What is love? How do the relationships we have early in our lives affect us for years to come? How can we break free from cycles of damage to form relationships of mutual understanding, respect, and love?
Sophie Brooks is a London-born, Brooklyn-based writer and director. Her sophomore feature Oh, Hi! premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Her debut film, The Boy Downstairs, was acquired by Film Rise and HBO at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was produced by David Brooks, Paul Brooks, and Dan Clifton and stars Zosia Mamet, Matthew Shear, and Diana Irvine.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
I've always believed that one of the hardest things to get from people is the truth. And I feel like your film, Oh Hi! really kind of picks apart this idea that you almost you have to tie someone to a bed for a day to get the truth out of them. I mean, I'm wondering what the inspiration was for this story?
SOPHIE BROOKS
Yeah. Seeking truth is certainly something I always try to do in my work. I think this film is a romantic comedy with a twist, and I think inherent in the dating process is a journey of discovery with two people seeking truth. Something that dating culture has right now that my parents' generation didn't is dating apps and all of these new words we've decided on, like ghosting, gaslighting, breadcrumbing, and love bombing.
When I was in my late twenties, I got out of a serious relationship and kind of reentered the dating scene. I was shocked by the simplification of a lot of complicated feelings around dating and how women are so easily labeled crazy, and men are so easily labeled assholes. In reality, we're all complex people with feelings and our own sets of baggage.
I thought it would be interesting to explore that in a tongue-in-cheek way and kind of lean into these tropes and then subvert them. My agent challenged me to come up with an idea that could shoot during COVID, meaning it had limited locations and limited actors.
Molly Gordon, who is the star of the film and a producer, also developed the story with me. She and I were in a COVID pod at the time, and I told her the idea. She immediately responded to it and was really excited about it.
We definitely did a lot of improv. We would always try to do what was on the page first. I'm not someone who's super strict with my actors doing word for word what I've written. I want it to feel most natural coming out of their mouths.
It's so exciting when you're sitting by the monitor, and then one of your actors says something, and you're like, "Oh my God, that's genius! Why didn't I think of that?" It's so exciting to watch them do it, and Molly's such an incredible improviser.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
It's interesting because it calls up these questions about what love is. For Iris and Isaac, the two leads, they have very different expectations.
BROOKS
I think there is something about the type of guy Isaac is, which is someone who desperately wants love and affection but is also scared of being vulnerable. If they're setting a tone of a type of relationship and that's not really what their intention is, the other person thinks, "Oh, we're on a road to a relationship, a road to love."
In reality, that's not what Isaac in the dynamic wants. It can be quite painful. But I also think it's painful for him. I think it's quite painful for the person who wants these things and is scared of the vulnerability of having them because, ultimately, I think we're all quite scared of rejection.
As brave as I think I am, as brave as I think Iris is, it's really scary to reach for something and feel it slipping away. I think Iris felt she was on the road to getting something she desperately wanted with this person who she thought reciprocated her feelings.
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I do think women are often labeled crazy for having pretty normal expectations or reading things in a healthy way. Just anecdotally, from my friends who have dated and myself, I think the standard for how one should be treated has somehow become too much or intense in a way that seems odd to me.
I think a man seeking love is viewed as sweet and romantic, while a woman seeking love can be viewed as desperate. That’s really unfair.
Without ruining anything, she does something that is pretty kooky, but that doesn't come out of nowhere. He behaves in a way that makes her that way. He does, in a lot of ways, gaslight her. I don't think he is doing it for his own pleasure; I think he genuinely is a complicated person who hasn't done enough therapy or work on himself to be ready for something serious.
But I don't think he has bad intentions. I think we've set up a culture in dating where we've kind of normalized the idea of "situationships." It's funny how it's now normal to not define something for months on end. If a woman wants a label, suddenly it's too much. I think there’s a lot of comedy in the ways things get simplified in our dating culture.
We're also spoiled for choice because of dating apps, Instagram, and other social media sites, where there is the idea that there's always something better out there. It's a slippery slope to go down, I think.
It creates a kind of blindness to what is in front of you and what is meaningful. Self-reflection is really important. When you notice a pattern in yourself, it's your responsibility to unpack it and find a way through it if you want to change it. I actually think, in a lot of ways for both Isaac and Iris, that is what their journey is about.
I do think we are very good at self-sabotage, all of us. It's a very easy road to go down. It's safe because it's comfortable, and we know it. When you can find the ways you self-sabotage and try to stop that, it will hopefully lead to a happier life and things that are meaningful.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
I'm wondering what drew you to the arts and writing, visual storytelling, and filmmaking in particular.
BROOKS
I was always a really creative kid. I loved to be creative, being in my room and playing and making up stories with my friends. My dad is a producer in the film industry, so I was always around film.
Writing to me feels quite spiritual sometimes. I’m not a religious person, but it feels that way. I journal almost every day, and writing feels like a way I can tap into a quiet part of my brain, and I love it.
I read everything out loud. Often, when I'm in the early stages of writing, I go for walks or drives if I'm in L.A., and I take voice memos of scenes. I actually listened to some a couple of weeks ago from *Oh Hi!*, and they were almost verbatim scenes in the movie that I had written while driving and just recorded the different characters. So, I'm doing a lot of improv when I'm writing and recording it.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
One thing that we're all thinking about now is how AI is transforming the way we communicate with ourselves, with our imaginations. It’s certainly making incursions into film and television. How does that sit with your creative process?
BROOKS
I personally don't see myself ever using it because all of my stories are kind of here in the now in some way, or in the past. I'm drawing from my own experience, the people around me, or the research I'm doing. It is not extensive, so I can't see a world in which AI would be beneficial to me.
Writing is such a craft, and it takes years and years to hone. I'm sure I will be honing my craft of writing for my whole life, coming back to the things I've learned so far and learning lots more. I take a lot of pride in the craft as a writer and how it can be easy in one moment and terrifying and heartbreakingly hard in the next. It's such a balance.
I'm dyslexic, so I actually don't read for pleasure very often. Usually, when I read, I'm trying to learn.
When I was writing that scene, Iris says that she's more of a movie girl, which I'm more of a movie girl than a book girl.
Sometimes, in the early stages of dating, you want to sound impressive to someone. I remember when I was much younger, in my early 20s, I would feel embarrassed that I didn't read a lot of novels because I wanted to sound smart and interesting.
From the age of five, I was held back a grade in third grade. I did third grade twice, and at the time, I felt such shame about it, and I felt inadequate. I'm so at peace now and grateful for my dyslexia, and I think it's made me who I am in a lot of ways.
I think having the experience of feeling like a failure at such a young age made me quite brave in my work because I have a fear of failure and a fear of rejection. But I'm also like, "I've been there, I've done it since I was five." That feels connected to my dyslexia in some way. I’m so glad that I love that part of myself now. Now I think it's a gift, and I think it makes me a better artist and braver.
I don't know what it would be like to not be dyslexic. I don't know what it would be like to not be a woman. I don't know what it would be like to be half English and half American. All of the things that we are create our perspective, and I try really hard to see other people's perspectives, but ultimately I am trapped in the prism of my own experience, which we all are to varying degrees.
