“I’m exploring female friendship between two women who’ve known each other for a very long time and discovering yourself later in life,” said screenwriter Lauren Pomerantz about her film Am I OK?
This is a very personal story to Lauren who came out later in life and hopes audiences will be inspired by it when looking for “the next step.” The movie was heavily based on Pomerantz’s friendship with Jessica Elbaum who co-produced the film.
Starring Dakota Johnson who plays Lucy and Sonoya Mizuno who plays her friend Jane, Am I OK? illustrates how they are both oppositional yet complementary friends. “Lucy is the quieter one who tends to go along with everything Jane says,” said Pomerantz. “It’s an older vs younger sister dynamic.” Lauren more closely aligns with Lucy in real life. Audiences tend to know a Jane and a Lucy, either in others or themselves, which makes the characters in this movie so relatable.
The differences between the two characters isn’t always so clearly defined. “Jane is more aggressive and seemingly clear in who she is and what she wants,” continued Lauren. However, this isn’t always the case. “Lucy is quieter, internalized, and not as confident as Jane.” The two friends bounce off each other as they present their respective traits. According to Pomerantz, “It’s more about how each presents themselves compared to how they really are.” Jane may not have her life as figured out as she makes out. “Sometimes, overconfidence is used to hide insecurities.”
Their friendship is tested when Jane decides to accept a job offer in London. “This puts pressure on Lucy to share her secret with Jane before she departs.”
Lauren Pomerantz (Photo by Mike Rozman)
Jane has ostensibly known what to do with her life since high school, whereas Lucy is very unsure of herself both working at a spa and painting intermittently. “Lucy faces an internal struggle in figuring out who she is. She comes from a vulnerable place. She’s timid and fearful.” Lucy finds solace in Jane’s confidence regardless of how real it is. or not.
Casting
Dakota Johnson was attracted to Lucy’s character, particular the aspect of not knowing everything about her life’s journey by the time she turned thirty. “Lucy has interests she hasn’t yet explored entirely. It’s not too late to do so despite reaching a certain age.”
Pomerantz highlights the irony of Sonoya Mizuno who plays the role of Jane. “Sonoya is quiet and more like Lucy in real life, so she liked the challenge of this role.” This allowed her to better appreciate Jane and her interaction with Lucy.
Lauren lauded how much the actresses brought to the roles. “They added a warmth to the characters which might otherwise have come across as too strong.” This warmth led to more empathetic characters. “Some things could be better expressed through an expression than dialogue. We talked a lot about crying in terms of hiding a secret and feeling stagnant in life. Dakota brought a strength to Lucy’s fragile vulnerability.”
Writing a deeply autobiographical story comes with its own concerns like reducing it to its core elements. “There were also challenges in finding emotional depth,” confessed Lauren. A recurring note she received in early drafts was “to go deeper into the feelings of the characters.” Lauren was still in the process of coming out so revealing so many personal details was a lot to handle.
Lauren Pomerantz cut her writing teeth in the television landscape. She has credits on Ellen and Saturday Night Live as well as scripted comedy like Community and Me, Myself and I. The stark contrast in writing Am I OK? wasn’t only the feature length format, but also “writing real people as faithfully as possible.“
The slower turnaround time in writing her feature script was notable. When she wrote something for Ellen, it would be on TV a few days later. This gave her feature more time to ruminate. “It’s a different kind of collaboration. In TV, you’re feeding off each other, but in features, you get different notes from various people and have more time to process them.”
Lauren initially started writing Am I OK? as a friendship story. The coming out elements weren’t in it yet. She was still struggling to come out at the time, so the final version of the script ran in parallel to the evolution of her life experience.
Pomerantz isn’t a huge fan of extensive outlines. “I only do it when I have to do it,” she confessed. “I just wanted to write it.” She wrote the first third pages in a hotel room in one night. The rest of the script took much longer as she chipped away at it.
She often outlined as she was writing Am I OK? and story ideas came to her until she completed her draft. “I like to put out a draft and then edit after the notes came back.”
The key elements of the story remained intact. The ending was the most significant change when Lucy and Jane decide to go to London together to allow for a more open-ended conclusion. “Some confessional aspects of Lucy’s coming out were also tempered in the rewrites.”
A recurring element of Lauren Pomerantz’s writing style is injecting comedic moments into the drama to alleviate the tension and make it a little lighter.
