With her first feature film, Aline Brosh McKenna (Devil Wears Prada, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) snagged Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher in starring roles.
Debbie and Peter had a one-night stand 20 years ago, but they've remained friends through the years, both volunteering in Debbie's Los Angeles house.
McKenna's screenplay is based on personal experience. During a press conference with Witherspoon, Kutcher, Zoe Chao, Jesse Williams, and Wesley Kimmel, the BAFTA nominee said she's had the idea for this film for quite a while.
Peter wanted to be a writer before becoming a brand consultant. McKenna sent Kutcher ten books before filming began. "Every one of the books had notecards in them about what Peter got from this book, specifically, what he got as a writer from this book," said Kutcher. "It was like, I fell in love with reading fiction again."
Reese Witherspoon joked that McKenna had sent her 25 books. "So, I told her,'I'm mother of three children, and I'm working a full-time job." Witherspoon confessed, "But these books would look fantastic on the set."
Because Witherspoon and Kutcher are rarely in the same room together on opposite coasts, they engaged in a fun back-and-forth discussion about how they got to know each other.
"We decided about a month before we started shooting... I had a little panic attack because we didn't know each other," said Witherspoon.
Kutcher said: "We didn't know each other."
"But we had fully met once at a party," said Witherspoon.
Kutcher said, "And I was sharing a cooler."
Witherspoon said she thought Witherspoon was weird.
Kutcher said she thought she was weird.
Witherspoon replied, laughing, but "Anyway, I'm kidding." We were both weird. And then, about a month before, I was like, 'I don't know this guy,' and we're supposed to be best friends for 20 years. So, we started sending each other videos every day."
'We would send back and forth videos of how your day is going? What's going on? What's your fear of?' Kutcher said.
Witherspoon responded, "Who's your best friend?" "Yeah, and why are they your best friend?"
Witherspoon said the unusual preparation process was actually a great learning experience. "And then our kids would participate in the videos and our dogs," she said. "You met my dad in my video."
Witherspoon and Kutcher were used to communicating the same way their characters do in the film.
Witherspoon suggested that we make a small compilation video of all of our performances.
When Netflix debuts Your Place or Mine on February 10, 2023, we may never see it.
