This is not a love storythis is a story about a story about love.
The truth is that we didnt really write this to get it made, Scott Neustadter says.
Reality: To their enormous surprise, the film became a cult classic.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in(500) Days of Summer, 2009, streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu.
Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel on set with director Marc Webb.
Deschanel recalls fans of the movie approaching her to voice their frustrations directly.
And I was like, Wait.
Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel on set with director Marc Webb.
How could shenotleave him?
Whats sweeter than your lover telling you about their dream?
Thats the nectar of life.
Photos: Courtesy of Zooey Deschanel
Yeah, of course youre gonna get left.
Much has been madeof the deathof the rom-com in recent years.
Summer Finn: girl-next-door, great at karaoke, breezy confidence.
Photo: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight
Shed done some other moviesshed doneElfat the time, and she was wonderful.
They both existed in the independent sphere a little bit; Joe had doneMysterious Skin.
They had a critical kind of cache even though they werenthugebox-office stars.
Photos: Courtesy of Michael H. Weber, Scott Neustadter, and Zooey Deschanel
Joe is funny, but hes also a brilliant dramatic actor, and you really believe what hes feeling.
Im seeing the story through his eyes and hes biased in favor of himself.
And thats sort of the lesson.
We all see ourselves as the good-guy protagonist.
Zooey Deschanel, Summer Finn:Its kind of funny.
I was like, I dont know how to play that.
Shes kind of a construct of Toms.
I like the challenge of creating a character who had more to her that you could sense.
Webb:When youre doing a romance, youre casting chemistry, not just casting independent actors.
They had done a movie together calledManic, and were great together in that.
They had known each other for a long time.
Joe had a kind of earnestness, a sweet groundedness that just felt right.
Deschanel:Weve been friends for 20 years.
Joe is such a great person, great actor.
Its always so nice to have that rapport with somebody and to be able to feel safe with them.
I would for sure [do another project with him].
I loved working with Joe.
Gordon-Levitt:[Zooey] and I were in a movie together calledManic.
Its the first movie that allowed me to do heavy drama, so it was really special to me.
Zooey and I were real friends.
The idea of getting to do another movie together felt exciting.
The first time I ever sawA Woman Is a Womanby Jean-Luc Godard was because Zooey played it for me.
We all have those friends; Zooey is that person.
Wed have a dance party in there after every lunch.
We were just sincerely having a great time.
Weber:I remember them sharing earbuds.
Between takes and setups, they would listen to music together and talk about music.
And he said She and Him [Deschanels band].
I was like, Seriously?
Webb:We got to use the IKEA in Burbank over one night.
I came home and I was so scared I had fucked it up that I vomited.
Its the only time Ive ever thrown up after a film day.
Its the beginning of the romance; I didnt know how to make the movie without it.
I think it emanated from Michael Webers experience.
Depending on which side of the mountain youre on, the vibe is totally different.
We thought, wouldnt it be interesting if those scenes are back-to-back rather than an hour apart?
Then, on the way down the mountain… not so fun anymore.
And I said, Trust me.
It was a real harkening back to the 50s sitcoms.
If there had been a little ruffled apron hanging up there, I wouldve put it on her.
I love all those echoes of the past that have kind of trapped him.
You Make My Dreams, a.k.a.
Neustadter: Were in Toms head and hes obsessed with pop culture.
Hes watched all these movies and he listened to all this music.
It just felt like a very natural extension of that kind of character.
And so after he gets the girlquote, unquotethatwouldhappen.
I was like,This has to be a dance sequence.
I wanted the color blue to be really apparent, because of Zooeys eyes.
The only other blue we used in the movie was associated with Summer.
My thought was, in that moment, the afterglow, the world turns into her, right?
Im really glad we did.
We all sang the song all day long.
No one got sick of it.
It looked like an Old Navy commercial.
Deschanel:I definitely felt FOMO not being in that scene!
which kind of made up for it.
Webb: Joe was super excited about doing a dance sequence.
I wasnt sure he was going to be, but he loved it.
It was a sad dance.
We screened it for the audience, they hated it, we cut it out.
I think it was just score, there was no song.
Maybe that was the problem.
He made a Maroon 5 music video to kind of test out if this would work.
Those were the two videos that helped support that sequence.
The way that Marc shot it was perfect.
Gordon-Levitt: I think thats my favorite idea in the movie.
I dont know if theres a lesson thats more important to learn in all of life than that one.
Endless Summer
Parting thoughts on the beloved, sometimes misunderstood movies reception and impact.
Weber: A lot of people said no to the script
Neustadter: Everyone said no!
Weber:…and then Searchlight said yes.
I love that we took chances like that.
Every day, we were definitely thinking they were gonna pull the plug.
We were like:Is this really happening?
Weber:So many movies I see are so quickly forgettable.
That anyone was talking about it then, or still talking about it now, is really nice.
Its almost like a journal entry when a song comes on, its so much of that characters feelings.
Webb: There were a few different [critical] readings of the film.
One was that we, as the filmmakers, were incurious about the inner life of the Summer character.
They were mistaking Toms philosophy for our philosophy.
Thats not the case here.
This is a coming-of-age story.
But I really like stories that can be seen in multiple ways.
Im just grateful that I got to be a part of it.
Deschanel:Ive done so many little movies, a lot of them nobody sees.
You never know the impact somethings going to have.
If we knew exactly what those things were, wed just be making hit movies all the time.
It was a really special experience.
Webb: Ive noticed my friends teenage kids are starting to experience it.
Thats what I liked about the movie.
It wasnt too pretentiousit was fun.
