Filmmaker Joshua Coates considers himself a perfectionist. He tells HFPA journalist Michele Manelis that he is always studying and trying to get better with his craft. His new film Ageless Love is based on a true story about finding a soulmate.

“It is a period piece that takes place in the 1960s. It’s a true love story based on the life of Yale Schwartz and Nina Lemisch. Yale just passed last year, in October of last year, from Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. But he had a great story about his late wife who died in 1997 of the same illness, how they met when he was straight out of college, he was introduced to her by his aunt, she was a 38-year-old widow, with five children and the minute he saw her, he fell in love. And his family just gave him hell about it.”

Those days it wasn’t a normal thing to see a young man marrying an older widow. “It was kind of frowned upon, so they had a lot of challenges, with the family, with society, but through it all, they formed a love and eventually tied the knot. The story just covers their journey of trying to be together. It’s funny, it’s very romantic and it’s very adventurous.”

There are references to Robert Zemeckis’ film Forrest Gump.  ”I love his storytelling style. He’s done a lot of other movies that I love, but Forrest Gump is probably in my top three all-time movies. I kind of followed his blueprint of how Forrest kind of told the story from the past to the future to the present back to the past.”

Yales’ emotional story made Coates think about his own mortality. “I thought about man, what do I want to leave my kids when I leave this earth?  I thought about making videos, private little videos to share with my kids and my wife if something did happen to me.” 

Listen to the podcast and hear if he is a romantic; why just auditioning is not important for him when he is casting actors; how was it having Yale Schwartz on the set and did he see the movie before he passed away; what kind of feedback he got from Yale’s family; how he describes his childhood; what kind of relationship he had with his parents; did he inherit musical abilities from his father who was one of the founding members of r&b group Brenda & the Tabulations?; how he got interested in filmmaking; how he found his confidence; is he a religious or spiritual person?; how he gets through tough times; what is the most challenging movie he has directed; what he learned while directing HollywouldKingdom Reign is about; what kind of advice he would give his younger self; what life philosophy does he follow; and what is on his bucket list.