Jennifer Morrison on Directing, Dr. Death, and Owning What You Love
From her landmark roles on illustrious shows such as House and Once Upon a Time to her directorial debuts on Euphoria and Dr. Death, Jennifer Morrison is the fully-realized embodiment of multi-dimensionality.
An astonishingly versatile actress, Jennifer Morrison has journeyed through an array of characters that have helped sketch her distinguished career, but it was her breakout role in 2004 as immunologist Allison Cameron on House and her directorial debut in 2015‘s Warning Labels that earned her the ability to firmly secure her own creative destiny. By founding Apartment 3C Productions in 2016, Morrison gave a home to both her brilliant and insightful directing and producing projects, through which she seeks to put a possible positive future forward in the world.
After well-deservedly earning her stripes as a producer through a myriad of captivating pictures, Morrison has now returned to direct the first four episodes of Season Two of Dr. Death, premiering December 21st on Peacock.
Our publisher, Kristin Prim, sat down with Jennifer to talk all things directing, confidence, Dr. Death, Euphoria, and owning what you love.
KP: So for those who may not be familiar, let's take it all the way back. What was it that initially inspired your passion for acting?
JM: You know, I somehow was just born thinking that I was an actor. I really don't completely know. I can say that my parents are both musicians – they're both music teachers, so we did have a lot of music and art in the house. My mom had me in dance classes from the time that I was very little. So in terms of performing, music and art were always around us. But my mom said that I came home from kindergarten one day and was like, "Mom, I'm an actor. Why am I not in a play?" I have no idea what happened at school that day that, like, made that be the thing to say.
KP: [Laughs].
JM: But, luckily, they were super supportive and heard me when I said that, so my parents both kind of looked for opportunities for me to do community theater and to be in the school plays. They helped me figure out how to do it, because it was something that I was really excited about from a very young age. And I just loved it, you know? I loved dancing as well. I ended up playing clarinet and piano – I love that, too. So I think it was just always kind of in me to want to be creative, and acting seemed like the accumulation of all of those things. Whether I understood it or not at that age, it was something that made it so that I could really be creative on all levels. And it also led to my interest in directing. I started directing theater when I was in high school. So it all kind of tied together and went way, way back. Kind of like you starting in media at 14 – somehow it was in you, you know? And you don't totally understand it. But luckily, I had a family that supported it.
KP: For sure. I remember being that young and anytime I was interviewed, people would ask me how I knew I would make a great publisher. And I was like, "I don't know." So sometimes it's just this innate thing, right? You just kind of have this weird feeling, which is bizarre. It kind of makes you think a little bit.
JM: Definitely makes you wonder about past lives or something, right?
KP: Exactly! You're somehow just so confident in your ability to do something, and then you end up being really great without having any prior experience – it's very interesting.
But from an acting perspective, you've had absolutely incredible runs on groundbreaking shows such as House, This Is Us, and Once Upon a Time. What is it that you look for when selecting a role? And is there any one commonality that you feel all of these seemingly disparate characters may have in common?
JM: That's a really great question. You know, it's interesting, because when you're first starting out and you're in the earlier days of your career, especially as an actor, there's not a lot of choice involved, right? There are things that you do say no to if it's something that really goes against your ethics or just feels awful to be a part of – and there are definitely things like that that I did say no to – but for the most part, you really just need to get a job when you're young, and so you're going out and auditioning for everything that you could possibly audition for. You're really not thinking past, "I just need to get a job." And I wasn't far from that. Honestly, when I got House, I was doing very well in terms of being someone who tested for a lot of pilots. The industry was very different back then. The pilot season that I got House, I was testing for like six other pilots at the same time and they pushed my test process faster so that they could get me first on House. So I was doing well in terms of getting those opportunities and getting myself in those tests. But the year before House, I tested for 14 pilots and didn't book a single one. So it was just a crazy numbers game at that point, you know? It was a very different time in the industry then.
Obviously, I loved House, and the reason that I prioritized that test was because I loved the character. I wanted to work with Bryan Singer, I wanted to work with David Shore – I was so excited. At the time, the only person attached was a Robert Sean Leonard, but I was a huge fan of his work from Dead Poets Society. So I prioritized that one hoping that it would work out. And then, luckily, it did.
But after that, you do sort of earn some more decisions once you've actually established yourself. And so from that point on, I would say, I really tried to look at the creative team and really take a look at the people that I was going to be working with all day every day because those people are going to feel like family for however long you're on that job, you know? So that's a big part of my decision making.
I think the reason that the characters feel disparate when you look at the different characteristics of them is because I was intentionally looking for something incredibly different. So what's consistent is that I really tried to do something very different than the thing before. And that's how I ended up, you know, playing a doctor on House and then playing a crazy over-the-top activist on How I Met Your Mother. That was kind of hilarious and weird. And then going from Once Upon a Time playing someone who was a fairy tale character and didn't know it, to playing an Afghanistan veteran, which couldn't be more different. So that's where the decision making is coming from – how far can I push and stretch myself to do something different than the thing before?
KP: I love that – it's so interesting. So you just directed and executive produced the first four episodes of Season Two of Dr. Death, which has a totally fascinating story. Would you mind telling us a little bit about the series for people that don't know? What about it were you so drawn to?
JM: So Dr. Death is an anthology series, which in itself is always interesting to me. I love the concept of a through line of theme from season to season, but each season having its own new cast and its own new story. It's a whole new world. I think there's just something interesting about exploring TV from an anthology mindset.
And so I did actually direct two episodes of the first season – really my initial draw was to work with Patrick Macmanus. We had had a general meeting after I directed a pilot for UCP Peacock called One of Us Is Lying, and the folks at UCP were like, "I think you would get along with this showrunner. I feel that what you do visually would really match his taste." And they were right. We just got along immediately about what we saw I visually. It was a great experience working with him on episode three and four of Season One. And so then when Season Two came along, he handed off the showrunning reins to Ashley Michel Hoban, who is one of the writers that he works with a lot. She and I met and got along really well, too. So that's kind of how it started.
And again, it kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier about looking at the creative community that you're going to work with. I knew that I was getting back into business with a group of people who felt like family, who I loved working with. And then the icing on the cake really was just that Ashley Michel Hoban was such a joy to collaborate with. We got along so well. When you have a good partnership between the director and the showrunner, it really makes such a huge difference for the experience on set and also for the quality of what you can put on the screen. So all of that was part of it.
And then also, creatively, I think it's really interesting to to just look at how vulnerable we all can be to these very charismatic personalities who know how to manipulate and sway people. Because we're living in a time in the world where whether it's in a medical situation or not, I mean, there's a million versions of this that have nothing to do with medicine, right? We all have to be so aware of misinformation and so aware of how just because someone is completely compelling and competent in what they're saying does not make it the truth – that does not automatically make them a safe person to believe or to follow. And this seems like a giant metaphor for a lot of things that are going on in the world right now.
I was really interested in looking at how to bring to life visually a story that was really about the terrible decisions that we make when we're afraid. And that was really the theme that I kept going back to for Season Two – every character got themselves in the mess that they got themselves into by making a decision out of fear. And I think that's just such an interesting thing to take into consideration as we're all walking through life right now and dealing with world events in the way that things are currently unfolding.
“Just go make stuff, you know? Go make stuff for nothing. Learn how to make stuff and that will help give you the confidence when you’re asking other people to bet on you financially.”
KP: Absolutely. I can't wait to see it. So Euphoria marked your television directorial debut. It was an episode that dealt with Maddy's unhealthy relationship with Nate and it was heralded for its delicate handling of such a sensitive situation – one that many people attributed to the episode being directed by a woman. Was your dealing with such an emotional topic in such a thoughtful and introspective way overtly intentional? I imagine it was something that you definitely wanted at the forefront, right?
JM: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's always tricky when you're dealing with tough subjects. I feel really lucky that I've gotten myself into a position, especially as a filmmaker, to be known as someone who knows how to toe that line very carefully. Because I think that life is never black or white – it's gray, you know? We all live in a gray zone. The things that we manage and deal with on a daily basis can be challenging, and sometimes unhealthy. I think that it's important to find a way to represent those things on screen in a way where we can see the different perspectives and the different places that people are coming from. If we do this, we can think about ways to move forward in a healthier or more productive way.
And so that was definitely on my mind, dealing with the toxic relationship between Maddy and Nate in that episode. Knowing that those characters are written as high school kids – we're not fully formed in high school, you know? We don't see clearly, I guess, the full impact of certain decisions, or the full impact of certain abuses. And so I was trying really hard to keep in mind that Maddy was so intoxicated with her idea of loving Nate, that she was blinded so deeply, that she couldn't see the damage that was coming from it. And I didn't want her to feel judged in any way, because I think we've all been there when we were that age, you know? I think it's important for other kids who might be watching to go, "Oh, I can see that this person is going through this, but with some distance, I can also understand that it's not healthy." Maybe if they were in that situation themselves, they wouldn't be able to see it that way. So it was really just about constantly trying to check in with making sure that Maddy's idea of love wasn't being judged – that it was being respected in the way that the story was unfolding visually. Ultimately, the big picture of it was showing that this girl really needs to not be with this person – that she needs people to help her not be in an abusive situation.
And it's tricky, because it's hard to articulate those things – it's more of a gut feeling, you know? As you're moving through that process, as you're deciding where to put the camera, as you're making decisions about how to nudge up performance this way or that way, so much of it is the instinct. How do I protect these people as actors? How do I protect these characters? How do I think about the big picture of the story? I think trying to keep the balance among those three things is what makes it possible to toe that line.
KP: Absolutely. I watched it the night that it premiered and you did a fantastic job with it.
JM: Thank you.
KP: So coming off of that, I feel it's so imperative, especially because of how empathetic, introspective, and nurturing women tend to be, to not only tell our stories, but also other stories within the world that we can explore. So in an industry that is still so lacking in female directors, how do you think we can go about getting more women involved in the craft?
JM: I think it's going to – well I guess I should say, I hope – that it's starting to shift more now that there's been enough time where people are paying attention to the idea of women telling stories – that we're working their way through the ranks, you know? Because the thing is, we can't just hand women projects that they're not ready to work on – we all have to be ready. We all have to do the work. We have to be prepared, and we have to be good at it. Because if you have someone do something that they're not prepared for, it doesn't go well and then that hurts us in the long run, right? Because then they go, "Oh, well, women can't handle it." And it's not about that person being a woman, it's just that they weren’t given a chance to be prepared to be in that position, right? So my hope is that we've now had enough time to think and take into consideration how important it is to have female perspectives and storytelling, that we're giving women those experiences so that they're ready, in addition to the women who were already ready, you know? I'm hoping that it broadens the playing field of women who are able to tell stories.
And I also think it's just important for us to remember that women might do it a little differently than we're used to, and that's fine. It's like, men don't all direct on a set exactly the same way, right? So we can't expect women to do it exactly the same way either. I think we just need to have some grace – things might look different than we're used to. We have to open our minds to the possibility that things are going to be different so that we can see what might be different can also be better, you know?
KP: Absolutely. And in 2016, you founded Apartment 3C Productions, which gives a much-deserved home to your incredible directing and producing projects, in part because you found it easier as an “unproven filmmaker” to get financed if you bet on yourself – which is something that I am definitely an advocate for. It takes a massive amount of confidence, though, to do such a thing, especially without a proven track record at that point in time. Where do you feel that confidence came from within yourself? Would you offer any advice to women who struggle with finding inner confidence in terms of their own abilities or in their own work?
JM: Yeah, I'm not sure. I do have some sort of weird default setting of, well, I guess it's sort of fake-it-till-you-make-it. I haven't really thought about it before. But like, I think that's kind of what it is. I look at what other people are doing and how they're doing it – especially people who I admire – and I do the best that I can to emulate what they're doing in the hopes that if I do it over and over again, eventually that will make what I'm doing valid.
The biggest bet I was taking when I started Apartment 3C was just putting some of my own money into my company. I was lucky because I was making good money as an actor at the time, so I had the privilege and the luxury of doing that. I know not everybody has that resource. I know that I was very lucky to be in that position. But, you know, it didn't matter that I was an actor in the industry for a long time – it didn't make anybody look at me like, "Oh, of course she could be a filmmaker." If anything, they were like, "Oh God, this actress thinks she can direct." People tend to have this default setting without even seeing what you're capable of, you know?
I did have a little bit of competence coming off of doing my short film, Warning Labels, which had gone to so many festivals and we also got distribution deals for it. The fact that it was well-received really helped give me some confidence that I could try to start my own company and make a feature. After that, I shot a couple of music videos for a band called Wild Wild Horses – which, I don't even know if they're around anymore – but they're lovely band. They just believed in me as a filmmaker, which was cool. And then I had done a project for Refinery29 that never really saw the light of day, but I did go through with actually making it and shooting it. So I did have these few things behind me that gave me confidence. It gave me the hope that if I put the right people around me for a feature, I would be able to succeed.
So I guess the advice that I would give someone else is to put your toe in the water in a way that's safe first, you know? It didn't cost me anything to do those other things initially. These days I feel like the visual artists are so democratized because of technology. You can shoot a film on your iPhone and put it on YouTube and see what people think of it. You can shoot a film on your iPhone and submit it to festivals and see what people think of it, you know? So there's a different level of democratization in the visual arts right now where if you just follow through with making that early stuff, you will be able to get some early feedback and you'll also be able to get your own confidence in being able to do it.
It's interesting, because I actually just co-directed a music video with a young artist who I think is incredible. His name is Mehro – just an incredible voice, an incredible visionary. He's been directing all of his own videos, and we just got along really well and felt like we would make a good team. They've been making these productions starting years ago with like, basically nothing, but they were pulling off a very high quality. And I said to him, "I know you think this is going to be super different when you get more of a budget, but the truth is, it all kind of feels the same." You start to realize that if you do it, you do it. It doesn't matter if your budget is $2,000 or your budget is a million dollars – you're feeling the same needs and pressures and time and people that you need to surround yourself with. Obviously, it's great to have the financial resources, but you'd be really shocked to feel that it won't be that different of an experience just because there's money behind it. So that's a long version of advice. Just go make stuff, you know? Go make stuff for nothing. Learn how to make stuff and that will help give you the confidence when you're asking other people to bet on you financially.
“We’re all worried about what everybody else thinks and we’re just somebody else to somebody else. Everybody else is just somebody else to somebody else – it doesn’t matter. ”
KP: Absolutely. And also, just figure it out along the way. I think a lot of people are so afraid to do that. Especially as women, I think we sometimes feel that we have to be experts in something to go into it, and that’s just not true. I knew nothing about publishing or business when I began. I started with literally nothing, you know? And now 15 years in, I know a lot, right? So just kind of take that plunge.
JM: I think you're really, really smart to say that, honestly. And I also say to people all the time that one of my superpowers is that I always say when I don't know something.
KP: Right! I do the same. I always say that I know what I know and I don't know what I don't know. I'm not afraid to admit to either, and I think that is so key.
JM: Yeah, absolutely.
KP: So on the website for Apartment 3C, you have a quote actually from you there, which I love. And it says, "At some point as artists and as a community, we have to take responsibility for the fact that we need to put a possible positive future forward in the world." I initially found success in the fashion industry, fashion publishing to be exact, but I never felt fulfilled in it, you know? I always tried to find a deeper meaning and a more palatable way of pushing forward and creating a brighter future for the world, so I relate to this concept deeply. Are there any personal experiences you had that led you to feel that way?
JM: Well, I think it just came from being a lover of cinema and realizing that so much of what goes on the screen right now is either apocalyptic or borderline apocalyptic. And that feels very concerning to me. I'm not saying there's not space for some of it, but if all we do is put these dark, bleak, apocalyptic futures in front of people, we will start to manifest that, which I feel like we kind of are already, you know? It's like, when you see a James Bond movie, everybody wants to go out and buy the newest car that James Bond drove because we're influenced by what we're watching. You know, when I was on Once Upon a Time, many people bought the red jacket that Emma wore. We are swaying people's perceptions of what they like, what they don't like, what they want, and how they see the world by putting things on the screen in front of them. We are swayed by it, whether we want to admit it or not. Advertisers certainly know that.
So it feels very scary to me that we're now in a time where it seems like unless you make something dark and bleak, it cannot be well reviewed. It's like reviewers have this default setting that if it's dark and it ends in either an obscure or deadly way, then it can be well reviewed, but if something – God forbid – has a happy ending, it must not be great quality. As a culture in that mindset, we're just perpetuating this idea that everything has to be dark and bleak and horrible – that's getting in our psyche. That's something that the world is now starting to manifest around us.
I just feel like we need to get to a place where, like I said, there's space for everything. I'm not saying that there shouldn’t be any of it, but there's got to be space for movies and television shows with happy endings or with positive themes that are allowed to be considered good, you know? And granted, those things have to be well made – they have to have great craftsmanship. It needs to be deserved. But if those things are present, then they should be allowed to be considered good. They should be allowed to be celebrated. So I really think that we have a responsibility as artists to put these possible positive futures in the world so that we start to emulate them and think about what that might look like and how we could get there. Otherwise, I'm very concerned that we're going to always just default to something that's dark and destructive and feel like we don't have any way out. I think art is a big part of giving people hope.
KP: It absolutely is. And I relate to that so much. I think when people look at me, they think I'm going to be into like, very dramatic things, but I am such a rom-com girl. Like I have seen every single one. I even watch Hallmark movies – I'm that bad. [Laughs].
JM: [Laughs]. But that's great! Like those things are made because they make you feel good.
KP: Exactly! So funny. But you know, you also run Jen's Bookshelf, in which you invite people to read with you each month as you discover “authors with distinctive voices whose books encourage you to own your own outsider,” which is a prompt that I absolutely adore. We're always asking brilliant women here for cultural recommendations, so I was just wondering if you have a favorite title that you could recommend? Or a couple? Maybe a few?
JM: Actually, I could. So one of the recent ones that I really love and definitely recommend is Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou. And, you know, I even said this in my review of the book, a lot of our books are very specific and so I understand that they're not necessarily for everyone, but I do feel like this book is for a lot of people – I feel like there's something in it for everyone. It's a very active novel. It tackles a lot of big stuff that's going on in the world, but not in a way that feels preachy or heavy-handed – it's just sort of all part of the world in a way where it feels honest. It doesn't feel forced. And it's got a great sense of humor, but also has some really serious stuff. It's a beautiful journey of this character, Ingrid, kind of starting from a place of really being out-of-touch with her sense of self. She thinks that she isn't, but she's kind of built this façade, and then the book takes her on a journey where all of it gets unraveled until she gets to this moment of feeling her true self for just a moment at the end of the book. It's a really satisfying journey. And I think it's something that everybody would relate to, no matter who it is. So that's one of my recommendations.
And then my other one – and this is just one of my favorite books of all time that I go back to, it was actually the first book we ever did on the book club – I Will Die In a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart. This book was so interestingly intuitive because Kailani started this book way before the war broke out in Ukraine, yet it was dealing with all of these things that led to the war in Ukraine – it's historical fiction. She did a tremendous amount of research to make the history of when it was set in 2014 accurate. She kind of collages the chapters in a way where some are letters, some are prose, some are poems, some are tweets, and some are news headlines. At first I was a bit disoriented because I was like, "Oh, whoa." But then as I got sucked in, I started to fall for all of these characters and care about how their lives started to intertwine. I was really invested. I felt like I was living with them. I felt like, "Oh, I'm in this church in this like makeshift hospital along with them." You walk outside and you see the news headlines, then you go home and have this experience with someone, but then you open Twitter and see the headlines. It was like she found a way to make it a very immersive experience, so that you weren't just intellectualizing what you're reading, but you actually felt like you were viscerally experiencing it. And I think that's a really tricky thing to pull off on a page. So I really, really love that novel. And I also think that the characters she wrote are all very compelling and unique. And I love how their lives all intertwine. So anyway, I'll shut up. I could go on and on about all these books,
KP: I do the same, I do the same. [Laughs]. Who are some women that you draw inspiration from, either in your personal life or culturally in general?
JM: Gosh, so many. I'm very lucky because I'm surrounded by really strong, smart women in my family, which is probably a very cliché answer, but my mom is just incredible. She's someone who is truly, truly brilliant, and was also so devoted to raising her kids in addition to being brilliant, and working with my dad and teaching music. She's someone who, no matter what she's doing, she does it so wholeheartedly. I think I really learned that from her. I really learned that no matter what I take on, whether I'm making $1 or $100,000, I'm going to give the same amount of energy and love to something because I want to give properly to the project. And that's something that I definitely watched my mom do as a person and also as a teacher. I learned so much from that.
But there are so many women along the way that have been so inspiring, especially as a filmmaker. I've looked at Sofia Coppola with so much admiration. She really pioneered that path of being an actor-filmmaker from such a young age and was making things that just had such a clear perspective that was her own. I really admire that. Also, more recently, Greta Gerwig. I just feel like what she's doing as a writer-director is so unique. And again, she has such a clear voice and perspective that I admire, you know? You go to the Barbie movie and it doesn't feel like a Barbie movie – it feels like a Greta Gerwig movie that just happened to be about Barbie. That’s just such an impressive feat to accomplish as a filmmaker, so she's definitely someone that I really admire as well.
And along the way, there's also been actors that I've really admired, like Cate Blanchett – I always admired her going up. And, you know, I could go on and on I feel like, but that's the beauty of being in an artistic career. There are no limits the amount of inspiration that you get to pull from and also in terms of the people that are around you. You're so lit up creatively.
KP: Yeah, that's so true. Every day is different and you're always so inspired. It's such a gift. So, final question – what do you feel makes a provocative woman?
JM: Someone who's brave enough to like things. I think it's very easy to not like things as a default setting. I think that when you stick your neck out and say, "You know what, I love that show," or, "I love that dress," or, "I really enjoy working with this person," it might sound like a really simple thing, but I do think that culturally we are stuck in this mindset of not wanting to be judged for what we say we like or don't like. I guess it's easier to just be like, "I don't know – I don't know if I like it."
KP: This sounds silly, but I've never really thought about it like that.
JM: It's so brave to like something. I think when women are brave enough to be like, "No, I like this thing." Or, "No, this is exactly what I want to do." "No, you know what, I want to spend time with my kids today, I'm not going to do that job." "Oh, I really want to do this job, and I know it means having childcare, but that's okay." Do you know what I mean? When you really have the courage to say exactly what you want and exactly what you like, I think it's so provocative and so brave. And I think the reason it's provocative is because we as a culture are so not used to it – people can be initially off-put by you liking something, and that's crazy.
KP: It is crazy. And I'm I'm so guilty of all of this. I love pop music. Like I said before, I love romantic comedies, I'm always getting made fun of for it but I love it, you know? It's so me.
JM: But that's great, because you're brave enough to say that you love it. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, that's incredibly provocative. You're not being like, "You know, I'm just gonna say bad things about these things, because that's gonna make me cool." Like, what is cool?
KP: Okay, exactly. It's not cool to be cool. I've had this conversation so many times.
JM: We're all worried about what everybody else thinks and we're just somebody else to somebody else. Everybody else is just somebody else to somebody else – it doesn't matter. But what does matter is like, does it make you feel good? Does it light you up? Does it make you feel hopeful? Does it make your day better? I don't know, I think that's why the Marie Kondo stuff was so powerful and popular for a second because it was challenging people to admit to what they liked. I don't know if you know that whole story, but you put all your clothes on the floor or whatever, and she has you pick up one thing at a time to see if it brings you joy – like, that's a brave thing to do. And then you put everything that brought you joy back into your closet. So, basically, you're admitting that you like all of those things, right?
KP: We've been doing this a few years, but I've never gotten that answer before. That's so fascinating – I've never even thought about it so simplistically. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day thinking about that. Own what you love.
