“People are more complicated than just one thing; nobody is just ‘good’ or ‘bad’,” says Deutch.
In the movie adaptation of Before I Fall, Zoey Deutch‘s character, Samantha Hopkins, is a teenage girl who is stuck reliving the last day of her life. This proves to be a challenging role for Deutch.
Deutch shares with The Hollywood Reporter some rather personal memories and more things on Before I Fall.
What were your first thoughts about Before I Fall?
I read the script and burst into tears. It isn’t just a teen movie; it questions mortality and purpose and not taking things for granted — who you want to be when you die. It definitely made me do a lot of self-reflection. There’s a sign in the movie that says, “Become who you are,” and that really spoke to me. Becoming who you are isn’t a one-stop shot, it’s a forever process and there’s no right or wrong time to do it. It’s been moving to see the way that people react. After a screening in Toronto, I saw people picking up strangers’ trash and opening the door for other people — small acts of kindness. The weight of storytelling became that much clearer to me in that moment: in an hour and a half, you could potentially make someone want to be a better person. I don’t mean to get political here, but in a time of unparalleled meanness, it’s good to be kind to yourself and others. I’m happy to put a little compassion into the world.
Was your high school experience similar to that of your character Sam?
I actually had a wonderful experience because I was in an arts high school. But if you take it back a few years to why I ended up at an arts high school, my middle school experience would be equated to that of hell. It was horrible, it was really horrible. But this movie shined a light on something I had a difficult time understanding: the people who bullied me were most likely bullied as well at some point either at home or at school. It’s hard to have compassion for people who are torturing you, especially in the moment, but people are more complicated than just one thing; nobody is just “good” or “bad.”
Since Sam relives the same day over and over again, how complicated was the shoot?
Prepare yourself. Get a snack. It’s like a bedtime story because it’s so complicated. The irony, by the way, of shooting a movie all about not having enough time is that we did not have enough time to shoot this film. It’s a small, independent movie, and it was a very quick and intense shooting experience.
I’m someone who likes to be super prepared, so before shooting I had time with my teachers and Ry to break everything down: scene by scene, prop by prop, moment by moment. It’s hard to explain in a concise way, but we shot every scene at least six times for at least six “days,” often in non-sequential order: we’d shoot my close-up of day 1, day 6, day 4, day 3, day 5, and then we’d go into a wide shot and shoot the master of day 5 and day 2. It would never be in the same order, just depending on lighting or costume or cast or crew. Ry and I created a shorthand: different names and colors and subtleties for the days. When we didn’t have enough time, we had to decide which day was most important for that scene, or get two days in the same take. It was daunting, but also an exciting challenge, honestly.
Check out the full interview here.