Hannah Marks is working on her plate of scrambled eggs and bacon at The Conrad Midtown, a convenient place to meet the press, but mostly for her weekday downtime, which includes tickets to see a “good lot of theater” that can I don't make it to Los Angeles. She utters a few names: there are Uncle Vanya, An enemy of the people“Sarah Paulson's” and Appropriate. But the director feels she's celebrating more than her stacked Broadway itinerary; in less than 24 hours, his film Turtles all the way down start streaming to Max.
The journey to this day has been years in the making, six to be exact. The 31-year-old began work on the film, an adaptation of John Green's novel of the same name, a year after it hit shelves in 2017. Marks was captivated by the story, which follows a teenage girl's struggles to balance grief, first love, and friendship with her crippling OCD. She knew she had to get involved, and she prepared for interviews to land the role of director. “I made lookbooks, I wrote a speech, I made a fake trailer,” he recalls. “I had never interviewed to direct anything, so I didn't know how prepared I needed to be. me to think I prepared too much.”
Marks's sincerity runs through the making of Turtles all the way down. He wrote fan letters to secure the soundtrack, which ranges from Billie Eilish catnip and Outkast needles to Passion Pit compositions. She dreamed of casting Succession star J. Smith-Cameron as a seminal teacher … so she wrote a letter of admiration again. “It's been about the fandom, really,” he quips, now sipping his coffee. “I'm a fan who made a movie.” She's even honest about her Hollywood friendships. When I ask about Kirsten Dunst's attendance at the Turtles all the way down at the premiere party, he doesn't spout publicist-approved nonsense about the established actress helping him navigate the industry. Instead, something refreshing: “We just like to get together and shit and breathe and love.”
“It's been about fandom, really. I'm a fan who made a movie.”
For every tender moment of teenage euphoria (and personal growth). turtles all the way down, there are a handful of brutal gut punches. During an emotional spiral, the protagonist Aza is boned in a car accident; while recovering in the hospital and paralyzed by the fear of contracting C. diff, she drinks hand sanitizer. It was important to both Marks and Green to show a character with OCD living a full life, but did Marks get emotional whiplash directing between the two ends of the spectrum? “What kept reminding me was that this is life. Our happy and sad moments cannot exist without each other,” he says. “We didn't want to do a PSA either, or Homework: The film.”
Marks is already working on his next feature, Razzlekhaninspired by 2022 News from New York article about Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, a Manhattan couple who stole over $3 billion in cryptocurrency before being caught by the Justice Department. The film's name comes from Morgan's rapper stage name, under which he wrote brazenly about his crimes. (“One of his lyrics was: 'Spearfish your password / All your funds transferred,'” Marks tells me incredulously.) It will be the first time he's adapted a true story, which presents its own challenges of balancing respect to reality people who live and provide entertainment. Only time will tell if he will write a touching letter to either of them.
