English journalist turned romance novelist Jojo Moyes has won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award twice since beginning her novel-writing career in 2002. And after reading her 2012 book Me Before You, we can see why. Seems the Hollywood Gods agree, so much so, they opted for a film adaptation of the book, the script of which the author also penned. Before the film’s release tomorrow, Jojo fills us in on the entirely different experience of filming a movie based on her book – be warned: there may be some spoilers!
Like the book, the big-screen adaptation of Me Before You is set in England. When this project came together, was there any discussion of setting the film in America?
I’ve just transplanted another one of my books – an adaptation – to America, and I was completely happy to do it because it was a road trip and it makes perfect sense. It didn’t make sense for this. This story does not make sense with American characters. So much of it is shot through with the British landscape – the castle, the small town, the class system – I just couldn’t see how it could translate any other way. So the fact that the filmmakers saw it the same way was a massive bonus to me. I talked to them about it; I thought they were incredibly smart people and they were passionate about it – what more can you want as a writer?
Was the character of Louisa “Lou” Clark inspired by anyone you’d met?
No, director Thea Sharrock thinks she’s me! [Laughs.] That’s because I do klutzy things! I am the person who will drop her bag at the security gate and everything falls out, or make a joke that only I get and will fall about in hysterics for half an hour.
Did you shop in vintage clothing stores like Lou does?
I used to. I don’t think I have taste that’s as eccentric as hers. I’m 46 now, so I’d look pretty stupid in bumblebee tights! [Laughs.] Though, I confess, the bumblebee tights were mine as a kid so that did come from personal experience. And the glitter wellies were mine too! But, no, I become more Louisa-like when Thea is around because she has that effect on me.
By comparison to Lou, Will Traynor – initially, at least – is quite an unlikable character, isn’t he?
Yes, he’s even less likeable in the book. But that was exactly the question that prompted the book. I was looking at Christopher Reeve and thinking, “If that happened to me, would I be Christopher Reeve? Would I be the inspirational figure who sets up a foundation? Or would I actually be quite angry?” I’ve had experiences where I didn’t react in the way I’d hoped, and it made me think you don’t always get to be that graceful person.But that’s what interested me – the people who don’t turn into the inspirational happy-ever-after person.
What shocked you the most about the process of having your book adapted to film?
I think it’s the scale of the machine. I remember the first day I turned up, which was for a pre-shoot for a scene when Will is still able-bodied and he’s walking from his flat to his motorbike. They called it the “pre-shoot”, so I thought maybe it would be like a rehearsal. I literally thought it was going to be eight people and a dog.
It was a month before the actual shoot to give Sam [Claflin, who plays Will] time to slim down – because he had to be buff at that point – and then he had to go on quite an extreme diet. So I get picked up from my car in Islington and ferried down to Moorgate in this limo, and I think, “OK, this is interesting”. And then all the roads are shut off and I think, “What’s going on here?” This is how naive I am! Then I’m pulled around the corner to the set and there are wardrobe tents, six rain machines, lighting, extras walking around in towels because they’d been in rain storms; there’s a stunt bike, a stunt taxi, food trucks… and you suddenly look around and you go, “OK!” For so long, it was me and Thea sitting in Shoreditch House going over and over the scenes, and then you realise, “This has been going on. This is what the studio has been putting together.” That hit me quite hard.
Both you and Thea were first-timers with this film. Did that work well?
It did, but I think that’s because we have quite similar personalities, and we both have a sarcastic and dry sense of humour. We’re quite rude to each other at times [laughs] but in a good way. I think if it had been a different, perhaps more “Hollywood” director, I would have felt more alien. But as we had a British cast, a lot of British crew members and Thea… to be honest, I would never have known it was her first film. All the experienced crew members said it was a really happy shoot. Thea is a very collaborative operator, perhaps because she comes from theatre. That made it very easy for me to work with her. But, at the same time, the thing that impressed me about her was I never felt she looked anything less than in full command of what was going on. And, having seen the strains that directors are under from the moment they start work every day, I don’t think I could have done that. I am massively impressed by her.
All the experienced crew members said it was a really happy shoot. Thea is a very collaborative operator, perhaps because she comes from theatre. That made it very easy for me to work with her. But, at the same time, the thing that impressed me about her was I never felt she looked anything less than in full command of what was going on. And, having seen the strains that directors are under from the moment they start work every day, I don’t think I could have done that. I am massively impressed by her.
What was the most difficult thing you had to lose when adapting the book?
It was probably the maze scene – a scene where Lou gets lost in a maze and Will gets her out, and she confesses… it’s never said explicitly but she opaquely tells him about a traumatic experience when she was a teenager and that explains a lot of why she loves this very small life. And that’s when he really opens up to her for the first time. We just couldn’t find a way to make it work. I’m hoping that as audiences tend to get quite emotional by the end of the film, they will be more fixated on how they felt coming out than on anything they might have necessarily missed. Most people understand that the film and the book are slightly different beasts. I don’t know any adaptations that are 100% the same.
Thea said you forgot elements of your book when you were working on the script – is that true?
That’s true! She laughed at me a lot. If you’re smart about it, as a writer, you have to accept that this is not your baby anymore pretty early on in the process. But there were certain things I fought tooth-and-nail to keep because I felt they were important for the balance of the whole thing. When I wrote it as a book and as a script, I always had in my head this mantra of trying to keep the balance between light and dark. My job, as the person who had this story shot through them, was just making sure that the balance wasn’t forgotten in the process, that we didn’t stray off into a certain direction. But, equally, Thea would sometimes come up with something that was quite annoyingly better than what I’d written! You just have to go, “Get over yourself – that’s better!”. She had this mantra of “Let’s go back to the book” and, embarrassingly, sometimes she was right and I was wrong.
What was your impression when Emilia Clarke was cast as Lou? Did you have her in mind?
No, but I certainly did by the end of it. It would have been odd if I had not like her! I don’t know what you think but for me, Emilia is so Lou. From the first day you meet her, you just get it. I think they are very similar and that made it a joy.
How did you find working with Emilia and Sam?
They are both very flexible actors. Sometimes we would be rehearsing into the evening, playing with different lines, and they just went with it. They’re such pros, the pair of them, in the nicest possible way. They’re always up, always cheerful, always game for changing things. And I think that helped Thea as well because she’s worked with actors who haven’t been quite as flexible.
Were you around during the editing process?
I saw a rough cut and the first nearly finished cut, so I probably saw two earlier edited versions. The finished film and the rough edit are two completely different beasts. As long as someone explains to you, “Don’t panic, the first edit is going to look nothing like the eventual film”, then you’re fine. It’s been fascinating as a learning experience. Luckily, Thea was great at telling me not to panic.
Did you write the sequel After You, published in 2015, after you had worked on the script for this?
No, I pretty much wrote the sequel about the same time. It was partly as a result of doing the adaptation. I had received a million emails and tweets from readers – people have very strong opinions about those characters, it’s kind of a thing. And because I’ve tried to respond to everybody, Louisa just never left my head in the way that other characters I’d written had.
People kept asking me, “What happened to her at the end? What does she go off and do?” I found myself asking that question and realised it was a really open-ended book for me. So I thought, Why not? The thing that differed for me was lots of people expected her to go off and do something amazing, and I just felt she would’ve been quite scarred by the experience. So I wanted to explore what happens – and I guess this is the ex-journalist in me – after the news story. What happens when you’ve been a part of a massive event and everybody else moved on and you’re left with the knowledge that you’ve been part of that – how do you move forward? And that’s the question that interested me.
Me Before You will be in cinemas from 8 July 2016. Take home a part of the film by entering our Me Before You competition here.
