The Trouble with Jessica director Matt Winn: ‘My ex-partner took her own life after we broke up’
Exclusive: Writer and director behind a new British drama reveals the personal traumas that inspired his latest work
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Your support makes all the difference.The director behind a new dark satire starring British actors Rufus Sewell and Shirley Anderson has revealed that its plot was inspired in part by real-life events.
Matt Winn is the musician and writer who created The Trouble with Jessica, in which two sets of partners (played by Henderson, Alan Tudyk, Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams) attempt to cover up the suicide of their friend, Jessica (Indira Varma).
After the initial reactions – the shock, the grief – then comes the anger, the blame and the resentment, as the surviving quartet curses Jessica for throwing their lives into chaos.
Speaking with The Independent, Winn explained that he was influenced by an experience he went through around 20 years ago, when his former partner took her own life not long after they broke up. The incident had an “enormous effect” on his life.
“This element wouldn’t be in the film unless it was a personal experience,” he said. “It essentially put my life on hold for 10 years, and some of that was my choice… we all have good and bad experiences in life, and you have no control over what happens to you, but you have control over your reaction. And unfortunately I struggled – I was definitely overwhelmed by it.”
Winn, whose previous credits include 2015 horror The Hoarder starring Mischa Barton, said he realised “quite early on” that the person he was dating was struggling with mental health issues.
“I tried to help them, but quickly realised you can’t fix people, especially if they’re dealing with a lot of childhood trauma,” he said. “But it derailed my life, and I became very angry at the system, and at mental health services.”
Shockingly, Winn has also known two further people to have taken their own lives in other people’s gardens: “One of them was a good friend, and the other was a boyfriend of a flatmate,” he said.
“My friend killed himself in his ex-girlfriend’s garden, and I always wondered if it was a way of finding an emotional connection, or maybe he didn’t want to be alone… But this is what we try to get to grips with in the film.”
Winn had the idea for a dark satire about the middle classes a few years ago, and felt as though Jessica’s death would force his characters into a fraught situation where “we don’t necessarily know what the outcome will be”.
“I love shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, where the goal is to find the most uncomfortable situation possible,” he says.
He and his co-writer, James Handle, worked to try and convey the motivations behind Jessica’s actions in as sensitive a way as possible.
“To take your own life is a deeply unnatural thing to do,” Winn said. “People often talk about it like it’s an ‘easy’ way out, which couldn’t be further from the truth. You only take your life if you are desperately, uniquely and clinically unhappy.”
The Trouble with Jessica has received positive reviews from critics, with The Guardian noting that the film has “echoes of Carnage and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf“ and praising Henderson’s “terrific” performance as Sarah.
Meanwhile, in The Independent’s review, critic Clarisse Loughrey said Winn “has understood that the basics of farce are concerned less with the specifics of narrative and more with the ushering of a willing and talented troupe towards unbridled chaos”.
The Trouble with Jessica is in cinemas now.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit https://988lifeline.org/to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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