Reviews include The Last Showgirl, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, and Wolf Man.
Marielle Heller Embraces the Messiness of Motherhood in Nightbitch
December 5, 2024
As the writer/director of the acclaimed film Nightbitch, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, Marielle Heller drew from her own experiences as a parent to craft a raw portrayal of the uncomfortable realities of motherhood.
Nightbitch, which opens in U.S. theatres Friday ahead of a Disney+ release in Canada, follows a woman (Amy Adams) who starts a new chapter in her life as a stay-at-home mum to to take care of her newborn. Soon, however, her nightly routine takes a surreal turn and her maternal instincts begin to manifest in canine form.
Shortly after the film premiered at TIFF, I spoke with Heller about writing and directing this dark comedy. “I love being a mother. I think having a child is the ultimate act of faith and optimism and I still can’t believe I did it or did it again,” She said in an interview. “It’s a complicated thing, and I’m somebody who knew I wanted to be a mom forever. A lot of my friends don’t feel that way. I don’t think everyone needs to be a parent. It’s not for everyone. Even though I always knew I wanted to be a mom, I still had moments like, ‘What have I done that I fucked my whole life up?’”
It’s the transformation and profound sense of loss that becomes the beating heart of the movie, channelled through the force that is Amy Adams – she is ferocious as she tackles the beast of motherhood. Heller said she got goosebumps (and so did many of us while watching it) in the scene when Scoot McNairy asks Adams’ Mother, “Where’s my wife?” and she replies, “She died in childbirth.”
“There’s this sense that we become a new person in different phases of our lives,” Heller noted. “With my kids as they age, where they suddenly transform into a different being, [and] when we become parents, there can be this really major transformation. You look back at your past self and you think, ‘Who was that? I’m not that person anymore.’ It can be a [form of] grief.”
While her personal journey has informed the film, the movie is an adaptation of the novel by Rachel Yoder. However, the book does differ from the film. “I created, in a lot of ways, the ending that felt cinematic to me, but also felt satisfying,” Says Heller.
Read our chat below as Heller describes what was the key to making the film, working with Adams and how the film differs from the book.
Could you imagine anyone other than Amy Adams for Nightbitch?
No way! Nobody else could have played her. She really trusted me. We formed a very intimate bond where I think she just jumped in feet first and said, ‘Let’s go.’ We went to some painful places together. Scoot was a wonderful partner to her and they formed a very deep vibe. It was really beautiful to see and we were able to really dig into all the pain and the humor.
She’s a magician and when you watch her work and you’re watching through the monitor, similar to when I would look at Tom Hanks or Melissa McCarthy [in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Can You Ever Forgive Me, respectively], you can’t believe what they do in these subtle, small ways. There is a magic to it and I just felt proud of her.
What inspired you to change the ending of the book?
When you shift mediums, things have to shift and I think there’s a certain bit of ambiguity that you can leave open in a book that you can’t leave open in a movie. I had questions at the end of the book that I chose to answer in a specific way and Rachel was totally supportive of that. I made choices that created an ending that would feel satisfying. I always say, ‘I don’t want a happy ending. I want a satisfying ending.’ For example, the couple doesn’t break up in the book, but for me, I wanted her to tell him off and say everything that she felt,so she does in the movie. She didn’t in the book. In my marriage, this is what I would say, and then I gave my husband what he would say back. That was important for me because when I read the book, I wanted that to happen. That’s just the difference between Rachel’s marriage and my marriage. But I brought a lot of my own life to the story. I created, in a lot of ways, the ending that felt cinematic to me, but also like it felt satisfying.
What was always at the heart of the script?
A part of it was about loss of identity, feeling invisible, and feeling like you’ve lost yourself and you’ve become a new person. This concept of “where is the old me?” is brought up a number of times. She brings it up where she says, “The old me is down inside my intestine, my spirit.” And he says, “Where’s my wife?” And she says, “She died in childbirth.” That gave me goosebumps when I wrote it. We’ve just got to be selfish. You’ve got to wake up in the morning and do the things you need to do and put your own needs first. And when that’s gone, there is grieving. So it was about that central idea of loss of identity.
Is the husband a villain?
Listen, I don’t think anybody in a long-term relationship is perfect or is good or bad. I’ve been with my husband for 25 years and we have gone through every aspect of relationships in terms of being good partners and being bad partners to each other. We have to keep learning and evolving, hopefully if we want to stay together. I think I never saw the husband as a bad person. I always saw him as somebody who it was more convenient for him to not see certain things. It made his life easier, but that didn’t mean that he was trying to be a jerk. Listen, the patriarchy serves men and it’s very easy for them to ignore it because it serves them in the same way that white supremacy serves white people so a lot of white people don’t notice it’s there, but I think to give [him] credit, the husband truly tries to change by the end. He tries to see the ways in which he hasn’t acknowledged how much he’s taken advantage of the situation and not put himself in his wife’s shoes.
What memory will you cherish most after making Nightbitch?
I will remember nursing my daughter on set while I was making a movie about motherhood, trying to do this double duty of being a parent to two—making this movie about parenthood, feeling like I was failing every day, but hoping that I would make people feel less alone in their feelings.
