Skip to main content

Maybe I Do director Michael Jacobs on working with Diane Keaton and Richard Gere

Annie Hall. Pretty Woman. Bull Durham. These movies are now considered classics and staples in the recently resurgent romantic comedy genre. Now, some of the stars of those films — Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon — have teamed with Fargo actor William H. Macy for Maybe I Do, a rom-com that’s not, in the words of its director, particularly romantic or comedic.

What it turns out to be is, surprisingly, a rumination of the high cost a long-term marriage can bring, and whether or not it’s even worth it. Digital Trends talked to the film’s director, veteran writer and producer Michael Jacobs, about how he came up with the idea in the 1970s and how his famous actors collaborated with each other to depict honest portrayals of marriage.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Four adults stand in a kitchen in Maybe I Do.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Digital Trends:  Your background is primarily in writing for such TV shows as Charles in Charge and Boy Meets World and producing Quiz Show, which was nominated for Best Picture. What made you decide to direct your first feature-length film now with Maybe I Do?

Michael Jacobs:  Well, this story has always been with me. It was originally a play called Cheaters that ran briefly in 1978 at the Biltmore Theater on Broadway. I was 22 years old and had written what was ostensibly a farce about men and women, their behavior toward each other, what they hope to aspire to, and what life did to them. After I finished Girl Meets World in 2017, I started thinking about what I might like to do. And the idea struck me that because I had lived an entire life, I should go back to that story and see how I would write it today.

In the movie, you have Richard Gere married to Diane Keaton, and Susan Sarandon partnered with William H. Macy. At a certain point, all four of them begin to step outside the confines of their marriages. Can you talk about working with those actors and developing their relationships with each other?

It was a completely wonderful experience from start to finish because you’re working with these actors who are just spectacular at what they do. With Richard, each moment resonated with him. He wanted to tell the truth about his character and his relationship to his wife and his mistress.

If you watch the relationship between Richard and Susan Sarandon (who plays his mistress), it looks easy. It’s banter. It’s funny. They have an easy relationship. That’s largely because Richard and Susan have known each other for a long time.

Two women and a man talk in a house in Maybe I Do.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

And then when you watch the relationship between Richard and Diane, especially upon his entrance to the house for the first time, it’s stilted. It’s difficult because this is the hard relationship. This is the one that’s forever. And he knows that he has cheated on her.

And Diane also knows what she’s done; she’s had an emotional affair with Bill Macy, not a physical one, which may be the rougher of the two. And you watch these two people have a hard time dealing with that reality. What the movie says is love is in constant conversation. It’s wanting to tell a particular person everything that happens to you.

Maybe I Do takes the concept of marriage or a lifelong friendship very seriously and argues that even if you find the person that you love, that’s not enough. You have to tend to the relationship and to them. You have to remind the other person that you love them.

Maybe I Do | Official Trailer (HD) | Vertical

It’s very astute for you to pick that out. Maybe I Do is not a romantic comedy. And that’s a tough thing to say because it’s going to be marketed as one. Of course, it’s the right way to market the movie, but it isn’t. And it wasn’t what I set out to do.

Maybe I Do is an observation of what happens in a marriage, not what a marriage is. What I was trying to do was simply show that in life we have these moments of comedy and we have these moments that become tragic. We don’t intend for them to be comedic. We don’t intend for them to turn dramatic. But there it is. And so I gave a balance as best I could.

Maybe I Do is currently playing in theaters.

Topics
Jason Struss
Section Editor, Entertainment
Jason is a writer, editor, and pop culture enthusiast whose love for cinema, television, and cheap comic books has led him to…
Where to watch Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays
Selena Gomez sits on a couch next to friends and family.

Only Murders in the Building's Selena Gomez is an Emmy-nominated actress, a Grammy-nominated musician, a cosmetics mogul, and the most-followed woman on Instagram. Yet, Gomez's true passion might be in the kitchen. The singer trades her microphone for a spatula in the new series Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays. The four-part series is a continuation of Gomez's cooking show Selena + Chef.

In Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays, several accomplished chefs will cook alongside Gomez and her best friend, Raquelle Stevens. The chefs set to appear throughout the series include Eric Adjepong, Alex Guarnaschelli, Michael Symon, and Claudette Zepeda. Each chef will bring their favorite holiday recipe to cook and share with Gomez and her friends and family.
Watch Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays live stream on Food Network

Read more
Godzilla without Godzilla? Stop turning blockbusters into streaming soap operas
Godzilla roars at a school bus.

Godzilla in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Apple TV+ / Apple TV+

Just shy of his 70th birthday, Godzilla is now a TV star. Except not really. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which premiered earlier this month on Apple TV+, takes place in the so-called MonsterVerse, aka the same continuity as the recent American movies featuring the radioactive reptile, his simian frenemy Kong, and some more skyscraper-sized beasts. But the G-man himself is scarcely involved; he pops up for only a few minutes across the 10-episode season, as if appearing for a contractually obligated cameo. You see, Monarch isn’t actually the Godzilla show. Subtitle aside, it’s less a monster mash than an ensemble melodrama about plucky monster hunters working out their family baggage.

Read more
George Clooney’s The Boys in the Boat reveals a forgotten moment in sports history
george clooneys the boys in boat cast learns how to row new video movie

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom won't be the only film on the water this holiday season. Amazon MGM Studios' new period drama The Boys in the Boat is chronicling the story of the men's U.S. Olympic rowing team as it attempted to earn a place at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Movie magic and CGI can create some compelling illusions, but rowing is a hard sport to fake if you don't know what you're doing. In a newly released video from behind the scenes of The Boys in the Boat, director George Clooney reveals how the cast trained together during their downtime to become a real rowing team.

The Boys in the Boat | “Learning to Row” Featurette

Read more