Clara McGregor’s latest film and first as co-producer, Bleeding Love, is the story of a father-daughter relationship – on and off-screen. Loosely inspired by her story with her own father, McGregor’s vision centres around a father (played by Ewan) and his estranged daughter on a road trip, in efforts to get her out of trouble. What follows is a cinematic tale of hope, family and addiction – with some fun desert drive characters thrown into the mix: a reluctant clown and a shimmering prostitute. While the story is fictional, moments clearly resonate further than the script, “It’s kind of amazing when you get to act these things with the person that, you know, might have been a part of bringing up those emotions,” McGregor tells us below.

 Alex James Taylor: Congratulations on the movie. I’m interested to know where the idea first came from?
Clara McGregor: I’d originally had an outline of an idea that was loosely inspired by my relationship with my dad and things that we’d gone through, but essentially really an idea about two characters that are very much not us and are experiencing things that we didn’t. But I had this loose concept for a movie which circled around a father-daughter road trip film. From there, I started talking to our writer, Ruby Castor, and my producing partner, Vera Bulder, and the three of us began breaking it down and turning it into what it is now. So there’s a lot of them in it too, as well as our director, Emma Westenberg, who came in and did a lot of rewrites and added a lot of herself to the script. It’s really a mix of all of us in the end, but it did start as a little idea I had.

AJT: Did you always know you wanted to cast your dad in the film?
CM: I did, yeah. That was something that was a part of it for me. 

AJT: How was the experience of portraying these characters together which have such reality and truth written into them? There must have been times when reality and fiction blurred?
CM: Yeah, there’s a lot that goes into it. First of all, it’s kind of amazing when you get to act these things with the person that, you know, might have been a part of bringing up those emotions. That was great. I think we also went into it really allowing ourselves to go there, understanding that these were different characters and that we are in a different place. Especially in the most intense scenes, they were the most fun to film because as an actor you just feel all of this emotion rushing out of you and it was almost easier to tap into that. Then Emma would yell, “Cut!” and come in with her smiley face and we’d all kind of laugh about it. We could tap into [those emotions] while still being on a film set. It allowed us a lot of room to play and I loved it. 

AJT: Did you see your dad in a different light when on-set together?
CM: I loved acting with him and think I also got a deeper appreciation for his skill and how good he is at what he does. Being in those moments with him I was like, “Oh shit, you’re really good!” [laughs] It was mainly just really fun. 

AJT: When did you actually start writing the film? How long ago was that?
CM: I think we started chipping away at it in late-2020 or mid-2020. Definitely during the heart of the pandemic – I guess that’s four years ago now, which is crazy. 

AJT: Did it always kind of have the same atmosphere and emotion? How did it evolve?
CM: It changed so much. I mean, thinking about the first draft to where it ended up, there were a lot of changes. Essentially it did stay about these two characters on the road together, but it definitely went through a lot of shifts, as scripts do. It’d be funny to actually go back and read our early drafts.

AJT: Because essentially it’s a story about a father, daughter and addiction,  but it’s written so well in terms of bringing different feelings and emotions into it. Like, it’s genuinely funny! [both laugh] It turns into a story of hope.
CM: I think tragedy always has a certain level of comedy, and vice versa. Looking back on tough times in life or weird times, there are always moments that just make you laugh – that’s a part of it. So I wanted to lean into that as well and not make it too grim because I don’t think life is always that way, and me and my dad always do laugh together. 

“Tragedy always has a certain level of comedy, and vice versa.”

AJT: How do you think your relationship with your dad has changed having created this project together?
CM: We’d definitely already gotten there [to a good place] before diving into this and we’re very close. That was apparent for us to be able to start making this movie. But it definitely brought us closer. Being able to spend that much time with your parents as an adult is so rare anyway, you know? It was great to have that time to hang with my dad, that was unique and special. 

AJT: And this is your first producing role – how was that experience?
CM: Yes, it’s the first movie we’ve done with my production company and my producing partner Vera Bulder. It’s great, it’s really exciting to be able to see something through from the absolute beginning to the end and be a part of it that way. It’s totally thrilling to me and I love it.

AJ:T Is there any side of it that you perhaps didn’t know about particularly and had to learn?
CM: Oh, totally. We learned so much by just doing it and we also worked with Killer Films [a New York City-based independent film production company] who were amazing and have made some of my favourite films of all time, especially this year with May December and Past Lives. We learned so much from them. It was absolutely a learning experience for us and we continue to learn with each project. 

AJT: I don’t know if you’ve seen, but on the YouTube trailer for Bleeding Love, there are lots of comments written by people sharing their stories about addiction and family. That must be a great reaction to see?
CM: Definitely, it’s lovely to hear that. You know, it’s something that, one way or another, we’ve probably all gone through. We know someone who’s gone through it, or who knows someone who’s gone through it. Unfortunately, it’s so common, and I think the more we talk about it, the less we stigmatise it. If people can feel slightly less alone in their situation through the film and relate to it in that way, that’s really great.

Bleeding Love is out now.