Leah McKendrick reveals inspiration behind Netflix ‘Voicemails for Isabelle'

Voicemails for Isabelle is getting massive attention on Netflix, not just for its love story, but also for its real life inspiration behind it.

The romantic film is about Jill, which is played by Zoey Deutch, who is dealing with deep grief after losing her younger sister Isabelle.

In the story, Jill keeps calling her sister’s old phone number and leaving voicemails, even though she does not know the number now belongs to someone else named Wes, which is played by Nick Robinson.

Over time, Wes then hear those messages and slowly gets connected to Jill’s voice and emotions, which leads to an unexpected bond between them.

Writer and director Leah McKendrick shared that the idea came from a real moment in her life.

Leah explained that years ago she heard a conversation at a comedy show where one person talked about long voicemails from a parent, while another casually said their father had died.

That story, however, stayed with her and made her think deeply about loss and communication.

The director added that personal experiences with her own sister helped her make this story happen.

When her sister moved away for university, Leah used to leave long, emotional voice notes, thinking about how those messages hold real feelings that are never edited or filtered.

The star went on to describe the film as something which shows pure love, grief and how people hold on to voices of those they care about.

Voicemails for Isabelle is now streaming on Netflix as people are connecting with its emotional story.