How Jodi Picoult Found Out the ‘My Sister’s Keeper’ Film Director Changed Her Ending
The beloved author is finally addressing her fans' biggest question.
Author Jodi Picoult is clearing the air over a longstanding mystery surrounding My Sister's Keeper.
The New York Times bestselling author took to TikTok earlier this week to answer a frequently asked question about the popular novel and its film adaptation, which she says is, in fact, her most asked question: "How could you let them change the ending?"
She emphasized the commonality of the inquiry in the video's caption, writing, "The answer you’ve been waiting for…why did they change the ending to the My Sister’s Keeper movie???"
Within the first few seconds of the explanation, she assured fans, "I didn't."
"The director—who is also the writer of the script—told me that he was gonna keep the ending," she revealed, acknowledging that the book's original final chapters were the thing that made most readers encourage another to pick it up for themselves.
"Then, I found out through a casting director that he had actually changed the ending of the script that he showed me..." she continued, adding how upset she was by the discovery. She even flew herself out to set to talk to him about it, but, "he pretty much threw [her] off the set."
Next, she tried the production company. "You're making a really big mistake," she told them. "I have a lot of readers who really loved the ending of this book." But the production company put their faith in the director, overruling the author.
She then thanked the fans that refused to see the film or told her how much better the book's ending was, confirming, "The book is always better than the movie. Especially when you're talking about My Sister's Keeper."
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"The way I just stopped everything to listen to this because I have been waiting for an answer for this for so long ??," one fan wrote in the comments, which quickly devolved into a great debate over the meaning (and superiority) of each ending, most fans respecting Picoult's request to "avoid spoilers in the comments for those who haven’t read the book yet!"
If you're not familiar with the story, the basis of the plot is that a young girl named Anna, who was born via in-vitro fertilization specifically to be a blood match to her sick older sister, Kate. Eventually, Anna seeks the help of an attorney to become medically emancipated, preventing her parents from forcing her to donate her kidney to her sister.
Each iteration has two very different endings, but a few fans argued that they liked the changes made to the film, with one writing, "I think he wanted to give out a message of Anna's own bodily autonomy. she was in fact important, too. Great book nonetheless. The movie was hopeful."
"I liked the ending to the movie better. It made sense, more realistic in my opinion," another defended."
But most were adamant that the changes weren't called for.
"the TWSIT at the end of this book was fantastic and heart wrenching. I was so dissapointed at the end of the movie," one fan wrote.
"the ending of your books is what makes the WHOLE story. the fact that he changed it, showed they didn't understand the meaning of the story," another wrote, with a similar sentiment reading, "The ending you wrote was devastating, but it was the ending that needed to happen. The book is a million times better than the movie! ??."
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