How Steven Soderbergh Shot a Feature Film Using Only a Wheelchair and Natural Light

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In the 2020 comedy-drama Let Them All Talk, director Steven Soderbergh stripped away traditional film production. He shot the entire movie aboard the Queen Mary 2 using minimal equipment and natural light, while encouraging his star-studded cast to improvise much of their dialogue during the two-week transatlantic voyage.

The film follows Alice Hughes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author played by Meryl Streep, who travels to the United Kingdom to accept a literary award. Unable to fly due to health concerns, she boards the Queen Mary 2 with her nephew and two estranged university friends. The narrative tension centers on the long-standing resentment between Alice and her friend Roberta, who believes Alice exploited her life experiences for a previous bestseller. As the group navigates the voyage, their personal histories and professional ambitions collide, eventually leading to a quiet, reflective conclusion following Alice's sudden death from deep vein thrombosis.

Production was as unconventional as the setting. Soderbergh, acting as his own cinematographer and editor, eschewed standard film rigs. According to cast member Dianne Wiest, he operated the camera while seated in a wheelchair, rolling along the ship to capture the action. The production relied entirely on natural light and basic sound equipment, creating a raw, intimate aesthetic. This minimalist approach extended to the script; while Deborah Eisenberg provided the screenplay, the actors were given significant freedom to improvise their dialogue, lending the interactions a spontaneous, conversational quality.

The film received generally positive critical reception, holding an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 114 reviews. Critics praised the performances of the ensemble cast, which includes Dianne Wiest, Candice Bergen, Lucas Hedges, and Gemma Chan. Despite the high-profile talent involved, the production remained lean—Streep famously noted she was paid only 25 cents for her role. Released on HBO Max in December 2020, the project stands as a unique experiment in collaborative storytelling, prioritizing the chemistry of its leads over the technical artifice typical of modern cinema.

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