'Your Place or Mine' filmmaker, stars stress you don't 'age out' of pursuing your dreams

Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher take on the classic rom-com story of a friendship that turns into a romance in Netflix's Your Place or Mine, written and directed by The Devil Wears Prada and 27 Dresses writer Aline Brosh McKenna.

Debbie (Witherspoon) lives in Los Angeles with her son Jack (Wesley Kimmel), while Peter (Kutcher) is a bachelor in New York City, working as a brand consultant. They've been friends for 20 years but now spend most of their time together talking through technology.

Things change when Debbie needs to go to New York to finish an accounting program, to get a higher-paying job, but needs someone to watch her son. Peter offers to travel to L.A. to stay with Jack, and Debbie can stay at his East Coast apartment.

Debbie agrees and when she arrives in New York, she unexpectedly meets Minka (Zoe Chao), who Peter had been casually dating, and makes it her mission to show Debbie all New York City has to offer. This includes meeting Theo (Jesse Williams), a book publisher who Debbie instantly connects with, particularly because of her love of novels. Peter used to want to be a writer, and Debbie has the ability to identify a great story, like an editor.

While spending time in each other's homes, Debbie and Peter start realizing this friendship is, and can be, much more.

Something core to the idea of this story for McKenna is that you can still evolve and change at any age.

“The idea that you can sort of come of age and mature, and grow up at any age, is a huge part of the movie, and something I really believe,” McKenna said to Yahoo Canada.

“Especially for women, I think, when they pass through the phase where their children are really young, there's a chance to start over and there's a chance to do things you've never done before. As someone who ... didn't direct my first movie until I was 53, 54, I think it's quite common, actually, for women to find their path a little bit later. For it to kind of ebb and flow around their childbearing adventure."

As Jesse Williams stressed, you don't "age out" of being able to pursue your dreams.

“As a parent, sharing the responsibility of childcare and being a good parent, and being able to maintain, if not rediscover, what your own self-interests are, that can be lost in the process of growing up and having responsibilities, and becoming a parent and pouring yourself into your child or children,” Williams said.

“You don't age out of having room to pursue your creative interests, you're not too old to go write that book or paint, or take these classes. So I think it's a really good example of that.”

'I kind of always have Reese in mind'

When it came to casting this film, McKenna's feature directorial debut, Witherspoon and Kutcher were an easy choice.

“I've always wanted to work with Reese … and we almost made a movie together about 10 years ago,” McKenna said. “I’ve got to say, I kind of always have Reese in mind.”

“She's so intelligent and she's so good at what she does. In the time that I've known her, she's also become this massive producing force, and businesswoman. … So in writing a woman who is intelligent and complicated, and funny and a mom, these were all things that really made me think of Reese.”

For Kutcher, McKenna indicated that the actor had the "depth" and "complexity" to take on the role of Peter.

“First of all, his love of women, his love of doing movies like this, but also the depth and the complexity that I knew he would bring to somebody who is living his life in a certain way,” McKenna said about what made Kutcher the right fit.

Many times in rom-coms, the supporting cast is as important as the leads, with characters like Zoe Chao's Minka necessary for some comedic relief.

“Minka always has her nails done, her outfits are popping, but she holds a master's degree in differential calculus,”Chao said. “I think that's pretty rad.”

“I love that you never know what she does for a living, but she's kind of like New York's mayor. I also really liked that she is a really good wing woman. She's like the hype sister that you need in this life. Before you overthink, she is pushing you into some excitement.”

For Williams, the fact that Theo is a book publisher really excited the actor.

“I think as a literature nerd, I liked that he was a big time book editor and surrounded himself with incredible stories and creatives, and kind of had that as his anchor,” Williams said.

“It was rooted in something. It wasn't just bumping into somebody at a bar or something. He had a vested interest in what she cares about and therefore what Reese’s character wants in life for herself. So that was a fun foundation to build on.”

Why we can't look away from a good rom-com

In recent years, there have been discussions about the rom-com genre fading away but the reality is that movies that sit in this genre tend to be some of the films that we watch most frequently.

For McKenna, who has written some fan-favourite rom-coms, she connects the lasting power of the genre to its relatability.

“Not everybody has kids, not everybody goes to the moon, not everybody fights a superhero, but everyone wants to find love in some way, shape, or form,” she said. “It may not be romantic love, it may be whatever love means to you."

"But we all know that it's not easy. ... Trying doesn't make it so and there's the hand of what seems to be fate or destiny. But since I don't believe in those things, I think it's more about learning how to seize opportunities when they come your way. That was something that I really wanted to stress was, love has to find you but then you have to grab it.”