BROWN: What’s the dynamic like between you and your husband when you write? Do you tend to agree? Or if not, how do you resolve disagreements?

RAUCH: We pretty much operate with “best idea wins” all the time. Our process is that we outline everything to death before we take a stab at writing the dialogue. We’ll have some ideas of a line here or there that would be an overall theme for the scene, but the script is pretty much broken down before we start writing any dialogue. Once we’re finished with the outline, we’ll either improvise what the dialogue should be, or we’ll just sit next to each other and pitch ideas for the dialogue. Sometimes I’ll take a stab at the scene, he’ll take a stab at the scene, and we’ll combine the best of. Or it will be like, “What you wrote is better.” It’s pretty balanced. We take turns who’s sitting at the computer. Sometimes it’s both of us at our own computers or one of us paces and one of us writes. But I would say that the writing aspect of our marriage is the most equally divided part of our relationship. [laughs] As a couple, there are things—whether it’s just the household chores—that are mine and that are his, but this is something that is I think the most 50-50 of our relationship.

BROWN: Once you had the script, what made you choose Bryan Buckley as the director?

RAUCH: We met with a lot of directors when we were going through that process, and Bryan put together this beautiful PowerPoint presentation of his vision for the movie. The thing that I had said from the moment we wrote the script was, “I want it to look like a drama. I don’t want it to be glossy. I want it to look gritty and grounded and real.” We have some big, broad moments, but I wanted it to be centered around the truth of this character and the darkness that she’s living in. The first thing out of Bryan’s mouth when he sat down was, “This movie needs to be shot like a drama. I want it to look like The Fighter,” and he had this beautiful pictorial of all the movies he saw it looking like. Bryan’s just an aesthetic and visual genius; he’s absolutely incredible the way his mind works. He took everything that was on the page and he made it look better than we ever could have imagined. He’s so specific in his ideas; it’s like he can just see it all in front of him and he’s able to paint this picture for you.

With this script, it was very much our baby, and when we were looking for a director, it really felt like we were giving it up for adoption and wanted it to be an open adoption. Bryan was very collaborative while also taking command of every moment. Also, Bryan has an Oscar-winning short film that’s absolutely incredible. It’s about Somali pirates. We watched that and it’s very different from The Bronze, but the similarities were the heart and comedy that he infused into this dramatic situation, so that spoke to the tone we wanted to go for with this. Also we have all these big, grand set pieces in the movie—like the games at the end and the sex scene—and Bryan has such amazing experience with the hundreds and hundreds of Super Bowl ads he’s done. We were working on a crazy tight budget and really tight schedule, and we just knew Bryan would be able to execute it. Going from this small town, we wanted the scenes to look really grand when she gets to the Toronto Games, almost like Dorothy going into Oz. Also he’s just one of the loveliest, nicest people you’ll ever meet, and we became like family shooting together. He’s like a dear brother to me at this point.