Summary

• Parachute is Brittany Snow's feature directorial debut and explores a very personal story of the struggle with mental health and codependency.
• The film features a talented cast including Courtney Eaton, Dave Bautista, and Gina Rodriguez.
• Director Brittany Snow's honest and empathetic portrayal of mental health in Parachute offers a unique approach to love stories.

Parachute follows Riley, an unemployed twenty-something who has just been released from rehab after grappling with body image and an eating disorder. Just as she is released, she meets Ethan and the pair form a deep connection very quickly, but as this friendship becomes one of the most important things in her life, she continues to struggle with her mental health. As she falls further down the rabbit hole into her relationship, Riley will have to decide how to show her love for others while struggling to love herself.

Courtney Eaton infuses Riley with pathos and humanity, allowing the audience to root for her even in the moments when she makes destructive decisions. The cast is stacked with wildly talented actors, including Dave Bautista, Gina Rodriguez, and Joel McHale, and while their roles aren't huge, their performances are memorable as they highlight different sides of Riley through their relationships. Parachute is an impressive directorial debut for Brittany Snow, taking a very honest look at mental health and eating disorders through the lens of empathy from her own experiences.

Screen Rant had the opportunity to speak with Brittany Snow about her feature directorial debut Parachute. She explained how the idea for this movie has evolved since it first sparked in her early twenties and the audition process with Eaton. Snow also shared why she wrote roles for certain people including Bautista and how she wanted to tell a love story that isn't the traditional happy ending.

Brittany Snow Explains Courtney Eaton "Was It. There Was No Question."

Parachute is a story close to Snow's heart, being inspired by her own experiences both with mental health and a codependent relationship. She first had the idea for the movie and explored a different kind of love story in her early twenties, but over the years, as she has evolved as a creator, the story has as well.

Brittany Snow: It's evolved so much. This story is sort of autobiographical. Many of the things that happened in the movie were my experiences, and there is a real Ethan. So I always wanted try to play with the idea that there needs to be more movies about codependency and also the altruistic type of love of loving someone when they can't help themselves.

How that line gets very blurred between support and a savior complex. I think the intricacies between the two can sometimes get a little blurred. I've always wanted to do something about that since I was in my early twenties when I was going through it, because I thought, "Wow, this is the most romantic type of love, yet I know it's bad for me."

There's things that happened in the movie that I took from friends' experiences or a book I read. Then when Courtney came on board, we had a bunch of things that happened to her in various ways. I won't speak for her experience, but things that I wanted to bring into her character that happened from her own life. And so, by the end, it was like a quilt of story.

Eaton has shown an impressive ability to command the screen with her performance in Yellowjackets as Lottie. In Parachute, she takes this to the next level as the lead of the movie with the story and emotional weight carried by her performance. Snow broke down the casting process and how her own experiences with auditions impacted it.

Brittany Snow: Casting her was really difficult because I was asking somewhat for a unicorn. She had to embody someone who was brazen and bold in their quest for themselves, but also failed a lot and made selfish choices. Yet you still want to follow them through it.

The movie doesn't work if you give up on her as the viewer. If you write her off in any way from any of her choices throughout the movie, then the movie doesn't work. And so, I was trying to find someone who you wanted to follow, regardless of how selfish they may seem. Courtney was actually friends with the real Ethan.

She was always on my radar and I thought that would be a really interesting coincidence if she was available. I loved her from Yellowjackets. She does so much with so little. I almost liken it to her being a tea kettle in this weird way where it's all happening underneath the surface, and you're waiting for something to happen. That's so captivating to me.

I made everyone audition, which I hate that I did because I'm an actor and I hate auditioning. So I tried to make the audition process really, really what I would want to do, which was just me and her doing the scene. No cameras, no other people, no producers. It wasn't recorded. It was just me and her. She was it. There was no question. She didn't try to sell anything. She was Riley and that's what I was really looking for.

Parachute doesn't tell the usual love story instead the central relationship while filled with love is codependent with toxic traits. The toxicity of this relationship still shows the deep love they have for one another, but how that isn't always enough. Snow also made the choice to introduce their parents, which shines light on each of their own issues, later in the movie allowing the audience to click into how they grew into who they are and the roles they've taken in their relationship.

Brittany Snow: One of my favorite movies is 500 Days of Summer or Blue Valentine or those types of movies where you're rooting for them the whole time, but then it's not in the cards for them. I do think that that's really relevant and important.

But I think with this, what I wanted to show was the psychology of two people's childhood trauma, attachment styles, and everything working against them actually creates the toxicity. It's not necessarily that it's life or fate or circumstance. It's actually them going up against each other and really realizing that their own battles within themselves are not going to supersede the love that they have and how sad that is sometimes, but it's also really real.

So I really worked with Thomas and Courtney a lot about their backstories and where they came from in terms of their childhood, how they related to people, their parents, and also each other. I think that was really important for me to do, because I think it's really important that with a lot of romantic movies, you don't really see the familial system of how they got there and how that really infuses how you deal with romantic love.

A lot of people gave me some flack for keeping both Ethan's dad, Joel McHale's character, and Riley's mom [until] the middle and end of the movie. I did that on purpose because I feel like, a lot of times in relationships, you don't know anything about the parents. You don't go on your first date and say, "My mom was an alcoholic." I mean, maybe you do. Good for you.

But I think what you do is you keep that side of you really hidden. I think that the way you relate to someone else in a romantic relationship is the descriptor of how your childhood was, but you don't see that until later. So I did that on purpose.

Dave Batiste's Character Is His True Self: "Lovable, Genuine, And A Big Teddy Bear"

Snow has an impressive acting career showing her skills in a number of different genres, working with countless directors. From this experience, she used her knowledge of collaborating and communicating with actors to guide her directing style. Snow also notes the importance of listening to her actors and making sure they feel safe.

Brittany Snow: I think the actors that I've worked with have really, really inspired my type of directing style, because I know what actors really respond to and how it changes with each person. I think that being a child actor really was a huge help for me in a way, because I am sort of a chameleon in that way. I can change according to what people want, which sounds really creepy and scary, but in directing it's really useful.

This actor might need a certain type of direction and then this actor might need something completely different. It's all about finding out what really works for them and getting down to the brass tacks of how people work in a really stressful environment. Also, listening to actors and making them feel really safe. I think I've worked with a lot of directors that are super technical, and they don't listen necessarily. I think they try, but I was hoping to be the type of director that really made it a collaboration and less of a technical singular thing.

Snow, who also wrote Parachute, wrote characters specifically for friends she knew she wanted in the movie, including Dave Bautista, Gina Rodriguez, Scott Mescudi, and Joel McHale. While for some this meant shaping the character around who they really are in life, for others it was about tapping into their likability for more morally gray characters. Parachute has an amazing supporting cast, in part because Snow wanted the support of her friends, who are very talented actors in their own right.

Brittany Snow: I really wanted Dave to be in the movie for so many reasons. I wanted Scott to be in the movie. I wanted Gina to be in the movie. I've been really lucky to work with people that throughout my career [that] we sort of like-minded see each other in a way that we're going to help each other regardless. Those are the types of people, Gina, Dave, Scott, Joel, that we know that we're going to work together forever.

So I wrote Bryce for Dave and I wrote the therapist for Gina. I wanted to write characters for them that were very similar to who they are and who they don't necessarily always get to play. So that's not Joel's character. Joel is the nicest human being on the planet, but I was also hoping to find someone who is inherently likable. So that gray area of having an alcoholic father is messy in that way, because you care about him in his choices as well.

But Dave Batiste's character, that's Dave. That's him. He's so lovable, genuine, and a big teddy bear. I can't wait for him to see more of those characters that he gets to play because he's just so good. He's brilliant.

Snow takes careful steps to make sure the audience roots for Riley in Parachute without letting her off the hook for her selfish and destructive choices. Mental health struggles in this movie are not framed through the lens of pity looking for sympathy, but instead with an empathetic understanding. When Riley stumbles and falls she isn't a villain or a victim, but merely a person facing her own struggles.

Brittany Snow: That was a huge part of writing it and also shooting it. I obviously have had this experience, and so I wanted to come from the lens of it being very honest and not letting myself off the hook. Not letting myself be a victim to it, being salacious with it, or gratify it in any way. I mean, in a gratuitous way. So I think that finding that really fine line between all of those things was hard.

The movie I didn't want to make was the didactic, "Let me tell you how this is, so you can learn from me." When really all I wanted to do was show a lens of, "No, people are walking around with this all the time, and that's okay. We all have something. It's not better or worse than anything else." So I think that was a huge focal point of what I wanted to do and appreciate you seeing that.

Snow also reflected on the technical side of directing. Even though she felt prepared going into Parachute after making the movie she has learned so much more which she hopes to take into more projects.

Brittany Snow: So many technical things. I went into it during COVID. I put myself through film school in a way. I had a lot of time. So I bought all the books, did all the classes online, and all that sort of stuff. I felt really confident about most things, but it was my first time doing a feature. So there were definitely technical things in terms of color grade, what we shot on, and things like that I thought were a good idea. Now I think, "Oh, I know so much more now." Obviously, I will continue to learn about that side of it. So I am really excited for my next thing to go into it with a different mindset in terms of lenses, cameras, and lighting.

Brittany Snow Breaks Down How She Helped Courtney Eaton Through The Dark Scenes

Snow while also the writer explained why she didn't want to be precious about the script. She allowed the actors to take the heart of the scene while the dialogue felt natural because they were given the leeway to make the conversation their own. This also helped with the chemistry, especially between Ethan and Riley.

Brittany Snow: I think something that I did that was really smart of me was I let a lot of the actors, pretty much everybody say kind of what they wanted. There were certain lines where I was like, "This is really important, you have to say this line." But specifically with Thomas and Courtney I really let them say what they wanted within the bounds of what I wrote. It gave such a more nuanced and connected performance because they're really talking to each other. The chemistry is real. I also made them make playlists for each other, which I think was huge. So I'm going to take all those sorts of little things with me.

Eaton goes to some very dark places, emotionally, with her performance as Riley especially in her struggle with body image which Snow is personally familiar with. She broke down not only how she shot those scenes to give Eaton the space to get there mentally and emotionally, but how she made sure to support Eaton in stepping away from those moments as well.

Brittany Snow: I think it was helpful that I was going into it already telling her my experience. She knew my experience, not even on the page, but from me specifically. I wanted her to feel really safe and connected to me. To trust me that I was never going to lead her down something that she wasn't solid or safe to be held in. The big scenes that were really hard, we talked a lot about. I made the set really small. Just me, her, and the camera operator, my DP, Kristen Ketu.

It was always just us in the room, which I think was really helpful for her to be in it. Then there were many times after the scene was over that I would just go over to her, and she would let me hug her. We would just hug and there was this shared connection of knowing that we did the right thing. That was real and that it was really important to go there, but also know that there's safety in the come-down. I'm not a method actor. Everybody has their own approach, but I'm glad that no one on that set was. So she was very able to leave it at the end of the day, and I think that was hugely important.

Snow also shared that while she initially planned to only direct Parachute she has been bitten by the directing bug. She reflected on what she loved about the process of directing Parachute, especially the collaboration aspect. Snow also teased a very different movie on the horizon as her potential next project.

Brittany Snow: I think probably what I found most surprising for me was how much I was going to like it, which I didn't know I was going to like it. I was like, "I'm going to direct this one thing, and then I'm going to be done." But that's probably not the case anymore. I really got the bug for it for sure, and I loved the collaboration aspect of it. I loved working within a cohesive machine of everyone being so good at their job, coming together, and bringing new ideas to me.

Which I think really made the movie so much better because writing it, thinking about it, living it, and seeing it in a certain way, it's really inspiring when it actually takes a different direction, and it's better than what you thought. I can see why people would get addicted to that. It makes you really inspired to work with people who push you. I think that was something that I didn't realize how much I was going to learn from other people.

I've already written something that I'm pretty proud of, and it's a thousand percent in the other direction [of Parachute]. I'm really excited to try and maybe fail, but it's the exact opposite movie.

About Parachute

Parachute follows Riley, who has recently been released from rehab after struggling with her addictions to food and body image. She will meet Ethan and finds herself navigating the line between love and a new addiction.

Parachute is in limited theaters now and will be available to stream at home on April 12.