Inside the True Story That Inspired Netflix's “Voicemails for Isabelle” (Exclusive)

Rebecca AizinSat, June 20, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

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Zoey Deutch as Jill and Nick Robinson as Wes in Voicemails for IsabelleCredit: Diyah Pera/Netflix -

Leah McKendrick was inspired to write Netflix's Voicemails for Isabelle after watching a comedy set about voicemails and loss

The story reflects McKendrick's bond with her sister and explores themes of grief, love, and family connections

Voicemails for Isabelle is now streaming on Netflix

Leah McKendrick got the idea for Voicemails for Isabelle from an unexpected place.

The writer-director, 39, who also stars in the movie in a minor role, first wrote Netflix's new rom-com, streaming now, over seven years ago. The movie follows Jill (Zoey Deutch), an aspiring baker who is grieving the loss of her younger sister Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) by sending her voicemails with updates from her daily life.

Unbeknownst to her, Isabelle's number was reassigned to Wes (Nick Robinson), who soon falls in love with Jill because of her bright personality over the phone and seeks her out.

While the premise of building a movie off sisterhood came naturally to McKendrick, a proud older sister herself, the voicemails aspect was inspired by a comedy set she saw.

Nick Robinson, Leah McKendrick and Zoey Deutch attend Netflix's "Voicemails for Isabelle" premiere at TUDUM Theater on June 16, 2026Credit: Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty

Her roommate was partaking in the showcase and had a bit about how her dad would leave her 20-minute-long voicemails about things as mundane as what he ate that day and the weather.

"Then the next comedian gets on stage and she goes, 'It's so nice that your dad calls you. My dad hasn't called me in three years.' And everyone's kind of like, 'Ooh,' " McKendrick tells PEOPLE. "And then she's like, 'He's dead.' I was the only one that laughed. And then it really got the wheels turning, and I thought to myself, it's so funny, this idea of a girl who keeps waiting for her dad to call her back."

McKendrick continued, "And then I thought, '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.' And then I thought if my sister died, I'd be waiting for her to call me back. And then I thought, no, if my sister died, I would just keep calling her."

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Nick Robinson as Wes and Zoey Deutch as Jill in Voicemails for IsabelleCredit: Diyah Pera/Netflix

From there, the idea was born — especially after McKendrick's sister moved to New York for college and the director started leaving her "long rambling voicemails" about various things that went on in her day, often crying heartbroken about either a horrible date or "how hard it was to make it in Hollywood and how this town didn't want me."

"I would just let it all hang out," she says. "And what a horror story it could be if somebody were to ever hear my most unfiltered self. But you would know that if somebody fell in love with that unfiltered self, it would be real."

Apart from being a romance story, however, it was important to McKendrick to create a "love letter" to her sister. And there is no true romantic love, McKendrick says, without experiencing your first love with family.

"I think if you've experienced true love through family, you don't settle when you're searching for it in romantic love because you know what it feels like," she says. "And some people don't know what that feels like to really have true love. And I'm very deeply grateful for the fact that I knew from pretty much [when] my sister was born when I was 4. So I've known since I was 4 years old, and she came home, what true love was."

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Voicemails for Isabelle is streaming now on Netflix.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”