When did you first start noticing a disconnect between Yogi Berra’s reputation and the player the stats showed him to be?
Sean Mullin: I think that’s what this was all about. When I started doing the research, I was like, wait, this guy was criminally overlooked.
Can you discuss your inspiration for writing this story?
Robert Machoian: It was really motivated, to some degree, my own life in the sense that I’ve been married for quite a while, and I have children, and coming to this period in life where many friends of ours were starting to separate.
Can you talk about what it was like to craft these characters?
James Mangold: I’m a big believer in hanging out. I am not a big believer in rehearsing.
Laura, let’s start with the title. I had to laugh—Jane Austen doesn’t wreck anyone’s life… or does she?
Laura Piani: It all started years ago, when I worked night shifts at Shakespeare and Company in Paris.
I love what you said about how the book never judges its characters, despite their actions. How did that inform you as you began to adapt the book?
Emerald Fennell: I think everyone in this book is kind of deeply troubling. That’s what makes it such a masterpiece, you know? The sum of its parts and the sum of their parts are so much more.