Natalie Morales gives directing experience an ‘A’
What better way to keep occupied during the pandemic than by writing, directing and starring in a movie?
That was the case for Natalie Morales with “Language Lessons,” a two-character duet separated by geography but united by Zoom.
As Carino, Morales (“Parks and Recreation”) works as a Spanish language online tutor who contacts Adam (Mark Duplass) with the news that a big bunch of pre-paid Spanish lessons are coming.
It’s a surprise gift from his partner. And the surprises continue as the two — she in Costa Rica, he in Oakland, Calif. — discuss their lives, attitudes, hopes.
Unlike too many virtual relationship movies, “Language Lessons” never feels confined by its format to be by turns funny, spontaneous and continually surprising.
“Mark called me in the middle of everything being locked down with the germ of an idea,” Morales, 36, recalled. “Because he was taking Spanish lessons, he wondered if I spoke Spanish and I said yes.
“Well, he asked, could we make some kind of movie about this relationship? Then we wrote it and very quickly made it.”
“Lessons” seems so real, you wonder: Weren’t they just improvising?
“Yes and no,” she said. “It’s about 50-50. We really did write a lot of it, especially the Spanish stuff because we wanted to make sure all that was right. And we had specific lines we wanted to say or plot points. And it was definitely written with pockets of improvisation to make it as realistic as possible.”
As to what Morales gets from directing that she doesn’t find anywhere else, “The short easy answer is: People have to care about my opinion.
“I have an opinion in most situations in life. And I generally keep it to myself. Unless somebody asks or unless it’s my job to say what that is.
“Especially coming from the acting world where your job is to listen to everybody else (which I also really enjoy), the one thing that’s interesting with directing is that you get to be captain of this ship.
“There is risk. You know you are going to think it’s gonna be awful. All of those things run through your head.
“But once you start betting on yourself — and you feel like you have a good team around you and you all mutually respect each other — it’s up to you to make the decisions that move the things forward.
“That can either be scary or it can be fun and I found it to be very fun.”