This Tempting Madness director Jennifer Montgomery opens up about the wild, twisty, and deeply personal true story behind her psychological thriller.
Psychological thrillers often play with the boundaries of reality, but few ground their mind-bending twists in actual trauma quite like This Tempting Madness. Inspired by a shocking true story, the film follows Mia, a woman who awakens from a coma with a fractured memory and a grievously injured body. As she begins the grueling process of putting the shattered pieces of her past back together, she is forced to question her own past actions, her loved ones, and her entire perception of reality.
Mama’s Geeky correspondent Rachel Tolleson spoke with The Tempting Madness director Jennifer Montgomery to dive deep into the incredibly personal inspiration behind the film. During their conversation, Montgomery teased the thin line between fiction and reality, the challenges of translating a close friend’s real-life recovery onto the screen, and why she chose to paint her protagonist not as a victim, but as a Phoenix rising from the ashes.
Director Jennifer Montgomery Discusses This Tempting Madness
Mama’s Geeky: This film is a wild ride with a lot of twists and turns. Since it is inspired by true events, what is the balance between what is true and what is fiction?
Jennifer Montgomery: Yeah, it’s inspired by a true story of something that happened to a very close friend of mine. I think one of the things that I get asked most often is what’s true and what’s not true. For better or for worse, it’s mostly true. You know, I would say the catharsis of the film is something that we’re able to give the audience—a sort of an end beat where life keeps going. And that’s the only divergent element in it. But it really is, you know, inspired and very much telling her story.
Mama’s Geeky: As a filmmaker, what was your process for choosing what to change from the actual events, and how did you approach making the film so immersive?
Jennifer Montgomery: It was born from a very intense situation. And there are so many details. I was so involved in it with my friend because this is someone I’m so close to that the hardest part was honestly choosing what not to include because there’s so many things that go on. So I would say it’s really just sort of finding where you want to land with it and then helping sort of bring people on that ride. But really, I think what she went through was so unbelievable that it was important to me to try to create something that was immersive inside her head and to try to understand where she’s coming from… it was important to sort of shed light on how she may be feeling because we can be that way with ourselves. We can be that way with our friends, our family. And that was something that was really important in the film is just creating that immersion.
Mama’s Geeky: The editing does a fantastic job of keeping things vague and making us question what is real. How did you work with your editor to visually represent her unstable state of mind?
Jennifer Montgomery: At the very beginning of the film, the lead character Mia experiences brain damage. And so with that, she has amnesia. And so in real life and also in the film, she doesn’t remember everything that happened to her. She has forgotten whole chunks of her life. And the way she processes that is really just what her mind is choosing to let her remember at any given point. And to that end, she also was having to rebuild the strength of her short-term memory. And so we were really, the vagueness that you talk about, it’s really that grasping at straws of trying to heal the brain as it’s recovering from traumatic injury. And you mentioned the editor, the editing, our editor Kieran was absolutely fantastic. He was so emotionally sensitive and so good at just being in there and tweaking just little bits, little bits. And I know we talked a lot about referencing Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker, because they just use these flashes from this traumatic past to sort of drop in what may have happened, but always sort of making you question where your stabilizing ground is.
Mama’s Geeky: Since this movie is based on someone so close to you, what was your approach to casting the right person to bring Mia to life?
Jennifer Montgomery: Nobody was going to be her precisely. And so the thing that was most important to me when approaching the casting process was really to find someone that captured her energy. And in that we were really open with the casting… and ultimately when we met with Simone, she really brought to it this desire to pull out Mia’s strength and show her rebuilding. And that is what I think a lot of people can miss about the character that I was so excited to see her bring to it. So she really, really, when we met with her, it became clear. I was like, you, you get it because there’s the Mia before the accident and the Mia after the accident. And then you have to say, okay, how do we draw a roadmap of where you’re going to be? And in the film, it was really important to us to paint her as a Phoenix rising from the ashes. She’s not, it’s not a movie about falling. It’s a movie about rising. And that was something that I think Simone instinctively got from the, from the get.
For more on the incredible cast, behind-the-scenes editing tricks, and how the real-life Mia reacted to the final film, be sure to watch the full video interview.
About This Tempting Madness
Inspired by a true story. Mia awakens from a coma grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions, and her perception of reality.
This Tempting Madness comes to select theaters and on demand on June 12th.
