Molly Gordon Calls Sundance Movie ‘Oh, Hi!’ “Wish Fulfillment For All of Us Women”
“Like Misery, but if it’s funny,” says Molly Gordon of her latest movie, Oh, Hi! which is due to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
And the seemingly antithetical logline is delightfully accurate. The Sophie Brooks-directed movie follows a couple, played by Gordon and Logan Lerman, during a standard early-in-the-relationship long weekend (see: Natural wine! Farm stands! A secluded AirBnB out of a Dôen campaign!). But things go awry when they have a talk about their relationship — is it a relationship? — and Gordon’s Iris entraps Lerman’s Isaac against his will in an attempt to convince him that they could work well together.
Ahead of the film’s premiere in Park City, Gordon, who recently lost her childhood home in the fires that engulfed Los Angeles, and Brooks talked to THR. The duo speaks about dating apps, casting Lerman, and how “a woman can be a soft boy, just as much as a man can.”
How did you two meet?
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BROOKS Molly and I met through our parents in a really sweet way. Our parents had worked together on a film more than 10 years ago. When I was in my mid-20s having my existential crisis, my dad was like, “You need to speak to a female director, immediately.” And connected me to Molly’s mom, Jessie Nelson [the filmmaker behind I Am Sam and other features], who mentored me, which was so generous of her. One time we were talking, and she was like, “You’d really like my daughter.”
GORDON My mom is incredible in that she mentors female artists. Her whole life is dedicated to bringing people into this business and helping them navigate the ups and downs of it all. The thing that I feel most grateful for is watching my mom navigate how hard this industry is. Nothing is permanent and, in this moment, that feels even more true. This movie came out of my mom’s ethos; Sophie and I always helped each other when things would fall apart. My mom always goes, “Well, come up with another idea. Try other things, and have multiple plates spinning.” That’s the only way you’re going to survive this industry. That kind of energy is what brought Sophie and I to start thinking of [Oh, Hi!].
And how did the story come about?
BROOKS By the time COVID happened, we had already been friends for six years. We were both in L.A. in our childhood homes, and I was spending time with three friends and Molly was one of them. We really bonded over a lot of things, including heartbreak. We both had these impactful breakups, mine was in my late 20s and Molly’s was in her mid-20s. I felt like I was shepherding her through this kind of healing process. [The Oh, Hi! story] was just a really fun idea where we could lean into all of our most absurd ideas and inclinations, while also holding true to something that’s really important to both of us, which is telling a story about what it is to be a woman in this world wanting love. I think a lot of things in our culture about women pursuing love and wanting love become desperate or sad or embarrassing, and it’s romantic for a man to be pursuing love and wanting a partner, and it’s sad and desperate for a woman to want it. I really push against that. Part of being a human is wanting connection and I think it was exciting for us to kind of lean into some tropes that we thought were funny and absurd. Molly and I talk about how this movie is: If we were 10% crazy what would we do?
GORDON We basically got to act [the movie] out together when Sophie and I were creating it. It was a theater workshop of us finding the story. We ultimately did it in my childhood home, which is no longer there anymore, but it was a space where so many of me and my friends have done these things together. I feel so lucky that this movie came out of that space. The only thing I can say about how sad this moment is that the movie is forever, and I’m so lucky to have something that reminds me of how creative the house was. This [movie] really is wish fulfillment for all of us women. Sometimes you just want someone to fucking allow you to have a conversation. Though I would never do what Iris does, I do think wanted to many times in my life. It was really fun to lean into that. What if I allowed myself to do what I wanted?
What was it about contemporary dating that you wanted to show in Oh, Hi!?
BROOKS I had the experience of re-entering the dating scene post a big breakup in my life. I was astonished by my experience. I had never done app dating before that breakup, but it was illuminating, the way that dating culture had simplified the human condition in a way that felt really unfair. It made everything feel like you were asking too much. Molly and I connected over being women who are quite opinionated and this idea of being “too much” is scary. The things that I saw were also kind of hilarious. I just went on so many dates where I was just like, “Am I living in a reality?”
GORDON It was people being like, “I don’t want to have a kid with you!” And it’s like, I don’t want to have a kid with you, either?
BROOKS I asked, “Do you want to get coffee?”
GORDON I have experienced that, as well. Being absolutely wined and dined — natural wine, of course — and the [they’re] like, “Oh no, I’m not looking for anything.” Like, what the fuck is going on? There’s been some sort of communication breakdown. Soph and I love Nora Ephron movies, and it’s always been the case that dating fucking sucks. It’s just hard. But I do think we’re at a time, because of social media, where we are not able to actually face each other. This movie has made me look at times in which I wasn’t fully upfront about what I was looking for from the beginning. It’s not just a takedown of men in modern day.
BROOKS A woman can be a soft boy, just as much as a man can. But in the reality of gender dynamics in our culture, the woman is much more easily identified as crazy. The movie is looking at that and unpacking it.
How did you cast Isaac? It’s a hard role because it could very easily be too unsympathetic.
GORDON I’ll just say, first, that it takes a really strong man to be, “I will be tied up for an entire film.”
BROOKS It was really hard to cast that role. We had a really hard time finding someone for it. It is such a tightrope. As Molly said at the beginning of this, this is not a movie bashing men.
GORDON We love men! It’s our downfall!
BROOKS We certainly love men. It was so important that whoever played Isaac was not a person that we’re writing off as an asshole. He is also a complicated human with his own set of baggage, and to simplify him would be disingenuous to what the story is, and also not the most interesting version of the movie. So it was really important that we found an actor who could toe that line of someone who is a good person and also complicated and can be selfish in moments.
GORDON We could have gone for someone who is super asshole-y for this role, but I think his inherent ability was really right for it. Another thing Soph and I are really excited about with the movie is that it shows sex, and it feels kind of more real. It’s a couple figuring out how to try stuff, and it doesn’t always look that great.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
