Dakota Johnson Says Directing First Short ‘Loser Baby’ “Felt Natural And Intuitive” 

I feel like I have a lot of growth in that department and a lot to learn, and I by no means think I’m ready to go do that, but also I could change my mind about that tomorrow, I don’t know.”

“I don’t know what we’re doing here, honestly,” Johnson laughs, admitting that their friend and Loser Baby‘s producer, Ro Donnelly, submitted the short without either of them knowing. The surprise turned out to be a smart move when the 23-minute queer comedy was accepted and celebrated its world premiere at the festival.

Bernstein, who’s penned episodes for popular series like Fresh Off the Boat and Ghosts, says she wrote the script about “a very real depiction of gay relationships, and very specifically of gay people in their mid-thirties, where they’re not young and crazy anymore, but they’re not older and have their life figured out.”

Loser Baby follows a group of LA-based friends, led by Talia Bernstein (Ghosts), who also penned the script. Bernstein’s character Lizzie is stressed by the relatively sexless plateau of her long-term relationship—a situation she bemoans to her best friend (Blake Lee) and that reaches a kind of zenith at a birthday party for another friend (Ashley Madekwe).

“It was definitely pulled from reality,” Bernstein said of the film that also stars Addison Timlin, Whitmer Thomas, Jessy Hodges and Ben Lewis. “I really wanted to see authentic queer relationships. “I’m in a long-term relationship at the time that I wrote this, and I was like, ‘I’m not seeing this [elsewhere], I’m not seeing this version of this relationship… I just wanted to explore that there are so many ways to be in a relationship.”

Johnson said she encouraged her cast leaned into “a lot of improv. The structure of the script was totally there and everything that was in the script ended up in the short, but there were moments where I wanted them to push it a little bit further.”

The short is produced by TeaTime Pictures, Johnson and Ro Donnelly’s production company. 

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Alessandra Signorelli

Signorelli is an Italian journalist writing about travel, lifestyle, wellness and beauty. She works in the Editorial Board of George V Magazine. She is based in Rome.

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