Entitled “Who Will You Be?” Emily Ratajkowski’s new short film is a self-narrated, deeply personal portrait of pregnancy, or what her friend Lena Dunham calls the “opposite of a People magazine baby announcement.” Dunham, who directed the short exclusively for Vogue, explains: “It was important to me that it feel very unfiltered and authentically present.” The video features intimate shots of the model at her doctor’s office, watching awestruck as the ultrasound imagery of her baby appears onscreen, and at home, sometimes submerged in a bathtub or reclining on the sofa with her dog Colombo nuzzling her growing tummy.
Dunham was a natural choice to direct Ratajkowksi’s film. After all, the two have a long history of working together. (Dunham has also known Ratajkowski’s husband, fellow New Yorker Sebastian Bear-McClard, since she was three.) The friends first met five years ago after Dunham interviewed Ratajkowski for her podcast Women of the Hour. The connection was instant. “I was amazed by her intelligence, wit, and grace,” says Dunham. “She’s always been unafraid and she’s also a totally original thinker—in both creativity and business.”
The pair also share their writing with one another; most recently it’s been passages from Ratajkowski’s upcoming book. With such an easy rapport, the script-writing process for the new video was practically seamless. “She would send me paragraphs about what she’d been thinking, and I would send back questions and ask for more,” says Dunham. “She said it was hard to avoid clichés, but I was amazed at how nimble she was in saying things that felt both moving and new.”
Part of the film’s charm is in how seemingly banal moments take on a more tender feel. Chronicling those everyday experiences was meaningful for Ratajkowski, but also for Dunham. “I have talked a lot about my own infertility and how the culture of baby announcements and Instagram can make women feel excluded or less than, but actually early pregnancy is a very confusing and complex time—how could we capture all that but also feel the hope and joy of growing new life?” she says. “That’s why I wanted to see Emily doing mundane things and focus more on her daily life than on her belly, and more on her inner monologue than on the way the world reacts to a newly pregnant mom.” Ultimately, both women hope that “Who Will You Be?” will be a lasting record for Ratajkowski and her yet-to-be-born child. Says Dunham, “I wanted to make something she would be proud of in 50 years.”
Director: Lena Dunham
Written and filmed by Emily Ratajkowski
Featuring: Emily Ratajkowski, Sebastian Bear-McClard
Editor: Danielle Schneiderman
Postproduction: Modern Post
Post producer: Victoria Clifton
Colorist: Justin Schroepfer
Music: “Chrome Country,” performed by Oneohtrix Point Never, courtesy of Warp Records
Mix producer, vinyl: Angelina Powers
Sound mixer: Weston Fonger
Sound recordist: Sarah Knill
Vice president, head of video: Robert Semmer
Executive producer: Marina Cukeric
Entertainment director: Sergio Kletnoy
Visual director: Samantha Adler
Visual editor: Thomas Wolfe
Creative producer: Jorden Bickham
Art director: Nobi Kashiwagi
Vogue video team: Jenna Allchin, Anna Page Nadin, Naomi Nishi, Gabrielle Reich, Sam Sussman, Maya Tanaka, Emily Yates