Exclusive: Interview With ‘When I’m Ready’ Stars Andrew Ortenberg, June Schreiner & Director Andrew Johnson

When I’m Ready is your big screen treat this Valentine’s Day. Ahead of the film’s premiere, we recently had the opportunity to chat with stars Andrew Ortenberg and June Schreiner, as well as director Andrew Johnson! 

Written by Andrew Ortenberg (who also stars in the movie) and helmed by Andrew Johnson, When I’m Ready premieres in theatres February 7th, before becoming available through Video on Demand on Valentine’s Day. The pre-apocalypse movie follows Rose (June Schreiner) and Michael (Ortenberg), a young couple who embark on a cross-country road trip in the final days before an asteroid-triggered extinction.

When I’m Ready is not your typical end-of-the-world movie; the film overflows with heart. It highlights love, companionship, and emotion above all else.

Check out our interviews below!

Andrew Ortenberg

What inspired you to write When I’m Ready? Was it a story you had planned out for a while?

I’ve always loved end of the world fiction. To me, it’s a very powerful lens through which to explore humanity, because an extinction event is the one thing that would truly equalize everything and put everybody in touch with each other in a weird way. I always say, what’s the one thing that would make an Instagram influencer in Beverly Hills and a potato farmer in the Irish countryside experience the exact same thing at the exact same time? An extinction event.

The film combines elements of romance and an impending apocalypse. How did you approach blending these genres in your screenplay?

Like I said I’ve always loved end of the world movies, and we wanted to put a unique spin on ours by making it forward facing instead of backward facing. Most end of the world fiction is always backward facing in my opinion, it’s a middle aged guy looking back on his life’s regrets, wishing he told his high school sweetheart he loved her, etc.

And what we wanted to do was tell an end of the world story through the lens of two young people, who were about to be robbed of their futures. And make one that wasn’t just about death and despair and destruction (although there’s a fair amount of that), but also about youthful optimism in the face of it all. The love story in the film is central to the idea that there’s that bittersweet optimism that is never lost, even in the face of imminent demise.

What was the most challenging aspect of bringing When I’m Ready to life?

I mean all aspects of independent filmmaking are challenging. But in particular on this film the locations, with this being a sprawling road-trip movie, we had 19 locations in a 19-day shoot, so we were in a new spot pretty much every day. Which anyone who has ever worked on a film set would tell you is absolutely insane, but I’m glad that we had the guts to attempt it and I think we pulled it off.

June’s character, Rose, has a unique dynamic with Michael. How did you both bring that connection to life in such an emotionally intense context?

Fortunately June and I had gone to the same acting studio back in the day, the Baron Brown studio in Los Angeles, so we had worked together before and knew each other going in. I think that was a big help in building the trust that that kind of on-screen partnership requires, where it was just the two of us in a truck for 14 hours a day.

Were there any scenes with June that particularly stood out to you during filming?

June is the best actress I know, so there were many. In particular I was incredibly impressed by her in the scene in the courtyard outside her grandmother’s nursing home, which is one of the more dramatic moments in the film. She’s incredible in it, and it was so impressive because we did that scene on our first day of shooting so there was no ramp up period or anything, she just jumped right in to the emotional climax of the movie cold and crushed it.

You also got to work with Lauren Cohan. As a huge Walking Dead fan, I was so excited to see her. What was it like working alongside her? Are you a Walking Dead fan yourself?

Lauren is amazing, and I’m a big fan of her work not just in The Walking Dead but in film too like the horror film The Boy that she led. She’s an incredible actress and obviously has great range, being able to tackle hardened badass characters like her role in The Walking Dead and also the role of Julia in our film, which is really soft and tender and vulnerable. I hope her fans really enjoy her part as much as I do, and I think they will.

When I’m Ready has so many really heavy moments. Heartbreaking stories often leave a lasting impression on viewers. What do you hope audiences feel or take away after watching the film?

I think the movie is really meant to be a balance between those really heavy moments, and the really light ones of Rose and Michael doing their best to shut it all out by playing laser tag, or picking strawberries. And I think at the end of the day that’s life in a nutshell. You can’t control the bad things that happen in life, all you can control is how you respond in the face of them.

I don’t want to give too much away, but I think ultimately the sentiments expressed by Dermot Mulroney’s character (who is also amazing in the film) are the main ethos of the project and what I hope will stick with people after they’ve watched it.

June Schreiner

What drew you to the role of Rose? How did the role come about?

I was drawn to Rose’s emotional dynamism—how she can feel so deeply and in so many directions.

When Andrew first sent me the script, I struggled to understand Rose’s emotional journey throughout the story. Then I realized that this character was not one to be understood but rather deeply felt. Rose is all heart. I was excited to tap into that—to try to turn my brain off and allow my emotional life to respond freely to whatever was in front of me.

Rose, at least on the page, encapsulates what this whole story is about, I think—fully finding yourself in the present moment. Rose and Michael are both asking themselves: If our future is taken from us and our past is too painful to revisit, how can we exist right here, right now, with one another exactly as we are?

The question of presence is one I am constantly grappling with.

So… yeah. He sent me the script, and I said, “Heck yes.”

Were there moments when you felt particularly connected to Rose on a personal level?

Oh my god, yes. As we got deeper into filming, I realized how often I, myself, oscillate between emotional states. Call it the moon, call it being human—I felt deeply connected to her mood swings.

Rose is living her last days alive, and I was making a movie while also living my life—both are stressful, dream-come-true amazing, and everything in between. I felt deeply connected to the tension inside her—wanting to run but also wanting to soak up every moment, craving freedom but also needing to be held.

It is in the conversation between these two frontiers that Rose was born, and in living this conversation, I discovered so much about me.

Did you have a favorite scene to film? If so, what was it, and why?

Filming the scene with my mom was absolutely incredible. She is the best actress I have ever known, and getting to work with her in this capacity was amazing. We had never done a film together before—I could cry just thinking about it! Getting to whisper with her between takes, discussing the scene way too in-depth, and, of course, enjoying snacks at crafty… it’s a day I will treasure forever.

You may know that I lost my mom after filming When I’m Ready. She died too young, and I will never have the opportunity to see her age into a beautiful older woman. That’s why it is especially meaningful to me that I got to act with her while she was playing my grandmother. They aged her with makeup and props, and though the scene is tragic, I cherish the imagination it sparks.

Is this what she would have looked like? Felt like? Sounded like?

I am beyond grateful that the movie is dedicated to her memory.

As an actor, how do you handle portraying characters in stories with darker or heavier themes?

To me, it’s all the same. As above, so below, as the Hermetics would say. Having lived through grief—before filming When I’m Ready and since—I know that with darkness and heaviness, there is also tremendous light. What I’m saying is, I don’t prepare differently. I just try to get to the truth of the character, marry it with what I myself am interested in exploring, and live into the great mystery.

Practically? I have a very consistent meditation practice that helps me connect and ground before a big day. Breathwork practices to release. Vegetables. Good friends to debrief. All the things any human needs to move through a life both wonderful and challenging.

Could you share your process of building chemistry with Andrew Ortenberg as Michael? How did you collaborate to make the relationship feel genuine and authentic?

You know how, when you go on a long road trip with someone (like Rose and Michael do), you get really close to each other? You learn what snacks they like, how long it takes them to pee, you annoy each other, you delight each other, you get in trouble together and you tell each other stories?

Making a movie is not so different—especially with a script like this, where it’s really just Rose and Michael for most of it. Andrew and I knew each other beforehand, which helped, but once we started filming, we were attached at the hip for 12–14 hours every single day. The connection we had was nurtured through physical proximity, respect for each other’s artistry, and the camaraderie it takes to make a movie.

And… neither of us were jerks, luckily.

Andrew Johnson

We also caught up with director Andrew Johnson. Check out our interview with him below!

What attracted you to this script? What about the story stood out to you as a director and made you want to get involved?

When I first got the script, it was about 60 pages long. I think the first thing that attracted me to the script were the characters. They were so unique and they both had their own voice and that’s not always easy to do, especially when the two of them are in every scene. I think that’s a real testament to how well this script was written. Any time as a director you get a really a script that touches your head and heart, and you can visualize it completely from the beginning, I was going to stop at nothing to direct this picture.

What was your vision for the visual style and tone of When I’m Ready? Were there any specific films or directors that influenced your vision for this film?

The vision for the film, from the get go, was to make it feel very naturalistic and include a ton of natural light and colors. The script, the acting, and the locations all spoke for themselves, so the thought was to let them all feed off each other.

In terms of directors or movies that influenced me for this film, I watched a lot of Kelly Reichart. She was already one of my favorite directors and films like Old Joy, Rivers of Grass, and Wendy and Lucy really spoke to me and our cinematographer Rachael Kliman. Vagabond from Agnes Varda was another huge influence. Lastly, I’d say The Hitch-Hiker from Ida Lupino was one I studied a lot.

What was it like collaborating with this cast? How did you work to bring out their best performances, especially in emotionally powerful scenes?

Andrew and June have become two of my best friends, and to be honest, they are fabulously talented actors. They made my job easy, because they came in every day and nailed it, I’m not sure I ever had to step in much. It really was something so magical to watch. We were really lucky to have Lauren Cohan and Dermot Mulroney, they are pros pros and they came in and knocked these characters out of the park. These characters are a little odd and quirky and they nailed it.

This was a bit of a full circle moment for me as well, I was an intern at Skybound Entertainment many years ago, so working with Lauren was pretty surreal. The most fun I had was collaborating with all of these actors in pre-production. You can get so locked in as a director, sometimes tunnel vision sets in, and each and every actor in this film opened my mind and eyes in ways I could never have imagined.

What was the biggest challenge you faced while making When I’m Ready?

The biggest challenge we faced was moving locations almost every day. With being a road trip movie, we needed a lot of different locations, and filming in Los Angeles, we were moving all over the place.

You don’t realize how much gear there is to move every day until you have to load in and out every day. That’s really tough on a crew, but we had one of the best crews I’ve ever worked with and this movie doesn’t happen without them and many of them I’ve remained friends with. So there’s definitely light in the hardship.

Was there a particular scene that you loved filming the most?

There are a couple scenes that stick out that are my favorite scenes and it’s because they were the hardest to film, and such emotionally charged scenes. There’s a scene at sunset in a field and we were losing light fast, not only that, the truck died. We had 4 crew pushing the truck into the scene and we shot the scene in about 30-45 minutes. It was fast and a blur but every worked their tails off to get it shot. I still get goosebumps thinking about that day.

Another scene was in a pool that was about 65 degrees and it was the middle of the night. We only had 1 wardrobe backup, so the actions had to be perfect. There were sound reflections everywhere, it was incredibly hard to light, and of course we were running out of time. It’s one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. June and Andrew pull off such an incredible performance and I still get teary eyed watching that scene.

We thank Andrew Ortenberg, June Schreiner, and Andrew Johnson for their time. Having seen When I’m Ready, I can tell you that it’s an exceptional film and a must-watch! The movie becomes available on-demand on February 14. You can learn more on the movie’s official website here.