Interview: Andrew Ortenberg and June Schreiner on ‘When I’m Ready’
Andrew Ortenberg and June Schreiner star in When I’m Ready, an intimate road trip drama set against the backdrop of impending catastrophe. Written by Ortenberg and directed by Andrew Johnson, When I’m Ready follows a young couple, Rose (Schreiner) and Michael (Ortenberg), as they travel across the country in the days leading up to an extinction-level asteroid impact. Their journey to see Rose’s grandmother one last time is punctuated by encounters with strangers—each seeking meaning in the world’s final days. The film features Lauren Cohan as a former beauty queen holding onto hope, Dermot Mulroney as a lone drifter searching for connection, and Thalia Besson as the leader of a band of hedonistic revelers chasing one last wild night. But at its heart, the film is about two young people grappling with love, loss, and what it means to truly live.
For Ortenberg, the idea stemmed from his love of apocalyptic stories, but he wanted to explore the genre from a new perspective. “I’ve always loved end-of-the-world movies,” he says. “But they’re almost always backward-facing—it’s always a middle-aged man looking back on his regrets, like The Road or Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Both movies I love, but we wanted to do something different. What if we made an end-of-the-world movie that wasn’t about things we wish we had done in the past, but about things we’ll never get to do in the future? That hasn’t really been done before, at least not through the lens of two early-20s kids who have never left the country or truly experienced life.”
The project began as a short film, a collaboration between Ortenberg and Schreiner after meeting at an acting studio in Los Angeles. “Me and June knew we wanted to work together,” Ortenberg recalls. “But this whole thing just snowballed. I kept writing, and I kept having more to say, and suddenly it was a feature.” Schreiner, whose role was written with her in mind, found the process deeply personal. “Some of the things I struggled with most in Rose’s emotional arc were later revealed to be the things closest to how I am,” she says. “It was a really interesting way to get to know myself.”
At its core, the film is as much about Michael and Rose’s relationship as it is about the impending disaster. Schreiner describes it as a constant push and pull. “They’re fighting, trying to accept each other, oscillating between those two things. That’s what’s interesting to watch—a young couple figuring out if they are the right match, especially in the face of these extraordinary circumstances.” Ortenberg adds, “There’s even a moment where Rose asks, ‘Do you think we would have ended up together if none of this had happened?’ That question—of fate, of what really bonds two people—is something we wanted to explore.”
The shoot itself mirrored the film’s restless energy. With 20 locations in just 19 days, the production was relentless. “Logistically insane,” Ortenberg admits. “But I think it helped the authenticity of it. We truly were ping-ponging between locations, just like in the movie.” Schreiner describes the experience as both exhilarating and challenging. “It was fun because we got to see so much of the greater LA area. The landscape is beautiful, and our cinematographer, Rachael Kliman, captured it so well. But there were challenges—we never got to settle, we were always figuring out where the bathroom was, where to put our stuff. There was so much logistical upkeep that maybe, if we had been more contained, we would have had more rehearsal time or time to settle. But at the same time, it kept the experience so alive, and it fit the feeling of the road trip—we were constantly moving.”
Despite the breakneck schedule, the film attracted seasoned actors like Dermot Mulroney and Lauren Cohan, who play key supporting roles. Ortenberg credits a mix of luck and connections for their involvement in the film. “For Dermot, we were lucky to have a familial connection. My dad works on the studio side of things and has known Dermot for a long time. His son Clyde was actually a member of our crew, so it was easy to get the script to him. And he liked the material.” Cohan, on the other hand, came into the project unexpectedly. “We initially had another actress attached, but she had a scheduling conflict. Her manager also represented Lauren and was a big fan of the script, so he suggested her. Next thing we know, she was attached, and we couldn’t believe it.”
For Schreiner, working alongside Mulroney and Cohan was both inspiring and humbling. “They showed up with pages of notes, with so much care and love for the process,” she recalls. “Lauren spent an entire lunch break talking through our scene when she could’ve gone to her trailer. Watching actors at their level still approach the work with so much humility and passion was amazing.” Ortenberg adds, “They’re not in the film from start to finish like me and June, but their characters, along with a few others we meet along the way, are the heart of the movie. They give it its backbone.”
As a writer and lead actor, Ortenberg entrusted directing duties to Andrew Johnson, someone he had known socially but not closely before the project. “I knew he had always wanted to direct. He went to film school for it, but we met in acting class. I sent him the script even when it was just a short, and that existing trust made a huge difference. With something as personal as this, I would’ve had a hard time handing it over to just anyone, even a big-name director.” While directing wasn’t on Ortenberg’s radar before, the experience of making this film changed that. “I always thought no, [I don’t want to direct], even when we were shooting it. But then, in post-production, I got the itch. So I don’t know. It’s not on the front burner, but maybe one day.”
Beneath the film’s road trip adventure and doomsday backdrop, When I’m Ready poses a deeper question—what truly matters when time is running out? Ortenberg points to one line in particular: ‘Do you wish we did more good?” questions Rose in one of the scenes that take place towards the end of the film. “That could be seen as a throwaway line, but for me, it’s pivotal,” he says. “The whole movie is about these kids having this hedonistic explosion of fun—playing laser tag, picking strawberries in an abandoned field, trying to live it up before the end. And then there’s this moment where they wonder, ‘Maybe while we were having all this fun, we weren’t thinking about what was actually the most important thing—helping others.’”
For Schreiner, the film is an invitation to be present in the now as opposed to looking back or foward. “This movie is like the ultimate meditation,” she explains. “The score, the visuals, the story—it’s hypnotic. These two young people lose their future and their past, and suddenly they’re left with only the now. And the question is, what are they going to do with it?”
When I’m Ready is now available on VOD.
