Summary
Late Bloomersfollows an aimless musician in her late twenties who breaks her hip while drunk. Through her physical therapy, Louise meets and befriends people twice her age, notably Antonina, a Polish woman who doesn’t speak any English. Unexpectedly, Louise is hired as Antonina’s caretaker and the unlikely pair help each other grow out of their comfort zones and rediscover what makes life beautiful.
Doctor Who’s Karen Gillanstars as Louise, infusing the role with heart and endless comedy.Late Bloomersis written by Anna Greenfield, based on her own life, and is the feature directorial debut of Lisa Steen. WhileLate Bloomersis full of comedy, the heart-warming message is about finding the good in life in the most unlikely of friendships.
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Screen Rantinterviewed writer Anna Greenfield, director Lisa Steen, and star Karen Gillan about their new movieLate Bloomers. Greenfield explained how she was inspired by her own experience to write this and the nuance of age and aging. Steen shared how she became involved in the project and the challenges of filming in New York City. Gillan revealed how she was excited to explore physical comedy with this role and why this character felt the closest to her real personality, more so than inDoctor WhoorGuardians of the Galaxy.
Anna Greefield’s Late Bloomers Is “Very Autobiographical”
Greenfield explained how her own experience inspired Late Bloomers. She broke down how breaking her hip brought her into a different world as she began spending time with older people as she had to go through the rehabilitation process with others who had a similar injury.
Anna Greenfield: : It’s very autobiographical. I was also in my late twenties in New York, my mom was sick with dementia, and I was a mess of a person. I had gone through a bad breakup and I did break my hip, which was so random and strange, and found myself around a lot of elderly people as I was physically rehabbing. So I did write a story that was about my life, which sounds very egomaniacal, but I knew there was something in there that was beyond all that stuff, which was a relatable theme of being at a tough point in your life and having to step up to the plate and not being quite ready and fumbling along the way.
Lisa, you make your directorial debut in this film and you’re absolutely incredible. How did you find this project and what spoke to you about Anna’s script?
Lisa Steen: Well, I found the project because Anna and I know each other from college. We’ve been friends for years.
Anna Greenfield: I emailed it to you.
Lisa Steen: I found it in my inbox, but obviously at the time I wasn’t reading it because I was going to direct it. I just was reading it because she’s my friend and I love her writing and I loved the script from the start. Just because I found it so relatable to just being in your twenties in New York City, just being a mess, and feeling like you’re messing up at everything. I just felt like it was a story that I could tell, not just because it happened to my friend, but because I felt connected to it too.
Karen, you’re brilliant as Louise in this film. How did you find this project?
Karen Gillan: So actually my husband is friends with these guys from college. I’d always heard about the script Late Bloomers that everyone loved so much in the friend group, then I guess I heard it was getting made, and so I read it. I was like, I need to be in this somehow. This role is incredible. I loved the writing so much. It was the most moving story told in the funniest, most heartfelt way. So then I sort of went on a little campaign to get the role.
Karen Gillan “Felt Like This Character Could Be Fairly Close In Personality To Me”
Gillan broke down how she took inspiration from Greenfield’s own experiences when crafting Louise, but also tapped into her own personality and physical comedy. She described Louise as,“the character is a lot of me and a sprinkling of Anna.”
Karen Gillan: So as a starting point with everything, I always start with the script and luckily this is Anna’s real life story to a certain degree, and so I had her as a resource to kind of start off with. It was watching her to get a little inspiration and then I took that and kind of molded it into sort of weird hybrid version of myself because I just sort of felt like this character could be fairly close in personality to me. And so I was able to kind of let rip with my own personality traits for once. I never really do that. So the character is a lot of me and a sprinkling of Anna.
Anna Greenfield: Yeah, I would say anytime you were cool, you were drawing on me and anytime you were awkward-
Karen Gillan: That was all me.
Anna, can you talk about capturing the nuance of aging and intergenerational relationships in your screenplay?
Anna Greenfield: Yeah, I mean, in my late twenties I found myself in a place after breaking my hip where I was with a lot of people, generations older than me in the same situation. So all of a sudden I didn’t feel like my age anymore. But the truth was I hadn’t felt like my age, probably my whole life. I’d always felt behind or I felt like I couldn’t connect or something.
So I think a big part of this is about you’re an age, but it doesn’t mean that you’re supposed to be at a certain place in your life, even though that’s what society kind of tells you that you should be. So I think it was trying to demystify and take away some of the stereotypes about what it’s like to be an older person, what it’s like to be a younger person and you’re able to be inept at any age.
Karen Gillan: This is true.
Lisa, this is your feature directorial debut. What were some of your biggest challenges when directingLate Bloomers, and can you talk about how you kind of overcame it?
Lisa Steen: There’s a lot of different challenges, but we were shooting in New York City and we weren’t the type of production that shuts down entire avenues. So we were very much in the city amongst people shooting and that is definitely a challenge. New York is such a beast and animal of its own, but I do think that kind of brought something to the film as well. It kind of allowed New York to be a character in the movie because this all happened to Anna while she was living near Greenpoint and it was a big part of her experience, I think, so we wanted that to be a part of
Karen Gillan: It was so hot as well, remember how hot it was?
Lisa Steen: It got hot over the course of the shoot.
Karen Gillan: I remember just sweating on the crutches thinking, how did you do this in real life?
Karen, I wanted to ask you about working with Margaret Sophie Stein who plays Antonina. She is absolutely incredible. Can you talk about crafting that chemistry with her?
Karen Gillan: Oh, she’s wonderful. She’s the most incredible actress who came in with just so many ideas right off the bat, and luckily we had a lot of rehearsal time. So we had a week together where we talked through everything, read through the scenes, developed our dynamic as people with each other off camera, which is always helpful. I think that tends to bleed onto camera sometimes. She was just so extraordinarily talented and gave me so much with so little dialogue, I felt like I had such an amazing scene partner.
“Lisa Is The Most Intuitive Director I’ve Met”
WhileLate Bloomersis based on Greenfield’s own experience other voices brought new perspectives to the story. Greenfield explained what Steen brought to the movie as a director. She praised her ability to communicate and her intuition.
Anna Greenfield: Lisa is the most intuitive director I’ve met where she reads something, can understand it, and also interprets things and talks to people without a ton of ego. It’s just not part of her personality, which is very rare for a director. So she just gets it. She just understands things and then communicates what you thought you wanted to say in a better way and in a more human way.
Karen, I’ve seen you in tons of things fromDoctor WhotoGuardians of the Galaxy, but you disappear into this role. Can you talk about what you wanted to bring to the role of Louise that wasn’t on the page?
Lisa Steen: You brought so much.
Karen Gillan: Well, I think that this role is closer to my own personality than any of the roles I’ve played before. Normally I might be in space looking all badass or something. Couldn’t to be further from reality for me. So this role really allowed that to show through. She’s awkward, she’s goofy, lanky does weird stuff. I just kind of finally felt free to sort of embrace every little impulse, and Lisa was so encouraging of that. So I think it’s just an explosion of all these traits that have been suppressing for so many years.
Lisa, you mentioned this earlier, that New York felt like a character itself and it really does. Can you talk about how the energy of New York added to the film?
Lisa Steen: I think exactly that. New York is such a timeless place. It is changing, but also there’s parts of it that haven’t changed in hundreds of years, and I feel like the intermingling of the different generations in New York City is kind of on theme with what the movie is about too. You kind of get to see everybody’s version of New York. I think it lined up perfectly with the theme in the movie.
Karen Gillan Reveals Her First Thoughts After Reading Late Bloomers
“Oh, This Is Ripe For Physical Comedy”
Gillan’s role as Louise meant she was on crutches for the majority of the movie. Gillan revealed why this was such an appealing opportunity and how she captured an authentic physicality when using the crutches, but also leaned into the comedy of it.
Karen Gillan: Well, that was one of the things that was really appealing to me when I read it. I was like, Oh, this is ripe for physical comedy. But I also wanted to make sure it was authentic and real. So luckily, not luckily, unluckily Anna was on crutches and so she was giving me crutch lessons, teaching me how to do it in a realistic manner. And then once I sort of had that down, I was like, Right, I’m going to have some fun with these things. I love any opportunity to do something a little more physical than normal.
There’s a question that Louise asks the swim babes at the end of the film. “If you’re able to go back in time and tell your younger self something, what would that be?” So I’m going to ask you the same question.
Anna Greenfield: That’s good. I would go back and tell myself, you’re doing so much better than you think and just keep going.
Lisa Steen: Yeah, I think a version of Just don’t give up even if you think you’re messing up, just try again.
Karen Gillan: I would go back to speak to the shyest girl that ever existed and tell her that it’s going to be okay. You’re not weird, and you’re going to be able to talk to people at some point in your life. So just hold on.
Anna Greenfield: She’s got a lot ahead of her in the future, that shy girl.
About Late Bloomers
An aimless 28-year-old Brooklynite lands in the hospital after drunkenly breaking her hip. An encounter with a cranky elderly Polish woman who speaks no English leads to a job caring for her. Neither likes it, but it’s time to grow up
Late Bloomersis available torent or buy on Prime Videoand Video On Demand now.
Late Bloomers
Cast
Late Bloomers is a comedy/drama film that follows Louise, a twenty-eight-year-old woman forced to deal with aging. Louise, who is depressed, single, and a bit of a mess, has an accident one drunken night that leaves her with a broken hip. Stuck in physical therapy filled with people twice her age, she meets an older Polish woman with a chip on her shoulder and is tasked with caring for her. The two detest one another’s company, but Louise will be forced to face reality and acknowledge that she’s getting older.
