Although it's easy to argue that Come and Find Me's chase scenes, drawn guns, and plot about the mysterious disappearance of a beautiful woman are enough to categorize it as a thriller, writer-director Zack Whedon's new film is very much a love story. Just about every scene is focused on star Aaron Paul's David, a mild-mannered graphic designer with his life in shambles. David has fallen so hard for his girlfriend (Annabelle Wallis' Claire) that he is unable to stop looking for her when she seemingly evaporates into thin air one morning—even when everyone tells the poor schmuck to move on, that she most likely just left him. But as David can't let it go, he stumbles onto clues of Claire's double life that drive him into a world he didn't know existed and where the aforementioned hunts and ammo are commonplace.

On an exceptionally clear sunny day in a suite a the London West Hollywood hotel in Southern California, Whedon and Paul met with Esquire to discuss the project and how it may be relatable to anyone who cannot get over the (sudden) end of a relationship. The scribe, sitting with his back to the window in a fitted sport coat, was direct about his vision for the film while his star, lounging on the couch in distressed black skinny jeans and expertly swooped hair, admitted that this character may have some parallels to his breakout role in the AMC series Breaking Bad and other parts on his IMDb page.

ESQ: Zack, this was on Hollywood's annual Black List of exceptional unproduced screenplays in 2012. Has it changed significantly since then? Had you planned to direct it as well?

Zack Whedon: There were very minor changes. There were a couple scenes that shifted in tone, but it's essentially the same script that I wrote back then. I wrote it with directing it in mind, which I think was helpful in the writing process. It made me direct less from the page and write a cleaner script for that reason because I thought that I would be the one interpreting it.

I wanted to write something that was on the scale of a first-time director. As I was writing it, I was like I just hope the third act doesn't get crazy.

You wrote it before the idea of "ghosting" someone, where you slowly fade out of someone's life instead of officially ending things, went mainstream. Was this based on an experience you had?

ZW: No, thank god. No one has ever disappeared on me and I've never disappeared. The personal connection that I have to it is in the relationship between the two people—which I think is something that a lot of people can relate to—where in a couple, you allow an emotional distance to come between you and your partner. And, certainly, you could say I have a tendency to do that and I was writing those relationship scenes from experience. But the disappearance was not from experience. It was from my brain.

Saban Films

You also wrote a script where Aaron's character, David, is, I believe, in every scene. Where you looking for someone who could handle that?

ZW: I foolishly didn't consider that and thank god we had Aaron doing it. Aaron has an enormous amount of energy and positivity on set, which was essential for this. He had a lot of long days and he kept everyone involved feeling very positive. He also has a tendency to throw himself physically all over the place with complete disregard for his own safety, which was terrifying for me because I was trying to figure out how we would continue to shoot the film if he had a broken arm. But it also made for some really great moments in the movie where he takes some spills.

Aaron Paul: For me, that's what it's all about: Putting yourself in those moments.

ZW: For instance, there's a scene in the woods where he hits a tree and falls backward. Before we rolled on that take, I saw him covertly asking the stunt guys for pads. I was like what's going to happen?

And the stunt guys were cool with it?

AP: They didn't know what I was going to do. But they were very happy to give me pads. I think I had some elbow and some knee [pads]. I also just wanted to take a tumble down the hill. It looked great.

Aaron, why did you want to take on such an emotionally griping part? It must have been exhausting.

AP: This script was so beautifully written and knowing that the writer was also going to be directing was very exciting to me. It was hard not to say yes after I turned the last page. I just wanted to sit down with Zack and just talk to him about his vision and how he saw that. By the end of that hour, hour-and-a-half, long meeting it was "let's do this."

With Breaking Bad and the movie Smashed and even really, your new Hulu show The Path, you have a history of playing characters whose romantic situations put them in jeopardy.

AP: I love characters that are going through turmoil [Laughs]. To be honest, I love characters with conflict. I love characters who are really going through an emotional journey; whether it's a super-dark-crazy journey or a really relatable guy. This guy, for example, he's not this heroic-type character. He's a normal dude who was just thrown into this crazy situation and was just fighting to find his love and also fighting for his life. I love that.

Do you like these hopeless romantic characters?

AP: I do, yeah. For an actor, for me, I love being able to tap into just heavy emotions. I don't need to be balling in every scene, but I just love to feel different emotions when heading to set. It's a lot of fun to play with.

Actors Aaron Paul, director Zack Whedon and actress Annabelle Wallis attend the premiere of Come And Find Me

David doesn't give up searching for his girlfriend, as opposed to another character we meet in the film, who has. Did you discuss why he doesn't stop looking?

ZW: To me, that's what sets him apart and lets you know that their connection is something grander and worth fighting for is the fact that he won't give up. That scene was one of the very few scenes that changed from the first draft. Initially when he meets [the other character,] Charlie, Charlie was a much closer doppelgänger to him. In reading that version, it became clear to me that David needed to be set apart from Charlie and that Charlie had moved on, as I think most people would if they thought that somebody had just walked away from them. The thing that sets David apart for Claire is that David keeps looking for her. Claire probably assumes that people will be able to move on from her, which is why she's able to leave in the first place.

AP: I think he was truly, truly in love with her. He knew she was in love with him, at least at the point where she went missing… There's that scene in the night before she went missing where she looks at him and says "I love you, I really do." He's trying to convince himself that maybe she needed out and she got scared, but otherwise she's buried somewhere. I really relate to this guy. I would not stop. It would just take over me. I would never be able to move on and I would be the guy fighting to find what I was missing.

Zack, talk about the ending some more. What made you decide to go full-on action sequence with the final act?

ZW: It's sort of difficult to describe the writing process for me, but I didn't really outline the movie in great detail. I let it tell me where to go as I wrote it. As I came toward the end, I knew that this was a love story more than anything else. The resolution of that is them being reunited. Once they made that emotional connection, the story's over and everything else is irrelevant. As I was writing it, I had this device in place of looking back at their relationship. It became obvious that that structural tool should be how we finish the movie.

Saban Films

The flashback scenes where David is remembering their relationship are shot in this warm light. I may be reading too much into it, but they kind of had this Memento-like vibe to them.

ZW: In terms of influences, you never know really what they are. But I love Memento and to be mentioned in the same breath as it…

I shouldn't reveal this because then I look like a total hack, but one of my favorite movies of all time is Noah Baumbach's first movie, Kicking and Screaming, and I've watched it countless times. Structurally, it does a similar thing… Long after I finished writing the movie, I was like that's where that came from.

Aaron, did you and Annabelle do anything off screen to get to know each other better?

AP: We hung out all the time. I've actually known Annabelle for many, many years. She was so excited about this project and she just wanted to fight for it. That right there is a good sign, knowing the actress is really truly wanting it instead of it just being a job. I'm such a fan of hers on screen and off. She's such a warm, loving, hilarious individual. She brings out the best in everybody.

When I go to set, I try to make it a warm, inviting and happy set. We're all coming to work creating something, hopefully, beautiful together. She does the same thing.

Did the fact that you knew each other make it easier?

AP: I think so. We already have that incredible shorthand.

ZW: There was almost no rehearsal time. So the fact that they knew each other and hand a bond was fabulous.

AP: It was so important that these two characters had this instant chemistry because that's what their relationship was all about.

Aaron, I'm sorry, but I have to ask if there's any more news about you appearing on AMC's Breaking Bad prequel, Better Call Saul.

AP: Ahh… I dunno.

My editor is not going to accept that.

AP: You want me to really tell you? Season finale. It's a flash-forward and I actually randomly show up at the donut shop that Saul is working at. We just look at each other and it just cuts to black.

I'm actually just making shit up. To be honest, I have no idea. The idea of working with that entire group again is such a dream.

Your character, Jesse, would be a pubescent teenager if you were to appear in this series.

AP: Who knows. But I don't age.

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