In need of a good, cathartic ugly cry?
Stock up on Kleenex becauseLife in a Yearchecks that box … and then some.
“It’s definitely not a pretty sobbing film,” she says with a laugh.
Sony Pictures and Overbrook Entertainment
“It gets you right in the gut.
Oh my gosh, I cried all the time [during filming].”
The film is Slovenian director Mitja Okorn’s first U.S. movie, and he’s a self-admittedfan of tearjerkers.
Sony Pictures and Overbrook Entertainment
“I love to cry at movies myself,” he tells EW.
“It’s such a good, cleansing moment.
I always choose emotions over logic.
It’s such a lovely thing to see people crying, taking out their handkerchiefs while watching a movie.
That makes me cry, when people are touched as well!”
“In Hollywood, they even really badly call them ‘sick-lit,’ like ‘chick-lit.’
And I said, ‘No, this should be from the heart.
It should be not pretentious.
It should belife.'”
“I’m like, ‘Oh, great.
I can work with this.’
And when we were shooting all these emotional scenes later, Will Smith is sitting behind me sobbing.”
But it was the script that had her “obsessed” with playing Isabelle.
And she adds, “Isabelle was special to me specifically because of her strength.
The way she led her life was just very inspirational.”
“I love Jaden so much, I adore him with all my heart,” she says.
He watched all of her movies and still wasn’t sure she was the right choice.
“There’s such an amazing energy coming from those videos.
“She’s funny, she has crazy, unpredictable energy, she drums, she can do everything.
I was immediately like, ‘Why is no one using her energy like that in movies?’
Okorn was relieved that Delevingne loved the script.
But her love for the character went deeper than he expected.
“She was like, ‘This is awesome.
I want to shave my headandmy eyebrows,'” Okorn says.
“And I was immediately like, ‘Oh no, don’t do the eyebrows!
Your eyebrows are so special.
What if they don’t grow back the way you have them now?
They probably are worth more than the whole movie if we would have to insure them!’
But we liked that passion that she had.”
Delevingne reveals that she “really wanted to embody her” fully when it came to shaving her hair.
“And during the whole process I actually got quite sick.
I cried a lot and I felt depressed during the whole thing.
It felt quite bleak but I still wanted to thrive and be on fire.”
It’s that heavy emotion that Okorn is most excited for people, especially young teenagers, to see.
And whoever likes a good tearjerker is going to love it too.”
As for how much Kleenex viewers will need to watch?
“A lot!”
“Or just a shoulder to cry on or a pillow to scream into.
But at the end, there are happy tears.
There’s a beautiful message in this film.
Check out the exclusive first trailer forLife in a Yearabove now, and get ready to cry.
