illusion is more than art. it is a way of life.

Q: Without giving away any of the plot, one of the things that seemed very authentic was the idea that a person you care about can want something with someone else that they say they don’t want with you. How careful did you have to be to provide a sense of catharsis without vilifying the characters too much?

Webb: I think it’s funny because people relate to the movie in different ways. A lot of people walk out of it really not liking Summer, and I feel that happens because these are trends – and I don’t have the scientific evidence to back it up – that people in our parents’ generation or grandparents’ generation in particular are very resentful of Summer. They’re like, “well, he’s a good boy! Why don’t you like him?” But people like us who have been on the frontier of singledom in our 20s, and I don’t know what your experience is, but they are much more sympathetic towards her. But young people, like teenagers who haven’t necessarily gone through heartbreak or don’t know what it is to be on the other side of that can also be really resentful of her. But there’s sort of a gap in there when people have been in the thick of that experience and know what it is to be ambivalent about a relationship and sure of it.

I wanted the audience to be in Tom’s shoes, right? That was my primary objective, and I wanted people to be in love with her, I wanted them to be annoyed with her, but at the end of the movie I wanted us to have come to terms with her and at the very least understand her and want good things for her ultimately. It’s very convenient to vilify someone like that, but I think when you stop being angry, that’s when you get over a person, and it’s not always easy.

(via emptycarnival)