Nightbitch director Marielle Heller on Amy Adams’s relationship with her canine co-stars, and how the film is autobiographical

Amy Adams gives one of the best performances of her career in Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch, which is set to make its debut on Hulu just after Christmas (on Friday, December 27th). In it she plays a new mother who finds herself increasingly alienated from her loving partner (Scoot McNairy) and former as she becomes all consumed by her new parental role, which eventually has her thinking that she might be turning into a dog. While early reports seemed to suggest this was going to be some kind of horror flick, it’s actually a gentle comedy about motherhood and one that will resonate with both mothers and their spouses. 

A little while ago, I had the chance to speak to the movie’s director, Marielle Heller. Nightbitch marks her fourth film, following the well-received The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me, and the Mister Rogers biopic, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. She also acted on Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. The film embraces a somewhat magical realism POV, meaning Adams, whose character thinks she’s turning into a dog, also acts on-screen with a lot of canine friends. 

“You know, the dogs, for the most part, were so incredible and had to do difficult things, but it is true, when she was acting, even though we had been practicing with trainers, she would be doing different behaviour than the trainers ever did. You know, cause the trainers would just sort of walk through things and not look the dogs in the eyes. And then Amy would look at them in the eyes and make contact. And, one dog in particular, it just really freaked the dogs out, and they reacted to her in ways that were fascinating.”

For Heller, the film also came from a deeply personal place.

“You know, I guess my filmmaking credo, if anything, is just trying to make something feel honest, right? I think that the only way that anything is worthwhile is if you’re telling a story from a point of view of something being honest. And this movie is a very personal story for me. You know, I’m a mom of two young kids, and I went through the experience of feeling like I lost my identity when I became a mom and like I didn’t know who I was anymore and I didn’t feel like I could put together a good sentence or that I was, that I even recognized myself when I looked in the mirror.” 

One thing Heller wanted to make sure of is that the film had a lot of sympathy for both sides of the couple. Scoot McNairy is likeable throughout, as he’s portrayed as a character dealing with his own pressures.

“So much of this movie came from a really deeply painful personal place for myself. And so I wanted it to feel authentic and honest. I think that’s a lot of stuff about my long marriage that I’ve been in now. I’ve been with my husband 25 years  in there and stuff about long-term relationships that I think people, whether you’re parents or not, whether you’re in a heterosexual relationship or not, you can relate to like long-term relationships are hard.”

“A lot of what the work that I did on their relationship was also giving him more of a filled-out arc and storyline in that way because I do think that there are often times where we don’t intend to end up where we are. And we kind of wake up one day and look and go, how did my life get like this? How did my marriage get like this? Is this what I really want? And it’s not always a conscious choice. And it’s sometimes just the road to hell is paved with the best intentions. And it was important to me that they both kind of have ended up somewhere where they’ve fallen into these ruts of these roles that neither of them wanted to begin with, but then how do you change that?

Nightbitch hits Hulu on December 27th and is now playing in theaters. Read our review HERE!