Azazel Jacobs (‘His Three Daughters’ director/writer) on being certain he should cast Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen
Azazel Jacobs knew pretty early in stages of writing the script for “His Three Daughters” that he wanted the three sisters to be played by Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen. “I think it was about 15 or 20 pages into the script when I realized I was writing for the three of them,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the video interview above). “All three of them I had worked with or I had a direct relationship with.” He had directed two episodes of “Sorry For Your Loss” with Olsen, directed Coon’s husband Tracy Letts in “The Lovers” and “French Exit,” and had crossed paths with Lyonne enough that he actually had her email address.
“His Three Daughters” which can currently be streamed on Netflix is the latest effort from Jacobs that he both wrote and directed. The comedy-drama centers on three sisters who reunite at their father’s New York City apartment as he begins palliative care for his cancer treatment. As they prepare for their father’s inevitable passing they also confront the fractured relationship each one has with the others.
The film marks the seventh feature project for Jacobs who’s become more and more known on the indie circuit. His past projects include the aforementioned “The Lovers” and “French Exit” as well as “Nobody Needs to Know,” “The GoodTimesKid,” “Momma’s Man,” and “Terri.” In 2017 he earned an Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay for “The Lovers.”
The decision to not see the dying father until much later in the film was another aspect that Jacobs had a clear idea about very early on in the process. “I knew that going into a room and doing a dying scene was something that I didn’t feel comfortable with being able to do in a good way. I’ve seen it done in wonderful ways that are very convincing but that was something that I wasn’t too interested in.” He also wanted to make sure that the focus of the film was not taken off of who it needed to be on. “I knew not going into the room would really keep the focus about what this story is truly about which is about family and who’s left behind and what is family after.”