Interview: Discussing the Music of ‘She Came to Me’ with Bryce Dessner and Rebecca Miller

One of the many reasons that She Came to Me isn’t like your typical romantic comedy is the focus that filmmaker Rebecca Miller places on music here. The plot centers on an opera being composed, so music is central to its success. Among her many strong decisions was bringing on Bryce Dessner to composer the score. The results speak for themselves. I previously spoke to Bryce, alongside his brother Aaron Dessner (here) of The National, for their work on Cyrano. Today, Dessner is joining Miller to talk She Came to Me.

In my review of the film (here), I had this to say about the work behind the camera:

Rebecca Miller makes sure that her writing and direction pay more than lip service to the musical aspect of the rom-com. Not only does she have a score from Bryce Dessner that ties in well with the opera, they’ve got a lovely new original song from Bruce Springsteen that plays over the credits. Miller has Dessner and Springsteen elevating the sound of the standard romantic comedy. Her script refuses to go in any of the normal directions, and while she makes you work for it, she has a happy ending up her sleeve.

Below, you can see my discussion with Dessner and Miller. As you might expect, considering that this is a conversation with the writer/director and composer, we focused on the music of the film. Between the Bruce Springsteen tune at the end, Dessner having to come up with opera, and Miller relying on the composer to basically make magic, there’s plenty to talk about. The movie hits theaters on Friday and is worth seeing, both for the music as well as production itself.

Here now is my interview with She Came to Me filmmaker Rebecca Miller and composer Bryce Dessner. Enjoy:

She Came to Me is in theaters this weekend!