#60 Claire Scanlon: Bringing The Love Hypothesis From Book to Screen

Off The Shelf with Morgann Book

Director Claire Scanlon joins Morgann Book to discuss her career transition from an editor on 'The Office' to directing major romantic comed

Key takeaways

• Editing 'The Office' served as a masterclass in directing by exposing Scanlon to various styles from directors like Jon Favauro and Paul Feig.
• To simulate blurry vision from expired contacts, the DP used a white gel and Sharpie on the camera lens.

Main topics

• Directing career evolution
• Adapting The Love Hypothesis

Notable quotes

Everything plays in reactions... You're a voyeur.

Conclusion

A fascinating look at the technical craft of directing romance and the

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) you Speaker 1 (0:04) Hi everyone, welcome back to Off the Shelf. Today's guest has worked on the shows we all know and love. This includes The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Never Have I Ever, and Abbott Elementary. On the rom-com side, she has also directed one of my favorite modern day rom-coms, Set It Up. And today we are diving into how everything led to directing one of 2026's most anticipated adaptations, The Love Hypothesis. Claire Scanlon, welcome to Off the Shelf. Thank you so much for having me, Morgan. Thank you for coming in. On an olive in a love hypothesis, love reality TV and junk food. If you are sitting down with them, what junk food are you bringing and what reality show are you going to put on? Ooh, well, it's not exactly junk food, but my favorite Speaker 2 (0:47) candy is chocolate-covered orange peels, dark chocolate-covered orange peels. They're amazing. I didn't even know that was a – it's a thing. But Speaker 1 (0:55) the Speaker 2 (0:55) peel? Speaker 1 (0:55) Yeah. Speaker 2 (0:56) You can eat the peel? Peels. They're delicious. Like that is decadent. One of the best birthday presents I ever got was when my kids and my husband made them homemade. It's so good. It was very touching. So that would be for sure. And popcorn. Speaker 1 (1:09) Popcorn and chocolate covered orange peels. Dark. Speaker 2 (1:13) Dark. Okay. I'm kidding. But like just anything that you can, you know, sit and just eat without looking down. Right. Speaker 1 (1:22) Like just. vibe Speaker 2 (1:24) all of it of Speaker 1 (1:24) course and then what are we watching what reality show you know i worked in reality so Speaker 2 (1:30) watching reality television is not calming for me it's not mindless so i'm not great at it okay but i will say is it cake is one of my favorites Speaker 1 (1:41) i know that's not exactly but it's Speaker 2 (1:44) so fun it's a fun show and it's funny and i like the guests on it and um and i can never get it right i always get a Speaker 1 (1:53) Okay, dare I say I'm actually so influenced now to go try dark chocolate covered orange peels. And I've never seen, I've seen, I've seen the clips of Is It Cake? I've never sat down and watched the show. I'm Speaker 2 (2:03) a Speaker 1 (2:03) more, I love Survivor over like any dating show. But I'm definitely going to try those ones. Now, we'll come back full circle to the love hypothesis. But I want to chat about your early career a little bit. You spent years editing The Office. What did... editing teach you about directing that you don't think you could have learned anywhere else? Well, Speaker 2 (2:22) what was great about editing on The Office was that it was such an incredible show when I came on season five. It was already a massive hit. It won Emmys. It was already like out of the gate. And it was a well-oiled machine by the time I got there. So people, it wasn't as stressful. I mean, it was stressful to try to make the best show ever, but. to maintain it. But it was all right. It was a relaxed environment where I was able to learn so much. And that's where I got my first opportunity to direct. So literally, you asked me if I'd ever done a podcast before. The only two podcasts I've done were the Office Ladies and Brian Baumgartner's podcast. So that would show you like trying to direct people that have become your friends because you see them every day. It was a very gentle entree into directing. I think it was very unusual and wonderful because we were all located in one location under the same roof that you saw on TV. Like if you go to Chandler Valley Studios, you will see the exterior parking lot of Dunder Mifflin because every inch of that studio was used. So when I opened my edit bay door, I'd walk into the warehouse. So anytime that someone was bored or it's too far away to go back into the city and run errands. So they just come into my bay and be like, hey, show me something. funny, you know, so the actors were always coming in and out. It was just really a family. So it was really an unusual, atypical Hollywood experience. But to your question, I think because I got to see all these wonderful directors coming through the door and working with them, like Paul Feig, like Charles McDougall, like Ken Winningham, you know, just so many, so many great directors. Jon Favreau directed, I mean, like just insane directors came through the doors there. And see what they did versus other people and like take bits and pieces of everyone's style and how they, their aesthetic, their workflow, just every way that they approach the creative material was really insightful of like what I did like and what I didn't like. I'm just, it was kind of like a smorgasbord of just like pick the best things. And so that was really fertile learning ground for me. Speaker 1 (4:22) Wow. Now, Jim and Pam is so many people's favorite. workplace slow burn romance. What did editing their relationship teach you about how an audience becomes invested in a romance? So Speaker 2 (4:37) I really have to. like throw all the credit to Dean Holland and Dave Rogers, who were the first two editors for the first four seasons, which is really where this, they, by the time, like I was lucky enough to cut Niagara, which was when they get married. And that was a wonderful experience. But by the time I came on, they were already an item. Like there was no question. For me, just in general, I think my favorite and just watching, I was a fan of the show before I worked on the show. So you can imagine how excited I was when I got hired. But I would say everything plays in reactions. And that's a great point to the office in general. We would always do a reaction pass after every take because that is what you as the audience member are as well. You're a voyeur. and you're looking at how other people are reacting to what you see. That's why Jim's so iconic, because he's always looking to the camera, and he is you, right? So, like, if you think about it that way, so everything playing, and you're really, it's interesting, because you're really seeing that relationship play out from his point of view mostly, and that's not the norm in a classic romantic comedy. You're usually seeing it from the female point of view. So I think that that was also an unusual and interesting, and it's two men cutting. those that romance so it's really the male gaze Speaker 1 (5:52) in an unusual way because usually the male gaze is just about aesthetics but in this one it's not he loved her you know so it's just all and that's that's the real male gaze in my opinion you know it's not just Speaker 2 (6:04) about aesthetics it's you know true love now Speaker 1 (6:07) what is a reaction pass what do you mean like ah so that Speaker 2 (6:12) show is cross-covered that means if you're taking we're cross-covered right now there's two cameras There's three cameras, actually. So there's a camera on you, there's a camera on me, and that can lend itself really nicely to good comedic moments. If I improv something and you react to it, there's an electricity in the air that you cannot duplicate. Also, it's nice for continuity. If my hand is up or my hand is down in one take, and then my hand is down in both, you know, we're going to match. Well, Speaker 1 (6:35) in the office, what Speaker 2 (6:37) we would do is cross-cover the real action, but then the last thing we would do is just get everyone else in the room. So everyone at... else in a room would we would get there a pit you know you'd punch in on you know brian baumgartner who's always going to go get jelly beans at the Speaker 1 (6:53) um Speaker 2 (6:54) at pam's desk and so you just get everyone like like if somebody if andy punches a wall and punches a hole through the wall you would do a reaction pass to get what everyone else is like whoa he just punched a hole in the wall like let's get every so you're getting everyone's reacting because there were so many insane things that happened on the office so you'd always want to see like okay you got the You got the meat of the Speaker 1 (7:14) scene. But what is everyone else in the room thinking? And Speaker 2 (7:17) usually Angela has a like sourpuss face or Kate might not even be paying it. Meredith might not be paying attention because she's not she's drunk. You Speaker 1 (7:26) know, like who knows? Speaker 2 (7:27) Creed is eating mung beans like, you know, who knows what's going on? But you always want to get that for those who are just like, whoa, what just happened there? You know, yeah, kind of like a bystander on the street for any like car accident. Right. Speaker 1 (7:38) And the reactions of that show, like it's just it's incredible. Now. To go back on the romance a little bit, what attracted you to directing Set It Up? Because you were not a frequent watcher of romantic comedies. Speaker 2 (7:50) No. I mean, I will say that my favorite romantic comedies weren't called romantic comedies. They were called screwball comedies in the 30s and 40s. Things like It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story. These are some of my favorite films. They're just great films. And they called them screwball comedies because they're... wacky and weird, but they always had, those all had romance in them. So, but now it's called romantic comedy, but essentially it's the same genre. So I was, you know, I'd never directed a feature before. It's not like people were throwing feature scripts in 2017 at a woman's doorstep who does mostly situational comedy. So when this one came across my desk, it was at MGM and Cassidy Lang thought of me. I should still ask her. I don't know why she thought of me, but she did. And I read this script by Katie Silverman. It was her first feature. She's gone on to do so much at Booksmart. Don't worry, darling. And it was from the get-go a page-turner. Like, it was so well-written. Hard pressed to think it would really, the first draft I read, it really didn't change much to the shooting draft. Just minimally, once you cast, you kind of mold the characters more. But it really, really was pitch perfect. Speaker 1 (9:11) Wow. I mean, Speaker 2 (9:12) it had the, it was so smart. And in my mind, set it up as more of a comedy romance Speaker 1 (9:17) movie. I Speaker 2 (9:18) think so too. Yeah. And you don't even kiss until the end. I know. You know, so I think. For me, coming into