Interview by Paul Salfen, Text by Christine Thompson for AMFM Magazine
AMFM Magazine’s Paul Salfen caught up with acclaimed actor-director Katie Aselton for an exclusive interview about her latest passion project, Magic Hour. The Duplass Brothers Production, which world-premiered at South by Southwest, stars Aselton opposite Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) as Erin and Charlie—a couple who escape to the desert to navigate an unexpected and challenging new phase of their relationship.
The film’s origins trace back to a 2019 road trip down the California coast. Aselton and her husband, frequent collaborator Mark Duplass, recorded a voice memo that mapped out the entire story in one sitting. In her director’s statement, Aselton reflects on that moment: “The connection of two soulmates, the goofy quirks between two best friends, the devastation at the thought of losing that… It was us, but it wasn’t us; it was the idea of us.”
The pandemic that followed brought both terror and unexpected freedom. With fewer independent films being bought and a shifting landscape, Aselton embraced the chance to create without compromise. “What if I could make a movie that didn’t compromise to appeal to financiers, but instead stretched myself creatively?” she writes. “It felt like getting back to the way we came into this business making The Puffy Chair. It was thrilling.”
Despite the film’s heavy themes of loss, heartbreak, and the sacred space left behind in relationships, the production itself was filled with joy. Aselton told Salfen, “We did have a very disturbingly good time while making a movie about heartbreak.” Day one set the tone: the now-legendary banana scene in the pool, shot with cameras in fish tanks in a delightfully haphazard way that somehow went perfectly. Other highlights included Susan Sullivan’s scene-stealing improv in an antique store and wild dune buggy adventures in the desert. “I was like, what are we doing? Like, this is wild,” Aselton recalled with a laugh.
Aselton and Duplass’s creative partnership continues to draw directly from real life. “So much of our inspiration of everything that we create together or separately is mined from our own lives and our own relationships,” she explained. Their process often blurs the line between conversation and story development—turning personal talks about marriage, family, or relationships into scenes that double as “a little bit like free therapy… or very expensive therapy actually, because we do finance our own films.”
The movie explores universal questions about love and loss in a way that feels deeply personal yet widely relatable. Aselton described how every significant relationship leaves a space that we hold sacred: “Whether that is like a breakup, a betrayal, a fallout, or a greater loss than that, there is a space that is left behind… This movie sort of explores how long is it healthy to hold that space and how close do you hold that space?”
Audiences have responded with remarkable vulnerability. Aselton has noticed three distinct types of viewers—those who’ve lived the experience, those hoping to find something like it someday, and those currently in the thick of it—and the post-screening conversations have been intimate and lingering. “Normally when you do a Q&A after a movie, people leave… This movie has had this really special experience of people just staying so we could talk about it.”
Her advice to aspiring storytellers is refreshingly grounded: “Don’t spend too much money. Be okay if you’re just going to show it to your family and friends in your basement. But if it is a movie that you absolutely have to make, you should go and make it. You can make a really beautiful movie on your cell phone… Go be dumb on your phones and work out your mistakes as cheaply as possible and keep going.”
Aselton also reflected on her own “Hail Mary” moments, including stepping in to direct Diane Keaton in Mack & Rita. She credits Keaton’s authenticity as a lasting inspiration: “There was never anyone more herself than Diane Keaton.”
Looking ahead, Aselton has already wrapped her fifth feature as director, Their Town, which also premiered at South by Southwest. Described as a Before Sunrise-style story about two high school kids from different social worlds who spend one unforgettable evening together, the film explores the thrill of truly being seen.
Magic Hour is a reminder of the magic that happens when filmmakers return to their roots—small teams, big hearts, and stories that feel both specific and universal. Whether you watch it in a theater (where audiences reportedly leave wanting to hug someone) or at home on VOD, Aselton’s latest is the kind of film that lingers, inviting viewers to examine the spaces we hold for the people who shape us.
