Robert Eggers, who has a knack for making historically authentic period thrillers, spent four years as a costume designer before working on the critically acclaimed movie The Witch (2015). And supporting him through his journey from costume designer to director was his lovely wife, Dr. Alexandra Shaker.
Although the duo work in almost completely unrelated career paths — Eggers being a director and Dr. Shaker being a clinical psychologist — the two do find the time to be supportive of one another in their personal as well as professional lives.
Robert Eggers and Wife Are Polar Opposites on Professional Fronts
As aforementioned, Eggers is known to set the timeline of his movies several hundred years in the past and spends a massive amount of time in research so that he can preserve the historical accuracy to the best of his abilities. Granted, the supernatural aspects of his movies are more fiction than fact, but the overall construction of the narrative is meticulously crafted.
However, his wife, Dr. Shaker, comes from a contrasting career path. While Eggers dwells in fiction, his wife is a woman of hard science. The wife of the critically acclaimed screenwriter is a New York State licensed clinical psychologist who received her Ph.D. from The New School For Social Research following her clinical internship with Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
It is also a fact that the talented screenwriter-turned-director has an equally adept partner by his side, helping him realize his ambition.
Egger's Partner Has Helped Lent Authenticity To His Thrillers
In conversation with Fortune, the up-and-coming director revealed that during the making of his second movie, The Lighthouse, it was his wife who found the most pivotal resource for building the sea shanty-esque cadence in the script.
In yet another interview with Esquire, Eggers detailed how Dr. Shaker found a thesis by Evelyn Starr Cutler that broke down the dialect and syntax in the work of Sarah Orne Jewett.
Since the source material for her thesis was largely based on interviews with sea captains, sailors, and farmers from the same era as The Lighthouse, the duo successfully managed to incorporate the old-timey dialogues into the movie, adding to the layers of historical accuracy that Eggers so relentlessly pursues.
Not just that, the folks over at AV Club suspected that the negative connotation that the birds carry in the first two of Eggers' movie came from his real-life fear of birds. However, during an interview, the Independent Spirit Award winner disclosed that it was actually his wife, Alexandra, that suffers from a phobia of birds.
Dr. Shaker Is A Faithful Companion In Egger's Professional Journey
So, it must come as no surprise when Eggers thanked his wife before anyone else while giving a speech after receiving the Best Screenplay award at the 2017 Film Independent Spirit Awards. He sounded emotional as he expressed gratitude for the patience that his wife had while he was obsessed with witches for four long years.
I want to thank my wife, who had to be around for four years while I was obsessed with witches.
As the speech finds its emotional peak, the camera cues in on Mrs. Eggers almost as to give the nod to the solid support she has provided to her husband over the years.
Her presence in the award show alone is an ode to the role she has played to shape her husband's career both in public and private. Apart from the generous contributions, his wife has made in his career path; she has also forged a solid portfolio for herself.
The good doctor and the up-and-rising director/producer surely do make quite the power couple.
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