The genesis of the movie was a conversation with a friend
about what would you do if you were told this was your last day.
And we both decided that we wouldn't want to win an Oscar
or go paragliding, that we'd just want a very normal day at home.
And I thought, "That's such an interesting observation to me."
It went through my mind, "How could I write a movie,
"the climax of which was that decision?"
And I thought it would probably have to be
someone who can manipulate their final day,
or manipulate their life in some way to come to that conclusion.
And I think I then thought, "If you could time travel..."
And therefore you would think,
"Where would I go to? Which bits of my life would I go to?"
And the answer is, you'd just go to
the bit of your life you're in at the moment.
Which is just full of the same joys that every day should be.
Tim, my dear son, the...
This is going to sound strange.
The men in this family have always had the ability to...
travel in time.
Wow.
So, the time travel in my film is of a pretty limited kind.
You can go back to anywhere in your own life that you can remember,
and, as it were, start from there,
and then you can come back to the present.
I think I've stuck pretty rigorously to the rules.
BILL NIGHY: It means that you can do the day again and again and again.
Till you get it right.
If there's any element of your day that was unsatisfactory,
don't worry about it, relax.
Because you can just go back and put that straight.
If it's true, which it isn't.
Although it is.
Although it isn't, obviously. But if it was, which it's not.
Which it is. Which it isn't. But if it was, how would I...
The "How" is the easy bit, in fact.
I love that the time travel is actually quite simple.
Time travel is usually a very complicated thing.
It's the most un-time-travel time travel movie that's ever been around.
It becomes very natural very quickly,
because there's not a load of special effects,
and it's not this kind of
someone-darting- through-history type of thing.
It's literally as simple as walking into a cupboard, a dark place,
where no one can see you,
clenching your fists and squeezing your eyes together,
and thinking about where you want to go.
And then there's a bit of a whoa, And then you're there.
And so, there's nothing hi-tech about it at all.
RACHEL McADAMS: I know Domhnall is very funny, the first time he did it, he said,
"Well, we did about 10 different kinds of eyes squeezing shut,
"like a little bit and then a little bit more, and then Richard was like,
'"No,no,no, you look like you're in pain.
Now you look like you have a problem."'
RICHARD CURTIS: In the movies, you do accept things.
Talking to dogs, Father Christmas,
you'll accept anything that you're given.
But one of the pleasures of the movie,
and I think one of the pleasures of the fact that we've kept it so low-tech,
is that we can have the delight of time travel
without it being a science fiction movie.
So that I'm still allowed to deal with pretty ordinary things.
And it's quite odd that the movie that I've written
that is most about... That is, in a way, most normal,
and just about normal life rather than heightened life,
happens to be the one in which the characters can time travel.
You have to use it for things that you really think
will make your life the way you want it to be.
Come on, really think about this.
It would be just great if it could help me get a girlfriend.
Wow.
McADAMS: Time travel is so romantic,
it pulls on that idealistic side of us and dreamer part of you.
And somehow he gets into a lot of trouble still.
DOMHNALL GLEESON: When he first meets Mary,
it's the first time that love has been
reflected back at him as hard as he's
given out. It's the most he's ever loved anybody,
and it's been reflected back at him.
And then, you would think that would make that easier.
The time travel thing, which would make this easier
to get through the hard moments,
kind of destroys all that.
It turns it on its head, because he uses it too freely.
So he loses it, it really costs him a lot of time
and effort, trying to win her back
in a way that will have her love him...
Hi. Hi.
...as much as she did the first time.
CURTIS: The film has a strange attitude to time travel.
It's a sort of anti-time-travel time travel movie.
In a way, Tim uses the time travel
to get what he wants and change his life and re-find his girl.
But in the end, he can't really change his character.
"Wherever you go," the Crowded House song says,
"you always take the weather with you."
And you always are who you are.
So I think what he discovers in the course of the film,
is obviously, we use it dramatically for the romance,
but in terms of his behavior and who he is, he stays the same.