Producer Miri Yoon on Bringing Netflix’s The Mother to Life
There are many special skills that enable Miri Yoon to be among best producers in the film industry but none perhaps as prominent as the ability to read a script and “see” the potential. Reading Misha Green’s script for The Mother, Yoon declares, “It was an incredibly evocative, engaging screenplay that was a page turner in the truest sense. It wasn’t just pure entertainment, Misha had a very specific path of exploring the notion of motherhood, and connection without delving into melodrama, but rather unexpectedly through action. It was on one hand incredibly robust with wall to wall crazy, exciting action, and on the other, intelligent commentary on a female character that was more fully rounded than what we normally see.” Now seated in Netflix’s Top 10 most popular films, this film starring Jennifer Lopez (Billboard, Grammy, Golden Globe nominee and winner), Gael Garcia Bernal (Golden Globe and Venice Film Festival award winner), Omari Hardwick, and Paul Raci (Academy Award nominee) is non-stop action and adventure of the most maternal brand.
More often than not in Hollywood, the film the audience sees is not in its original iteration. In the case of The Mother, Misha Green (original script writer) had been pulled away to work on her Primetime Emmy Award–winning HBO series Lovecraft Country. With her blessing, Miri and the team continued on to develop the script with Academy Award–nominated writer Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton). Eventually establishing a team of the absolute best collaborators in front of (Jennifer Lopez, Lucy Paez, Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, Gael Garcia Bernal, Paul Raci) and behind (Niki Caro directing) the camera, The Mother had the momentum to materialize. Concerning the BAFTA Award-winning director, Miri proclaims, “The journey in fine tuning the script once the director came aboard was often focused on calibrating how much and what parts of ‘The Mothers’ backstory to tell in order to fulfill the present day story as effectively as possible. Misha’s original spec was an incredibly spare, intuitive one that stood well on its own, though for Niki’s version of the film it begged for more context for the character. It was a matter of trying and calibrating until hit just the right balance for her story that Niki and Academy Award nominated writer, Peter Craig (Top Gun: Maverick), were able to achieve in their collaboration together.
The incomparable producing talent of Miri Yoon might not be so obvious to those unfamiliar with the process of filmmaking but those who are aware will recognize her DNA in The Mother. Producing can be a supportive position which also demands a certain proactive omniscience. Miri did far more than simply gather her highly recognizable collaborators for this film, she empowered their vision for it to get the film to the start line. Known for her egoless approach and unflinching style, Miri Yoon eagerly embraced every angle of this female protagonist driven action film. The lasting reward in a creative industry is creating something that the audience connects with and The Mother has already been overwhelmingly embraced.
Writer: Winston Scott