Leah McKendrick’s Voicemails for Isabelle grew from grief

Writer-director Leah McKendrick says her Netflix romcom Voicemails for Isabelle was shaped by real-life sparks: a comedy club bit about long, unanswered voicemails, her sister moving across the country, and the “horror story” of what grief might sound like whe

A single joke at a comedy club kept resurfacing in Leah McKendrick’s mind for years—until it turned into something that could make people laugh and then hold their breath.

Voicemails for Isabelle. McKendrick’s second feature film as a director and third as a screenwriter. is now streaming on Netflix. The romantic comedy follows Jill. a novice baker in San Francisco played by Zoey Deutch. whose tight bond with her sister. Isabelle (Ciara Bravo). is tested to the breaking point when Isabelle dies after a battle with cystic fibrosis. After the loss. Jill keeps leaving detailed voicemails about her life on Isabelle’s phone—except they aren’t being sent into the void. They’re picked up by Wes (Nick Robinson). a realtor who finds himself falling for the quirky girl on the other end of the line.

McKendrick told PEOPLE on June 20 that multiple true-life strands fed into the script. The first seed came from a comedy showcase she attended more than seven years ago. Her roommate at the time performed a set about her father’s “long. rambling voicemails.” When the next comedian took the stage. the bit landed hard: she joked that it’s “so nice that your dad calls you. ” before adding. “My dad hasn’t called me in three years.”.

Then came the punchline that changed the mood of the room—and, later, changed the direction of McKendrick’s thoughts. The comedian said her father hadn’t called because “He’s dead.” McKendrick said she was “the only one that laughed.” That moment. she explained. kept “the wheels turning. ” and she started imagining “the idea of a girl who keeps waiting for her dad to call her back.”.

From there, the story looped in her own head. McKendrick described a chain of follow-ups that started as humor and then tightened into something more personal: a girl waiting for a living father to call back turns into “if my dad dies. I won’t be waiting for him to call me back. ” because “my dad doesn’t call me back and he’s alive.” Then the thought shifted again—what if it was her sister?. She said she imagined. “if my sister died. I’d be waiting for her to call me back.” But that wasn’t the final turn. The idea sharpened: if her sister died, “I would just keep calling her.”.

The second strand came later, from a resemblance that wasn’t fictional at all. McKendrick said she found herself in the same kind of situation as her protagonist when her own sister moved to New York to attend college. She began leaving “long rambling voicemails” about how hard it was to make it in Hollywood and about how “this town didn’t want me.” That experience led her to ask what the darkest version of grief could sound like. and what love might do to it. She said she thought. “what a horror story it could be if somebody were to ever hear my most unfiltered self. ” and then pictured the twist: “But you would know that if somebody fell in love with that unfiltered self. it would be real.”.

That blend—comedy club timing, long-distance longing, and the ache that follows a life-changing absence—is exactly what the film tries to stitch together: comedy, drama, trauma, and sisterly love “all thatched together,” as McKendrick has put it.

The timing of the release also gives the story extra momentum. FlixPatrol’s streaming data analytics tracker shows Voicemails for Isabelle is currently the No. 1 movie on Netflix, after premiering three days ago.

Zoey Deutch, who plays Jill, hesitated before returning to the romcom lane. In a separate PEOPLE interview on June 20. she said she was “very hesitant” to come back to romcoms after 2018’s Set it Up. which starred Glen Powell. Still, she agreed to this one—because it felt different. Deutch said. “this one was because it felt deep and about grief and about love after loss and about sisters. ” and she added. “I feel super grateful and couldn’t love this movie more.”.

For McKendrick, the inspiration wasn’t built from one tragedy or one scene. It was built from the way unanswered voices echo—on a stage, across cities, and inside a family—until a character like Jill keeps talking, even when the person she’s speaking to is gone.

Voicemails for Isabelle Leah McKendrick Netflix romcom Zoey Deutch Ciara Bravo Nick Robinson cystic fibrosis inspirational true story comedy club inspiration sisterly love grief after loss