ISABEL COIXET - Writer/Director has a degree in History, specialized in contemporary. She has written and directed - in addition to "My life without me" - the feature films: "Too old to die young" (1986), the internationally acclaimed "Things I never told you" (1995) and "Those who love" (1998). She has been creative director of JWT agency, founder and creative director of TARGET agency and of the production company EDDIE SAETA, which has received the most prestigious awards for its spots. In 2000, she founded MISS WASABI FILMS, which has also produced outstanding video clips and documentaries.
The worst thing about making a film is talking about it. Or writing about it. And it's even worse talking about oneself in relation to the film. Why this film and not another one? Why this character? Why this melancholy? This dark hope, so much rain? When I started to write the script I still had some certainty. Now, when the film is finished, almost three years later, I feel stripped of any, swimming in the dark once again, knowing that the cord which attached me to the film has been broken and that now, when it's slipping away from me, all I would like to do is to start it again, to live again with the idea of the film and not with its - for me - strange, unreal reality. I look at the five cans which hold the first print of the film. I think of the tears, of the answered prayers. I think of Ann, Laurie, Lee, Don, the hairdresser, the neighbor, the little girls... I think of all the people who have made this film what it is. I think of the people who will love the film. I think of the people who won't. The w rst thing about making films is the feeling of emptiness when they're finished. The emptiness after this film is very, very great.
SARAH POLLEY - Ann
Ann is twenty three, she's got two young daughters, a husband who spends more time unemployed than working, a mother who hates the world, a father who has spent the last ten years in jail, a job as a night janitor in a university she could never attend in the daytime... She lives in a trailer on the yard of her mother's house, on the outskirts of Vancouver.
This grey existence changes completely after a medical check-up.
Paradoxically, since that day Ann discovers the appetite for life.
Dozens of actresses auditioned for "My life without me", but only SARAH POLLEY really knew how to play this young woman who discovers the value of life just when she is about to lose it. Sarah doesn't play Ann. Sarah totally embraces this complex character and disappears into her in a terrifying way. I've never known an actress with less vanity or more willing to arrive at the real truth of a character. She is the soul of "My life without me" and watching the film it is impossible to imagine any other actress in her place.
Sarah Polley's meteoric career includes: Atom Egoyan's "Exotica" (1994) and "The sweet hereafter" (1997), Audrey Wells' "Guineviere" (1999), David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ" (1999), Doug Liman's "Go" (1999), Kathryn Bigelow's "The weight of water" (2000), Michael Winterbottom's "The claim" (2000), Patricia Rozema's "This might be good" (2000), Hal Hartley's "No such thing" (2001), Peter Wellington's "Luck" (2002) and Thom Fitzgerald's "The event" (2002).
SCOTT SPEEDMAN - Don
On paper, the character of Don was the least complex one in the film, but Scott was able to give him a warm, beautiful humanity. Scott makes us care about Don and also makes us understand that Ann needs something else before she dies. Scott put a lot of effort into getting this role and he showed me things about the character which were there butunder his skin.
Some of Scott Speedman's works are: the T.V. series "Felicity", Bruce Paltrow's "Duets" (2000), Ron Shelton's "Dark blue" (2002), Tony Piccirillo's "The 24th Day" (2002) and Len Wiseman's "Underworld" (2002).
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