While shepherding a story from another person’s script to the screen as a director can be difficult, Jason Orley felt like he “jumped onto a train” when directing I Want You Back, highlighting the “excellent” script and cast that propelled the project forward.  

The film’s screenplay was inspired by stories from the writers’ own romantic lives as well as those of their friends, but also drew on films like Strangers on a Train and Cruel Intentions, according to its writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who spoke to Final Draft earlier this month.

I Want You Back follows the hijinks of two recent dumpees, Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate), who meet in their post-breakup throes and quickly discover that their respective exes Anne (Gina Rodriguez) and Noah (Scott Eastwood) have already moved on. This is a horrifying realization for the pair, who are in their 30s and worry that their last chance at true love has slipped through their fingers. To salvage their happily-ever-afters, the pair concocts a plan wherein Peter will entice Noah into breaking up with Ginny (Clark Backo), and Emma will sabotage Anne’s budding relationship with Logan (Manny Jacinto).

Though the list of names and their relationships to each other may sound confusing, Orley does a masterful job of introducing the complicated web of characters early on in the film.

Playing on the montage staple in many romantic comedies, Orley delivers a comedic portrayal of the demise of modern relationships by juxtaposing the picture-perfect Instagram stories of Peter and Emma’s previous relationships with their post-breakup realities. A clip of Emma drinking a protein shake with Noah fills the screen using the same proportions and image quality as an iPhone video, followed by a medium shot of Emma unceremoniously dumping her protein powder down the sink.

“​​I wanted to use social media in a way that wasn’t the plot of the movie, where I wasn’t telling a story about social media or about dating in the social media age, but making it feel part of these characters’ lives,” reflects Orley on the different forms of communication that show up in rom-coms through time. “I tried to be as delicate as possible, and just have it feel like the graphics of Instagram could go away in your mind and you can just watch the story even though it was kind of in the aspect ratio of a phone.”

Seamlessly integrating these tender memories with the harsh realities of the present is one of the ways in which Orley brings Aptaker and Berger’s many characters to life on the screen. With an ensemble cast of six people and a complex array of relationships and histories between each of them, casting was a key part of charming the audience.

“Casting is huge in making sure that the actors that are playing these roles can make them feel really real,” Orley says, describing how Jacinto’s character Logan could have come across as “ridiculous” in the wrong hands.

Day was already a part of the project when Orley became involved. After reading the “fantastic” script by Aptaker and Berger, “the second most important piece was finding Emma,” Orley says, a decision made easy given Slate’s talents. While fleshing out Day and Slate’s characters was a given, Orley felt it was important to cast the remaining roles with actors who would make the characters feel deserving of love in their own right.

“With the rest of the ensemble, the bigger thing for me was making sure that this film had no villains, right — making sure we just kind of treated every character with empathy, even if they were more on the edge of you wanted to laugh at them more than with them,” he remarks.

Transforming a creator’s work into a new medium can be a difficult task, but Orley could lean on the strong material provided by the two writers, and his own background working under Nancy Meyers, a filmmaker known for projects like Father of the Bride and The Parent Trap.

“They’re brilliant, brilliant writers,” Orley says of Aptaker and Berger.

Meyers' influence also felt especially perceptible in the film’s musical selections, some of which were written into the screenplay by Aptaker and Berger. Though Orley thought making the soundtrack would be easy, he noted that striking the balance between timeless rom-com songs by Marvin Gaye and contemporary house party songs by the Temptations was tricky.

The use of "Glory of Love" in the opening montage, which was written into the screenplay, perfectly encapsulates the aura Orley was trying to capture: A classic romance set in the present day.

“You’re seeing these Instagram Stories, which is such a modern thing, and then you’re hearing this really timeless song playing over it. For me, that was the balance. It was a contemporary story told in a timeless way," Orley explains.

The trio had many conversations around key moments in the screenplay to make sure they carried the emotional weight from the page to the screen. One scene they frequently spoke about was the film’s final shot — spoilers ahead! Instead of closing with a clichéd final kiss, the writers opted to finish with the image of Emma and Peter lovingly staring into each other’s eyes across the aisle of an airplane, a smile hidden behind each person’s oxygen mask (this seemingly quotidian moment holds deeper significance in the context of the film).

“When I read the script, I loved that moment at the end,” Orley says, discussing how finding true friendship later in life is just as important as romance in the film. “I want the audience to know these people have kind of found their person, but that moment of realization was more important than the big kiss. And I just thought that made the movie feel a little bit more special.”

Overall, it seems that Orley, the writers, and the cast had their own (strictly professional) love affair throughout the filmmaking process.

“Sometimes you come on these projects and you really need to dive in with the writers and make big changes, but these guys are such pros, and Charlie and Jenny just brought it to life immediately,” he says. “It felt effortless.”

I Want You Back is now streaming exclusively on Prime Video.