You, Me & Tuscany

“My philosophy is like, ‘Do not preach. Do not tell people what to do. Hide the spinach in the brownie’,” Coiro says. It’s why she’s all about subtle sustainability. The house where Bailey’s character is staying, for instance, has electric cooktops, not gas. In one scene, the lead characters are seen carrying organic vegetables in wooden produce boxes, with not a plastic bag in sight. And, notes Coiro, there is a reusable water bottle in the electric Fiat Topolino that one of the characters, Lorenzo, drove.

“When you put forward sustainable practices, people are influenced by the media and they are influenced by their icons. And so I believe very strongly that this has a ripple effect that becomes much bigger than just eradicating plastic bottles from television or theatrical screens,” says Coiro. “I believe that it gives people a certain sense of power in a world where we often feel powerless. It is something that everyone can do.”

It’s a mindset that strongly resonated with her star and longtime environmental advocate Halle Bailey too. “At the end of the day, we want to have a future for our children and our grandchildren,” she told Imagine5. “Being on a set that truly cares about the earth was really inspiring. It was beautiful to see everyone be so intentional and kind in the way they showed up for it.”

Sustainability behind the scenes

The sustainable approach goes far beyond what’s seen on the screen. It relates to the nuts and bolts of how the film is made. In Italy, the team hired a local eco crew, which planned and oversaw sustainability efforts the entire way through. To save fuel and energy, the production rented hybrid vehicles; switched 80 percent of light fixtures to LED; and tapped into grid power wherever it could, which reduced the use of fossil-fuel-based generators. According to Universal, these efforts cumulatively “resulted in an emissions footprint 40 percent below the industry average for a film of similar size”.

The film’s art department also stored, returned or donated sets and materials after the production ended. And during filming, more than 50 percent of the meals that were served to cast and crew were vegetarian, while reusable and compostable dishware and reusable water bottles were the norm, which effectively avoided using more than 62,000 single-use items.

For Coiro, shooting in Italy beautifully dovetailed with how she likes to move in the world. “In Italy, they do not use plastic water bottles the same way American productions do. They compost their food,” she says. “They do so many little things because the Italian culture is very connected to the land and to producing beautiful food and to protecting the environment.”

You, Me and Tuscany serves as a cinematic love letter to this ethos. “I think the movie really does present this ideal of a back-to-the-land mentality – the beautiful things in life that we all love and aspire to, like a glass of wine with friends, a beautiful family meal,” says Coiro, who has a cameo in the movie. “And it seems so obvious, but just touching the dirt where the grapes are planted is a return to an understanding of where our food comes from and that what nourishes us needs to be protected. It doesn’t just originate in a freezer in a grocery store. It comes from the land.”

“Filming in Tuscany reminded us how important it is to protect the places that inspire us,” adds Italian actor Lorenzo de Moor, who also stars in the movie. “Thanks to initiatives like Lights, Camera, Plastic and Universal’s GreenerLight Program, our production reduced plastic use, embraced greener lighting, and worked toward a more sustainable set. It’s the kind of filmmaking the future needs.”

It’s a kind of filmmaking that Coiro has been experimenting with long before this film. She first happened onto her don’t-hit-them-over-the-head green approach when she made the 2022 romantic comedy Marry Me, starring Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. Before filming, she recalls feeling “distressed by the amount of waste that any [film] production generates. And I wasn’t in a position at that time where I could really change what was happening behind the scenes. So thought to myself, ‘What is it that I can control?’”

“So, on Marry Me, I made this commitment to eradicating waste from the screen, especially single-use plastic,” says Coiro. “Owen Wilson’s character only wore sustainable clothing, and he packed his daughter’s lunch in a [stainless steel] PlanetBox and he carried his water bottle everywhere. And Jennifer Lopez’s character had a S’well water bottle that was bedazzled.” Sustainability, says Coiro, “ended up being like a little subliminal character in the film.”

As it happened, Habits of Waste had launched its Lights, Camera, Plastic? campaign at around the same time. After seeing an article that ran about the initiative, Coiro connected with Sheila Morovati, the founder of Habits of Waste, which has also spearheaded such campaigns as Cut Out Cutlery, which successfully pushed for food-delivery apps to include plastic utensils only when customers asked for them, not as a default. “Sheila has done so many campaigns that have made a real lasting impact on the environment and I had the hands-on, real-world experience of eradicating single-use plastic from the screen and so we linked up,” says Coiro. Morovati says that she later asked Coiro to join the organization’s board because of the director’s enthusiasm for making a difference and because of her knowledge of how Hollywood works. “We couldn’t have done a lot of the work without her, because she gives me the inside look at what some of the challenges are for a Lights, Camera, Plastic? approach to be implemented.”

Since shooting Marry Me, much has changed in Hollywood when it comes to the actual production of a studio movie more sustainable as well. “You, Me and Tuscany was the easiest project I’ve worked on so far because I had the full support of the Universal GreenerLight Initiative behind me,” says Coiro. Universal Pictures launched the program in 2023 to champion sustainability across the entire filmmaking process, from development to production and release. “Now there are incredible teams of people who want to make our business behave more responsibly,’” says Coiro.

Hopefully, audiences are inspired by what their favorite actors are doing on screen. Research in recent years by Rare Entertainment Lab backs up this idea, showing that seeing climate storylines on screen (such as in the film Don’t Look Up and the show Madame Secretary) can have an increase in support among viewers for “climate justice policies”.

For Coiro, hiking in nature reminds her of why she wants to do things differently. “It’s what resets me. If I feel tired, if I feel gloomy, if I feel like I’m too tied to my telephone, I will take my dog and go for a walk and be restored,” she says, adding that, “When you’re grateful for the planet, you want to protect it.”

Her own habits to avoid generating plastic waste include carrying a reusable water bottle (“that for me is a daily practice, like working out,” she says) and shopping at local farmers markets. “Not only am I bringing my own bags, I’m not dealing with food that is heavily processed and packaged and I’m also supporting local businesses. When you can be sustainable and support your local economy, that is a win-win,” says Coiro.

On set, she also brings her own hot tea with her in a reusable carafe. “And then I bring my mug and I pour my own tea. And I don’t have to constantly go and order tea or ask someone to get it for me. I’m not throwing away 10 cups,” she says, adding with a laugh, “Yes, I drink 10 cups of tea. It’s disturbing, but that’s the truth.”

For her, bringing her own tea illustrates something larger. “I think about this little anecdote a lot because people often look at sustainability as an inconvenience when actually it can be the exact opposite. And I think the film industry is starting to realize that it can actually make your day more efficient and make your budget lower when you install these practices from the ground up. When you’re planning it, when you buy reusable bottles for the whole crew and have filling stations, it’s going to be cheaper and easier and healthier at the end of the day.”

“And it’s all about the conversation,” continues Coiro. “Let’s keep talking and having these conversations. I don’t want anybody to walk away from You, Me and Tuscany and say, ‘This is an environmental movie. What I want them to do is kind of go, ‘Oh, I didn’t even realize it, but I’m choosing not to use this plastic. I’m choosing to cook my meal with raw ingredients. And maybe You, Me and Tuscany influenced me in a positive way.”

Her leading lady couldn’t agree more: “The Lights, Camera, Plastic initiative and Universal’s GreenerLight program are making a real difference, and I’m grateful to be part of that.”