Will Sharpe to direct Michelle Zauner’s ‘Crying in H Mart’ film
Michelle Zauner, the leader of Japanese Breakfast, has confirmed that the upcoming film adaptation of her memoir Crying in H Mart will be directed by Will Sharpe, creator of comedy-drama Flowers and star of The White Lotus season two.
Zauner confirmed in June 2021 that her book was being adapted into a feature film, with her now revealing that Sharpe, who plays Ethan Spiller in The White Lotus, has signed on to direct.
Discussing the book, Sharpe explained to PEOPLE, “There were lots of things that resonated with me as somebody who is half-Japanese, half-British, spent my childhood in Tokyo. Some of the descriptions of being jet-lagged in your family’s kitchen felt very familiar to me.”
“I found that it felt universal in its specificity,” he continued later. “In that it’s so lovingly detailed about the experience of growing up around Korean food and the cooking of Korean food.”
“For me, it would be Japanese food and remembering growing up going to the 7-Elevens and the convenience stores in Tokyo and the dumplings that my mother would make when I was unwell,” Sharpe added. “And I felt like I could recognize that in the descriptions of the Korean porridge or the kimchi and how important that still is to Michelle and how food can carry certain other things within it about your life.”
Zauner told the publication that Sharpe’s “sensitivity as a director and an actor, his ability to find humour and grace within the tragedy of the everyday, and his own personal experience, having grown up between two cultures, make[s] him the perfect director for this film.”
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