Well, I give her all the credit. But she does say that it was the house in a weird way, the house that we picked, the circumstances that we were in, the fact that it was 115 degrees some days … We were almost like living those characters in a weird way. Everything that she wore was like a $10 t-shirt, just the right income level for that character. I think all the details added up to feeling like you were there. But Kate was incredible. She was prepared every day, very focused. She did this beautiful movie before ours that she had a small part in called “Farming.” I saw her in that and I was like, “Oh my God, she’s amazing. She can do so much more than the action films.”

You can’t take her eyes off her, she’s so manic, ready to react at any moment, which makes so much sense for the character because she has to balance so much.

Yes. And look at the ex-husband, this volatile guy that shows up at her work and causes scenes, and then her kid has epilepsy, so at any moment she has to be thinking, “Is he starting to have a seizure? Oh, I don’t have enough cash. Second job is starting up, I can’t screw this up,” and on and on.

This film, it’s a human drama, it’s focused on relationships, on family and love, there’s no flashy concept or commentary, the main character is a woman. This might just be my perception, but it feels like, at least in the studio space, these types of movies are disappearing. You go back to the ’90s, the early 2000s, and it was every other movie. It was Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman, these expensive movies with textured scripts that did well at the box office. And now they seem fewer and further between — do you see that on your side of the industry?

Absolutely. I was just talking about this with some people. Studio movies have really become only franchise, tentpole things, big IP. This is not going to be coming from a big IP, this kind of personal family drama, intimate family drama, where you feel like you’re in the house with the characters, which was my intention on “Thirteen.” You feel like you’re just in there with these people, living with them. So, how are these kinds of movies going to get made in the future? Indie financing. Awesome things like the Toronto Film Festival showcasing them. The most important thing is that we have to keep trying to make these films. Kate said, even last night, she tries to balance out a big, fun action film with something personal, like this.

Are you finding it more difficult to make these movies? To get producers and financiers interested in them?

Well, for example, after I did “Thirteen,” I kind of wanted to keep doing movies like that. I found it very difficult. I always found it very difficult to get this kind of movie made. I have had multiple other projects that I could just not get to happen. On this one, I think when Kate and Brian came on, we were able to scrape up the budget, which wasn’t a big budget. Kate is sleeping under my own bedspread, for example, in the movie. I didn’t even tell them that. There’s paintings from my house that are on the wall.

It’s pretty bare bones, but that makes it … it’s like “Thirteen.” That makes it really come from your heart. So we have to make movies for less money, that’s really the answer. If you can make it for a minimal amount of money, maybe you can get it back.

So you’ve seen the budgets for these kind of films shrink over time.

Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. It’s wild.

And it’s counterintuitive, because you’re Catherine Hardwicke! You’re established, you’ve grossed well over budget on a ton of your films, people see them. You would think it would be the opposite, that it would get easier and easier.

It’s the same even with stars. Another big star came to me with a passion project recently and we couldn’t get the money, because it was more a character piece. People are just … they want the superheroes, they want all that crazy stuff. I like that too, but we’ve got to be able to make personal films.