I'm the writer and director of Britney runs a marathon.

This is a movie about a woman in her twenties living in New York named Britney, played by Julian Bell, who tries to take control of her life.

And the way she plans to do that is through running this scene is her first attempt actually hitting the pavement to go for a run.

So I'm gonna give you two examples of how this was a team effort to make this movie on a budget.

In this scene, I wanted Britney to be confronted with a warped version of her own image.

We were originally planning to create this effect in post production with special effects.

But when we found out how much that was going to cost, it was no longer an option.

So our prop master Shondaland, very quickly figured out how to pull this off, practically creating what I think is one of the most visually memorable moments in the film.

This'll next moment with Britney at the refrigerator was a scene I was gonna cut for time and money.

But my assistant on the film, Kim Rosen, fought me on it.

And when I saw what this moment meant to her, I kept it, and I'm very glad I did.

Mmm.

Hey, guys.

So this character is Katherine, played by the understated Lee Charming, the Kayla Walk ins.

I wanted to create a juxtaposition between Britney's world and Katherine's, which is why she's really enjoying that green juice.

She plays the woman who owns the apartment above Britney and Britney's got the wrong idea about her.

Hello, Hello in there.

It's Katherine.

I wanted the audience to understand right off the bat that Katherine has good intentions.

I think you call me money back to Martha three s and that these two contrasting women have a lot in common, even if they don't see it.

So even though I put a wall between them, I have them both on the same side of the frame in order to keep them somewhat visually aligned.

I don't need your pity.

Thank you.

No pity.

Katherine's world you can see in her clothes really has a cooler, cleaner color palette than Britney's juvenile vibrancy, which you can see in his apartment.

You got a two story apartment he bought 20 years ago.

You just like uses your photography studio zero Honey.

It's nice to hear someone thinks my life is so idyllic.

This is the very first moment the film where things turned decidedly confrontational.

Here I wanted the camera.

I feel like it was infiltrating Britney's world in an aggressive way.

Even though Catherine moves with grace, this is how it feels to Britney.

I'm broke temp, fat livers, Shut it down or something, and I lied.

Risk your dog from a shelter and told me that I could give the dog would cut the future of desert.

This is the first time that Britney is being honest about how she'd use her own life.

I am sure that you have a lot to offer.

It's a great example of a scene where the actress playing Britney Julian Bell brought to set a very different energy than the one I had in mind when I was writing it.

That surprised me.

I understood Britney to be angry at the world in this moment for not giving her what it seemingly gave everyone else so easily.

But Gillian, from the very first take, was playing in a way that said to me that Britney had actually been trying to manifest a better life for herself these past few years, and she was baffled.

This is where her efforts took her with no idea how to get on a different path.

And I was really moved by it.

And I found it to be a more interesting choice than mine.

So rather than direct her away from her instinct, I leaned into it.

Well, I've got secrets.

Got things that I'm not gonna tell my kids until they're older.

I think we have for Ochoa really good screened ankle for, like, needle stuff.

Heroin.

Are you gloating about it?

Part of the concept of this film is to take stock characters that you think you know and repeatedly up and your expectations about them.

Here we do it with Katherine.

I found what I thought was a group of real artist.

So we find validation and very unhealthy places sometimes because life's overwhelming.

This movie was inspired by my roommate in my mid twenties.

Her name is also Brittany.

One of the big conversations we had that inspired her to start running took place late at night as the two of us talked about life.

Sitting on our kitchen floor, I was hoping by staging the scene on Britney's kitchen floor, I might be able to capture the spirit of that real life moment in ways I couldn't even consciously plan and if not, would be a nice not my real life friend.