“Me Before You” is Thea Sharrock’s film directorial debut. Plucked from the London theater scene, she was brought in to direct one of the most popular novels in the world; one that has spent the last 75 weeks on the best-seller list.
Prior to directing her first film, Sharrock won the James Menzies-Kitchin Young Director of the Year Award in 2000, making her directorial debut with a production of Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls,” which transferred to the West End. She was then made Britain’s youngest artistic director when she took over the Southwark Playhouse for three years before going on to become the artistic director of the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill. Since then, as a freelance director, she has accumulated numerous stage and TV credits, including “Call the Midwife” for BBC and her first musical, “The Bodyguard,” which is now on a UK tour.
Sharrock got the job directing “Me Before You” after campaigning for it. She joined author and screenwriter Jojo Moyes, producers Karen Rosenfelt (The Twilight Saga, “The Book Thief”) and Alison Owen (“Suffragette,” “Saving Mr. Banks”), and executive producer Sue Baden-Powell (“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”), making it a female-centric production. The film’s creative team included director of photography Remi Adefarasin and its impressive cast includes female talents and veterans Emilia Clarke, Janet McTeer, Jenna Coleman, Samantha Spiro, Vanessa Kirby and a cameo by Joanna Lumley of “Absolutely Fabulous.”
We spoke with Sharrock about the script, novel, and casting “Game of Thrones’” Dragon Queen Emilia Clarke.
W&H: “Me Before You” has strong female leads and a strong female production team, from the screenwriter to director to producer. How important was that to the film making process?
TS: Thank god for for our film, right? The best thing about our film in the context of that was that was we never, never, never set out for that to the case. It happened because the people doing their jobs were the right people to do the job, and that for me was the most important thing. If a woman is the right person for the job, she should get the job, not because she’s a woman but she’s the right person for the job. But I find it staggering that in my career, I have never felt I got a job because I’m a woman. I’ve never approached things with that in my mind, but when you look at the numbers in movies, it’s absolutely staggering.
W&H: What convinced you to do this as your first feature?
TS: It was a gift, an absolute gift. I was sent the screenplay first, so I hadn’t read the book and responded on the prospect as a film, not thinking about it as an adaptation and I loved it. I could see immediately who Will was and who Lou was and I felt like I understood them…their backgrounds, their differences. I understood the world that they came from, that they lived so close to each other and would never, ever cross paths. Every step of the way, their journeys were so different. These were two people who never should have met and when they first meet, it’s not easy because they don’t gel.
Wanting to go on that journey with them was extremely appealing, and I loved the simplicity of just going back to telling an old-fashioned love story, and that’s what this movie is. It’s an uplifting love story, and that’s what attracted me. But in the story lies complicated issues that we have to really not be judgmental about. It’s important the film doesn’t come down on one side or the other. It’s extremely brave to put it out there in a commercial way. I think the studios have to be commended on never, ever even joking about changing the ending. They were extremely supportive of it, and I think that’s fantastic. But for me, it was the simplicity of telling this love story that I just thought, when was the last time I watched a straightforward, appealing, accessible story of people falling in love?
W&H: What was casting the role of Louisa Clark like?
TS: It took a long time…it really took a long time…months. The casting director understood immediately that the character of Lou was pretty unique and not someone we’d seen on screen ever before. It wasn’t completely evident who this person was going to be. Sometimes you read a script and it’s obvious, like a role is Michael Caine, and it’s easy to picture who your dream first choice would be. What was fascinating is we met so many girls, each of whom would bring a little bit of Lou and a very convincing part of Lou, but not the whole package, and I got to the stage that I genuinely thought that Lou doesn’t quite exist and I’m going to take the one with the most compound parts of her and I will help her create the rest.
And then Emilia Clarke walked in, and she was the last person I met face to face. She was the first person I Skyped with…weirdly, but she was the last person I actually met. She had come from the airport. It was like eight in the morning, and she came early so I could audition her before she read with the guys. She came into the room and as she took off her coat, she knocked over the water bottle on the table and was like, “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Just immediately — the energy, the warmth, the generosity, the kookiness, the honesty. I texted the producer straight away and I said, we found her. She just walked in.
W&H: When did you realize this book would change your life?
TS: I got a message from my husband just before it started that my youngest son had seen a poster on a bus, and that’s huge.
“Me Before You” opens Friday, June 3.
