Jean-Marc Vallée "cried like a baby" after reading ‘Wild’ for the first time.
The 51-year-old director admits he felt a deep connection to author Cheryl Strayed before signing on to help turn her best-selling biography into the new movie starring Reese Witherspoon.
The Canadian filmmaker said: "It’s about this mother-daughter relationship. I had a mother who is so close to Cheryl’s mother, and I lost her to cancer three years ago. I cried like a baby when I read the book – it was like I was finishing mourning.
"I knew not only that I had strong, beautiful material, but that I had the kind of material that allows a director to play, to treat the medium like a toy."
Meanwhile, the ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ director admits he is still surprised by the success he has achieved in his career so far.
He told the Holiday 2014 issue of MEN’s FASHION magazine: "I’m on a roll in my professional life. It’s crazy – I’m living the dream."
Despite carving out a career in Hollywood, Jean has no desire to relocate from Montreal to Los Angeles.
He said: "I live in Montreal. I’m gone only three months when I shoot, then I do the post-production back in Montreal. It’s my home, it’s my town, it’s my family, it’s my place – I will never move and I don’t want to move."
Jean-Marc Vallée cried after reading ‘Wild’
