A Word with the Bird: Pat Cunnane and Trevor White Talk Rom-coms, Death and ‘Eternity’

A24’s finest rom-com comes in the form of David Freyne’s “Eternity,” a tear-jerking film centered on love, second chances and ultimatums.

Co-written by Pat Cunnane — former Senior Writer for President Barack Obama — and produced by Tim and Trevor White of Star Thrower Entertainment, the film follows Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), a recently deceased woman who must choose whether to spend her afterlife with either her second husband and father of her children Larry (Miles Teller) or her war-hero first husband Luke (Callum Turner), who died prematurely.

Cunnane and Trevor White sat down with The Phoenix ahead of the film’s Chicago Film Festival debut to talk about all things rom-com, the afterlife and eternity. Both questions and answers have been edited for clarity.

Pat, how did you come up with this concept?

Cunnane: I’ve wondered that myself. I will say, I think I might be fascinated by death. I grew up Irish-Catholic, so I’ve learned about heaven and such. And I’ve always thought if this does exist, I feel like it could get complicated, and I feel like our very human problems will still exist there, so I think it sparked from that. Before I got into this industry, to be honest with you, it was sort of a fascination in the back of my head, and then after I had written a script for Tim and Trevor, I was like, “Maybe I should dredge this back up?”

White: The idea is so big, and it’s one of those things where I was like, “I can’t believe no one’s done this.”

Cunnane: I was sure. I was almost afraid to Google, like “Alright I’m sure this exists” and when it didn’t, I was amazed. 

Pat, when pitching and selling the script, did you face any challenges before getting Star Thrower to sign on to produce it? And Trevor, what was it about this film that Star Thrower had to be on board and couldn’t miss out on?

Cunnane: I did not face headwind with Star Thrower because I literally pitched them at the earliest possible moment. I pitched them one sentence. I said, “Do you think this is a good idea: A woman who’s been married twice in life gets to the afterlife and has to choose between her two husbands, both of whom she loved?”

White: We were quiet for a moment.

Cunnane: I thought I pitched the worst idea ever, ‘cause there was this long silence.

White: I just remember going, “That is a massive idea.” I was soaking in how great of a concept that was. We had done another script prior to that, and I think we have really bonded over a whole lot of reasons, but one of them is our love for this genre. And, when talking about some of Pat’s favorite movies in the genre and our favorite movies in the genre — the ‘90s Richard Curtis, Nora Ephron, Rob Reiner, Jim [James] Brooks movies — those movies aren’t really being made today. 

Cunnane: Certainly not in theaters. That was a big goal of ours — what if we wrote a rom-com that people would want to go see in the theaters, from the jump?

Was it a priority to have a good balance of the rom and com in this film, and were there any times where you had to rework scenes, so it didn’t cater to a specific side?

Cunnane: Rework a scene, yes, a million times for every single scene. That was a high priority, to really make this both. You want this to be emotional, romantic and make people laugh. We started this journey five years ago, and now we’re going to screen it at the Chicago Film Fest in a couple hours. After seeing it at different film festivals, to hear the laughter and to hear the quiet moments when you want it to be quiet or emotional, it’s been really gratifying because that was the goal. The goal was, “Let’s make people laugh and cry.”

How much of a say did you have on the casting process, and what was it about these actors that you felt were perfect to tell this story?

White: We all have a say. What’s interesting and fortunate for us is Tim and I had worked with Elizabeth Olsen a few times before. This is our third movie with her, and David on his own was like, “Elizabeth Olsen is who I cannot get out of my head for this movie.” Miles Teller we didn’t think was available to us at first. He was kind of the dream choice, and then we in our heads were like, “Miles can’t do it.” Then, as timing worked out, Miles became available, and we went straight to him and he said yes, and we were like, “Wow, we have Elizabeth Olsen and Miles Teller. You can’t go wrong now.”

Cunnane: It’s funny because he has this runner about “nobody’s perfect,” but Callum’s like, kind of perfect. He’s very sweet and obviously very handsome and just the most charming guy and incredible actor.

As we see Joan go through this back-and-forth in the film, was there a similar back-and-forth in the writing room? Were there any alternative endings you were considering before landing on this one? 

Cunnane: We’d done many different paths in making this a true, really justified love triangle, and making it feel earned in every which way and making us root for everybody at a different time. And so, that third act with Joan and Larry and Luke figuring out the actual sort of twists and turns to get us to that landing place where I think we always wanted to be was a lot of work. That took a lot of time. 

White: We had played with a lot of different things, and David really had that clear vision for how he wanted this to end. Credit to David because he was really instrumental in the idea of “let the audience be okay if they were unhappy.”

Cunnane: And that’s what’s so fun right now, there are people who have different opinions on who it should’ve been, and David had that clear idea and focus on “no, it should be tricky for the audience.”

Were there any films that you drew inspiration from when writing?

Cunnane: For me, it was a little bit more general in the sense that we bonded over late-‘90s rom-coms that were also good movies. I had that in the back of my head of “How do we make this a great movie first?” Then, obviously, it’s also a romantic comedy. It’s like, “Notting Hill,” Richard Curtis, Rob Reiner — those sorts of older modern classics that I just grew up on.

White: I always kind of looked at “Broadcast News.” That movie is the ultimate, original love triangle. Jim Brooks. That’s the thing with Jim Brooks — he could do drama so well and humor, so it married it all so seamlessly. I think that’s really what we were after.

What does your eternity look like, and are there any eternities in the film you would love to pay a visit?

Cunnane: It’s so hard to choose, so I feel for the characters. How do you choose? I’m a little bit like Larry — I’d probably want somewhere sunny with a beach. But there’s so many in there that are just so funny. We were just talking about how, even when watching it I’m like, “I didn’t even realize that made it in.”

White: There was a board in our production office, outside of David’s office, a giant bulletin board, and David everyday would go in and add new eternities. There were like over a hundred ideas on that board, and we could only afford to do a certain amount to build in the actual junction set on the trade floor, so it was really fun to watch the process of, “This makes it. This one doesn’t make it.” The taglines made it half the time. It was a really creative concept. I’d probably choose a beach or a movie world.

Cunnane: I’d want a beach world that also has mountains.

White: Well, you can’t have everything. Read the tagline: “You can only choose one.”

“Eternity” is in theaters Nov. 26.