Chloé Zhao is embracing a new eternal title. The Hamnet director shared that she has embarked on a journey to become a death doula, an individual who provides "emotional, spiritual, and physical support to individuals who are transitioning to death," as described by CaringInfo. This move is an attempt to confront her lifelong fear of dying.
"I have just completed Level 1 training in the U.K.," Chloé, 43, told The New York Times in an interview published on Jan. 24. "In one of the training sessions, we had to research Indigenous cultures from around the world, how they deal with death and dying both today and in the past. You can see that the grief of losing a loved one doesn't change."
She added, "However, the societal understanding of death and the space it gives to grief and how it's embedded in the culture and the medicalization of death have shifted so much. In the modern world, when death is no longer seen as a natural part of life—because now, it's about staying alive as long as we can—there's almost shame around death."
Indeed, Chloé has been grappling with her own emotions about death and grief, including how its permanence has impacted her approach to building intimate relationships. "I have been terrified of death my whole life. I still am," she explained. "I've been so afraid that I haven't been able to live fully. I haven't been able to love with my heart open because I'm so scared of losing love, which is a form of death. When you're in your 40s, a midlife crisis is the best thing that can happen to you, because you're on your way to a rebirth."
As the Eternals director continues to learn more about herself in this new chapter, she realized she could no longer "run from this feeling" of evolution. "Your body is changing, and you can feel death," she expressed. "I have no choice but to start to develop a healthier relationship with it, or the second half of life would be too hard."
In fact, her work on the 2025 film Hamnet—which took home Best Picture at the Golden Globes—and how William and Agnes Shakespeare (played by Paul Mescal and Jesse Buckley) had to grieve the sudden death of their son Hamnet (Noah Jupe) helped her gain a certain perspective on this somber process.
"Even though things are so different, our biology hasn't changed," Chloé noted. "The desire that we have to protect a child will not change. However, the stories we attach to that pain might be different."
