Courtesy of Sony Classics
Director Laura Piani and Star Camille Rutherford on “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life”
Chemistry is Computerized
Might 19, 2025
Net Unique
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life isn’t your typical rom-com—and that’s precisely the purpose. Director Laura Piani needed a love story with chunk, the place the heroine saves herself first. Camille Rutherford brings that imaginative and prescient to life in a task that’s messy, humorous, and deeply human. Underneath the Radar not too long ago caught up with Piani and Rutherford to speak about constructing actual chemistry on set, dodging drained romantic tropes, and why the most effective love tales at all times begin with discovering your personal voice.
Matt Conner (UTR): It looks like with a romance, chemistry is the secret. I needed 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 truly play out. Clearly, between the three characters right here, the chemistry makes it work. Laura, perhaps beginning with you: what’s it prefer to direct chemistry? It’s not at all times computerized.
Laura Piani: I’m unsure you possibly can direct chemistry, to be trustworthy. I don’t suppose you direct it—you solid it. The actors are in control of 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 needed Felix, the French pal, to be very joyful, open, glowing, flamboyant—humorous, as a result of the friendship is there. They may very well be nearly infantile with one another, make jokes, and all that. So I wasn’t in search of apparent chemistry between them from the start. After which I used to be in search of the English actor who performed Oliver—Charlie Anson. He had precisely what I used to be in search of. 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 vitality, they have been on reverse poles, which helped the chemistry. Camille may discover a distinct rhythm with the comedy, with the strains. Bodily, they don’t have the identical vitality in any respect. So I feel it’s about selecting the best folks. We did numerous readings and rehearsals earlier than I provided 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 numerous work on all our sides to make the movie proper, you possibly can really feel it from the primary minute.
Like, you both have it otherwise you don’t.
Laura: I feel so. Possibly I’m fallacious, 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 in another way. When I’ve to play love scenes or characters who fall in love, it’s at all times a bit bizarre firstly. It’s a part of the job. However enjoying that you simply’re in love with somebody—it’s so good to behave. Similar to in actual life, that second while you fall in love is so nice.
However it’s scary to play as a result of typically you don’t know the opposite actor, and you need to get snug with every little thing. I’d 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 pleased. 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 chuckle and discuss life—not simply have these hypocritical or boring conversations concerning the climate or casting rejections. We turned associates throughout rehearsals—all 4 of us. We had full conversations about life, how laborious it may be, and that type of actual fact 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 may see you being near the French man: identical age, identical background, identical neighborhood in Paris, plenty of shared references. And with Charlie [Anson], it took extra time. It was slower. And that helped with the enjoying.
Camille: It really nourished the enjoying. As Laura is saying, each actors’ personalities are fairly near their characters. Ali is extra reserved. Pablo [Pauly] can also be reserved, however he hides it behind numerous 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 ultimately—outlined by their incapability 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 dangerous—it’s undoubtedly higher to have it than not. There’s a giant distinction between being pretentious and being assured.
However yeah, I may relate to Agathe as a result of I typically really feel like an imposter after I’m working. She looks like an imposter when she’s writing—like she’s not clever, cultivated, attention-grabbing, or witty sufficient to jot down a novel. And typically I really feel like I’m not proficient sufficient to suit a task. So I may 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 group 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, ultimately, in some unspecified time in the future—from the previous lady who opens her home for writers, to the mother and father, to Oliver and the pal to start with. While you’re a author, you want somebody to jot down for—or somebody to let you know that it’s price it. That it issues. So sure, group is vital, but in addition 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 are feeling any challenges to navigate issues there in a particular means?
Laura: I didn’t really feel any stress. I felt a powerful drive as a viewer to make the type 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 have been actual cinema, that stated one thing, that have 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 stunned, however not too stunned. It’s a bizarre steadiness. You’re working with expectations—folks have seen the most effective: the Richard Curtis movies, the Nora Ephron masterpieces. However it’s additionally 2025. The fantastic thing about rom-coms is you can speak concerning the time you reside in—what’s modified in relationships, in courting, in expectations.
My solely theoretical level entering into was that I didn’t desire a fundamental character who’s saved by a person. I needed a personality whose objective was to change into a author. And solely as a result of she reaches that objective can she discover love. She has to avoid wasting herself. That was crucial factor for me—and we have 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: Undoubtedly. I’m at all times in search of characters who should not saved by males.
Have 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 really like 4 Weddings and a Funeral, however I feel I’d’ve by no means preferred to play the function Andie MacDowell had. It’s a fantastic half, however I’m extra into quirky characters than good, stunning ladies. The function I really like most in 4 Weddings and a Funeral is the most effective pal—the woman who lives with Hugh Grant and says “fuck” on a regular basis. Bridget Jones too—I really 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 really humorous. That was one thing I stored eager about. I needed 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.