February 4, 2016 – T-Mak World had the pleasure of interviewing the charming Jeannette Sousa, a writer and actress who starred in A Date with Miss Fortune. After a successful theatrical release in Portugal, the film opens tomorrow February 5th – just in time for Valentine’s Day.
TM – First off, congratulations on the film! It is a wonderfully written romantic comedy and sure to be a big hit for Valentine’s day. Is this your first screenplay?
JS – It’s the first screenplay we’ve written together, though Ryan has written a few.
TM- How did the idea for the screenplay come about? Did you pull any elements from your real life experiences?
JS – It’s fair to say that A DATE WITH MISS FORTUNE is definitely inspired by our real life cross-cultural relationship. Throughout our relationship there were so many interesting moments and times where something would happen and we would say to one another “We should put that in a script or that should be in a movie” and then finally one day we turned to each other and said “Let’s do it”!
TM – I understand your daughter was born during the 4 year period you were working on the film. Were the scenes of Maria pregnant real?
JS – No, I wasn’t really pregnant during that time. I was wearing a “baby bump” .
TM – We can definitely see the advantages to having a real-life married couple play the lead couple in the movie. The chemistry between you was very natural. Were there any challenges to working together? And do you think you will both collaborate on another film together in the future?
JS – There were definitely many challenges working together, especially because we each wore “3 hats” while putting this film together. (writer, producer, actor). The biggest challenge was balancing the film with our personal life. We really had to schedule “family time” and promise not to talk about the film during those moments, which is difficult when you are involved in so many levels.
We’ve already began collaborating on future projects. But we definitely won’t be playing so many roles in the next one.
TM – What’s it like working with Joaquim de Almeida? I understand he has quite a fan base in his native Portugal and his last film Our Brand is Crisis featuring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock was a big hit at TIFF this past September.
JS – Working with Joaquim was a great. Ryan and I both wrote the role of Jose always with Joaquim in mind. As a writer, it can be dangerous to write with a specific actor in mind because it can be devastating if the actor refuses the role. However, lucky for us, after reading the script, Joaquim graciously accepted. He’s phenomenal in the film. It was an absolute joy acting opposite of him and definitely a highlight for Ryan and I.
TM – What next for both of you?
JS – We have a few projects in development right now, but we are primarily focusing on the North American release of A DATE WITH MISS FORTUNE for the time being. Comedy is a medium that we both really enjoy so the next film will most likely be another comedy.
Read T-Mak World’s full movie review for A Date with Miss Fortune: http://tmakworld.com//2016/02/date-miss-fortune.html
Watch the Trailer
A Date with Miss Fortune has already pre-sold more than a thousand tickets! Get your tickets here: http://www.cineplex.com/Movie/a-date-with-miss-fortune
