Stephanie Laing opened up about directing first season episodes of ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ while also working on the Tribeca-premiering ‘Tow.’
Laing spoke to Awards Focus from the set of ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ where she is directing six of season two’s episodes. This is on top of being weeks away from premiering her next feature film at this summer’s Tribeca Festival. While discussing some her approach to directing TV comedy and drama, Laing also discussed the challenges that came with an indie film and how directing an indie is different from directing TV episodes with the backing of a streaming service like Apple TV+.
“You’re doing this Apple show, so you have the crew,” Laing says. “You can put a camera on the dolly, you can do crazy moves, and cold opens that start in another country. The storytelling is just completely different from any movie. I remember one day trying to put a camera on the dolly and it took an hour. I was like, well, never mind, we won’t do that anymore. Twenty days, we’ll never make it. We’re just coming up with a new set of rules to challenge yourself.”
In the Jonathan Tropper-created ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ Andrew “Coop” Cooper (Jon Hamm) is fired from his job as a hedge fund manager while he is still grappling from his divorce from Mel Cooper (Amanda Peet). In losing his source of income, Coop turns to stealing from his affluent Westmont Village neighbors’ homes. It may have seemed like a good idea to Coop at the time but the secrets and affairs inside those homes are more dangerous than Coop could have possibly imagined.
All episodes of ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ are now streaming on Apple TV+. A season 2 premiere date has not been announced.
Next up, Stephanie’s film ‘Tow,’ which she directed and produced, will premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. ‘Tow’ tells the story of Amanda Ogle (played by Rose Byrne) an unhoused Seattle woman who fought her way out of tow-company hell to reclaim her life and the car that held it all together after receiving a tow bill for $21,634.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to talk with you again. It’s been forever since Sundance 2019!
Stephanie Laing: I know. I know. I was going to say, can you believe that? Oh, my G-d. But that does that mean that was six years now?
AF: Right. Yeah. Six years and change.
Laing: Oh, my G-d. Anyway, nice to see you.
AF: How did you first become attached to working on ‘Your Friends & Neighbors?‘
Laing: Jonathan Trapper is a friend of mine. Before I started directing, I was his producer on a show that he created called ‘Banshee.’ We always worked together. He produced all three of my films and then he had told me about the show for years while he was developing it. Thankfully, he asked me to join them so that’s how I got involved.
AF: How has the professional shorthand evolved with Jonathan Tropper?
Laing: We’re just very similar, very like-minded in terms of taste and tone. I think we both like to live in a tricky tonal space and so we have a distinct shorthand. I feel like we know what the other one is going to say before they say it, much like I have with the DP that I’ve been working with on this from season one. I took [them] to another show and now we’re back actually filming season two right now. Same thing. It’s like we’re almost speaking telepathically at this point.
AF: How far along was the series in production when you first started working on your episodes?
Laing: I was finishing my movie and they had done five episodes. I came in to do episodes six, seven and eight in season one. I’m actually on set. We’re filming season two right now and I’m doing six episodes this season.
AF: What are the challenges that come with directing episodes of a series in its first season as its look is still being established?
Laing: Craig Gillespie did the first two and I’ve worked a lot with Craig. He did the pilot of ‘Physical’ and I did a lot of episodes after that. I think for me, he set up a great aesthetic. I wouldn’t say so much, it was a challenge, but it was interesting and evolving it and continuing to elevate it. With a show like ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ we’re just always really protecting the tone because it really does ride that balance of, sometimes it’s hard drama and then there’s light comedy. It’s really about protecting the tone. Craig and I have a very similar visual style, sensibility, so that was pretty easy to step into.
AF: How does directing drama differ from that of directing comedy?
Laing: I think it’s just about the specificity and the tone of it. I find even when I’m doing something dramatic, if I focus on the characters and things that are character-driven—sometimes, the three important things are always a character, story, tone, sometimes in a different order. I think with drama, it can be challenging. I find humor in almost everything I do, because I do think that comedy might be the one thing that hasn’t tried to kill me. It’s hard for me not to find some light comedy in the absurdity of our lives. But with drama, you have to turn off that button, as it were. You can’t really look through that lens of absurdity.
AF: I feel like with a person getting fired from their job and then turning to crime, that’s something that can go in any which direction.
Laing: Yep. It’s true. We just really ride that balance, that tricky tonal balance, just protecting—it’s what I love about what Jonathan Tropper created is that it feels real. It feels like real life. I think it’s very relatable. The characters are relatable because they’re flawed, but they were leaning into sometimes the absurdity of a situation or how desperate someone is and desperate measures and make choices. Oftentimes, those provide a unique space to laugh out.
AF: What was it like to direct this cast during the first season?
Laing: The cast are incredible. Obviously, starting with Jon. He’s such a pro and everything he does, but I think we got him to a place of his character’s vulnerable. Amanda Peet is so fantastic and so specific. Olivia Munn, the same. I just think the cast they’ve assembled on the show is so fantastic. They’re fearless, really not afraid to go to these places. I can’t wait to see them in season two.
AF: Is there a trick to directing Jon Hamm?
Laing: I wouldn’t say there’s a trick to directing Jon Hamm. I would just say you’re lucky to be able to direct someone who’s so talented, multifaceted, and so willing to just be fearless in everything he does. No tricks, just you’re lucky to get to work with a pro.
AF: When it comes to ‘Your Friends & Neighbors,’ in the three episodes you directed this season, were there any scenes or moments in particular that provided the biggest challenges?
Laing: Not to answer in terms of challenges, but I would say that episode 6, when we go to Princeton, really feels like a departure from some of the other episodes because it does, in some ways, feel like a rom-com. It really is the first time you get to really peek into these characters and learn more about them and see them not in an environment where it is Jon Hamm’s characters stealing, right? It was really fun to embrace that episode as kind of its own standalone. Obviously, there’s a big whack at the end of the episode just to remind you that you can’t escape bad decisions that you’ve made.
In episode 7, obviously, we have Coop’s arrest. I worked really closely with the editor, Andy Keir, who’s fantastic, and really played with the score of the memorial. We have this Blind Melon song. We’re really just trying to focus on what does it feel like for his character to be embarrassed at this country club. That was very fun doing the entire arrest sequence.
I will say that episode 8 is like boys night out. It’s fun and it’s crazy. It’s sort of like a ticking time bomb for Jon’s character—he’s going to go to jail, but it’s this sort of last hurrah with the boys.
AF: It gets us one episode closer to the season finale.
Laing: Exactly. Exactly.
AF: When I watched the first episode, I see him wake up next to this dead body. Next thing I know, it’s four months earlier. It takes a while to get back to that point.
Laing: It does. I know. I loved that the show was letting you—it isn’t just about the body and then it’s really about these characters and really about his life and his situations. In some ways, that feels very unique in terms of storytelling. You almost forget there’s a dead body.
AF: Your new film, ‘Tow,’ is premiering at Tribeca this summer. Was it less challenging to direct than ‘Family Squares?‘
Laing: ‘Family Squares’ was really such a COVID experiment, started on a kind of a joke when I said to my manager, if I was Steven Soderbergh, I’d be sending cameras to people. He was like, why don’t you? It was such an experimental thing that I think myself, the cast, and everyone—no one really knew what we were doing. Super happy with the result.
I would say ‘Tow’ was not experimental. But with the challenges of making an indie film, it’s that those are real—there’s never enough money—and so you do the best you can. I mean, to say that with how exciting it was to tell the real story of Amanda Ogle. You just you fall in love with the story, you are committed to telling it and pushing that rock up the hill. That’s what we did on ‘Tow’ every single day. We just pushed that rock up the hill.
AF: How have you balanced working on TV with directing a film and getting it locked for Tribeca?
Laing: I was just saying to the first AD on ‘Your Friends’ in season two, you’re making a joke about feeling overwhelmed. I think the key for me is it’s easy. I’m a workaholic, I love what I do and so you just don’t stop. And again, even in the final stories that we want to tell, you tell them, and you know that you’ve worked so hard to get to a place of telling them. You have all this incredible cast and crew behind you that you’ve got to lock this movie, you’ve got to get it out there. The incredible editor, Sarah Flack, who has edited every Sofia Coppola movie, came on board with my other two editors. Este Heim did the music. I just think everybody felt like Amanda’s story and we’re like, okay, this story of an underdog is an important one to tell. It’s cliche, but it really did take a village.
AF: What was it like to reunite with Rose Byrne for when you were directing Tow?
Laing: Yeah. Rose is obviously fantastic. We did 24 episodes of television together and so really, when ‘Tow’ was sent to me, I was on the phone talking to one of the producers. When I first read the script, I was on the set of ‘Physical’ and Rose walked by me. I said, I think it might be Rose. The writer’s strike happened and then as soon as the strike was over, we moved on to the (inaudible). And so, again, just really fortunate to work with these actors who are just fearless as she is in ‘Tow’ and really embodying this character. Having Dominic Sessa, Octavia Spencer, and Ariana DeBose and all these people just say yes, come and trust you, and want to come play on a small indie movie, it’s a dream.
AF: How long was the production as far as principal photography?
Laing: Twenty days of principal photography.
AF: What was the most challenging aspect of directing a small indie film?
Laing: I think it’s just adjusting—on an Apple show, I also do ‘Palm Royale’—Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney, Laura Dern. You’re doing this Apple show, so you have the crew. You can put a camera on the dolly, you can do crazy moves, and cold opens that start in another country. The storytelling is just completely different from any movie. I remember one day trying to put a camera on the dolly and it took an hour. I was like, well, never mind, we won’t do that anymore. Twenty days, we’ll never make it. We’re just coming up with a new set of rules to challenge yourself.
AF: I know one of the most frequent answers I get is time whenever I ask that question, especially for indie films.
Laing: Yeah. It’s really about time. At one point, I got a note about, oh, I wish the shot was on a dolly. I was like, well, then give us money for the dolly. (Laughs) I think it’s that challenge is really exciting. The DP on that, Vanja Černjul, and I worked, again, just super closely to stay in the perspective of Amanda—Rose’s character—and how we decided to let her character be the reason the camera moved, which was brought about by the lack of resources we had to actually move the camera. We’re like, you know what? Actually, this is a better way to tell this story is to just let her character be moving the camera.
AF: Yeah. Is it relieving to know that the film has a premiere date?
Laing: Yes. It’s very relieving to know that people will see it. It really is a underdog story about being stuck in a broken system and so many systems are broken these days that I don’t think anybody can’t relate to that frustration. Obviously, the stakes for Amanda were very high. But, yeah, I’m super relieved and excited for people to see it. Myself and the cast are all very proud of it and just excited for it to get out there.
AF: Thank you so much. It was so nice getting to catch up.
Laing: Yeah. You too.