It is important for one person to, be the captain of the ship, at the end of the day . . .
HOROWITZ: . . . but that isn’t necessarily authorship.
HART: Exactly. It might ultimately come down to my bigger vision for a film, but within that bigger vision are so many visions and so many talented people, all working together.
HOROWITZ: And Julia is very good at very clearly communicating what that overall vision is, but then gives people the space to bring their own creativity. That is very much the goal of the work that we do.
What was that like to then add Rachel Brosnahan to the mix onI’m Your Woman, as not only your lead, but also as a producer? How involved did she get with giving her input?
HOROWITZ: I’ll let Julia speak to her as an actress. I can speak to her as a producer, and it was awesome. When somebody says to me, “I’d like to produce,” or however it’s communicated that somebody wants to be a producer, I’m very clear that, if you want a “produced by” credit, then you need to produce the movie. Otherwise, take an EP credit. I’m not interested in a producer in name only. She was very clear that she wanted to produce the movie, and did produce the movie, alongside me. What was most interesting about her, as a producer, was that she approached everything from the point of view of character in a really interesting way that I hadn’t considered when she first came on as producer. In prep, when we were location scouting, she would come with us to locations. I’ve never had an actor or actress come on a location scout, and her approach to locations was from the point of view of character, like, “How am I, as a character, inhabiting the space?” And it wasn’t just her only thinking about herself. It was, “How am I, as a character, inhabiting the space and what does that mean to the film as a whole?” That was really awesome because I certainly don’t think about that when I’m doing a location scout. And then, in the edit, when we were talking about scene work, she would come at it from the perspective of the character and say, “Why does this track? How does this make sense? Why am I not feeling like this is moving from point A to point B emotionally?” That’s something we try to do in the edit, but having her understand what was going on, behind her eyes, in each and every beat of each and every scene, was really, really helpful. She wasn’t coming at it from the point of view of, “I don’t like this part of my performance.” It was, “What is Jean’s truth, how can we best communicate that truth, and how does that serve the larger film?”
HART: It was an amazing experience for me, as a director, having her as a producer and working with her as an actor, the way in which all of those things blended together and interacted with each other. It was very impressive how she was able to switch hats. She’d be standing there with her blood makeup on her face, holding a prop gun, talking to Jordan about the schedule, and then would have to turn around and go do another take. She’s a very gifted and wonderful person, and it definitely spoiled me because now I’m like, “I always want the lead actor going to be a producer.” But I have to keep in mind that Rachel is a very specific and singular talent and person. I definitely hope to work with her again, as an actor and as a producer, because she’s the best.
HOROWITZ: In terms of bringing her into our existing process, I think the simplest thing to say is that triangles are stronger shapes than lines. That is just a truth, if you know how to make that work. If you actually know how to be a strong triangle, it is an inherently stronger shape.
Because I also was such a fan ofFast Color, I very selfishly want to know how things are coming with the TV series for that.
HART: Thank you for saying that. We’re very excited about it too.I’m Your Womanis a script that we were working on for five years before we made it and it was always very clear to us that it was a film that was inspired by a very specific time period and genre of film. ButFast Colorwas this idea that just exploded into our brains, and then we were making it within a year from when we first started writing it. It always felt like it wanted to be more than a movie, so we were so excited that Amazon agreed. In the midst of postingI’m Your Womanand releasing it and doing press for it, we’ve been working away on the pilot script. Jordan and I are writing the pilot script forFast Colorand I’m supposed to direct it. We’re still in the writing phase, so we’ll see what happens, but we’re excited about it.
What does it feel like you can do with that, as a TV series, that you couldn’t do with a film? Does it feel like it’s so much more wide open?
HOROWITZ: Yeah. The thing that has been most interesting to explore, and our partners at JuVee Productions – Viola [Davis] and Julius [Tennon] and Andrew Wang – have been really pushing us on, is just to really go deeper in many ways. It’s not necessarily starting where the movie left off and telling that same story. It’s more, how do we start where the movie started, but how do we go deeper and more fully explore the mythology of the world? That’s something that we’re really interested in. The movie hinted at a larger mythology, but just didn’t have the running time to fully explore it. What does this world look like outside of this small space that we were exploring in the movie, and what is the history of these women? There are three generations of women in the story ofFast Color, the movie, but in the television show, we’re definitely looking to explore multiple generations of women who have these abilities and what it means to have had them.
HART: We set up the journal in the film and they talk about building the farmhouse that they’re all living in in the film. We were always really excited by the idea of exploring that journal and these women with these abilities, throughout history and different time periods.
