Jeff Nathanson (‘Young Woman and the Sea’ writer) on recreating the ‘incredible euphoria’ of the quintessential underdog triumph story
“I was trying to make an old-fashioned sports film,” declares ‘Young Woman and the Sea’ writer Jeff Nathanson. For our recent webchat he explains that this initial vision for the film began to shift the more he wrote, adding that he “was also never really in my head writing a sports film. I didn’t think of it that way. I viewed it more as a prison escape film. Once I figured out the character, I approached it in a different way, as the Channel was this prison that she had to get out of, and it was an impossibility, and how would she do that?” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
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“Young Woman and the Sea” is the inspirational true story of competitive swimmer Trudy Ederle, who overcomes adversity and the stringent gender norms of 1920s America to become the first woman to complete the arduous 21-mile journey from France to England by swimming solo across the English Channel. The Jerry Bruckheimer-produced biopic is directed by Joachim R?nning (Oscar-nominated “Kon-Tiki”), with Nathanson’s screenplay adapted from author Glenn Stout‘s 2009 novel of the same name. The sports drama stars Daisy Ridley (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”), who delivers a tour-de-force performance as Ederle, alongside co-stars Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Stephen Graham, Kim Bodnia, Christopher Eccleston, and Glenn Fleshler.
“I’m a product of the seventies. I grew up with ‘Rocky,’ ‘Bad News Bears,’ ‘The Longest Yard,’ ‘Slap Shot,’ ‘Chariots of Fire,’ it goes on and on,” Nathanson explains. “Part of what I remembered is walking out of the theater when I was younger and feeling that incredible euphoria you felt when you saw one of those films and one of those characters. So for me, that’s why I did this movie. I was literally sitting home one night, with my two girls, eight years ago and I just couldn’t find a movie that really would speak to them in that way that I remember as a kid. So I went out, and I was lucky enough to find it,” he says. Asked about how the film resonates with him personally, Nathanson shares candidly that it means the world to him. “The odds that are stacked against her. You’re talking about a time when women are not even taught to swim. And so her doing this, even thinking of doing it, is so insane for the period. And to then to accomplish it is literally impossible. I think that you can’t help but not get caught up in it, and feel it in yourself,” he says, adding that he gets emotional on every viewing. “Every time I see it. I still do. There’s things about it that are personal to me. It’s very much a family film,” he explains. “To have something that’s in your head to then have it get made, have it made with Daisy, and these actors, with Joachim’s direction, with that score, to have Jerry and his involvement, and all the wonderful things that he brought to it, and he did so much, I can’t help but not get caught up in it, and to celebrate it every time I see it.”
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