Lynne Ramsay discusses “soul-destroying” process of making ‘You Were Never Really Here’

Posted On October 20, 2025October 20, 2025

Director Lynne Ramsay has explained why she found making You Were Never Really Here to be “soul-destroying”.

The 2017 thriller, which starred Joaquin Phoenix, was the final movie that Ramsay directed until Die My Love, starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence, which arrives next month.

You Were Never Really Here premiered at Cannes with Ramsay winning the award for ‘Best Screenplay’, Phoenix winning ‘Best Actor’, and the film was also nominated for the Palme d’Or.

However, getting You Were Never Really Here to Cannes was a difficult challenge for Ramsay. At the BFI London Festival on October 18th, she revealed that a French financier “was obsessed with Cannes”, which became incredibly demanding.

Ramsay explained: “He wanted to see a cut every week… (I said), ‘You can wait until you get the director’s cut. But he persuaded me into it. And then (he said), ‘This is shit, this is shit’ for the rest of the edit, which was actually so soul-destroying.”

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Ramsay described it as “the nuttiest film I had ever been on” while at the BFI London Festival, and also told the audience, “I got so depressed – [I thought], Am I ever going to make another film?”

The Scottish director was extremely complimentary about Phoenix, sharing, “I’ve never worked with such an exciting actor in my life”. She continued, “He’s phenomenal and he wants to just get on with it – he’s not into all the paraphernalia and these bullshit things.”

While there was almost a decade between her last two projects, Ramsay is already looking ahead to making another movie after Die My Love. “I’ve actually written something,” she confirmed, before stating that the project is currently in “treatment mode” and it will be set in Glasgow.

Ramsay’s new movie, Die My Love, focuses on a couple that leave New York for a quieter life when everything begins to unravel, will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on November 14th.

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