The writers and stars of this Apple original film discuss crafting a bittersweet “will they, won’t they” through the off-centre lens of science fiction
In 2020, Ted Lasso actor and writer Brett Goldstein and Black Mirror scribe William Bridges premiered a slightly dystopian series called Soulmates on AMC, set in a future where a test determined the person you were meant to love — with 100 per cent accuracy. While the show lasted only one season, the idea of the long-term repercussions such a test would have continued to live in the heads of Goldstein and Bridges.
The new Apple original film All of You follows Simon (Goldstein) and Laura (Imogen Poots) — long-term best friends who are pushed down separate romantic paths by this foolproof test, yet can’t escape the feeling that maybe their own love story was the one they should have pursued.
For Goldstein and Bridges, the fate of Laura and Simon has been percolating since long before Soulmates. “Before we did the show, we made a short film, which was these two best friends walking to a clinic to take the soulmate test. Over the next 10 years, despite us doing other things, we just kept being drawn back to these particular characters and wanting to know what happened to their lives,” he says. “Even though they know they’re not meant to be together, they are drawn to each other forever. That’s what we wanted to tell.”
In the film, Laura’s test reveals that her soulmate is Lukas (Outlander’s Steven Cree), who may not be the most exciting man in the world, but is a loving, stable partner. Even so, Laura can’t help but be drawn to what’s out of reach, leaving viewers asking, is the only alternative to a stable and boring relationship tortured love? “That is the question of the film, I think because they are addicted to one another,” says Poots. “Really, it’s exploring desire and love, and two people who are magnetized to one another in a way that is completely out of their control. As I’ve gotten older, I don’t think you can morally evaluate something like desire. You try to live the right life and make the right choices, but I suppose the movie poses the question, ‘Is that really living?’ ”
For Goldstein, the project had always stirred up deliberations about what it means to have only one partner for life. “I think love is always complicated and I don’t think it’s finite,” he says. “The idea of there being one person for you, what I don’t like about that is, what are all the other people in your life then? Are they meaningless? What about all these great people that I care about that aren’t ‘the one?’ I just think it’s a much bigger spectrum than we give it credit for.”
Being the writer as well as the lead actor allowed Goldstein to feel in charge of tone and trajectory, especially if a scene didn’t feel right in the moment. One key rule for the comedy vet was that, unlike on his various hit TV series, no dialogue would feel like a punchline. “Compared to Shrinking or Ted Lasso, where the characters say things that are too clever for a person to have said on the spot, in our film we wanted it to be two people who are funny in a realistic way,” he explains. “So, any time it felt like a written joke, we removed all of that from the script.”
This meant that the film had to be carried by the two stars’ chemistry, without any gimmicks. Allowing himself to be vulnerable onscreen was something the defensively comedic Goldstein occasionally found difficult. “It’s really hard, but I have to credit Imogen with that because she made it very clear from the beginning that we were a safe space for each other. We could be vulnerable, silly and embarrassing in front of each other, and we would have each other’s back,” he reflects. “I don’t know that I could have done any of this without her.”
Unlike traditional romance films, the love in All of You lives in the moments of silence. In fact, Bridges encouraged the two admittedly fidgety actors to just be. “I think there are quite a few moments in the film that hopefully feel real, because they kind of are,” says Goldstein. “We really wanted it to feel as naturalistic as possible. We wanted this big romantic film, but for it to feel like, ‘What is it really like in real life? What is it like to fall in love?’ Part of the trick of that is letting scenes run longer than they normally would and the awkwardness of stuff — which I think you would usually cut out in a film. And the ending, well, it means different things to different people, right? It could be a happy ending.”
All of You, streaming on Apple TV+