Fear not SciFiNowers – we have the answer to that all-important question of: ‘What do we watch this Friday night?’ Following a couple (played by It Follows’ Maika Monroe) and Harry (White Lotus’ Jake Lacy) who take a remote backpacking trip that takes a dark turn, Significant Other is a rollercoaster of a movie and you’ll have to trust us when we say we shouldn’t tell you anything more about it before going in to see it.
However, we wanted to delve into the minds of the movie’s writers and director Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (the duo behind the excellent Villains and The Body) to see what the hell inspired them to create it…
How would you describe Significant Other?
Dan Berk: It’s a very twisty turny sci-fi thriller that is objectively a fun watch. So if you’re looking for something to watch on Friday night, it’s going to fit the bill.
Robert Olsen: It’s a great couples movie in an almost challenging way where there’s a lot of material in there that challenges traditional notions of relationships and how you’re supposed to get married and the nature of love. So we think it’s a good litmus test for how strong your personal relationship is! [haha]
Dan Berk: It’s the perfect anti-date-night movie
Robert Olsen: It’s also a good breakup movie!
Dan Berk: No matter what stage you are in your relationship, whether it’s zero, great or post, you’re going to like it.
Robert Olsen: It’s a very digestible length too! I know that when I’m personally searching around for something to watch, sometimes you’ll see the two-hour 39 minute thing and you’re like ‘no, it’s not gonna happen’. Significant Other is short which is great – it’s like 85 minutes!
How did you first get the idea for Significant Other?
Robert Olsen: We were right in the heat of the lockdown here in the states in 2020. Dan and I had a project or two that we were hoping to get going soon and then, of course, the pandemic just wrecked everything.
So we started by trying to think of an idea that would be COVID-friendly, production-wise.
We were like, ‘alright, well, let’s be outside the whole time, and [make sure we] have a small number of actors in it’. Then from there, the idea just grew and grew.
It’s always so hard to explain the process of coming up with something like that, but the fact there are two of us… that’s just how we work. We’re like: ‘What if they run into a big foot?’ and it’s like ‘nah, that’s too much, but what if they run into this or that…?’ and then you’re off to the races!
Dan Berk: We also wrote the script for Maika [Monroe]. We had worked with her on Villains and had a great relationship. We stayed in touch and become close friends. So that was another anchor point which guided some narrative decisions. There are certain aspects to Ruth as a character that are quite similar to Maika as a person. So that helped.
You’ve made a few films together now – how does it work out making films as a duo?
Dan Berk: We’re both generalists. Neither of us is the acting specialist or the tech specialist or the visual person. We both do everything and it’s become such a natural collaboration for us. The foundational element of our professional partnership is that we’ve been best friends for 15 plus years. We were randomly assigned as roommates at New York University. So we met when we were 18 and immediately became incredibly close friends.
It’s almost more than a brotherly thing. It’s like a twin thing, really. If you talk to anyone who’s been in an edit room with us, or even on set, it’s spooky how much we know what the other one’s thinking.
Our goal from the start of our collaboration, especially on the set, has always been to make the fact there are two of us an asset and not a liability. And that takes time. On our first movie, we definitely fucked up several times with that…
Robert Olsen: It takes confidence too. That first movie… you’re out there doing it together, you both want to do everything, all the time, but then you quickly learn that an actor doesn’t want to hear the same note two times.
Dan Berk: Or God forbid a different note! [haha]
Robert Olsen: Exactly! So we now spend a lot of time making sure that we’re on the exact same page before we put ourselves on set. So we’re able to speak through one of ourselves at a given time, which is a skill that took us took a second to develop!
It’s safe to say that the movie has a definite sci-fi element. What were your sci-fi touch points for the movie?
Robert Olsen: Going into it we always talked about this movie like it’s Under The Skin meets The One I Love.
Dan Berk: We used that as a pitch line for about five minutes before we started talking to a studio executive who was like ‘I haven’t seen either of those movies’ so we were like ‘we’ll use different movie references!’ [haha].
Robert Olsen: [For] the general style of it, we wanted it to have that kind of austere A24/Ex Machina/Annihilation look. We wanted it to feel classy, if you will, in the first part, so that when the movie takes a bit more of a genre turn, you’re not expecting it. We want you to expect a heavier thing and then have a little bit more fun than you thought you were going to!
Significant Other will be released on Paramount+ on 8th October.
