Michael, how did you help them build their chemistry on screen?
Michael Dowse: As a director I try to let the actors improvise and build a chemistry and have that time on the set to work on all that. They had a lot of time to just talk and work together and find those moments in the script where they could just go off page and do their own thing.
Zoe Kazan: Ya, Mike likes to have a little improvisation to edit with. Not a ton, but maybe 15% of what ended up in the film was improvised. Most of it is from the script though. The general feel of improvisation being encouraged on set though helped us be really natural and spontaneous, even in the stuff that was scripted.
Why did the title change from The F Word to What If?
Michael Dowse: CBS bought the film out of TIFF and sat us down and said they needed to change the title. It was also because of the MPAA, who were a big consideration. This film needed a PG-13. It will always be The F Word for me, but I understand the change. It is what is it. What If is a fine title. I’m not worried about it.
Michael ,how did you have to adapt to this genre since it was your first time?
Michael Dowse: A lot of my films have had romantic subplots. Maybe not as the A story, but I’m definitely familiar with it. It’s something I’m comfortable doing. But I was excited about doing it as the main story. It’s a great emotion that you can elicit out of people, romance. That romantic trigger is something that I wanted to explore. I wanted to get people attached to these characters and attached to their romance.
It’s so easy to fall into cliche with romantic comedies, what did you want to avoid with The F Word?
Michael Dowse: Good question. The script did a good job in terms of running away from those cliches. We also wanted to embrace some of those cliches though and embrace what makes romantic comedies so great, so we had to balance it.
Do you think men and women can ever be just platonic friends?
Michael Dowse: No. Unless they’re fine with sleeping with each other.
Zoe Kazan: It’s tough. I don’t know. I’ve always had a lot of male friends. I’ve always had close female friends, too. I tend to make super strong friend bonds. One way to do it though is if your significant other knows the friend, then it’s easier.
Zoe, how did your theatre background help with a film like this, where it’s so dialogue driven?
Zoe Kazan: It definitely helps. I never read the play that this was based on, but Dan and I both came at it with our theatre background. In a lot of movies, people only memorize their lines for the week. But here, we tried to memorize all our lines in advance and we worked on that together. We really wanted to feel like we had all the language we needed at our fingertips. Coming from theatre though does give you a different kind of attack on some scenes.
Did you draw on any real life experiences for your role here?
Michael Dowse: Of course. I’ve had situations like this before in my life.
Zoe Kazan: I’ve never had a situation exactly like this, but I think a lot of my girlfriends would say they’ve experienced something similar to this. It’s very relatable. It’s hard to be in your 20s and in a long term relationship and not be tempted by a new person. I also think it’s an unusual situation though in that Chantry is not torn between love and lust, she’s torn between two people. It’s the life she already knows and a potential life with another person. It’s a really complicated situation.
Do you think a story like this will resonate with a wider audience as well as our generation?
Zoe Kazan: I hope so. I find it appealing to watch because I find Wallace and Chantry to be appealing people. The movie is about two people connecting, and that gets glided over a lot in romantic comedies. Here, you actually get to watch why two people connect and how they tick and why they are good/bad for each other. There’s an intimacy to it that’s universal.
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank Zoe and Michael very much for their time. Be sure to check out The F Word (aka What If) when it hits theatres tomorrow and for more on the film, watch our exclusive interview with Daniel Radcliffe below!
