How Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca inspired Lisa Gabriele's romantic thriller The Winters
This interview originally aired on Nov. 12, 2018.
Writer, producer and director Lisa Gabriele — best known for the S.E.C.R.E.T. trilogy — puts a modern spin on a classic work with the novel The Winters. It's inspired by the bestselling 1938 gothic tale Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
The Winters is a thriller about wealth, infatuation and a past that haunts a young woman after she moves into her fiancé Max's ostentatious Long Island home after a short and fiery romance.
It's complicated
"Growing up my family members were big readers, but we were poor. We were taking regular visits to the library. Rebecca was my mother's favourite book and her favourite movie. I read the book in high school and watched the movie as a child growing up, over and over again.
I have had a long complicated and evolving relationship with Rebecca.- Lisa Gabriele
"When you're a young woman reading a book like that, it's a marvellous thing to imagine being swept off your feet by a rich man and to be taken to a haunted mansion. I have had a long complicated and evolving relationship with Rebecca."
Character agency
"The idea for The Winters came around the autumn of 2016, a time that featured the dark days of the U.S. election. It seemed like things weren't changing for women. We saw the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the rise of the #MeToo movement and we had this uneasy sense that we weren't making any progress in the world. I wanted to ensure my main character had a strong presence and was a strong woman. I had to get off Twitter and away from the news for a while.
"I started rewatching in my favourite old movies, including Rebecca, and it inflamed me all over again. I had this lightning bolt moment, where I wanted to experiment with the idea of taking a young woman and put her through the wringer."
Lisa Gabriele's comments have been edited for length and clarity.