For three days, director Leah McKendrick returned to San Francisco to shoot Netflix’s “Voicemails for Isabelle,” a rom-com built around grief, second chances, and a city she still feels in her bones. With production largely in Vancouver, she and the cast captu
San Francisco doesn’t just sit in the background of “Voicemails for Isabelle.” For director Leah McKendrick, it becomes a kind of crossroads.
In the film. Jill (Zoey Deutch) is a promising pastry chef whose life is shattered when her sister. best friend and confidant Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) dies. Jill copes by calling up and leaving voicemails on Isabelle’s old phone number—only to discover it has already been reassigned to Wes (Nick Robinson). After listening to Jill’s private messages, Wes becomes smitten and seeks her out. When the duo finally meet, they do so on a bench overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.
McKendrick said that bench sequence mattered because she wanted Jill to look out at “this beautiful. iconic sparkling city. ” and yet still feel removed—caught between heaven. where her sister is. and the real world where life keeps happening. The Golden Gate Bridge. she said. is “that crossroads because so much life happens there. from people getting engaged. to commuting. to working out.”.
The filmmaker didn’t treat it like a distant backdrop, either. She shot in San Francisco for three days, while production predominantly took place in Vancouver. When they were in California. the film’s team captured scenes at Fisherman’s Wharf. Union Square. Lombard Street. the Haight. Ghirardelli Square. Chinatown. and the Palace of Fine Arts. McKendrick also described returning “a couple blocks from my parents’ house. ” and said her mum. dad and sister came and were extras on a tour bus.
“It was all just a dream.”
That dream is tightly tied to the city McKendrick grew up in. Born in San Francisco and raised in the Inner Richmond. she attended Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory high school in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood. From the start, she wanted “Voicemails for Isabelle” to celebrate how San Francisco’s rich diversity shaped her.
“I’m just a little bit of a smorgasbord, because I grew up in one,” she said. “I grew up surrounded by immigrants and LGBTQ members. Every type of food was available to me. I didn’t realize everywhere wasn’t like that. I was in a bubble of diversity and open-mindedness. It shaped me. It gave me a wild taste in art, music and film that I wanted to show in this.”.
Her connection to San Francisco also carries a more complicated ache: she described leaving it while pursuing her dreams. wanting the sun of Los Angeles—and then. once she did. missing home. She said she wanted to treat the city the way it felt for her growing up: “cold and foggy.” She explained that she always wanted to be in Los Angeles pursuing her dreams. “to be in the sun. ” and that she often felt like “a fish out of water.” But the moment she left. she wanted to get back.
“It’s my heart. It’s my everything,” she said. “Getting to go back and film there was so special.”
That return wasn’t cheap, and she didn’t pretend otherwise. McKendrick said it was too expensive to film there. “That’s the problem with San Francisco. It’s so expensive. It’s so expensive to live there and shoot there,” she said. Still, she added that she wanted to shoot there “so badly because it’s so specific and romantic.”.
The film’s San Francisco push came with a practical fight. While “Voicemails for Isabelle” was initially set in both New York and Los Angeles. McKendrick said it was decided that too many projects had recently unfolded in those cities. That shift is when she started pushing to place the story in San Francisco—because she knew she could add detail that would make it “even more romantic and impactful.”.
The on-set chemistry between director and cast seemed to carry that same sense of momentum. McKendrick described Zoey Deutch as “hilarious. sweet. vulnerable. open-hearted and emotional” as Jill. and said she also brings a warm. gregarious energy off camera. “Zoey was the only person that could have done it,” she said. She described their collaboration as easy. with constant discussion and adjustments aimed at “making the best version of the film as possible.” McKendrick added. “I’m just so proud of her performance and who she is as a woman.”.
The bench overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the film’s most pointed choices. but it fits into McKendrick’s larger path back to filmmaking. As a child. she said she always thought she was going to be a pop singer. with her dream set specifically on being “the next Britney Spears.” She said she repeatedly insisted she wasn’t going to go to college. and her parents disagreed strongly. McKendrick recalled them telling her: “Please give up this dream. This terrifying, horrific dream of being a pop star.”.
She eventually acquiesced, attended Chapman University, and put her creative frustrations into writing, producing, directing and acting in various short films and stage plays. She said she did land a record deal, but the label folded—after which she found her way into filmmaking.
Her rise came through “Destroy the Alpha Gammas,” a 2014 web series that won two International Academy of Web Television awards. She then wrote, produced and co-starred in her feature debut, “M.F.A.” It premiered at SXSW to strong reviews. But it was her 2023 comedy drama “Scrambled. ” which she wrote. directed and starred in and which was based on her own experiences of egg retrieval. that she said truly established her as a cinematic voice.
Netflix hired McKendrick to direct “Voicemails for Isabelle,” a spec script she had sold back in 2019. Development lasted for several years until May 2025, when the streamer announced McKendrick would finally be bringing the film to life.
“Voicemails for Isabelle” is now out, and McKendrick is already looking ahead. She said it has been announced that she’s writing and directing “Shania,” a biopic on Canadian singer-songwriter Shania Twain. And even with the success of this rom-com in her rearview. she said she wants to keep moving across genres—especially music-driven work. but also horror.
“I’m very excited to continue to do music-driven work. But I’m also very interested in horror. I want to see more risks in every genre. I want to see stories from filmmakers of all ages and backgrounds,” she said. “I really think we’re headed in that direction, too. Even with ‘Voicemails for Isabelle.’ It’s an original idea. made by a female filmmaker. with a female producer. cinematographer and a very female-driven team. I’m just so proud to have been a part of it and I want to see more of it.”.
Leah McKendrick Voicemails for Isabelle Netflix rom-com San Francisco filming Golden Gate Bridge Zoey Deutch Nick Robinson Ciara Bravo Fisherman's Wharf Union Square Lombard Street The Haight Ghirardelli Square Chinatown Palace of Fine Arts