Gren Wells’ directorial debut, The Road Within, premiered last year at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The poignant story follows a young man with Tourette’s syndrome who befriends two other rehab center patients who are suffering from anorexia and OCD. Together they embark on a road trip where they defy their disabilities and break the rules. Despite the sensitive nature of making a film about mental health issues, Wells jokes that her biggest challenge on-set was not being able to wear heels. Her light-heartedness is a testament to the director’s comedic nature and the confidence she brought to leading a film with such heavy content. In the days leading up to the film’s theatrical release, Wells talked with us about making the leap from screenwriting to directing, her background as a comedian and building a support system at the LA Film Fest.

You sold so many projects before deciding to direct. Was there something that held you back before and what changed? 
It wasn’t necessarily that something was holding me back. When I moved out here and sold my first script called Earthbound, I was going to direct it. But then a big actress was circling it and my agent said “Sweetie, you’re not going to direct it anymore because that actress requires a big director.” She said, “You have two options: you can get your foot in the door and have a career or you can hold on to it and it may or may not ever get made.” I chose door number one and I’m really glad I did because it enabled me to have a career for the past 15 years. But I am a bit of a control freak; I think everyone who knows me would say that. So, it was frustrating at times because as a feature writer, nobody cares what you think or say. There was this frustration that kept growing, especially with projects that kept touching my heart. So after my first script, Earthbound, got made into a film…. what I’ll say is that a lot changes from script to screen. And although a lot of people love that film, it was different from what I expected. So I just knew that if I wanted my point of view to come across, I had to do it from beginning to end. I decided that the next time something came across my desk that I loved with all my heart, I would direct it. And that was The Road Within.

Tell us about your experience transitioning from screenwriting to directing? Was there anything unexpected about the experience for you?
I don’t think anything struck me because I did my homework. I’m kind of delusionally confident and optimistic because I don’t hear the word no. People say it a lot but I just don’t hear it. And I just keep pushing forward because there has to be a way to get it done. You may have to change things here and there but you can still get it done in a version that is acceptable to everyone. It was really interesting to get through each day. It was like pushing a rock up a hill and at the end of the day we would look down and think: “We did it!” And everyone would look at me and think, “That was impossible, I don’t know how we did that.”

What advice would you give a writer who wants to make the leap to directing?
Keep your point of view. I see that people move out here and want to become a writer-director and they try to write things that will sell as opposed to what is in their heart; so their point of view gets muted. I’ve had a great career because I have a very strong point of view. Obviously it’s not right for every project, but I definitely think that when you write something from your heart with a strong character, people will take notice.

How does your comedy background affect your approach to directing? Are there skills that directly apply? 
100%. It’s all about timing. With comedy, I learned very early on that with some jokes, you just have to get the timing right. I felt the same way on set. We actually rehearsed six months before we started shooting just because I told them they’d only get three takes per setup. That’s all we had time for to get through the days. And because I had set those parameters, the actors came to set ready. They nailed it 90% of the time on the first take.

Tell us about your first Festival experience as a director? 
It was amazing, especially the Director’s Retreat. [The LA Film Fest hosted a Palm Springs retreat for the Festival filmmakers.] I’m still in touch with many of the filmmakers that I met there. I was actually staying with one of them in New York just last week – Kimberly Levin who directed Runoff. And we became this little family because we spent 10 days together, going to different functions and seeing each other’s movies. I feel like we built a support system. And a lot of our movies are coming out now, so it’s cool to support each other.

Since your debut at the LA Film Fest, what’s this past year been like?
Ever since our debut at the LA Film Fest we’ve gone to a bunch of festivals around the world. It’s really cool to see different audiences because they all seem to experience something really different. In Rome, for instance, the Festival jury was all 14 to 15 years old. It was really interesting to see younger teenagers watch this. In the US, our film is rated R because of the language and brief nudity. Here there’s a thing with the MPAA trying to prevent kids from hearing language that they use all day, everyday anyway. In Europe it was a beautiful experience to sit and talk to these kids because they really understood the message of the film, which is everybody is different and everybody has things about themselves that they don’t like.

I just wrote an op-ed where I’m challenging parents to go see the film first and then if they think their teenager is mature enough, then to bring them back and watch it with them–because they can’t get in by themselves. This film is promoting compassion and understanding for people with mental issues, so I don’t see how that can be bad just because there are some four letter words in there. At the screenings, I have had parents of kids on the spectrum come up to me and hug me, crying, saying that this movie is going to change people’s lives. Because it’s really the first time that these disorders have been portrayed honestly and accurately and we worked really hard to make sure that the portrayals were truthful. We had a young man named Jackson Kramer who has Tourette’s who sat on set every day to make sure the Robbie’s performance was authentic.

How did you approach navigating the distribution deal?
Truthfully, it was more the producers and agents who were handling that. I felt very confident because we had a fantastic screening. It was jam-packed, the audience loved it and the Q&A was awesome. So it was everything that I could have asked for. I knew we had made a great film and I knew someone was going to take notice.

You were named to Variety’s Best Directors list – is that a blessing or a curse? 
It was a blessing, are you kidding me?! Any time a little film like this can get a mention anywhere, it’s incredibly exciting. It’s so hard to get noticed when you have the Fast & Furious 17’s of the worlds that are just sucking up all the oxygen. And I’m not denigrating that movie–I haven’t seen it yet and I hear it’s a great popcorn flick. But you know, these little movies will live and die by word of mouth so they need as many people talking about them as possible.

Lorena Alvarado / Film Independent Blogger

The Road Within opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles this Friday April 17.