According to the book of Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. This sentiment seems especially accurate when one considers the typical Hollywood romantic drama. Two people fall in love, but seem destined to fall apart. Many filmmakers accept that this formula works, but few aspire to complicate the form, to create something at least with a tinge of newness under the sun. Drake Doremus is one of those few. He works from outlines rather than scripts, thus inspiring bold and unbelievably natural performances from the actors in his films. Like Crazy moved audiences everywhere and was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. Two years later, Doremus has re-teamed with Felicity Jones for another inspired love story, though Breathe In (also starring Guy Pearce) plays more like a thriller than a romantic drama at times. Pearce plays a talented but unstimulated high school music teacher who falls for the British exchange student and musician living with his family. Paste caught up with Doremus to talk about themes of culture, class and villainy in Breathe In, as well as his upcoming project with Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult.
Paste: Is it true that you taught high school for a little while?
Doremus: Yeah, I taught film for one semester at the Orange County performing arts high school.This was before Like Crazy, before everything. It was an awesome experience, so I do know a little bit about being a teacher.
Paste: Even though it was just for one semester, were you able to draw on any of those experiences for your character Keith?
Doremus: Yes, a little bit. I can definitely relate to the feeling of using your passion and your trade to teach others. You’re indirectly doing what you want to do, but you’re not fully doing it, so I can relate to Keith’s character in that way.
Paste: Watching Breathe In, I couldn’t help but compare the two young women—Sophie and Lauren—in a similar manner to how I did with Anna and Sam in Like Crazy. There were a few scenes that felt like a critique of American culture, maybe even American women. I didn’t take offense at all—I loved it! But Sophie is this interesting, talented girl with a complicated, somewhat tragic upbringing. And Lauren is this blonde, somewhat spoiled, all-American type. And then there are the older American women, the wives—Megan and her friend. I love that moment when the family goes to visit the friend; she’s got this gorgeous home, and we see her explaining how she changed the color in her living room to a marine blue. Can you talk a little about the women of the film and how culture and social class might work into their representation?
Doremus: No one’s ever brought that up before but yes, we definitely wanted to examine that world and those women, to draw the conclusion that Sophie is sort of the exact opposite of them in a way. And we wanted to see what happens when you throw all of those pieces together, to see what that creates and what kind of volcano would essentially erupt.
Ben York Jones, my wonderful co-writer, spent so much time in upstate New York surrounded by a lot of people who were having pool parties like that, so it’s an interesting examination of a world.
Paste: I wanted to talk a bit about the part of the movie where Keith and Sophie go to the clearing in the woods. It reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from Terrence Malick’s The New World, where Captain Smith was in the woods with Pocahontas. They’re sort of communicating, but language is a barrier so it’s very quiet, and intense, and really beautiful. How much of the scene was written for your outline and how much was improvised?
Doremus: Wow, that is an amazing comparison!
Paste: Well, that’s how I saw it.
Doremus: That means the world to me. Specifically, there was a bit of information we needed to get out of that scene, but for the most part, we just really wanted to explore it organically and let them sort of play and find the moment. A thing like that, you start hitting it on the head and it can get too intense or even cheesy. So we really wanted to try to combat that instinct and just let it unravel in a natural sense. We just spent the entire day there in the bushes trying to hide to make it seem like they were on their own.