‘She Came to Me’ Prerelease Screening Depicts Slice of Life Across Generations

Described as operatic, Shakespearean, yet contemporary, “She Came to Me,” a romantic comedy, written and directed by Rebecca Miller ’84, tells the tale of a multi-generational love story. The screening of the forthcoming film was presented by Yale Schwarzman Center (YSC) in the Humanities Quadrangle Lecture Hall on Saturday, September 16, 2023, and will be released in theaters on October 6.

After the screening, Miller spoke with YSC Associate Artistic Director Jennifer Harrison-Newman about the choices she made in creating the story—from working with the actors to choosing props in a scene. The Yale alum explained how being a director can be hard to define.

“It's actually very hard to say what a director really does because, in a way, you're crucial, but what are you doing? You're a magnet, and everyone has metal filings in them. If you're doing a good job, everybody's metal filings start to go in the same direction,” Miller said. “It's very ineffable. You're guarding tone. You're making sure that everyone's in the same movie.”

She Came to Me follows Steve (Peter Dinklage), an opera composer with writer’s block, encouraged by his wife Patricia (Anne Hathaway), formerly his therapist, to seek inspiration. On his journey, he meets a tugboat captain, Katrina (Marisa Tomei), who has an addiction to love. The story is interwoven with Patricia’s son, Julian (Evan Ellison), his girlfriend Tereza (Harlow Jane), and Tereza’s parents (Joanna Kulig and Brian d'Arcy James).

When it came to casting, Miller feels she found the perfect people. She worked with her casting director of 30 years, Cindy Tolan, to cast the film and said no one else could have played the part of Steve other than Dinklage. She also shared how throughout the casting process, the characters were modeled in some cases by choices the actors made.

“With Tomei, it was so delicate … who could play a working person who's got a slight screw loose like, the way that Katrina does?” Miller said, chuckling.

In the creation of the film, Miller drew inspiration from the tradition of early romantic and screwball comedies of Shakespeare, and tropes from operas, to give the film the timeless quality that Miller wanted to capture.

“Romantic comedy is definitely part of our great heritage in this country in terms of film. If you look back in the 30s and 40s, some of the great films were romantic comedies, or screwball comedies,” Miller explained. “I think that that's a form that is looked down on now in some ways, but I actually think it's a great heritage of ours, so I was also interested in Midsummer Night's Dream, and the way that it functions. In the Shakespearean comedies there's a whole thing of how couples are rearranged in this magical way that is sort of in this film as well.”

The great thing about She Came to Me, Miller said, is that “it is sort of like love stories within love stories.” The film is not only a romantic comedy, but it also delves into familial love. In fact, Miller said, one of her favorite parts of the film is the way Tereza and her mom’s story concludes.

“We are so proud of all the great things our Yale alumni go on to do, so it was beyond special to have Rebecca come and present this wonderful film and share her experience bringing it to life,” Newman said.