ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with One True Loves star Michaela Conlin about the upcoming romantic comedy movie. The actress discussed the movie’s mature take on a love triangle and her time on the show Bones. The movie will debut in theaters on April 7, then digitally on April 14, and through video-on-demand on April 28.
“Emma and Jesse are living the perfect life together, until Jesse disappears in a tragic helicopter crash on their first wedding anniversary,” reads the film’s synopsis. “Four years later, Emma finds happiness again as she’s about to marry her best friend. However, when Jesse miraculously resurfaces, Emma soon finds herself torn between two great loves.”
Tyler Treese: You get to play the supportive sister in this movie and you get so many fun interactions with the whole cast and some really funny exchanges. What did you like most about this role as Marie?
Michaela Conlin: Thank you! The story … I had read the book when it came out and I remembered it, and then I read that they were adapting it into a film and I was like, “Oh, that’s really interesting.” I was a fan of the people involved. Then it just went from there. But I really like Marie because I feel like she, in many ways, is the audience. I feel like she comes in and is like, “Okay, so here’s where we are and this is your past coming back to meet your present. What are you going to do about it?”
Being her sister, I think she has a lot of liberty to ask Emma things that other people can’t, and I really liked that relationship between the two of them. I really liked that Marie gives Emma a reason to come back home. So I felt like she represented a lot of different things in the story.
Yeah, that’s amazing that you read the book. One of the things I really liked about this movie was how maturely it handles this over-the-top and ridiculous love triangle. What about the book really spoke to you and made you want to be a part of this project?
Your past and your present is something that I think about a lot. I had two children in the last couple of years, and it definitely changed my life in terms of my life before them and my life now. I think that there are so many parts of us that are made up of who we were that we need to be where we are. I mean, that’s an obvious statement, but I really like the way that Taylor [Jenkins Reid] handled it. She weaved this delicate balance between your past and your present, this woman and the struggle with who we are now. I remember reading it and thinking that that was really interesting.
What I really loved about the movie was the sisterly connection you can see on screen between you and Phillipa Soo. How did you go about forming that bond on screen? The two of you feel very close in the movie.
Yeah, she is a lovely human being, so that helps. [Laugh]. I felt very much like I knew her before we even met — it was very strange. We met and we really loved each other right away. It was just a kind of instantaneous thing and I think it really helped. I’m so thankful for it because that’s not always the case. [Laugh]. I felt like we really became a family when we were shooting it. But I definitely feel our connection as women and as actors and as people really helped what you saw on screen.
One thing I like about your character is you interact with everybody. One of my favorite scenes was with you and Simu Liu in the bookstore. What did you like about getting to see his more comedic side come out there?
Yeah, that was a really fun scene to shoot because Marie just sits behind the counter and it’s sort of like the play Noises Off, where people enter and exit in this crazy way. I felt a little bit like that. Marie just got to stay grounded and planted and everybody else got to enter and exit the scene. I knew he was funny because I had watched a little bit of Kim’s Convenience. Then when you meet him, he’s very funny, so I knew that scene was going to be really, really fun to do and we got to do it a bunch of times. It was great. Andy [Fickman, director] gave us room to riff a little bit and see how we would react naturally to such a heightened situation. So I felt like the script helped us a lot. Before it even starts, you sort of know what’s going to happen. It’s a very loaded scene, so it was really fun. I like that scene a lot.
You had such a great run on Bones. Being on a show for 12 Seasons is incredible l– that’s a decade of consistent work in your life, and that’s so rare. Now that you’ve had time away from that show, how do you view that series’ impact on not just your career, but your entire life?
Oh wow. These are really deep questions. These are some deep cuts! [Laugh]. Thank you for asking them. It was such a huge part of my life. Interestingly, I guess, in a way, I didn’t even really realize I was answering this question. It is the past, and as I get a little bit further away from it … I was always grateful for it when it was happening, but I’m very, very grateful for it now because I know how difficult it is to get something on air and have something last and have people support it and be behind it. That just seems like an eternity with television these days, so I feel really lucky to have done that at that point in my life.
I love all of them so dearly and I miss them and it’s sort of a million things, you know? But it definitely feels like it’s a different part of my life. I also had children, and so that, of course, shifts everything into the very bright technicolor present. [Laugh]. So yeah, I’m very grateful for it.
You had a role early on in Yellowstone and since then, that has become not just a successful show, but this whole behemoth of a franchise. How has it been seeing the whole Taylor Sheridan universe come into effect?
I know! I unfortunately had a very early demise on Yellowstone, but I’ve known Taylor for a long time and he is just one of the most intelligent, soulful people. I knew him prior to Yellowstone, so I’m not surprised at all. But it is pretty incredible to see how much that world has grown and how he’s created this whole universe, and that’s so great. It’s always fun to be at the beginning of something, because I think it’s a really special time where nobody really knows what it’s going to be, and I feel lucky to have been a part of it at that point. I love that cast. Wes Bentley is just incredible, and I got to work with Kevin Costner for a minute, so it was great. It was a really interesting experience, for sure.
