'Nightbitch' on Disney+: Story that inspired Amy Adams movie was a 'lifeline' for filmmaker Marielle Heller
"The road to parenthood is just so complicated and I think we're just not that honest about this," director, writer and producer Marielle Heller said
Based on the novel by Rachel Yoder, Nightbitch (now streaming on Disney+ in Canada) is a uniquely surreal, but also honest commentary on motherhood, starring Amy Adams. For director, writer and producer Marielle Heller, Yoder's book was her "lifeline."
"The pandemic hit and I was pregnant with my second child. I left the city. I moved up to the woods and I had a second baby, and I was really isolated," Heller told Yahoo Canada during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where Nightbitch made its world premiere. "I read her book I think when I was like six months postpartum and just drowning, and so her book felt like a lifeline. It was so relatable."
"Even though I was going through it a second time, I was able to find the pain of parenthood a little funnier the second time around, maybe. So it just felt like I had to do it. I had to tell this story."
Watch Nightbitch on Disney+, with plans starting at $8.99/month
In Nightbitch Adams plays Mother, who has transitioned from a professional artist in the city to a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs. Mother feels isolated in her daily routine of making her son hash browns, changing diapers and play time that results in cleaning up messes. This is all while Husband (Scoot McNairy) travels frequently for work.
Mother doesn't really connect to the other mothers she meets at Baby Book Time, but also feels disconnected from her friends in the city. As she manages her feelings of frustration, with the immense love she has for her child, she starts having a physical transformation, turning into a dog.
"I shared the script with a lot of women friends of mine, mostly mothers, who all thought it was really funny," Heller shared. "And then when I shared it with my husband and my cinematographer, and other male friends, [they] all were like, 'This script scared the shit out of me.' And I was like, 'What do you mean? Isn't it funny?' And they were like, 'No, it's stuff I don't want to be talking about. It really made me uncomfortable. But I know that's why it's good.'"
"It made me realize that I was kind of dancing on the line of something that was really provocative and eliciting a very different response, depending on who read it. ... I think whether people realize it or not, there's an internal misogyny that's coming out with a lot of this, that if people find parts of this uncomfortable or taboo, it's just their own internal misogyny rearing its head."
'Are my stories wroth telling?'
Historically, there haven't been a ton of great examples of films that commit to telling stories about women as they get older, and motherhood ever more so. Heller highlighted that she even thought, as a mother herself, "Are my stories wroth telling? Is what I go through on a day-to-day worth telling?" And for the filmmaker, much of what really resonated with her in the book was the idea of feeling "invisible."
"As we age, become mothers, lose our connection to who we were as a young person, we just start to feel like nobody cares what we have to say," she said. "And it's such a horrible, isolated feeling to suddenly feel like you've got nothing to add to a conversation. I've really struggled over the years, about the time I've taken off to be with my kids versus being a working person, and what has value in our society. And how much some people don't see any value unless you're working, and then other people don't see any value unless you're home with your kids."
"And [Mother] just being somebody who's really grappling with that question of, do I want to be a working mom or a stay-at-home mom?' And what if I don't want to be either and I don't know how to do either of these things. And why do other people seem to be doing this so easily? And she just feels lost. She feels alone amongst the stay-at-home moms, and alone amongst the working people, and doesn't know where she fits."
Watch Nightbitch on Disney+, with plans starting at $8.99/month
Making movie sets 'positive and respectful' places
But for Heller, telling a story that connects to the complexity of parenthood goes one step further, being an advocate to make film sets effective workplaces, particularly for parents.
"This is something I've been talking about for years, and it's something I pride myself on, is creating an environment where I, as a mother, and other parents, can feel comfortable to talk and be honest about what they need," Heller said. "And sustainable working hours is a big priority for me on set, making sure we have a good working environment where people feel validated in what they're going through, as well as being able to do their best work."
"Creating a great environment for families to come visit the set was really important. My kids were on set a lot. The kids who were in the movie needed to feel really cared for. ... I also just believe that actors do a better job when the environment is positive and respectful. So something I feel like I've been doing a long time, all of my sets are nice. Everyone comments on it. ... I also want to be doing good, deep work, but it does make me happy that everyone says my sets are really nice."
In terms of where we stand in openly and honestly talk about parenthood, and showing that reality on screen, Heller indicated that being very real about being a mother isn't something we've fully embraced.
"I can't believe in the feminist household I grew up in, and in the era that I grew up in, that I still didn't really know, when I became a mom, how complicated it would feel and how it was OK to feel really complicated, conflicting emotions around the whole thing," she said.
"Not to mention what happens to your body when you have a biological child, or when you miscarry, or you go through fertility treatments, or whatever it is. The road to parenthood is just so complicated and I think we're just not that honest about this."
A great example of that is a birth scene at the end of the film. At the movie's premiere at TIFF, it was clear that many people in the audience were shocked by how Nightbitch shows childbirth, exemplifying how we really haven't normalized seeing what actually happens in childbirth at all.
"I feel like birth is never portrayed correctly and I have a real problem with that, because I don't think we understand what it really looks like," Heller said. "This is not what you might see in a sitcom, it's f**king real. Yeah, it's gnarly and it's transformative. ... It was important to me that it was real."
It's that commitment to showing the realities that are often avoided in TV and movies, paired with the larger than life element of Mother's physical transformation, that gives Nightbith its unique place in entertainment.