Screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna (Devil Wears Prada, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) makes her feature film directorial debut with the Netflix romantic comedy Your Place or Mine. McKenna really scored with her first directing gig, snagging romantic comedy veterans Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher in starring roles.
Witherspoon and Kutcher play best friends who reside on opposite coasts. Debbie and Peter had a one-night stand 20 years ago and although the romantic relationship ended pretty much as soon as it began, they’ve remained friends through thick and thin. When Debbie needs to spend some time in New York City, she and Peter swap homes, with Peter playing babysitter to Debbie’s son and taking up residence in her LA home. A change in location sparks a change in perspective, with Debbie and Peter realizing there might be more to their relationship than either previously considered.
McKenna’s screenplay is based on personal experience, and during a press conference with Witherspoon, Kutcher, Zoe Chao, Jesse Williams, and Wesley Kimmel, the BAFTA nominee said she’s had the idea for this film for quite a while. “I wanted to do a romantic comedy for people who have been through something in their lives and have accumulated some life experience,” explained McKenna. “It just felt very personal to me through the whole process.”
Before becoming a brand consultant, Peter wanted to be a writer. To get into that mindset McKenna sent Kutcher 10 books before filming began. “She’s like, ‘You need to read all of these.’ And every one of the books had notecards in them about what Peter got from this book, specifically, like, what he got as a writer from this book,” said Kutcher. “I actually fell in love with reading fiction again from this experience. So that was kind of fun and refreshing.”
Reese Witherspoon joked that McKenna sent her 25 books. “So, I called her and I said, ‘I have three children. I’m running a company, and I have a full-time other job. I’m not reading these books,” recalled Witherspoon, laughing. “But they would look really good on the set – and they did.”
Because the action in Your Place or Mine takes place on opposite coasts, Witherspoon and Kutcher are rarely in the same room together. Asked about developing a best friend vibe, Witherspoon and Kutcher engaged in a fun back-and-forth discussion of how they got to know each other.
“Well, we decided probably a month before we started shooting… I had sort of a little panic attack because we didn’t know each other,” said Witherspoon.
“We didn’t know each other,” agreed Kutcher.
“But we fully had met one time at a party, and it was weird,” added Witherspoon.
“And I was sharing a cooler,” chimed in Kutcher.
“And he was weird,” said Witherspoon.
“She thought that I was quirky,” explained Kutcher.
“I said quirky, but I really thought weird,” corrected Witherspoon, laughing. “Anyway, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. We were quirky. And then, so about a month before, I was like, ‘I don’t know this guy, and we’re supposed to be best friends for 20 years.’ So, we started sending each other videos every day.”
Kutcher added: “Every day, we would send back and forth videos of how’s your day going? What’s going on? What’s happening with you? What are you afraid of?’ Like, ‘Hold on, if you had pancakes, would it be syrup?’”
“Who’s your best friend?” suggested Witherspoon. “Yeah, and like, why are they your best friend?”
Witherspoon revealed the unusual preparation process was actually a really fun experience. “And then our kids would get in the videos and our dogs. You met my dad on my video.”
By the time filming began, Witherspoon and Kutcher were used to communicating the same way their characters do in the film.
“We should put a little compilation video together of all our videos,” suggested Witherspoon.
We may never see that video, but romantic comedy fans will be able to check out Your Place or Mine when it arrives on Netflix on February 10, 2023.
