Courtesy of Sony Classics
Director Laura Piani and Star Camille Rutherford on “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life”
Chemistry is Computerized
Might 19, 2025
Internet Unique
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life isn’t your typical rom-com—and that’s precisely the purpose. Director Laura Piani wished a love story with chunk, the place the heroine saves herself first. Camille Rutherford brings that imaginative and prescient to life in a job that’s messy, humorous, and deeply human. Beneath the Radar just lately caught up with Piani and Rutherford to speak about constructing actual chemistry on set, dodging drained romantic tropes, and why one of the best love tales all the time begin with discovering your individual voice.
Matt Conner (UTR): It appears like with a romance, chemistry is the secret. I wished to start out out with this for each of you—the problem of getting chemistry proper. It begins on the web page, however the actors are such a giant a part of making that really play out. Clearly, between the three characters right here, the chemistry makes it work. Laura, possibly beginning with you: what’s it wish to direct chemistry? It’s not all the time computerized.
Laura Piani: I’m unsure you may direct chemistry, to be sincere. I don’t assume you direct it—you forged it. The actors are answerable for the chemistry. It’s actually all about casting.
Camille was my first selection. As soon as she accepted the function, I constructed the trio round her. I seemed for the 2 males after I had Camille. I wished Felix, the French pal, to be very joyful, open, glowing, flamboyant—humorous, as a result of the friendship is there. They might be virtually infantile with one another, make jokes, and all that. So I wasn’t on the lookout for apparent chemistry between them from the start. After which I used to be on the lookout for the English actor who performed Oliver—Charlie Anson. He had precisely what I used to be on the lookout for. He’s very intelligent. He studied at Cambridge and had a really classical formation as an English actor. He’s extraordinarily cultivated, educated, very mild and delicate—extra reserved.
By way of power, they had been on reverse poles, which helped the chemistry. Camille might discover a distinct rhythm with the comedy, with the traces. Bodily, they don’t have the identical power in any respect. So I feel it’s about selecting the best folks. We did quite a lot of readings and rehearsals earlier than I supplied the function to Charlie. I insisted on having a studying with Camille first, and I felt it could work from the start. Despite the fact that there could be quite a lot of work on all our sides to make the movie proper, you may really feel it from the primary minute.
Like, you both have it otherwise you don’t.
Laura: I feel so. Perhaps I’m incorrect, however that’s my intestine feeling. It’s irrational. It’s one thing invisible, however tangible someway on the identical time.
Camille, does that really feel true for you too?
Camille Rutherford: Yeah. I’m going to be very pragmatic—I feel you construct it throughout rehearsals. At first, I used to be very shy. It’s by no means straightforward to play romance. In actual life, I’m fairly shy. I feel all people’s shy, we simply cope with it otherwise. When I’ve to play love scenes or characters who fall in love, it’s all the time a bit bizarre initially. It’s a part of the job. However enjoying that you just’re in love with somebody—it’s so good to behave. Similar to in actual life, that second whenever you fall in love is so nice.
However it’s scary to play as a result of generally you don’t know the opposite actor, and it’s a must to get snug with every thing. I might have been terrified if we hadn’t rehearsed earlier than. So I feel if the chemistry labored—and when you thought it labored—then I’m tremendous joyful. But when it did work, it’s as a result of we rehearsed a lot. That helped us get to know one another and be snug, to snigger and speak about life—not simply have these hypocritical or boring conversations concerning the climate or casting rejections. We grew to become buddies throughout rehearsals—all 4 of us. We had full conversations about life, how exhausting it may be, and that sort of actual reality helps.
Laura: I felt you had with each of them a relationship that was very near what occurs within the movie. It was very straightforward—I might see you being near the French man: identical age, identical background, identical neighborhood in Paris, a lot of shared references. And with Charlie [Anson], it took extra time. It was slower. And that helped with the enjoying.
Camille: It truly nourished the enjoying. As Laura is saying, each actors’ personalities are fairly near their characters. Ali is extra reserved. Pablo [Pauly] can be reserved, however he hides it behind quite a lot of jokes. So it made issues simpler, as a result of there was that actual distinction.
Laura, you wrote in your director’s assertion about being drawn to tales with misfits or people who find themselves damaged indirectly—outlined by their incapacity to slot in. Camille, I questioned if that was true for you too. Did that really feel becoming on this function, and what was the problem of enjoying that?
Camille: Yeah, I feel we are able to all relate. Most individuals, I feel, really feel like losers in some unspecified time in the future. I don’t know anybody with full, unwavering self-confidence. I’m not saying self-confidence is unhealthy—it’s undoubtedly higher to have it than not. There’s a giant distinction between being pretentious and being assured.
However yeah, I might relate to Agathe as a result of I generally really feel like an imposter after I’m working. She appears like an imposter when she’s writing—like she’s not clever, cultivated, fascinating, or witty sufficient to put in writing a novel. And generally I really feel like I’m not proficient sufficient to suit a job. So I might undoubtedly relate to her.
What you described across the friendships makes me consider the movie—how Agathe wanted folks round her to push her, to get her into the residency. Did that dynamic play out within the making of the movie too? That subtext of needing neighborhood to maneuver ahead?
Laura: Yeah, completely. It took me some time to appreciate it, however when the movie was launched in France, I understood that one of many key themes is encouragement. It’s a movie about encouragement. All of the characters are doing that, indirectly, in some unspecified time in the future—from the previous girl who opens her home for writers, to the mother and father, to Oliver and the pal to start with. If you’re a author, you want somebody to put in writing for—or somebody to inform you that it’s value it. That it issues. So sure, neighborhood is necessary, but additionally simply giving a hand to another person. I solely totally realized that later.
The rom-com as a style comes with its personal stereotypes and formulation. Did you’re feeling any challenges to navigate issues there in a selected method?
Laura: I didn’t really feel any rigidity. I felt a robust drive as a viewer to make the sort of movie I need to see. That got here from a quite simple place. I used to be lacking these indie rom-coms that weren’t simply marketed merchandise—movies that had been actual cinema, that stated one thing, that had been unhappy someway. The very best rom-coms are unhappy. There’s a melancholy. It’s not simply love and shiny folks in good homes.
I don’t like this obsession with reinventing style—it feels pretentious. What issues is the viewers’s journey. They know what they need. They need to be shocked, however not too shocked. It’s a bizarre steadiness. You’re working with expectations—folks have seen one of the best: the Richard Curtis movies, the Nora Ephron masterpieces. However it’s additionally 2025. The fantastic thing about rom-coms is that you would be able to speak concerning the time you reside in—what’s modified in relationships, in courting, in expectations.
My solely theoretical level stepping into was that I didn’t need a primary character who’s saved by a person. I wished a personality whose objective was to turn into a author. And solely as a result of she reaches that objective can she discover love. She has to save lots of herself. That was crucial factor for me—and we had been all on the identical web page. That shared imaginative and prescient is why the movie works.
Camille, was that a part of what drew you to the function? That this wasn’t a personality being saved by a person?
Camille: Positively. I’m all the time on the lookout for characters who usually are not saved by males.
Had been there genre-related challenges for you too?
Laura Piani: You keep in mind—you didn’t need to be cute.
Camille Rutherford: Yeah. For instance, I like 4 Weddings and a Funeral, however I feel I might’ve by no means appreciated to play the function Andie MacDowell had. It’s an awesome half, however I’m extra into quirky characters than excellent, stunning ladies. The function I like most in 4 Weddings and a Funeral is one of the best pal—the lady who lives with Hugh Grant and says “fuck” on a regular basis. Bridget Jones too—I like her as a result of she’s so imperfect. I didn’t need to be cute. Generally rom-com feminine characters are too cute—and never truly humorous. That was one thing I stored enthusiastic about. I wished to verify I used to be humorous, not simply fairly. That was a giant concern for me.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is in theaters on Might 23 by way of Sony Classics.