“The Tale” made a major mark at Sundance earlier this year, and now Jennifer Fox’s acclaimed narrative debut is prepping for its HBO premiere. The Laura Dern-starrer has received an air date and teaser from the premium cable network. Described by its writer-director as a “film memoir,” the sexual abuse drama sees Dern playing a documentary filmmaker and professor who is forced to reexamine her past “relationship” with her coach.
The film will premiere on HBO May 26.
“It’s based on what happened to me at 13, and how I processed it as ‘love’ up until I was in my 40s,” Fox told us. The story is told from Fox’s perspective as an adult (Dern) and as a child (Isabelle Nelisse).
“The Tale” has, of course, been linked to the #MeToo movement, but as Fox explained, she “began to write this script 10 years ago, way ahead of the curve for this issue, and … was told no one would support a film on this subject. I was committed to a very deep telling of the story that had never been done before,” she said. “Everyone who joined the project are heroes in my mind, as against all odds, they believed it was important to bring out this story long before the culture was caught up to it last year.”
When we asked Fox what she’d like audiences to think about after seeing the film, she responded, “I hope they go on a journey that makes them reflect back on their own life, their own memory, and what they’ve told themselves about their own lives and stories. I’d like them to feel that they’ve awoken to how complex this silenced and taboo topic of child sexual abuse is and begun to understand it in a deeper, more nuanced way so that we can begin to change the conversation about it.”
Fox’s previous credits include docs “Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman” and “Beirut: The Last Home Movie.”
Dern won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her supporting role in HBO murder mystery “Big Little Lies.” “Star: Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Twin Peaks,” and “Certain Women” are are among her other recent credits.
“The Tale’s” 15-second teaser offers very brief glimpses of Jennifer in her adolescence and as an adult. Check it out below.
