‘Don’t Make Me Go’ Director Hannah Marks Says the Twist Ending Was Always the Plan

Director Hannah Marks knows you’ll be surprised by the ending of her new film, Don’t Make Me Go, which began streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video today. That’s one of the things she likes about the movie—despite the fact that many studios tried to get screenwriter Vera Herbert to abandon the plot twist over the years.

“No one was willing to cave, and that’s exactly how I felt when I came on board,” Marks told Decider in a phone interview. “I liked that [the ending] was jarring and bold and took you by surprise.”

As a filmmaker, you might know Marks’ work from indie comedies like 2018’s After Everything and last year’s Mark, Mary & Some Other People. As an actress, you might know her as Amanda from the short-lived BBC adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. At 29 years old, she’s already done a little bit of everything, with big things to come—like directing the upcoming film adaptation of John Green’s YA novel, Turtles All the Way Down.

Don’t Make Me Go—which stars John Cho as a single dad dealing with a terminal tumor diagnosis, and newcomer Mia Isaac as his loving 16-year-old daughter who agrees to take a road trip with her dad—is the first feature Marks has directed that she didn’t also write or co-write. But it still carries the same blend of humor and poignancy that Marks is becoming known for, thanks in part to her own contributions to the script. Marks spoke to Decider about that collaboration, discovering Mia Isaac, that jarring twist ending, and why John Green fans should be excited for Turtles All the Way Down.

Decider: This is the first feature you’ve directed that is not written or co-written by you. What made you choose this script, and how did the experience directing it compare to your previous films?

Hannah Marks: I was lucky that the producers and the writer were open to collaboration. I got to bring a lot of ideas to it—specific memories and stories that could be incorporated that were from my own life or from our actors’ lives. If there weren’t the openness to collaborate like that, I don’t think I would have been able to do it, because it’s hard to direct something without feeling a deep connection to it or ownership of it. I was grateful for that collaboration. But also, Vera wrote a great screenplay that felt very well suited to me.

What specifically did you bring to the script when you were having these conversations with your writer and producers?

It’s a bunch of small things that add up. For example, Wally’s pet lizard didn’t exist before. I was really inspired by the fact that Mia Isaac had a pet lizard. The dorky dad rap. The eyebrow scar story that she tells Rusty? That was my own eyebrow scar story. And Mia also has a scar on her eyebrow— it really kind of became a metaphor for trust and love, and loving yourself. The childhood home videos were something that I had originally got for Mia to show John, to help build their relationship—so John can see Mia as a little girl and, you know, feel closer to her, feel more like a father figure to her. But then, they were so special that they ended up in the movie. Those were real videos [of Mia] with her dad, and we replaced her dad’s voice with John’s voice. So, a lot of like happy accidents, and happy surprises came along the way.

Mia Isaac is so good in the movie—and this is her first movie! How did you guys find her?

We did a big search. We got tapes from close to 400 girls, probably, and Mia was just terrific right away. From her very first tape, there’s something so special about her. She had never really acted before, and so we did several callbacks and a chemistry-read Zoom between John and Mia. They had chemistry even over Zoom. That felt like a really good sign.

Being an actor yourself from a young age, how did that experience affect how you worked as a director with your actors—especially a young newcomer like Mia?

I relate to Mia so much, because I was also a child actor. She also started auditioning when she was 10 or 11. I empathize with her experience. I try to show her as much respect and trust as possible and be really communicative with her when she needs it. And also give her the space when she needs that—just trying to listen and be in tune, because I know how vulnerable that can be. But also, I think it’s important to be really direct when it comes to giving notes, because, personally, I hate trying to decipher what the director wants. I just want to know the truth. So, I think just being honest and straightforward goes a really long way.

The scene where I was most struck by her performance is the moment where she breaks and asks her dad to bet on herself. How did you direct her and John through this big emotional scene, which is the crux of the movie?

We had very few scenes that we could rehearse before filming because we were shooting in New Zealand. We were all in quarantine, and then we got out of quarantine and had to film. We only got a very quick moment to rehearse, and that [scene] was one of the ones we rehearsed. I purposely didn’t give it to Mia for her audition, because I thought that that was too intense of a scene to give young actresses. I wanted to save it for the girl that got the role, so she would feel comfortable and confident. We just started with reading the words, and it really grew from there. We saved the actual shooting of the scene for the end, so that way, they really have built a relationship in real life by the time we got to it. And then something that I think really helped the scene was the fact that [the characters had] just crashed the car and started running. They come into the scene running, with all this adrenaline and energy that was natural. Those factors contributed to their nice work—but they’re also just brilliant actors, to begin with.

I was shocked when I heard this was filmed in New Zealand because the locations feel like a quintessential American West road trip. How did you do it?

Thank you! I’m so glad that you felt that way because it was a huge challenge, in that we had to be incredibly strategic with our location scouting, our shortlisting, and our angles. A lot of times, you’d get to a location and one angle could maybe pass for America, but all the other angles can’t. So, you just have to be incredibly prepared and know the blocking in your head in advance, because you’re very, very limited in what you can do once you’re on set. Preparation was key. But, also we had a fantastic local cast and crew who were so collaborative and helpful.

[Spoiler warning: Stop reading now if you haven’t yet seen the movie! Major spoilers will be discussed from here forward.]

I admit, I was very surprised by the ending—the dad pulls through his surgery, but Wally dies unexpectedly. Was that always the plan going in, or was there ever a version of the movie where Wally lived?

There was never a version of the script where Wally survived. That was something that was really important to me, to the screenwriter, and to all of our producers. There had been many iterations of this movie before I came on board because Vera wrote this back when she was in college—in 2012, I believe. And over the years, of course, people said, “What if you had a happier ending? What if you didn’t do it this way?” A lot of studios would say that in order to make the movie, but no one was willing to cave. That’s exactly how I felt when I came on board. To me, it made the story more empowering. It made it more Wally’s story, and it made it more of Wally’s influence on Max showing him how to live his best life. To me, that was empowering, even though it was a sad ending. I liked that it was jarring and bold and took you by surprise. Plenty of young people deal with undiagnosed health issues as well, and so I loved that what she thought was teenage anxiety or teenage panic, was actually a symptom of something much larger, which unfortunately can happen in the real world.

How did you approach foreshadowing this ending without giving it away? 

It was a really tricky balance. We do set it up in the very beginning, with Wally’s voice-over line. She does warn everyone, but hopefully, you get swept up in the movie enough that you forget that warning. It was about just planting these seeds—again, things that could be teenage anxiety or panic or could be an illness. That was something I connected to as someone who grew up with anxiety. Planting the seeds so they’re subtle, but not too subtle. You don’t want to give it away, but you also don’t want them to not exist. Something that I had added to make sure there were more seeds planted was the stress sweating. That was something that was important to me to include, so it wasn’t just those two instances—with her fainting at the soccer field and passing out with the kegstand.

Is this the kind of thing where if people go back and watch it a second time, they might see it in a different light or catch more things?

I think so. I hope so. It’s hard for me to say because I’ve seen the movie about 500 times.

What are you hoping that people will take from this twist ending?

There’s a lot that I hope people will take from it. I, of course, hope people will take risks and want to live life to their fullest and stay present and appreciate their loved ones and respect their relationships —all of those important themes. But also just as a reminder to teenagers to remember that their parents are full human beings. I think that’s something that Mia and I were both learning as we were making this movie. Like, our parents are three-dimensional humans that have flaws, but we love them all the more for it. So yeah, hug your loved ones tight.

Coming up, you’re directing an adaptation of John Green’s novel, Turtles All The Way Down. What can you tell us about that? Where are you guys at in the process? 

We just finished filming, so, I’m a few days into the edit. So, it’s all really, really, really fresh and recent, and I’m super excited about it. But as of now, because we just started, the movie is still a million hours long. I’m excited to shape the ball of clay that will become this story. And I can tease that John Green is in it as an actor. We had a real blast doing it.

Oh, exciting. My next question was going to be if he’s been involved in the movie much—sounds like yes?

Yeah, he was on set for probably 75 percent of the shoot. We were with him a lot collaborating on the script and casting, and he’s a producer on the movie, and now an actor in it too! He’s the absolute best.