Emma Forrest is a columnist, novelist, screenwriter, and director. Her novels include “Namedropper,” “Thin Skin,” and “Cherries in the Snow,” and she penned the acclaimed memoir “Your Voice in My Head.” “Untogether” is her directorial and screenwriting feature film debut.

“Untogether” will premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival on April 23.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

EF: How to create a loving relationship when you both feel damaged and dangerous. It’s funny-sad — like life.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

EF: I started writing it after a one night stand with the man who would become my husband. I was trying to make sense of feeling so incredibly, chemically drawn to someone I didn’t feel I could make it work with. By the time we started shooting we’d been married almost five years, and had agreed to separate once shooting ended.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

EF: That we don’t have just one soul mate. That if we get lucky we can walk alongside two or three in our lifetime. That the love story might be finite. But it will be worth it.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

EF: Honestly? I wanted real sisters to play the sisters, and I wanted those sisters to be Jemima and Lola Kirke. There’s always the same list of five actresses who can get a film financed — Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence etc. Jemima and Lola are admired and brilliant but they aren’t on that list. They stuck with me, and I stuck with them, and I’ll love them forever for it.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

EF: When Jamie Dornan came on board. Simple as that. His wife, Millie, read the script, loved it, and really put it under his nose. He could see it allowed him to show parts of his personality he’d not shown before on screen — he’s very, very funny, and awkward in unexpected ways.

W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at Tribeca Film Festival?

EF: It’s beautiful because I lived in NY for a decade — it’s really where I grew up. I went to Tribeca a few times as an audience member; it’s a lovely closing of the circle to get to show my first film there.

Also, it’s an auteur festival, and I love that. I’m the kid who had a picture of Jim Jarmusch on her bedroom wall as a teenager.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

EF: In terms of making the film, my soon to be ex-husband was a great secret weapon as he’s made so many. He said I should make it as if I will never be allowed to make another one again. That meant fighting for my choices, be it casting, or the font of the titles.

Worst advice: Every manager who has ever tried to work with me has signed me on the basis of a small, intimate spec script and then immediately tried to convince me I really want to be doing big studio jobs. One of them sent me “What Happens In Vegas” as a suggestion of where I could go as a female writer. I stopped trying to work with managers a long time ago.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

EF: Just know it’s probably going to take longer to make it than it does for a man. We don’t get wunderkind female directors like all those men who explode at 25 at a festival and get handed a blockbuster as their follow up. It takes so much longer for women — raising children, battling sexism — that we’re often making our debuts at 40, or later. So, pragmatically, live a rich life, because you may be waiting a while.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

EF: “Gas, Food Lodging” by Allison Anders because it’s just so original, and generous. Like my film, it follows two sisters. As a filmmaker she has entirely her own accent, the way David Bowie or Paul Simon sing in their own accents. That film ingrained in me, at a young age, that I should have my own, too.

W&H: Hollywood and the global film industry are in the midst of undergoing a major transformation. Many women — and some men — in the industry are speaking publicly about their experiences being assaulted and harassed. What are your thoughts on the #TimesUp movement and the push for equality in the film business?

EF: Ugh. I have so much to say — it would take an entire memoir to answer that. But I will write it. I have books and books of notes. In