ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Tow director Stephanie Laing about working with Rose Byrne and telling a remarkable true story of resilience. Also starring Dominic Sessa, Ariana DeBose, Octavia Spencer, and Demi Lovato, the film is out in theaters starting today.

“Based on a true story, Tow follows Amanda Ogle (Byrne), a woman living in her aging Toyota Camry on the streets of Seattle. When her car — her only lifeline — is stolen and impounded, Amanda is thrust into a relentless legal battle against an indifferent system. What begins as a fight to reclaim her car evolves into a deeply human story of resilience, dignity, and the power of one woman’s voice in the face of systemic failure.”

Tyler Treese: I thought the true story behind Tow was such a good story to turn into a film because while what’s at stake is ultimately kind of low stakes in the grand scheme of things, because it’s just about getting an old car back, but it’s such high stakes for the person involved as it is her home, and it speaks to such an important systemic issue of how these companies take advantage of people that are struggling and keep them down rather than letting them get back on their feet. What about that story really stood out to you and made you want to adapt it?

Stephanie Laing: The resilience, right? That and her fight. Her charge to say, “I’m not gonna, I’m not giving up.” And that she got so far on her own and then realized that she needed community around her to get farther with it. The real Amanda has told me repeatedly that if someone had said, if at any time someone had said they were sorry, she might’ve given up. And that really stayed with me. But I think just her, you know, fighting for this, you know, her dignity, and in this case, her home, that means so much that you could take that on. And I guess the messaging was like, your voice matters. And her story shows. It’s a perfect example of that. Like your voice does matter.

You and Rose Byrne work together so well and have that working relationship from Physical. She also produced this film, and we all know she’s a great actress, and it’s been so great seeing her finally get some recognition for how great she is. But what has stood out about her as a creative collaborator? Because she gets to be more involved in helping shape projects now.

Yeah. I mean, look, she has incredible taste. You know, I think why we like to collaborate a lot is that we do have similar taste and I think we are attracted to characters and things that have something to say. Tow certainly does. But Rose is like, as a producer, is the same that you would expect as she is as an actress, where she dives right in, you know, and even looking at early cuts with me and talking about things that music… I mean, just all the details matter, and they really matter to her. So it’s like, as a whole, it’s like, yes, as an actress, but then as a producing partner, it was an incredible collaboration.

I love the ending so much. We get to see the real Amanda, her daughter, and Kevin. I feel like it would’ve been easy to just spend 20 minutes showing what happens next in their lives, but in this short scene with the real people, we see that bond and that love is there, and that things end up okay. It tells you everything you need to know. So how did you kind of come up with that decision to show the real-life counterparts there? I thought that was really smart.

Stephanie Laing: Oh, thank you. It’s one of my favorite moments because I do think it is kind of a gut punch, because now you’ve seen Rose as Amanda, and now we get to see the real people. The easy thing would’ve been like, here’s some photographs, here’s where they are. But instead it was like, you know what, let’s just have them, you know, not spoiling the ending, but let’s have them together. Because you’re right, you see the love. They’re together, they’re okay. And their story continues. I think that’s how I really came up with that idea, was like, we don’t know what’s next, what next fight they’re all gonna have to take on. We much like we don’t know what our next fight is, but we’re gonna end them in a hopeful place.

Thanks to Stephanie Laing for taking the time to talk about Tow.