One meter apart

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

The release date of the film "One Meter Away" is May 1, 2019, and judging by the reviews and reviews of the audience, it is worth stocking up on a couple of dozen handkerchiefs. Lovers Stella and Will face an insurmountable obstacle on the way to love - they cannot touch each other, and they can approach no more than one and a half meters. But even despite these obstacles, adolescents have enough courage to continue their relationship, because they live only for each other. Both are sick with cystic fibrosis, but this does not mean at all that they are going to obey the sentence.

An unexpected romantic plot

The idea for Five Feet Apart came to director Justin Boldoni back in 2012, when he was filming My Last Days, a documentary about people who are terminally ill, but do not intend to give up and want to live at any cost.

During the filming of a scene about people with cystic fibrosis, Justin noticed Claire Wineland, who did not look like a sick woman at all - the girl seemed cheerful and full of energy. This inspired Baldoni and he decided to inquire if this disease is combined with a love relationship.

Claire responded by looking at him like he was crazy that she would never have met a young man with the same diagnosis. After all, such people cannot come closer to each other than 1.5 meters, otherwise there is a risk of transmitting a deadly disease

This shocked and moved the director, then he decided to make a film about such a story.

Be closer / Appreciate simple things

Today, the relationship of young people has almost completely moved to social networks - you can not only exchange messages, photos and audio, but also be in video communication, hear each other and even exchange gifts. But is it as valuable as a real touch - tactile contact with a loved one?

Our heroes Stella (Hayley Lou Richardson) and Will (Cole Sprouse) are trying to lead a normal life, like all of their peers, despite the difficult difficulties - therapy in the clinic and a disappointing diagnosis. But they are deprived of the main thing - they cannot approach each other closer than one and a half meters. Nurse Barb (Kimberly Hebert Gregory) is watching this, she is like a mother, she is afraid for the health and psychological state of her wards

According to the director's idea, the romance between Will and Stella in the film “METER FROM EACH FRIEND” should remind the viewer how difficult it is sometimes for people with disabilities. It can make people appreciate simple things more: hugs with family and friends, casual touches, and pleasant everyday little things that seem to be commonplace. But for someone they are completely inaccessible …

New dating rules

The situation of the main characters is hopeless, and they are forced to come up with new dating rules within the walls of the hospital in order to get to know each other better. At first, lovers try to avoid a real romantic relationship - this emotional defense is only an attempt to save a loved one, so as not to make it worse and more painful. But feelings take over, and resourceful Stella comes up with ways to be together:

• Measure the distance between them with a billiard cue;
• Do not touch, but look at each other;
• Make calls by video link.

After all, it is so important to live to the fullest, not missing a single day.

Looking for Stella and Will

The main roles in the melodrama were performed by Hayley Lou Richardson (Law & Order, Columbus, Nearly 17) and Riverdale star Cole Sprouse (Grace On Fire, Chicks). Their characters are connected only by a common disease, otherwise they are complete opposites.

Stella is an active video blogger with many subscribers on YouTube, suffering from OCD and obsessed with a mania for order, Will is a mysterious rebel, a little cynical, great at drawing cartoons and does not recognize order around him. He is not even serious about the treatments and procedures that could save his life

Stella leads an active life online in social networks, which is very beneficial to Will - he has a great opportunity to observe the girl at first from afar, because he is not ready for a quick rapprochement, because he is emotionally closed.

The actors admitted that in these characters they were attracted by the fire in their hearts and the fact that the lovers do not give up, making a lot of efforts so that feelings do not fade away, but flare up with renewed vigor

Sometimes expectations from falling in love can be replaced with something other than tactile sensations. Instead of being close and touching, Stella and Will choose emotional contact that only fuels their physical attraction.

Finding Stella

The main goal of the casting was to find an actress for the role of Stella, she had to break through the wall of mistrust and psychological barriers that Will had built in front of herself.

“We went through more than one hundred tests to meet the very actress who would glow from the inside,” says Katie Schulman, the film's producer. "The viewer should immediately understand that Stella had to go through a lot, and the girl had the courage and willpower to cope with all this without losing faith in herself."

The director had known Hayley Lou Richardson for many years and immediately thought that Stella should be just as cheerful and energetic, the complete opposite of Will.

And it was the right decision, because after Richardson's auditions, the entire film crew was simply in love with her lightness, naturalness and disarming friendliness.

“I believe that the main problem of my heroine was not cystic fibrosis,” the actress admits. “What got in the way of her most was her hyper-responsibility and her desperate desire to keep everything and everyone under control.”

Finding Will

Who else can so skillfully demonstrate inner strife and rebellious spirit if not Cole Sprouse. At the same time, the spirit of a tomboy is harmoniously combined with an open and sincere heart.

Not only is Will suffering from cystic fibrosis, he is also infected with the bacterium Burkholderia cepacia, which is why he is undergoing experimental therapy in the clinic. The guy is a threat to Stella's health, because this bacteria can be transmitted by airborne droplets. Therefore, lovers are forbidden to approach each other, and it would be better for them not to communicate at all, as the orderlies and nurses believe.

For Katie Schulman, the role of Sprouse in the youth seraglio Riverdale was a real discovery:

“There was something attractive in him, he seemed to see a person through and through. I'm sure Cole has a great future. He is very dynamic, eloquent, witty, able-bodied, and the camera loves him very much. Plus, Cole knows firsthand what it's like to be an artist."

For his role, Sprouse lost 13 kg, of course, not without the help of a nutritionist. The actor wanted to understand Will better. “Cystic fibrosis is a special disease in which it is extremely difficult to maintain a normal weight, for this reason, most of the sick lose weight rapidly and strongly.

Cystic fibrosis - what kind of disease / Training of actors

It is an extremely dangerous genetic disorder that affects the lungs, pancreas and other organs, causing mucus to form. People who are sick may find it difficult to breathe and become highly susceptible to infection.

If in the 20th century the percentage of mortality from cystic fibrosis was extremely high, today new technologies for the treatment and prevention of the disease have appeared, so you can also meet adults with this ailment. Many of them even graduate from college and manage to start a family.

"Such pathologies enslave a person, and he can no longer get out of the state of illness," says Baldoni. "That's why Stella wants to break all the rules to be with Will and start living for real."

As a rule, people with cystic fibrosis do not become heroes of books and films, except perhaps documentaries. Therefore, Baldoni was aware of a special responsibility to his audience.

The film "ONE METER FROM ANOTHER" (2019), judging by the reviews and reviews of viewers and critics, attracted public attention to the disease. The director believes that this will give ordinary people a glimpse of the difficulties faced by suffering from cystic fibrosis.