It’s been an eventful past year for director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon who’s made a major splash in television and features. On the latter front, his Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was a breakout hit at the Sundance Film Festival in January, winning both the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. Fox Searchlight bought the film at Sundance and has slated Me and Earl and the Dying Girl for release next month.
Adapted from the novel by Jesse Andrews, the comedy-drama introduces us to Greg (Thomas Mann), a bit of a high school nerd/outcast, who is forced by his mother (Connie Britton) to become friends with Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a classmate diagnosed with leukemia. Greg and his buddy Earl (RJ Cyler), who have made dozens of home movie-version spoofs of their favorite classic features, decide to make a very personal film to celebrate the life of–and to serve as a special gift to–Rachel. The cast also includes Molly Shannon who plays Rachel’s mother.
In bestowing the Grand Jury Prize upon Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Sundance judges described it as being a film “that comprises the best of both great comedy and drama.”
The success of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl came on the heels of Gomez-Rejon last year earning his first individual Emmy nomination, which came in the Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special category for the “Bitchcraft” episode of American Horror Story: Coven. He was also part of the ensemble nominated for the Best Miniseries Emmy that same year for American Horror Story.
Like Greg in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Gomez-Rejon as a kid was a movie enthusiast, Growing up in Laredo, Texas, he was particularly enamored with Martin Scorsese who would later become a career mentor.
Gomez-Rejon eventually wound up serving as an assistant to Scorsese and steadily moved up the industry ranks. Another major mentor was Ryan Murphy for whom Gomez-Rejon directed second unit on Eat Pray Love. Murphy not only gave him that feature break but based on that positive experience offered Gomez-Rejon an episode of Glee to direct. Gomez-Rejon went on to direct seven more episodes of that series which Murphy co-created. And this later led to American Horror Story writer/executive producer/showrunner/co-creator Murphy bringing Gomez-Rejon into that TV show’s fold.
In the midst of his Glee and American Horror Story duties, Gomez-Rejon also directed his first feature, a modern take on the cult classic The Town That Dreaded Sundown. He is additionally repped by RSA Films for commercials and branded content.
SHOOT connected with Gomez-Rejon who reflected on Sundance, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, his mentors and what’s next on his career horizon.
SHOOT: Provide some backstory on Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. How did you become involved in the film and what drew you to the story?
Gomez-Rejon: I received the script from my agent. I don’t quite remember the context. I think it was because my agent felt this was a writer I should be aware of. I read it and I found it incredibly funny, heartwarming and real. It captured why we have to pay attention to people because their lives continue to unfold. It was quite an emotional story.
I identified with Greg, a teenager who reminded me of the wonderful John Hughes films which are timeless. I felt a kinship to Greg. I lost my dad about a year before I read the script and had thrown myself into TV directing. I read this script, interpreted the piece and made it my own in a personal way. I was dealing with issues like Greg after a loss–a sense of confusion, denial, but somehow struggling to come out of it all as a better, stronger person. There’s the sense that Greg is trying to put himself back together again. It was a beautiful and incredibly funny script. I wanted to make this film to pay tribute to my dad not unlike how Greg was making his film with Earl to pay tribute to Rachel.
SHOOT: Did you also identify with Greg relative to when you started out as a young filmmaker?
Gomez-Rejon: My parents didn’t want to buy me a camera because they thought it was just a phase I was going through. I borrowed my friend’s video camera and did shorts and a horror film. I identified with Greg on that level but also in regards to the feeling of being a bit of an outsider, removed from the mainstream and trying to find my way. I identified with that side of Greg as he searched for his voice. He went from parody films to the film he showed Rachel in the hospital. He found a deeper voice, a different way to interpret and express his point of view.
SHOOT: You’ve had some high-profile mentors, from Martin Scorsese to Ryan Murphy. Would you reflect on how they impacted your career?
Gomez-Rejon: I’m grateful to them all. I got the chance to second unit direct Eat Pray Love for Ryan. I sent him a thank you note afterwards and I didn’t hear back immediately. But later I got an offer from him to direct an episode of Glee. All through my time at NYU I was a storyboard artist, not necessarily for my shorts but for other people’s thesis films. I came to enjoy the process of designing a shot and realizing it.
So when I got my first episode of Glee, I storyboarded every frame. People thought I was crazy. I had timed every song. Ryan flipped through my work and eased my mind. He just told me to do what I thought was right and to not be afraid to shake up the style of the show. And he generously said to me, “If someone says you can’t do a certain thing, tell them I said I wanted it that way.” He gave me at least the illusion of creative freedom, and the encouragement to never give up on ideas–even when you have just seven days to shoot an episode.
With American Horror Story, Ryan taught me a lot–the importance of keeping your mind active, pushing the style, experimentation, being bold, doing whatever you can to contribute to a scene that captures the actors and helps them do what they do best. There was always room to improvise and be loose on set, to experiment. This helped me with the movie [Me and Earl and the Dying Girl] as the story progressed. At first Greg was talking, he was distracting, energetic. Then he and the story evolved into quieter scenes which were very important to what we were trying to convey. There was room for the characters to grow and evolve right before our eyes.
As for Martin Scorsese, it was the experience of a lifetime. When I was 12, I knew I wanted to be a director. I watched everything I could. I grew up on a little town [Laredo, Texas] with one movie theater and a video rental store. When I found Mean Streets, it just hit me. I identified with the film, Marty’s style, the look, the unique aesthetic, his voice. When he talks about his influences, he often references a filmmaking master who came before him. He became that master for me. Some advise you not to meet people you admire because you’ll only end up disappointed. That wasn’t the case with him. Working for Martin in his office, and his then taking me out on location to be his assistant on Casino, Marty was more supportive, humble and generous than I ever could have imagined. Through him, I met [editor] Thelma Schoonmaker, and then connected with Nora Ephron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu–I worked with him on 21 Grams and Babel. I’ve been very fortunate to find generous mentors who believed in me. I owe them so much. I placed a Mean Streets poster next to Greg’s desk as one of several little tributes to him and others in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
SHOOT: What did Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’s strong showing at Sundance mean to you? Reflect on that experience.
Gomez-Rejon: My life changed after that early afternoon when the film was shown and the way it was received. I had a fever earlier, went to urgent care with no voice, showed up there and introduced the film. There was such a large turnout. Prior to that, we had small family screenings with 25 people or so. We went on a mad rush to finish the film and didn’t expect that kind of reception. My producers, everybody, were just floored. It was so beautiful.
SHOOT: What’s next for you?
Gomez-Rejon: My current focus is on Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, doing whatever I can to help that film find an audience. Beyond that, I’m looking to do a combination of features and television. In TV, I would like to be a creator of a show and to make pilots. For features, I just want to continue to tell stories. A couple of features might come together in the fall that I’m excited about. And at the same time, there’s the possibility of a TV show.
