Writer-director Aline Brosh McKenna had some homework for her stars.
But when it came to starring inYour Place or Mine,Ashton KutcherandReese Witherspoonwere given something unexpected homework.
While speaking at a press conference, Kutcher revealed that he was a model student.
Ashton Kutcher in ‘Your Place or Mine’.JoJo Whilden / Netflix
“I’m not a very big fiction reader,” he said.
“I don’t read a lot of fiction.
So, I ended up diving in.
Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher in ‘Your Place or Mine’.Netflix
Aline sent me 10 books prior to the film.
She’s like, ‘you should probably read all of these.’
“[My favorite was]When Breath Becomes Airby Paul Kalanithi,” Kutcher continued.
Erin Simkin / Netflix
“That book was devastatingly wonderful.High Fidelitywas very good.
I read all of them.
I read all 10 books.
Reese Witherspoon and Wesley Kimmel in ‘Your Place or Mine’.Erin Simkin / Netflix
I actually fell in love with reading fiction again from this experience.
That was fun and refreshing.”
But as I’ve gotten to know him better, that’s a very Ashton thing to do.”
“I called her, and I said, ‘I have three children.
I’m running a company, and I have a full-time other job.
I’m not reading these books.
But they would look really good on the set.’
And they did.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve said this story is an idea you had kicking around for a long time.
Where did it come from?
It had stickers on the glasses and shrink wrap on the silverware.
I always thought that was funny.
I always loved the idea.
But when they switch, it’s like, “Did they ever really know each other?
Were they giving each other an edited view of each other’s lives?”
Of course, no one ever does.
It’s always a heavily redacted version of that.
When you were shopping the script, was it always with the idea that you’d direct?
I’d directed TV obviously [withCrazy Ex-Girlfriend].
So it was really great training.
I learned a lot about the most productive and fun ways to approach actors.
The literary world is so important to both Debbie and Peter and their journeys.
What made you include that?
I felt like it was important for them to have had that vestige of the 20-something purest aspirations.
What you choose to do when you first enter the world is probably the purest form of your aspiration.
And then sometimes it gets funneled into something else.
We also have cameos of real authors and editors who are standing outside the Brownstone Club.
We have Amanda Brainerd who wroteAge of Consent.
Morgan Entrekin, who’s a very famous editor and now is at Grove Atlantic.
Emma Straub, who is also a friend of Reese.
But why the Cars?
The Cars really suit that intellectual but slightly emotionally remote person that Peter is.
The Cars are not head-bashing music.
It’s party music for smart people.
And the songs are so incredibly well written and they’re bops.
We could have used 20 Cars songs.
It was hard to limit the list to ten songs.
We rarely see rom-coms about people in their 40s and up.
Was that always important to you in writing this?
What’s funny and cool in the context of this movie is they’re both gorgeous.
The movie is not pretending that either one of them is an ugly duckling.
By the way, they could both play anything.
But the idea is not that they’re shy or woebegone or need a makeover.
The makeover is on the inside.
It’s really two people coming of age at the same time later in their life.
It’s never too late to come of age.
I think what makes people old is accepting certain limitations that they don’t need to accept.
The climax takes place on this airport people mover.
How hard was it to shoot that without one of them falling over?
That was always a pretty important part of the movie conceptually for me.
We spent a very long time looking at airports and convention centers, anywhere else we could do it.
We didn’t have a lot of runway between the walkway and the end of the stage.
Where did you get that idea?
Whether it’s a friendship or a romantic partnership or a work opportunity or anything.
And I wanted them to almost miss each other.
But you have to take that opportunity when circumstance puts you in the right spot.
I’m not a believer in fate or destiny or any of those things.
And then you have something very earnest like this, or27 DressesorMorning Glory.
What made you want to return to that earnest space?
Do you like writing in one more than the other?
The intention was always to make it funny.
So it was definitely placing an emphasis on it being funny, but it’s not necessarily satirical.
I think of them more as dramas with jokes.
What I’m always trying to do is try and capture the human experience, but with humor.
Somebody said to me, “You write coming-of-age pieces for grownups.”
That really resonated with me.
That idea that it’s people going through something and sometimes that brings you to a zoo.
And sometimes that brings you to realizing you shouldn’t be a people pleaser, which is27 Dresses.
