Louis Theroux on the resistance he faced during the production of “Tell Them You Love Me”

Tell them you love me The film hit the film festival circuit, received acclaim from Sky in the UK, and gained international exposure when it was added to Netflix on June 14. The documentary dominated the streaming service for almost two weeksand became the subject of countless conversations at the water cooler, as far as they still exist in our culture. The film by Nick August-Perna focuses on the controversial case of Anna Stubblefielda professor at Rutgers University who specializes in disability and assistive technology and who her court once considered her victim, Derrick Johnsona disabled, non-speaking man with whom she began an affair.

Questions soon arose about the nature of the relationship and whether it could actually be consensual given Johnson’s disability. The result is a gripping, ethically questionable and often confusing documentary. It is both a character study of interesting people in an extraordinarily difficult situation and an interrogation of our ideas about consent, power, disability and sex.

Tell them you love me is produced by Thought Housean independent production company founded by filmmakers Louis TherouxArron Fellows, Nancy Strang and Sophie Ardern. Theroux himself has become one of the most important documentary filmmakers of our time and took a moment to answer MovieWeb’s questions about the nature of the film, its production and a similarly themed project he would like to pursue.

The name Louis Theroux helped to ease “nervousness … among industry people”

Tell them you love me

4/5

A documentary about an academic and professor specializing in disability and assistive technology who falls in love with a severely disabled man and gets into the legal troubles that result.

Release date

June 14, 2024

director

Nick August-Perna

Pour

Kate Dulcich, Jerron Herman, Brenda McCullough, Richard Rampolla, Julian Thomas

FilmWeb: Did you mentor or give Nick advice during filming and what kind of advice did it give?

Louis Theroux: Nick didn’t need any advice from me, especially artistically, so I saw my job as making sure he felt supported and having his back editorially. The most important thing I could offer, in my opinion, was a profile – I’d like to think that my support of the project helped it get commissioned and made. And there were also times when we encountered nervousness and even resistance from people in the industry – festival programmers, for example – because the themes of the film are so shocking. And I could say that’s normal, albeit disappointing, and I’ve experienced that before, and it says nothing about the quality of the film.

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Tell them you love me, “doesn’t fit into a single box”

FilmWeb:Tell them you love me is a great tragedy about power and consent. Although it is a legal crime, at the end you feel compassion and sadness for everyone involved. Do you think Anna Stubblefield is a rapist or are things not that simple?

Louis Theroux: I don’t approach the story in those terms – which isn’t to say it is or isn’t. She was convicted of a crime, but that’s just one part of a story that has many more layers. Sorry, I’m not trying to avoid the question. I’m not sure the term “tragedy” is quite right either. I guess one of the film’s strengths is that it doesn’t fit neatly into a single box – true crime, disability story, tragedy, psychological profile, science story. It’s all of those things.

20:34

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“Tell Them You Love Me” director Nick August-Perna explains how he made the film and its complex ethics

The filmmaker talks about the years it took to film “Tell Them You Love Me” with the Johnsons and Anna Stubblefield.

FilmWeb:Tell them you love me quickly became one of the two or three most-watched films on Netflix when it hit the streaming platform on June 14. A few days later fifty shades of grey hit the streaming service and the two films dominated the first and second spots on Netflix for days. They are so completely different, but they are both films about communication (contracts), consent and sex. I am curious what you think after making this film about how Hollywood portrays consent, not just in fifty shades of grey but in general.

Louis Theroux: That’s true and that’s a good point. I have not yet seen 50 shades but another great example is Baby reindeerwhose great strength was in showing sexual assault and invasive behavior in all its real messiness. Hollywood in general has been guilty of simplifying how sexual assault takes place. Consent is often ambiguous. That, for me, was the power of Baby reindeer. His portrayal of the opacity of how assaults can happen, obvious “complicity,” although I use that term very carefully because it is not actual complicity. And TTYLM has, in my opinion, the same subtlety and clarity.

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Louis Theroux on his interview style and a project of the Judge Rotenberg Center

FilmWeb: I consider you one of the best interviewers of all time and I’m not alone in this opinion. What do you think sets your interview style or “filmed communication” apart from others like Piers Morgan etc.? And what advice would you give for conducting good interviews (regardless of context)?

Louis Theroux: Oh wow, that’s very nice and I appreciate the compliment. But there are so many different types of interviews, depending on the setting, length, tone and so on. For me, though, it’s about listening and being curious. That’s the main thing. That also includes showing the right amount of yourself. Being present and approachable and giving enough, but not too much.

FilmWeb: Is there a project that you have been working on on and off for years that never came to fruition, but that you would still like to finish?

Louis Theroux: There are a few. On the subject of disability, I heard many years ago about a school called Judge Rotenberg (Center) or something like that, for children who are neurodivergent in various ways. Some of the children are prone to dangerous behavior, including self-harm. Part of the school routine is that they wear a backpack that gives them an electric shock to stop them from doing this behavior. We’ve discussed making a documentary there, but nothing has come of it so far.

Tell them you love me is currently streaming on Netflix via the link below (and available to rent on Apple TV) and is available to stream on Sky TV.

Watch on Netflix