For Better or ‘For Worse’: How Acting Like a Drunk Bridesmaid Inspired Amy Landecker’s Directorial Debut

Amy Landecker has a soft spot for . The veteran actress had small parts in not one but two of the festival’s grand jury award-winning films — Cooper Raiff’s Shithouse in 2020 and James Morosini’s I Love My Dad in 2022 — and she long dreamed of landing a lead role in a film that played in the leading Texas fest. Her wish comes true this year, as SXSW is hosting a hard launch for Landecker’s feature debut as writer, director, producer and star in the romantic comedy For Worse. Her big creative leap has delivered a sweet full-circle moment in a series of them, as Landecker is returning to Austin with the same credentials as the auteurs who got her there. “It’s dream come true,” Landecker told The Hollywood Reporter over lunch and desserts in Highland Park. “I got the courage to actually make the film because of two young filmmakers who went to SXSW with their films that they wrote, directed and starred in. It was very inspiring but something I felt was off-limits to me or that I was afraid I didn’t have enough experience to do. Both of them mentored me and helped me in this sort of reverse and beautiful way. Then to get into the same festival — it’s nuts. It couldn’t have been scripted better.” Related Stories Speaking of a script, Landecker’s For Worse finds her starring as Lauren, a newly divorced, sober mom who feels like she has a new lease on life after joining her first acting class. She begins a fling with a hot, young scene partner (Nico Hiraga), but her new life begins to crumble when they attend their Gen Z classmate’s wedding in Palm Springs, where Lauren behaves like a wild 25-year-old bridesmaid. The cast features many bold-faced names like Simon Helberg, Ken Marino, Missi Pyle, Kiersey Clemons, Angelique Cabral and Paul Adelstein. The actor closest to Landecker’s heart is Bradley Whitford, her Emmy Award-winning husband, who plays a character that may or may not be there to catch Lauren when she falls. Landecker, best known for a turn as Sarah Pfefferman in Amazon’s zeitgeist-capturing hit Transparent, has been chipping away at the script for years by leaning on her own life experience as a divorced, sober mom who also had an amends-worthy night at a wedding back in the day. She takes THR inside her creative process, name-checks some Transparent pals who supported her along the way and dishes on her future in the director’s chair as someone who never thought she’d take a seat in one. “I want people to know that you can be the exception to the rule. You won’t be all the time, but every once in a while you are. Hopefully this inspires somebody else. That sounds so cliché, but I mean it.” Amy Landecker, you made a movie! It’s surreal to hear that because it’s something that I’ve wanted for a really, really long time. It’s a dream that I’ve had — when I got Transparent, that was a dream — and as it’s happening, you realize, “Oh my god, I’m in the dream.” I’ve been thinking of it for so long and was so scared. I’ve also been told no so many times in my career. I moved to New York at 32 or 33, and I had an agent say, “You’re never going to work here. You should move back to Chicago. You’re too old.” That kind of stuff is real and you’re always up against it. I had a lot of false starts, and the fact that I didn’t give up feels incredible. I also have to say though that there are so many people whose names come to mind because they helped me do this. There is absolutely nothing about this that is me saying, “I just did it!” Although I was the central force pushing it along, I could not have done it without many, many people who helped me stay with it. I want to hear about those names, but let’s go back to the beginning. When did you get the idea? I can always track it, because I did go to a wedding 12 years ago. I’m still friends with the bride, Angelique Cabral, who is in the movie. It was during my divorce that I went to her wedding, and I behaved in a way that felt unrecognizable. At the time, I remember thinking, “What the hell just happened?” When my husband, Bradley Whitford, and I met — we had known each other for a year before we started dating — the initial thing that brought us together was a conversation we had backstage at an Emmy panel. We shared stories about how insane we had behaved after our [respective] divorces. You behave in ways that you don’t recognize. It’s almost like you regress and do weird things. I felt like I had literally regressed to become a wannabe 25-year-old bridesmaid. That’s sort of the logline of this movie: A single, sober mother goes to a wedding and behaves like a drunk woman and humiliates herself. It was true to my experience and so it became an idea that I first made into this very dark short film. It had a super indie vibe, but I didn’t really like it. It made me think about how it could work and what story I wanted to try and tell. I’m a massive fan of romantic comedies and I wanted to write one. I have a really, really lovely marriage, something I landed on as an incredible ending to a really insane love life. I look back on decades of insane experiences and then suddenly you find yourself at this lovely place that you didn’t expect. I wanted to share that. I didn’t want it to be a story like, “Here’s this happy ending where you get the guy.” That’s not the point, although I did want a traditional rom-com with a happy ending. But it was also important for me to show the placement of a supportive girlfriend and others who support you and love you as you go through those times of your life. While it may be some rom-com tropes, I felt like I could bring a certain sensibility to the genre that I hadn’t quite seen yet. Landecker and Whitford appear on the panel she mentioned above, alongside Pete Hammond of Deadline, Joey Soloway, Jeffrey Tambor, Gaby Hoffmann, Jay Duplass and Melora Hardin, at the Directors Guild in Los Angeles on June 1, 2015. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Amazon Studios) How do you describe that sensibility? My influences have definitely been Nicole Holofcener and Joey Soloway via two movies with [Holofceners’] Enough Said on one side and [Soloway’s] Afternoon Delight on the other. That’s the spectrum. I wanted to do something a little less dark than Afternoon Delight, and I wanted to do something a little more raunchy than Enough Said. That’s where I felt like I could bring something in terms of a “voice,” as insane as it sounds that I have a “voice.” But I felt like I hadn’t seen that yet and I thought people would enjoy. You were inspired by your lived experiences, but when did you put pen to paper? I have been pitching this idea in some form during conversations with friends for a decade. I always knew that it was a good idea for a movie, but I didn’t have the inspiration yet to put pen to paper. I did have a producer tell me once that if I wrote it, they would be interested in making the movie. I worked with a really dear writer friend, Daisy Gardner, to suss out the idea. By the time I was ready to make it, she was too busy, but she said, “You have my love, go write for yourself.” She’s been really supportive and was a great inspiration to start out with the structure because she knows comedy so well and this is a comedy, not just a sad story about divorce. Then I had 50 pages down and James Morosini came over for dinner. I said that I wanted to finish this but I didn’t have a deadline. He said, “This is what we’re going to do.” And he got me to finish it and I did. That was four years ago. About three years ago is when things really got rolling. I was going to make it about two years ago, but financing fell through. Then the strike happened and we couldn’t pitch it or sell it. I knew I had to wait again for however long that was going to be. We secured the financing at Christmas 2023, and starting shooting in February 2024. It was all very quick. Was the plan always to direct? Yes and no. The other people who mentored me a lot were Jay Duplass and Gaby Hoffman. They played my siblings on Transparent and we’re all still very close. We still get together probably once every two months for a long, four-hour jam fest where we catch up on life and work. The two of them were very insistent that I make this movie, direct this movie and star in this movie. I was really scared to do all of it. But even on the set of Transparent, I was always very opinionated. Not in a bad way, I just had a lot of ideas. I had a director’s sensibility. If we had gotten another season, which fell through, I was actually going to direct an episode. I had directed a bunch of shorts for Funny or Die. I had wanted Jay to direct it, but he said that I needed to do it and that I would be great at this. Gaby was sweet enough to be in it. She was there on my first day, and it really helped me to get settled and realize, “Oh yeah, I do know what I’m doing.” Did you have a role for Jay? Yes, but he had something else come up at that time. But definitely. I would’ve loved for him to be in it, but he had a very short window and it couldn’t happen. Courtesy of Amazon Studios You had a short runway from securing financing to shooting. How fast and furious was the shoot? It was kind of nuts, honestly, in the best way. I didn’t really have time to be afraid, and you don’t have time to overthink. Sometimes constraints are really helpful for creativity because they force solutions that you might not have had otherwise. That often can work in your favor. Like, “OK, we can’t use that location so we’re going to use this,” and then thank God you have that other location. Or, “This actor can’t be in the bathroom in this location because we don’t have it.” One of my favorite scenes happens early in the film with Nico Hiraga and this wonderful actress, Hannah Pilkes. It’s the foibled sex scene, she walks in and says three lines about borrowing a charger, and it turned into the whole joke of that scene because we didn’t have a bathroom for her to be in. There are all these little moments like that when you’re working on the fly. We had an actor who was going to be in the movie, but they had to pull out last minute. Because of his schedule, we changed when the wedding shoot was going to happen, pushing it to the end of shooting. If we had done it earlier, we wouldn’t have finished the movie because we were able to secure a wedding location at the last minute. That’s how nuts it was. But I had an incredible DP, an incredible editor, incredible actors and we managed to get great stuff despite all of the challenges. Speaking of the actors, part of the joy of the movie is seeing so many recognizable faces … Part of that was because the strike had just happened, so people were really hungry to work. Things didn’t come back as strongly or as quickly as people thought. I got Liv Hewson, who is one of my favorite actors and who is also on Yellowjackets, which is one of my favorite shows. My casting director, Eyde Belasco, suggested Liv for the nonbinary character. I thought there was no chance in hell that Liv would do this, it’s such a relatively small part. But they wanted to talk to me first. Liv asked why there was a nonbinary character in the film and I explained that my kid is nonbinary and I really wanted to represent that in the movie. They were like, “I’m in.” Then to have Kiersey Clemons, Gaby Hoffman, Ken Marino, Missi Pyle, Paul Adelstein, Simon Helberg — just insane talent everywhere. Simon and I did a movie years ago called A Serious Man. He had a monologue about a parking lot so when I wrote the mediator scene, which is the beginning of the movie, I thought of him. I texted to ask if he would do a scene in my movie and after he read it, he said, “It’s the parking lot monologue.” He said yes and came to work on a Sunday. I’m so lucky. A still from For Worse featuring Nico Hiraga and Amy Landecker. Kim Preston We have to talk about Nico Hiraga, who plays your love interest and is a fast-rising star. He’s so great in the film … Well, first I want to say that this May-December storyline may feel like a trend now, but I wrote mine years ago. It just happens to coincide with these other films. I do think this movie has a different take on it. There still are a lot of movies that feature older women sleeping with younger men, clearly. I met Nico on a movie that Bradley did called Rosaline. They shot together in Italy a couple of summers ago. Kaitlyn Dever was the lead in that beautiful, sweet movie. Nico was this incredible kid who never wanted to wear a shirt anywhere. He’s one of those people who is very open and flirty to the world. He enjoys life and is very open. Bradley and I sort of adopted him; he would call us his parents. When I was thinking of the character, Sean, I needed to accomplish something very tricky. You need to believe he is someone who could be interested in an older person and then believe that he’s also a good person who could do some things that maybe were not great. But you wouldn’t blame him. He couldn’t be a “bad guy.” I didn’t want anyone to be the bad guy because I really felt like through my divorce and the things that happened, everybody ended up OK. My ex and I are very close and I’m very close with his new wife. Nico is the kind of person that you just know it will always be fine. He’s sweet, and he’s so good in this movie. I’m just lucky that he’s kind of up and coming right now. He’s someone who is known through the zeitgeist that especially younger people are infatuated with. [Bradley] and I were at my cousin’s house and all the older people at the table didn’t know him, but all the young girls at the other table were like, “Oh my God, Nico Hiraga!” He’s absolutely perfect. He’s perfect. Your scenes together are memorable and funny. Let’s also talk about Bradley. I know you’re really thoughtful about your relationship and not publicizing it or living as a “celebrity couple.” Why did you decide to do this together? Yeah, we’re not big on any of that. Some people don’t even know that we’re married. We were at an event the other night and a mutual friend didn’t know we were married to each other. It’s been 10 years, which is crazy to me. I had a little paranoia about saying good things or putting it out there too much, fearing that it would bring bad luck. I’m also not fiercely private about it. We do red carpets together. We’re not totally private but we’re just not professing our love on Instagram to each other all the time. This is professing our love in another way — creatively. What’s really incredible about it and what was so moving to me is how willing he was to jump all in. He was in a public marriage before, and that’s hard for a family when it doesn’t work out. I want the reality for us to be the joy and the work to be the work. But he believed in me so much and wanted to help me, and so he became very invested. I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this, but he said it was one of his favorite creative experiences. I had directed him in a short for Funny or Die called Bradley Whitford: Emotional Stuntman. He had a really good time. He knew that he would have a good time again and he trusted me to direct him. He loved the script and helped punch it up. He’s really funny and was just very invested. Landecker and Whitford attend ICM Partners’ Golden Globes party on Jan. 6, 2018. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for ICM Partners ) What was it like to share scenes? It was incredible. I had acted with him once in a pilot for CBS that didn’t go, and that was fun, but we were nervous to act together. I didn’t really know if I would like it, but probably one of my favorite scenes in the movie is me and him. We shot it on the second day of shooting, but it’s the end of the movie. It’s inspired by a real conversation that we had when we met. We were both dating other people. I was kind of getting dumped a lot, and so I was very emotional at work. I don’t know if anyone’s noticed but he has a lot of swagger around him, playing bad guys with this sort of natural status or swagger vibe, which I had interpreted as a kind of stuck-up actor thing. I think there was this attraction-repulsion thing happening, like I was some crazy actress and he was not kind. That dynamic plays out in the wedding scene and it mirrored the dynamic of how we interpreted each other in real life. Then we got to have a personal conversation at a work event for Transparent and from that moment on, I have never looked at another man. I know you have a cat and dog in real life, are your pets the same ones featured in the film? Yes, they are but we changed the names. It’s also true that when I got separated, my kid really didn’t want me to be alone because my ex-husband was with a woman. My kid, who was 8 at the time, took out a piece of paper and wrote a list of 17 things that a man must have if I went out with him. One of those was that he must have cats and dogs. It was rare for someone to be into cats, let alone both. The first time I went over to Bradley’s house, he introduced me to Elton, his cat, and Otis, his dog who has sadly passed since then. By the way, he ticked off every single thing on that list. Whitford and Landecker arrive at the Walt Disney Television Emmy party on Sept. 22, 2019. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images) Did you write this movie because you felt like there weren’t roles like this for women right now? There weren’t roles like this for me. There are so many incredible actors who have a higher profile than me who are making these stories. Look at the Oscar nominations. I’m thrilled to see how many stories and roles there are for women. I’ve always been more optimistic than pessimistic about Hollywood for some reason. I’ve never felt like, “Oh, I’m old and no one is going to care about me.” I don’t feel that way. I also knew my own limitations as an actor who really only hit on camera work in my 40s and hasn’t been around a long time. I’ve done quality work, but I know that I wasn’t someone who was going to be able to greenlight a movie. That’s when I realized I would have to write something for myself. If I want to play a certain kind of part, I’m going to have to write it and I’m going to have to give it to myself, which I almost didn’t do. I was like, “Oh, I should have Kathryn Hahn play this part because she’s so much better than me.” Even Kathryn said, “No, Amy, you have to play this part.” I always want to give it away and I always think I’m not up to it or something. But in the end, I knew that, no, I can do this whole thing. Bradley would always tell me that if it was terrible, no one will know. And if it’s good, people will see it. You also wrote a character for yourself who is sober. Why was that important? I haven’t had a drink of alcohol in 30 years, and most people who have known me think I’m drunk half the time. I’ve also played characters that are drunk or high for most of my career, especially in Transparent. I was smoking a lot in A Serious Man. Joel Cohen told me years ago that recovery stories were boring. People don’t want to see you recover, they want to see you drunk. I felt like there could be a version of recovery where you might still be behaving drunk for whatever reason, maybe you’re regressing or are around other people and want to join in that behavior. I was told that when you’re writing, you want to stay as close to the truth as possible, maybe not with narrative structure but with characters. I felt like I’d be missing something if I didn’t include that. I think a lot of people are thinking about recovery or it’s more a part of the cultural conversation today than it used to be. Not that everyone is in recovery, but I’ve never seen more conversations happening since I’ve been alive about the effects of alcohol and drugs. I also love that it’s not the central theme of the movie in any way. It’s just there, like any other part of a person’s life. I felt really good about that. I will say one last thing: When Bradley’s character says to mine, “I can’t imagine adding alcohol to this situation,” that’s a direct quote from him. What was it like to direct yourself and to direct other actors after having done the job so long? Probably the thing I’m most proud of is that everyone who was in the movie said that they had a blast. Even Paul Adelstein, who I went to high school with and who plays my ex in the film, he was so kind about the set and the vibe and what everyone was given to do. I’ve always felt that actors make incredible directors if it’s a performance-driven piece because we know what actors need to hear. We know you don’t give a note by saying, “Yeah, that wasn’t it.” You give a note by saying, “OK, we got that. Thank you. That was amazing. Now I want to try this.” So many directors come up and just say, “No, no, no.” And you shut down creatively. I felt excited by the fact that I know what actors want. Then for my own performance, I felt the most relaxed I’ve ever felt acting in my life because I couldn’t waste any time thinking about it. I was so free. It was weird. I look at my performance and I’m actually really happy with it. I don’t cringe, and I don’t criticize myself thinking I could have done that scene better. I see myself as very in the moment with the other actors because they were so good. I was responding to them. That shows in the Ken Marino scene. I’m sitting there watching him and he’s so great and so funny. All I had to do was be there and react. Since you’re a filmmaker now, I have to ask you a business question. You’re going to SXSW with a film that’s for sale. How do you feel about coming to market with a title for distribution at this moment in time? I’ve heard really bad things, and obviously everybody’s heard the bad things. What I feel slightly bullish about is that this movie was not made for a ton. A sale would feel like a victory. I’d love for it to sell for $20 million, but it doesn’t have to in order to turn a profit. I’ve dreamed of getting a streaming deal, not a theatrical releases. I saw the new Bridget Jones movie the other night, which I wish got a theatrical release. It’s a movie with stars and feels like the end of an era. But I don’t think with my romantic comedy that people will buy a ticket at the theater to see it. I would be thrilled if it could find a home at a streamer. It’s a happy movie. It’s a comedy. There are things that are working in its favor that I believe can override the challenges in the marketplace. Now that you have a movie under your belt, what does the future hold for your writing and directing career? I’m into it. I like the fact that it’s something I can control. Acting can be such a passive profession. It requires someone giving me a job. I’m down to continue seeking out this work. I’ve had a couple of people send me scripts as possible directing projects. I’m waiting for something that I really feel like I could bring something to the table because it’s such a huge commitment. I still love acting and if I do commit to directing a project, I’ve taken myself out of that mix. With writing, you can do it anywhere at any time. I have two projects that I’m working on and one is really something that I think could be the next thing. The way that I felt about this movie is that I was a dog with a bone. I wasn’t going to let it go. This other project feels the same in that it keeps coming up for me. I hope to finish it soon. I need a deadline. A promotional poster for Amy Landecker’s directorial debut, For Worse, a selection at SXSW in 2025. Courtesy of Amy Landecker This story appeared in the March 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

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