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“The title takes on a lot of different meanings,” said director/writer Drake Doremus on his latest film, Like Crazy. The title can refer to how the two main characters, Jacob (Star Trek and Terminator Salvation’s Antony Yelchin) and Anna (newcomer Felicity Jones) are in love “like crazy.” It can imply that Anna’s denial of entry into the US for overstaying her initial VISA is “like crazy.” Or it can mean that the characters are being driven “like crazy” with their on-and-off relationship status and the temptation of other fish in the sea (Twilight’s Charlie Bewley and X-Men and Winter’s Bone’s Jennifer Lawrence) on their respective sides of the pond.

On another level, the title can stand for the “like crazy” amount of buzz the film received after premiering in Sundance last year. It can represent the “like crazy” chances a major studio (Paramount) would distribute the film; starting this Friday before expanding.

For British starlet Felicity Jones, “like crazy” could describe her feeling of elation after discovering she was nominated for a 2011 “Breakthrough Actress” Gotham Award minutes before our roundtable interview in Boston.

Where did the story come from?

Drake Doremus: It came from thinking about the past more than anything. Trying to do something truthful and honest. I really wanted to do a contemporary love story and do it honest from my perspective. So just really reflecting on a lot of things that happened in my life and Ben [York Jones’] life – my co-writer who put a lot into the scriptment.

Felicity, I was curious on what sold you to do this picture. Since it was a scriptment, I am assuming that there wasn’t a lot of dialogue written. What made you think, “This is a character that I can handle and can create with a lot of improv?”

Felicity Jones: It was from reading the scriptment. Sitting down and reading it really quickly in one-go, which is always a good sign. I didn’t get distracted once.

DD: It’s so short you can’t (laughs). It was 50 pages.

FJ: And it already had such a strong tone; many of the songs that are in the film were in that initial scriptment. By the time it came to the actors, it was fully realized. There is a truthfulness in telling the story, there is no gimmick, there are no car chases or anything like that. It’s a story about a relationship. And when I was reading it, it felt absolutely honest and an extraordinary thing to do through improvisation.

What was the improv like for you?

FJ: There is a lot of information already given to you so that you don’t feel like you are coming in totally unprepared. We discussed the objectives and broke down the scenes to know exactly what was going to happen. Then we shoot the rehearsal and you just let the dialogue come. So the dialogue is the least important element in making this type of film. But once you are into it and feel like you can trust the people around you, then it becomes a lot less intimidating.

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