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| Michael Barker, John Krasinski, Margo Martindale, Sharlto Copley, Thomas Bernard Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
At the Sony Pictures Classics première at Cinepolis Chelsea for John Krasinski's The Hollars, written by People, Places Things director Jim Strouse, Krasinski and his stars, Margo Martindale and Sharlto Copley, talked ice cream and pretzels, Alexander Payne, Rod Steiger, a Le Cirque lunch for John Wells's August: Osage County, tightrope and tire swings.
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| Sharlto Copley: "I had a really personal bond with the two actresses playing my daughters." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Richard Jenkins with Anna Kendrick, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Josh Groban, Mary Kay Place, Randall Park, Charlie Day, Isabela Costine and Didi Costine round out the cast for John Krasinski's directorial follow-up to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, based on David Foster Wallace stories.
Emily Blunt, producer Allyson Seeger, Ron Claiborne, Devika Bhise (Matt Brown's The Man Who Knew Infinity), Sarah Megan Thomas, Thomas Matthews and Sony Pictures Classics co-founders Michael Barker and Thomas Bernard were among those attending the première with an after party at Hotel Americano.
John Hollar (Krasinski), a graphic artist living in New York City with his pregnant girlfriend Rebecca (Anna Kendrick) finds out that his mother Sally (Margo Martindale, who has one of the most infectious laughs in cinema) is in the hospital with a brain tumour.
John flies home and is confronted with a bouquet of additional small town news. His father's (Richard Jenkins) business is facing bankruptcy, his brother Ron (Sharlto Copley), divorced from Stacey (Ashley Dyke), the mother of his two daughters, Constance and Matilda (Isabela Costine and Didi Costine), has moved back into the house where they grew up.
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| Margo Martindale: "I love being in the emotional scenes with John." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Nurse Jason (Charlie Day), taking care of their mother in the hospital, turns out to be the new husband of John's ex-girlfriend Gwen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Surgeon Dr. Fong (Randall Park), who "has been golfing" informs the family that it's "not a young tumour," that it has been growing for many years. Family dynamics are explored inside and outside with trickery as the preferred means to help the others communicate.
The Hollar family also holler and physically, albeit rather clumsily, attack each other. Ron, who stalks his ex-wife by parking in front of her house, watching her with binoculars, is obsessed with his adversary, the extra soft and slimy youth pastor Reverend Dan (Josh Groban). Pre-operation day, John brings his mother breakfast to the hospital bed - a bag of pretzels and a canister of ice cream, her favourite combo - which they share while talking. "I've been googling brain tumours, " he says, and that he was surprised how common they are, "Bob Marley had one." They try and laugh and bond and see the ridiculous side of things.
Nurse Jason, half the size of John, is still so jealous that he invites his nemesis to dinner to see his new baby and how beautiful John's ex still is. Meanwhile, the pregnant Rebecca in New York is panicking. Sally likes her, "because men need to be punished." Krasinski shows Rebecca on the phone in their apartment with horrendous looking sweaters hanging in front of the bookshelf. They turn out to be not some outlandish sartorial pregnancy craving, but her line of pet fashions. The film takes its time to clue us in on what we see means.
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| Margo Martindale on Alexander Payne, her Paris je t'aime director: "He's my boy! I love Alexander." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
A great scene with a swing made from an old tire is irresistibly evocative. I felt a physical pang of longing to jump on it. Longing is key in The Hollars and when melancholy meets the absurd, it's an interesting ride close to the border of sentimentality without crossing over. "I look like Rod Steiger," Sally fears before shaving her head for the operation. It is her son's offer to help her that turns the joke into triumph.
Anne-Katrin Titze: You have a tightrope to walk in this film.
Sharlto Copley: Yes.
AKT: There is stalking that goes quite far and you still had to make this character likable. Were there moments when you thought this is going too far?
SC: I just sort of trusted John [Krasinski] - if I had crossed the line in some way, that he would have stepped in and guided things. He never did. I like that. I like pushing the envelope on characters that are ambiguous. It's like - do I like this guy? do I not like him? I think it's quite real, actually, with human beings. Most people are flawed. If you see people in different environments, you go - oh, he is such an asshole or she is such a bitch.
Then, in a different environment - oh, they're so lovely. That's a human truth that a wife will say her husband is both the most incredible man and sort of a selfish bastard. So to be able to play a character, where you see those struggles going on, you're like: Well, that's really nice and then, why is he doing that? I just enjoy it.
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| Emily Blunt with The Hollars director and star John Krasinski Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
AKT: I noticed that the laughter at the press screening was very individual. People were laughing at very different moments. Was there a scene - that you were in or not - that you can particularly identify with?
SC: I wouldn't say there was a single moment. There were a lot of scenes that I enjoyed doing. I enjoyed the slap fight with my dad [Richard Jenkins]. It's challenging. Can you pull that off tonally in this film? Will it feel like you're going too stupid? Will it feel too slapstick-y?
With an actor like him it was such a great scene to do and make work. And then the scenes with the girls, breaking in to see the girls. It was real heartfelt. I had a really personal bond with the two actresses playing my daughters.
As I am speaking with Sharlto Copley, Margo Martindale comes up to say hello.
Anne-Katrin Titze: I can ask the two of you [who play mother and son] together. What is the best ice cream flavour to go with pretzels?
SC: She would have to say. She is just acting that she likes ice cream and pretzels.
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| John Krasinski on which ice cream flavour goes best with pretzels: "Vanilla! We did a taste test." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
AKT: Does anybody like this? For breakfast? Who came up with the combination?
Margo Martindale: I don't know. I think it's an odd combo and a good combo. Maybe chocolate marble!
SC: I would go with straight vanilla, just to be safe. I mean, it depends on the pretzel flavour as well.
AKT: Is that from the writer? Was it in the screenplay?
SC: Yeah, that was in the script.
MM: Jim Strouse came up with that.
AKT: Last time we spoke, was at Le Cirque at a lunch for August: Osage County. We talked about Alexander Payne.
MM: Oh, yeah, well. He's my boy!
AKT: He's your boy!
MM: I love Alexander.
AKT: I like the choice for The Hollars poster. You have the most wonderful laugh. is there a specific moment you relate to more than others in this film?
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| The Hollars posters at the Cinepolis Chelsea première Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
MM: I don't know. I love being in the emotional scenes with John. I love the funny scenes with Richard [Jenkins] and John and Sharlto. I really just love this movie and I love that it's a roller-coaster ride of a normal, simple story.
AKT: Do you like Rod Steiger?
MM [laughs]: I love him!
Anne-Katrin Titze: Which ice cream flavour goes best with pretzels?
John Krasinski: Vanilla! We did a taste test.
AKT: You did a taste test?
JK: Yes. It might have been just me doing the taste test. I can't remember, but we did the taste test.
AKT: Did you have a tire swing growing up?
JK: We had a tire swing somewhere near where I was, but not over a lake. I wished mine were over a lake. That way when the rope broke, I'd fall into the water. Where I was from, you fell on a lot harder stuff.
The Hollars opens in the US on August 26.
