Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff chats with the team behind For Worse at SXSW 2025.

Written and directed by star Amy Landecker, For Worse is a comedy of errors about a recently divorced woman reclaiming her life through trial and error.

In this interview, the crew discusses overcoming nerves, creating an environment for play on set, and impressive work from scene partners.

Lauren, played by screenwriter and director Amy Landecker (Dan in Real Life), has gotten herself in a pickle in the romantic comedy For Worse. The 50-year-old divorcée and mother joins an acting class where she strikes up a fling with her young scene partner (Nico Hiraga), who accompanies her to their Gen Z classmate’s (Kiersey Clemons) wedding. Unfortunately, before the nuptials can begin, all manners of debauchery ensue.
While at SXSW 2025 for the film’s World Premiere, Landecker and castmates Missi Pyle (Galaxy Quest), Bradley Whitford (Get Out), and Hiraga (Sweethearts) stopped by the Collider Media Studio at the Cinema Center to speak with Perri Nemiroff about the actress-turned-filmmaker’s feature directorial debut. In addition to overcoming her nerves, the crew discusses Pyle joining the team at the last minute, why the script took a much lighter tone in the end, and stand-out scene work. Check out the full conversation in the video above or in the transcript below.
What Is ‘For Worse’ About?

Originally, this indie rom-com was going to be “much darker.”

Image via SXSW

PERRI NEMIROFF: I am so thrilled to talk about For Worse. Congratulations on your movie. Because we are celebrating it at South by Southwest, our audience might not know about it just yet, so can you do the honors and give a brief synopsis of the film?
AMY LANDECKER: For Worse is about a woman who has just gotten divorced and is starting her life over. She decides to take an acting class and bonds with that class, particularly a student in that class. They all get invited to a wedding, and it doesn’t go very well. She’s a sober 50-year-old single mom, but at the wedding, by the end of it, she’s a 25-year-old drunk bridesmaid.
Job very well done. I know you’ve been working on this for a good while. What would you say is the biggest difference between how you pictured the film on day one and what it turned out to be and what you will share with the South By audience?
LANDECKER: I had done a short of this idea to try to figure out what I wanted to do with this idea, and it was tonally much darker. I guess I was trying to be sort of like indie cool, which I am not. So, when I finally decided to make the version that I wanted to make, I wanted it to be a rom-com because I love rom-coms, and so I was trying to make a rom-com with a certain indie sensibility. We watched the first cut, and a lot of people say the first time you watch a cut, you cry because it looks so bad and you’re upset, and I actually cried because I thought it looked so good and I was really happy.
You should be so, so proud.
LANDECKER: Oh, thanks!
I will stick with you on being a very experienced actor who is now directing her first feature film. Can you tell me something that a past director did for you as an actor that you really appreciated, held tight to, and applied to your own work here, but then also something that maybe you wish you got more from directors and that you wanted to give your actors?
LANDECKER: Oh, I have perfect stories in my head around that. I come from the world of Transparent on Amazon, and Joey Soloway and their style of directing was something I really tried to bring to this movie, which is that you allow your actors time and freedom to play, and you stay calm and there’s no yelling. Nobody gets mad, nobody’s in trouble. I think I pulled that off, right?
BRADLEY WHITFORD: Yeah, you totally pulled that off.
LANDECKER: So anyway, I really appreciated that style. It was probably the best time I’ve ever had on a job because of that. Then I had a director, I was playing a detective, and their note to me was, “Yeah, I don’t believe that. I know detectives, and I just don’t believe what you did. Just do it differently.” If you tell someone that you don’t like what they just did, they are going to shut down. Even if you don’t like something, and Bradley taught me this, he says, “Feed the seals.” We’re seals, and we need to know we’re good, so you go in, and you go, “Oh, that was incredible. I have that, now could we try this?” Then everybody’s fine. And that’s what I really wanted was for people to feel like they were having a good time.
I feel like that’s true of literally every human being. We would all be teed up for success better if everybody had that mentality.
Amy Landecker’s Acting Experience Makes Her a Solid Director

“It was truly inspiring.”

Image by Photagonist

I will turn this into Make Amy Blush Time, because making a feature directorial debut is a very, very big deal. Again, I mean it sincerely, I love the movie, and there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll go on to direct more if that’s what you want to do. What is something about her as an actor’s director and a leader that you appreciated and would be excited for more actors to experience on her future films?
WHITFORD: Obviously, I’m coming from a supportive place about this, but it was absolutely thrilling to me as an actor to see because actors experience a lot of different directors. Actors actually learn a lot about filmmaking, but being an actor, to become an actor, you have to sort of adopt a psychology of submission that, if you’re lucky enough to keep acting, you begin to get frustrated with, and it was so exciting for me to see Amy absolutely comfortable in the authority position, taking full responsibility for a story while acting, and having written. It’s a validation to me that I want to communicate to frustrated actors all over the planet that you know more about storytelling than you think you do, and so it was truly inspiring for me, and it kind of turned me on.
Beautifully put right there.
LANDECKER: Just in case someone doesn’t know, we’re married.
WHITFORD: Sorry, my daughter’s here.
MISSI PYLE: I met Amy doing a project earlier in the year with Jenica [Bergere], so I came into this, and I just fell in love with Amy. She’s so honest and vulnerable as a human being, and real and generous as an actor. Then, when this came up, I think because somebody fell out at the last second…
LANDECKER: Because of a family tragedy.
PYLE: And I was like, “Yes!”
LANDECKER: Literally, I called Missi on Friday for a Sunday shoot.
PYLE: And I was like, “Yes! Yes!” I will say in my life, at least 50% of every job that I’ve had have been because somebody fell out at the last second. But what I love so much about Amy is there’s a vulnerability, but she also absolutely knows what she wants. There was so much freedom to play. I had so much fun making this movie. I walked in at the last second and I never felt nervous. You were also extremely effusive. Then both of you were there to, “Oh, what if you say…?” One of my favorite moments is when you were trying on all the dresses, and then at one point you said, “It’s like a quinceañera.”
LANDECKER: One of the best lines is, “Well, there’s more than one of those.” Bradley, because I didn’t have playback, was on set every day, and he would give me a thumbs up. I’d be like, “I think I’ve got everything,” and then he’d chuck out a joke here and there, and one of them is the quinceañera line.
PYLE: “Where are you going? To a quinceañera?” It was so much fun. I had an absolute ball. It was just crazy.

Image by Photagonist

It’s wild to hear you jumped in last minute because one of my favorite things about your performances in the movie together is that from the second the two of you are on screen at the same time, I feel the the weight of the history of their friendship and it feels so authentic.
LANDECKER: We have played friends.
PYLE: We had just played friends, and we did feel that way about each other.
I suspect I’ll like that other movie now, too.
PYLE: It was so fun. So, I was just tickled. And I loved being you’re ride or die at the end.
LANDECKER: There is an Easter egg at the end of the movie that no one has called out yet, which is your outfit at the ride or die? It’s Thelma & Louise. She’s wearing the exact outfit.
PYLE: I was disappointed we didn’t go off a cliff, but maybe in the sequel.
WHITFORD: There’s one of two atmospheres on a set that an actor picks up immediately, and one is, “I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do,” which is where you want to live, and the other is, “You better not fuck this up.” You can tell from a movie like this what the atmosphere was like on a set when every actor’s blood is flowing, as I feel in this, and every actor is feeling empowered to play.
PYLE: It’s like the faucet is either dripping, or it’s leaking, or it’s on full blast, and in this one, it was because there was so much. It was like, “Let’s play!” Also, as an actor, too, you were so excited about other people being funny, and so the faucet was always on. I feel like for everybody it was just the more! Because sometimes, if you’re like, “I didn’t like what you did,” then it’s hard to get anything out of that.
Oh, I’m going to follow up on that, but Nico, first, make Amy blush.
NICO HIRAGA: I think Amy is just an all-around amazing person. She was originally just my homie.
LANDECKER: Bradley and Nico were in a movie called Rosaline, and I got to meet Nico in Italy when they were shooting, and we would call him our child. I think you called us mom and dad for a while, so this gets a little weird.

Image via Hulu

WHITFORD: “Daddy.”
LANDECKER: When I was thinking of Sean, Nico’s the only person that I’ve ever had in my mind for that part from the get go.
WHITFORD: It is an extremely difficult part to pull off, and he does it perfectly.
HIRAGA: Wait, we’re talking about Amy.
You deserve all that credit, too, I will say.
HIRAGA: But I do want to say, and I’m not tooting my own horn or anything, but I’ve worked with some amazing women directors, and, dude, you’re fucking right up in the top three. You’re a legend. Seriously.
WHITFORD: Top three.
LANDECKER: [Laughs] Thank you! He’s like, “You’re, like, in the top 20.”
HIRAGA: No, no, no.
LANDECKER: No, that was very sweet.
HIRAGA: You were very, very good. I felt so comfortable going to set. Even, like, we had some intimate scenes, but you’re my director overall.
LANDECKER: And there’s Bradley in there going, “Make it hotter.” I’m like, “Okay, we’re really getting weird.”
HIRAGA: You are truly amazing.

Image by Photagonist

I’ll go back to the idea of the faucet being turned on and having a big old ensemble that just feels like it’s a safe place to play. You have a very large ensemble here. Sometimes people get mere minutes of screen time, but everyone feels right in this world and is key to fleshing it all out and feeling authentic in the moment. We get to talk to the four of you today, but there are so many other people that are in this movie. Can you each name someone who just wowed you on the spot?
WHITFORD: Spencer. He just nailed that scene.
LANDECKER: Spencer Stevenson. He plays Todd, the gay brother of the bride.
WHITFORD: I don’t see sexual preference. I’m kidding, I’m kidding. It was pouring rain, and he just came in and was so loose and hilarious and achieved the goal of that scene of that connection with you.

Image by PHotagonist

LANDECKER: We also stole Spencer from Rosaline. Another person I hung out with in Italy and thought of for this part. We would think of things on the day, and we talked about this character saying something about self-harm because of the smoking, and I just threw out a, “Why, when someone hurts you, do you hurt yourself?” And he just improvised the “Bitch, what?” which is one of the funniest moments of the movie, as well. In fact, all the funny moments of the movie were really not mine. It’s these actors just being present. I mean, I fell out when he said that. The pause, the timing. But he was so present.
PYLE: It was because you made that environment, and then his stuff would just pop out. That doesn’t always happen.
That scene is so good. The warmth of that scene, I feel like I needed that moment for her at that time in the movie.
LANDECKER: It’s like when you’re at a wedding, and you find the person, and you’re like, “Oh, thank god.”
You always know a special person at a big party when you’re in a corner and someone takes the initiative to come up to you. I love you instantly. How about for the two of you, an example of a time when another actor on this movie did something that made you go, “Wow, I’m so impressed and proud of you?”
PYLE: The whole thing with the Dr. Pepper, your performance, and then Gaby Hoffman.
LANDECKER: I had to cut so much of this great stuff everybody did, and she was insanely funny.
PYLE: So funny.
LANDECKER: I cut, like, three-quarters of that speech about the Dr. Pepper.
PYLE: The speech. I couldn’t believe how funny she was. Then she’s in there in just that shirt with no bra.
LANDECKER: She knew exactly what she wanted to wear. Katie Butcher, who did my costumes, was incredible, and they sort of worked together. I was really surprised she wanted to be in this movie. I was like, “This isn’t cool enough for Gaby Hoffman,” and she was like, “I want to play that character for you because I get offered that kind of character, but I know that we’ll have a good time.” She was my first day, and I’ve worked with her for years. Honestly, talk about warm. That was when things really calmed down in me was to have her there. She brought me good luck.

Image by Photagonist

Nico, I want you to take us home on this one.
HIRAGA: I was going to say Kiersey [Clemon]’s stepdad.
LANDECKER: Jay Lacopo!
HIRAGA: Him poppin’ and lockin’.
LANDECKER: Jay Lacopo I’ve known for years. He doesn’t act anymore. Bradley and I are at a birthday party in New York, and he happened to be there. He’s on the dance floor, and he’s a really good dancer. He keeps wiping his brow with a handkerchief, and Bradley’s like, “Chuck. That has to be the stepfather.” And so I said to him, “I know you don’t act anymore,” and I knew how funny he was, “But would you do this for me?” And he said yes, and he kills it.
Spot-on casting across the board.
Amy Landecker Is a Filmmaking Triple Threat

“I never gave up.”

Image by Photagonist

You made a movie, and that’s a big deal. I love asking this question all the time. I have to warn you, some people don’t like to answer. In this industry, people love giving each other awards. I think that’s super cool. We just had the Oscars. Wonderful. But I find that nobody tells themselves good job as much as they should. I want to know something you accomplished making this movie that you’ll always be able to look back on and say, “I am so proud of what I did there.”
LANDECKER: Well, clearly, I need therapy because I’m tearing up even at the question. Honestly, I guess what I’m most proud of is we had so many iterations of this film, there were different producers, there were different budgets. My friend Valerie Stadler came in, and we’re dear friends, and she’s like, “We’re going to make this come hell or high water.” Then we met Jenica Bergere, who also helped get this [made]. The amount of money we had and time we had was so tight, and I never said no. I never gave up. I never was like, “You know what?” And he knows I wanted to give up a lot. I was very scared to do all three things—really scared. I kept trying to give it away. I was like, “You direct it, Jay Duplass! You direct it.” And all my friends in my life were like, “You have to direct it.” So, I’m really proud that I kept all three things and I stuck to it. I’m really proud.
Special thanks to our 2025 partners at SXSW, including presenting partner Rendezvous Capital and supporting partners Bloom, Peroni, Hendrick’s, and Roxstar Entertainment.

For Worse

Release Date

March 8, 2025

Runtime

90 minutes