Ever wanted to speak to someone who is gone just one more time? In Netflix’s newest film Voicemails for Isabelle, that’s what aspiring San Francisco chef Jill (Zoey Deutch) yearns for after losing her little sister Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) to cancer. So, on one low night, Jill begins to leave Isabelle voicemails, not knowing that her number has been reassigned to unlucky-in-love Wes (Nick Robinson) in Austin. Soon, Wes pines for the candid, bold Jill, even traveling to Cali to meet her. Wes has a plan, says writer-director Leah McKendrick, “to tell Jill the truth, but then he gets so caught off guard by her,” she teases.
As the two become friends — and more — he’ll struggle to come clean. “He’s bearing witness to such courage [from Jill],” McKendrick adds. “That authenticity in somebody so deeply human, who wouldn’t fall in love?”
Below, we’re diving into the Netflix film with McKendrick (who has recently been announced as the writer-director for the streamer’s upcoming Shania Twain biopic), as she discusses her onscreen role as Wes’ pal Breeda, how Robinson saved the movie, and how the script, which she wrote in 2018, has changed over the years.
This movie really makes you feel every emotion — I was laughing, crying, even considering cutting my hair short [to match Deutch’s in her role]. What would you say were your main inspirations when writing Voicemails for Isabelle?
Leah McKendrick: My main inspiration was really my little sister, who is alive and well and healthy, but is the closest person in my life to me. She’s my soulmate. And it felt like, “What if I were to lose my anchor to the world?” And I thought to myself, “If I lost my sister, I would never stop waiting for her to call me.” And then I thought to myself, “No, if I lost my sister, I would just call her.” And that was how it was birthed.
Diyah Pera/Netflix
And what does the sisterly relationship look like in this film between Jill and Isabelle? Because while this is a rom-com, it’s also very much about their familial bond.
When you’re a little girl, there are so many firsts. And the stakes are so high, [every moment is] life or death. [Isabelle] is home-bound and sick, and [she’s living vicariously through] her older sister Jill. So [Jill] runs home to reenact all of these firsts, so that Isabelle can live through her. And so it makes Jill quite brave in the world, because she wants to be able to come home with stories. And then, [even though] she moves away from home, she keeps calling her to reenact these trials and tribulations over the phone. But then when she loses her sister, she starts to leave voicemails reenacting these life events, because it’s almost as though she can’t really experience them for herself or process them without first telling Isabelle. Isabelle is the lens through which she sees the world.
And then of course, Robinson’s character Wes is getting all of these voicemails and he’s loving them, because she’s delightfully charismatic. Were you concerned about him coming off as stalker-ish when he goes to meet her? Or was that not a concern because no one could possibly buy Robinson as a stalker?
There was a fear of, if people think he’s flying to San Francisco and he’s going to like sweep the girl off her feet without any sort of plan, we run the risk of him feeling stalkery. Or that he’s taking advantage. But I think we were really saved by Nick Robinson, honestly. Nick always jokes that there’s going to be a thriller YouTube trailer cut of this movie. But I think he doesn’t realize how much his charm and his genuineness and his sincerity really helps us. And if you look back at a lot of rom-coms, ones that I love like My Best Friend’s Wedding, You’ve Got Mail, a lot of times some of these characters are really ethically questionable. But they’re so endlessly charismatic that you don’t really question their behavior because you’re just in love with them [as a viewer]. And that, I think, is the sign of a true movie star. And I really feel that we got that in Nick.
What is it that draws Wes to Jill?
I think that the way you can be so totally unfiltered and honest and genuine with your person, [as Jill is in her voicemails to Isabelle], it’s something that he doesn’t really have access to. He was so pulled into her world because she’s so armorless. So much of his life is playing a role. He’s like this mover and shaker. He’s selling real estate, and he’s doing it a little bit shadily. And he has this kind of copy-paste text that he sends all the girls when it gets too intense. His friends are already so coupled up that he gets to be this third wheel, but also it’s not actually as intimate as if he just had a singular best friend.
Diyah Pera/Netflix
At what point did you decide to put yourself in as one of Wes’ best friends? Did you write the character for yourself?
That is such a good question. I am in all my movies. It’s part of my process to enter the worlds that I create. It almost doesn’t feel real without entering the world. There’s a weird feeling also; it’s like pushing my actors in a pool, but not getting in. And I’m like, “No, we’re all going to get in the pool together.” I don’t know when I said I’m going to play Breeda, but I guess I always knew. [Laughs]
Jill is an aspiring chef, with a completely over-the-top boss, played fabulously by Nick Offerman. Can you talk about Jill’s work life and how that plays into the larger story?
Well, originally, she worked in a writer’s room, as a screenwriter like me. And that ended up getting changed, and there was a discussion about her working in a high-end kitchen. I had a lot of reluctance because I’m the kind of writer that I have to like, live, breathe, eat, sleep, dream- something. The Bear is the biggest show on television. I can’t compete with that. I don’t really know how to do this world. And it was really an X thread that inspired me. I was really kind of fighting it.
In the original draft, she was in a writer’s room surrounded by dudes who just mansplain all day, take her ideas, and then regurgitate them into their own. And she has this huge takedown of her showrunner, this kind of misogynistic boss. And that really spoke to me a lot. And it was really hard for me to reimagine. And then this X thread said [paraphrasing], “Isn’t it interesting, when cooking is in a household, it’s a woman’s job. But when cooking is a profession, it’s a man’s job. But whenever you ask any celebrity male chef who his favorite cook is, he will always say ‘my mom.’”
That sums it up really well, actually! Finally, how do you feel about the sentiment that “rom-coms are back”?
That makes me feel really good because I think that they reached a point where they had grown so formulaic. People are smart, people are consuming content all of the time, and I don’t think that people actually do want to turn their brains off. I do believe that viewers want to lean in, they just need a really good reason to. And I think the only way that we can provide that is by some surprise and some freshness, but also some nostalgia that reminds them of the rom-coms that they love. So, it makes me feel super excited about the thought that maybe there might be a new golden era of rom-com happening.
Voicemails for Isabelle, Movie Premiere, Friday, June 19, Netflix
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