Interview: Michael Showalter on ‘The Idea of You,’ His Comfort Zone as a Rom-Com Director, and Finding the Balance Between Drama and Comedy

Michael Showalter was a bit of a weirdo comedy maverick during his initial years in entertainment. During his time at NYU, he joined an improv troupe called The New Group, which would later be known as The State and was populated by a bevy of now cult-famous alt comedians which included David Wain, Michael Ian Black, Joe Lo Trugio, Ken Marino, and Thomas Lennon, among others. This eventually evolved into a self-titled MTV sketch series, which had niche appeal and an untimely end after picking up a deal with CBS that went sour. He and Wain scavenged enough cash to produce their cult classic summer camp parody film Wet Hot American Summer, but the film’s release hardly came with any promises of real Hollywood success. During the rest of the 2000s, he tried his hand at a number of projects that never found the popularity necessary to secure a future within the entertainment industry, including his 2005 directorial debut The Baxter, a low-budget, light-hearted riff on rom-com tropes that never found life past the clique of The State loyalists. He was losing steam, and money. He once spoke in a Rolling Stone interview about leaving the industry altogether to get a regular job that could support his family. 

Flash-forward to 2024, and Showalter seems like the go-to guy for a certain type of emotionally-vulnerable, slightly relatable and funny drama movie. The quirky Sally Field age-gap romantic comedy film Hello, My Name Is Doris kicked off Showalter’s directorial career in earnest in 2015, and since then he’s had a steady stream of projects with profiles far above the level of his unassuming alt-comedy beginnings. Alongside directing movies like The Big Sick, The Lovebirds, Spoiler Alert, and the Oscar-winning The Eyes of Tammy Faye, he’s also kept a firm foot in the world of television and mini series, co-directing The Dropout and The Shrink Next Door and serving as a co-creator for the modest TBS-airing turned Max-streaming hit Search Party. He also returned to his comedy roots by appearing in the two seasons of a streaming Wet Hot American Summer prequel and sequel, First Day of Camp and Ten Years Later.

Now, Showalter is gearing up for the release of his new Anne Hathaway-starring romance The Idea of You, based on Robinne Lee’s novel of the same name. Hathaway stars as freshly 40 single mother Solène, who appears content on the surface but quietly yearns for something to yank her out of middle-aged, divorced malaise. Enter Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), mega-famous lead singer of the One Direction-esque boyband August Moon. After an awkward but flirty meet cute with the singer at Coachella, Solène’s life suddenly becomes a whirlwind romance with the biggest pop star on the planet, forcing her to reckon with the extenuating circumstances of what that means as she looks to lay claim to her own happiness and sexuality. It’s perfect fodder for Showalter’s brand of sensitive, endearing character drama.

Perhaps that’s why it premiered to rave reviews out of SXSW, and why Showalter would be accepting The Rebel Award from the Atlanta Film Festival at the historic Plaza Theatre just hours after our interview. In our conversation, we talked about what Showalter looks for when choosing a project to direct, the challenge of effectively mining the various angles of commentary in The Idea of You, and his influences when it comes to directing romance. 

Trace Sauveur: Congratulations on the film, Michael. I just wanted to ask, with the super positive reception coming out of South by Southwest and now going on to accept The Rebel Award at the Atlanta Film Festival tonight, how are you feeling?

Michael Showalter: I actually didn’t know I was getting an award tonight. This is news to me!

TS: Oh no!

MS: But I’m excited! It’s great. You know, nothing feels better than to do something that connects with an audience. Without an audience, I don’t exist. So, to do something that you put your heart and soul into and that you really tried to do the right way, and to have an audience respond in a positive way is really exciting and just the best feeling in the world. 

TS: Absolutely. I’ve been kind of following the trajectory of your directorial career ever since you really started getting attached to projects in that capacity about a decade ago now. I’ve been really interested in the directions you’ve veered into in your films. Is there something specific that ends up speaking to you when you’re looking at projects to direct?

MS: There’s no one thing. I’m open to anything. I think there has to be some kind of feeling that the story is, I don’t know, new in some way, or about something I haven’t seen before. I like it when it’s familiar and like, I know this but I haven’t seen it quite done this way, and that there’s a main character who feels like someone I can root for who’s complicated and flawed. But truly, I would do anything. I would do a western, I would do horror. There’s no one thing, it’s more just that sense of, “Huh, that’s interesting, I haven’t seen that before.”

TS: The Idea of You, in particular, is about a range of different things. You have the approaching middle-aged woman looking to reclaim her own happiness and sexuality, but then there’s also the nature of celebrity aspect to it, the social misogyny aspect, and also the moral quandary of what you potentially put your family through when you make a decision for yourself. I was surprised because it’s a lot to wrangle into a seemingly commercial romance movie. I assume much of this came from Robinne Lee’s source material, but when you and Jennifer Westfeldt were writing the script, what was the challenge of trying to effectively communicate all of these ideas?

MS: I think it’s how do you do all that and not have it turn into a big lecture about how fucked up we are as a society, and just a big finger wag, you know? How do you make a genre film that still satisfies a fun movie, as a piece of entertainment, but that also isn’t afraid to look at some of that stuff. So I think the challenge was to marry those two things. 

TS: Right, and even further, there’s the fact that it’s an age-gap romance, so that’s another layer that’s kind of thrown into the mix. And this is actually the second age-gap related romance movie you’ve directed after Hello, My Name Is Doris.

MS: Yes it is.

TS: That can occasionally be kind of a hot-button topic in some corners online. I’ve definitely seen some movies that have their detractors because they’re put off by the sometimes thorny nature of a relationship like that. What is it like trying to honestly convey that relationship, and what did Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine afford their characters through their performances in that regard?

MS: Well, you know, it’s not like it’s “Ew, gross, it’s Anne Hathaway!” And really, the age-gap between these two characters is that she’s 40 and he’s in his mid-20s. In all seriousness, I’m sure there are movies out right now where the guy is 40 and the main actress is 25 and no one even knows. It’s, like, not even mentioned. And Nick and Anne are great. They’re both just incredibly committed to the work that they were doing and creating these characters, and I just think, for me, I like finding characters that aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do. Because it seems so silly. It all seems so silly to me. 

TS: Your directing work so far has encompassed a wide range of different stories but you do have a number of romance movies under your belt at this point. Did you ever see yourself becoming a go-to director for this type of movie, and what are some other romantic dramas and comedies that you look toward when making a movie like this?

MS: I absolutely loved romantic comedies growing up, for sure. So in a sense, yes, it does surprise me, not because I never wanted to do it but more because I never necessarily assumed I would be able to be in that position. But, you know, When Harry Met Sally, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Say Anything…, all of the Woody Allen films, all of the Nora Ephron movies, all the James Brooks movies, Mike Nichols, Nancy Meyers, there are so many directors from when I was in my teens and 20s who worked in this genre whose films I just loved. Actors too, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, John Cusack. These were my heroes growing up. So it’s not a surprise at all that this is a comfort zone for me.

TS: And so many of those filmmakers that you mentioned have this element of honesty in their movies that, every time I watch one of your movies I feel like that’s something you seem to be striving for. I assume that’s something you’re very conscious of as well.

MS: Totally. Those are the moments that really stick with you. And as a filmmaker, I want to do that. I want to make an audience feel the way I felt when, you know, I saw something in another movie that made me go, “Oh my god, I can’t believe they captured something so powerful right there.” So I’m always looking for those moments that hit that note.

TS: I’ve been a fan of yours ever since I found Wet Hot American Summer and The State in high school. Your previous background with those obviously leans more toward sketch and absurdist comedy. Is there ever a way that you find yourself trying to incorporate or streamline some of those sensibilities into a movie like this?

MS: I think this movie that I’m actually about to do, which is a holiday ensemble film, is the closest to that, where it’s very funny and it has kind of big comedic set pieces and it’s quite silly, but also has the heart and some of the more grounded emotional elements. So we’ll see how it works out. But of my films this is sort of the most forwardly comedic film that I’ve really done as a director.

TS: Yeah, I’ve noticed that you really veer into drama more than comedy with your directing work. If they have a comedic aspect it’s really baked into the drama. So it’s just been interesting seeing your range in that regard, especially coming from your initial background.

MS: Yeah, and sometimes I’ll go into it wanting it to be funnier and it literally just defaults to something less funny. I think maybe there’s this sadness and melancholy in me. It’s like the kind of music I listen to. I love sad music, melancholy music is the kind of music I love the most. So I wouldn’t be surprised if in some sense, you know, it’s like my wiring just goes towards something that’s a little bit more bittersweet and melancholy. But as I said, this thing I’m doing now has some big, silly comedic set pieces in it, so hopefully it’ll be kind of a hybrid of these two things you’re referring to. 

TS: Amazing. Thanks Michael, I really appreciate you talking to me, and congratulations again on the film.

MS: Appreciate it Trace, thank you so much.

The Idea of You will stream exclusively on Prime Video beginning May 2, 2024.