How much of the film is scripted versus improv?
Most of the film is scripted, although some scenes were mostly improv. Olivia (Lola) improvised Howard's (the cat) headshot scene based on what his photos ended up looking like. The other scenes that we improvised were Jamie and Howard in the kitchen, Jamie talking to herself in the mirror as a man, and Jamie and Howard's audition. With all four of these scenes, I had written them into the script; the improv was based off of the script, and in parts of the scene, the script is used. But the actors brought a spontaneity to these scenes, and we ended up with something that in the end was much funnier than the script. For example, in the scene with Jamie and Howard in the kitchen, the fake flowers that Howard chews on were not written into the script. Since we shot this scene in our house where Howard actually lived, he happened to be up on the counter chewing those flowers when we arrived on set. I thought it would be a great quirky thing for him to do when Jamie confronts him, so we quickly lined up his shots before he lost interest.
For practical reasons, Howard's audition pretty much had to be improvised, although certain things were a given. Knowing him, I knew that he was guaranteed to run away and not be interested in eating the food. What I didn't know, though, was how calm he would be. I was actually very lucky, because he let me handle and manipulate him like a pro, even outside of his comfort zone of home.