Reminders of Him Director Vanessa Caswill Talks Authentic Representation in Her Colleen Hoover Adaptation

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I had to admit to director Vanessa Caswill before our interview that this was my first time experiencing the work, filmed or literary, of author Colleen Hoover. One of the biggest names in fiction right now hasn't garnered much of my attention. So seeing Caswill's feature Reminders of Him, an adaptation of Hoover's 2022 novel, was an introduction to both Caswill's directorial stylings and Hoover's source material. Caswill, thankfully, doesn't give me any guff, admitting that she hadn't read any of Hoover's books before Hoover's co-writer, Lauren Levine, offered Caswill the script.

"I loved all the characters," Caswill tells The Film Maven. "I love that they're all flawed, imperfect people, but trying to do the best that they can in an imperfect world. I loved how much emotion there was. How Colleen writes about really difficult things, but she does it with a sense of humor and levity, and she shifts between deep pain and grief to present wonder. I really wanted to make sure I could capture that tone. I wanted to create something that felt grounded, and, even though it's a big sweeping studio romance, [that] it didn't tip into something that felt saccharine. That it had a really restrained performances and felt human and elevated at the same time."

Caswill, having made her directorial debut with the 2023 Netflix romance Love at First Sight, was pulled in by the script and immediately hit it off with Hoover and Levine. "She's [Hoover's] very collaborative, very generous, very open and super creative," Caswill says. All three aligned on how to tell the story of Kenna Rowan (Maika Monroe), a woman fresh out of prison who returns to her hometown to reconnect with the daughter she's never met. Along the way, she meets the kindhearted Ledger (Tyriq Withers), who has his own connection to her child.

The film is very much a two-hander betwen Monroe and Withers. In looking at the actors, Caswill wanted someone who could "hold opposites" in the role of Kenna. "When you read the book, you're not sure whether you're meant to trust your protagonist. You don't know whether you know she's dangerous or not, and she's certainly mysterious," she says. Monroe, who has been acting for several years, had the ability to be aloof and cool, while also being able to be vulnerable and warm.

For Ledger, Caswill definitely knew she needed someone who had the physicality of an ex-football player, as the character is in the book. Withers, himself, was a former football player. But it took Caswill sitting down with him and discussing the part to realize he was perfectly suited, "It was when I spoke to him that I really knew that he was right for the role, because he felt so invested in the story and felt so much personal connection to it, and he has this big open heart."

But who ends up stealing the show is newcomer Monika Meyers as Lady Diana, the deadpan young girl with Down Syndrome, who lives in Kenna's apartment complex and befriends her. Meyers steals every scene she's in with perfect comedic timing. The character may be written as disabled, but there's never any mention of it in the movie. Caswill was excited to work with the character but also had a strong personal connection to Lady Diana, having had a close relationship with an aunt who had Down Syndrome.

"I got sent her [Meyers'] tapes, and I was just laughing so much by myself watching them," says Caswill. "The comic timing was just phenomenal. I met with her and her mom on Zoom, but I really wanted to make sure that I'd work with her in person. So they came to Calgary and we did a really great workshop together. As soon as she walked out of the room, it was like okay, that's her, Lady Diana." Often when discussing disability representation with creatives with someone like me, there's an air of being afraid to say the wrong thing. But in talking to Caswill, there's a true moment of understanding as we discuss the power of representation, that brings the director to tears.

As Caswill explains, it was a powerful moment having her father come to set, having lost his sister (Caswill's aunt mentioned above) fairly recently, and see Meyers playing the part. "He kept on talking to her and he just was like, 'You're my favorite character.'" It's something Caswill hopes to continue in her career, explaining that she's currently working on a script about Alexander Graham Bell's wife, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, who became Deaf at a young age. The hope is that if that project moves forward she'll be able to work with more Deaf and disabled people on the project.

In the meantime, Caswill is excited to have people respond to Kenna's journey, and to have contributed to it. It's heady territory adapting one of the most read authors in fiction right now, but Caswill proved she was more than up to the challenge.

Reminders of Him is in theaters now.

You can watch the full interview with Caswill below (and be sure to subscribe to The Film Maven's YouTube Channel).

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