Sue Vertue & Brian Minchin Interview: The Time Traveler's Wife
After becoming a household name with his work on Doctor Who and Sherlock, Steven Moffat has turned his eyes to a very different kind of property: The Time Traveler's Wife. Premiering at 9pm tonight on HBO, the new series is based on Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel of the same name and combines the sci-fi tropes and complicated narratives that Moffat is known for with a classic romcom couple. While the story has already gotten a well-known film adaptation starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, it will now be broken down even further as a television series, with a first season consisting of 6 episodes.
Along with highly acclaimed director David Nutter (Game of Thrones and Shameless), frequent Moffat collaborators Brian Minchin and Sue Vertue are also onboard as executive producers. Rose Leslie (The Good Fight) and Theo James (Sanditon) star as the time-crossed lovers Clare Abshire and Henry DeTamble, who meet each other for the first time at very different times in their lives. Clare meets the very grown up Henry when she is 6 and decides he is her dream man, while Henry first meets the 20-year old Clare much later and is told she is his future wife - and thus begins the romance, comedy and tragedy of their story.
The Time Traveler’s Wife Must Avoid This Particular Story Problem
Vertue and Minchin spoke with Screen Rant about what makes The Time Traveler's Wife narrative so compelling, how the creative team went about mixing sci-fi and romance, and just want nudity negotiations entailed in the new series.
Screen Rant: I know that Steven loved The Time Traveler's Wife so much that he incorporated it Doctor Who, but how did you first engage with the story? What made it worth chasing down all this time?
Sue Vertue: Steven and I read it years and years and years ago - I think when it first came out - and always loved it, actually.
But Brian was the one that chased it down; he had been working with Steven. You were just finishing Doctor Who, I think. Weren't you, Brian?
Brian Minchin: I really wanted to make a love story. This is one of the best; I think it's a classic. I knew that Steven loved it, and I knew that the great many amazing strengths of Steven's writing [were] his handling of complex narrative and handling of romantic comedy.
Also, the darkness of it just made sense; it was a perfect fit. So, when I discovered that the rights were possibly available, sometimes as a producer you just get an instinct of, "That's going to be good. We're going to have to do that now, because it's going to be great."
Sue Vertue: If you get the Venn diagram of writers that could do that show, I think Steven is that one in the middle, isn't he?
Brian Minchin: Yes. But we all loved it, and I think it is a classic story. And it really suits TV; it suits that number of episodes and that canvas.
I love how much it's able to go into the details of Audrey story in a way that a film could not. How much more knowledgeable are you when it comes to the book now? Do you know it backwards and forwards after rearranging things and deciding what goes in or what doesn't?
Sue Vertue: I haven't really looked at the book in any great detail again, though Steven obviously delves into it a lot.
But I agree with you. It's nice when you can suddenly think, "Well, I'll go and do this whole dinner party now." You get the freedom of that in a series.
Brian Minchin: I think we all know it pretty well. When you make the decision to do a TV series and make it episodic, along with that, you will expand certain things and you will be able to run with stuff. Things which were a few paragraphs in a book can become 30-minute scenes in the TV series.
I think that's how it should be actually, because that's the story shifting its form to what's possible.
Sue Vertue: On Sherlock, for instance, Mrs. Hudson is hardly in any of the books. But Steven took her and made a whole world.
Working with Steven on Doctor Who and Sherlock, you're obviously very used to both time travel and intricate plotting. Now that you're adding romance on top of that, what is it like balancing like the best of both worlds and incorporating the comedy into the romance?
Sue Vertue: To me, it feels very natural. It feels like a natural fit. Steven will always put comedy into anything he's writing, I think. But it doesn't feel forced; it doesn't feel like, "I'm going to take that genre and that genre and put them together." To me, it just feels like a natural joy to watch.
Brian Minchin: If you talk to Rose and Theo, that's what drew them to the material too. That the dialogue could go to all those places, and the characters are so rich. It's actually part of the appeal for us; how nuanced it is.
It's always nice to do something which is pushing [boundaries], which is doing something you haven't seen done before. And that's definitely this show.
Speaking of Rose and Theo, not only do they have to be perfect for their roles, but there are their younger selves, who also have to be perfectly positioned to grow into them. What qualities did you look for in all of your Clares and Henrys?
Brian Minchin: Everleigh [McDonell] and Caitlin [Shorey] were brilliant, actually. And we didn't get totally obsessed - other than red hair - with bone structure or height or stuff like that. It was about all about their line readings and about if they felt like Clare, though I know that sounds a bit vague. But I love all their performances.
Then with Jason [David], who played young Henry, he's great as well. He does look remarkably young Theo.
Sue Vertue: He looks exactly like him, doesn't he?
Brian Minchin: There's a picture of Theo at the same age, which we had, and he looks identical. It's extraordinary.
One thing that I find really interesting about The Time Traveler's Wife is the concept of not just finding the one, but literally building your whole life around them. While it may seem romantic, it can also be toxic, which is something that is explored in this story. How did you guys want to confront that aspect of it?
Brian Minchin: I think it was by writing it into the story, actually; by making it clear. It's always been clear in the book and film and this that it is the older Clare that Henry falls in love with and is totally bonded with by the time he goes back to visit the younger Clare. It's a different interaction.
And I think it's also interesting idea that we shape the person we're with. When a marriage works, they help you become the best version of yourself. That's what Henry and Clare do, so it's an interesting part of the story. It delivers a lot when you explore the idea of it. Doesn't it, Sue?
Sue Vertue: Yeah. I think you shape them to a point, but that there's a level where people don't change at all in a marriage. [Laughs]
This sounds bad, but I love the amount of nudity that poor Theo James must do throughout the show, and how it's both hilarious and life-threatening? What was the negotiation or discussion about how it should be portrayed?
Brian Minchin: Everything was with the intimacy coordinator, and it was planned. The way things happen now, which is as they should, is that you plan and you agree on every detail. Yes, the level in each scene and what each scene required was discussed and planned and signed off with Theo and intimacy coordinators.
It's an integral part of Henry's character, and it shapes who he is. So, I think it was important to Theo. You also see him time traveling back and forth, and Theo was really keen to make that a physical experience. He slams into walls, and he really thuds down.
I was actually more worried how Theo would leave off rocks and slam down on the pavement. It's got a high level of reality for a show with time traveling, if that makes sense. There's a physicality of what it would actually be like if you time traveled and landed bang naked in the middle of the street at night. It'd be scary and hard and tough, and I think that's all there. It's never just played as a laugh or as not ironic.
Sue Vertue: I would imagine the day after the last filming, he went off probably and had all the doughnuts. Didn't go to the gym.
Adapted by Steven Moffat from the beloved novel of the same name, The Time Traveler’s Wife follows the spellbinding and intricately out-of-order love story between Clare and Henry, and a marriage with a problem: time travel.
At 6 years old, Clare meets Henry, the future love of her life – and who, as a time traveler, is actually visiting from the future. Fourteen years later, when a beautiful redhead wanders into the library where Henry works claiming not only to have known him all her life but to be his future wife, a magical romance ensues that is as sprawling and complicated as Henry's attempts to explain his "condition."
Over six hour-long episodes, the genre-bending drama series expertly weaves themes of love, loss, marriage, and survival – in a story that defies the laws and logic of time.
Check out our interview with The Time Traveler's Wife stars Rose Leslie & Theo James, as well with writer Steven Moffat & director David Nutter.
The Time Traveler's Wife episode 1 will premiere at May 15 at 9pm ET/PT on HBO, after which it will be available to stream on HBO Max.
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