Lisa Cholodenko Interview – Director Of The Kids Are Alright
Lisa Cholodenko Interview Director Of The Kids Are Alright
I recently spoke to director and writer Lisa Cholodenko about her warm and intelligent dramedy The Kids Are All Right. In the movie, two teenaged children conceived by artificial insemination get the notion to seek out their birth father and introduce him into the family life that their two mothers have built for them.
Once the donor is found, the household will never be the same, as family ties are defined, re-defined, and then re-re-defined. Ms. Cholodenko directed the feature from an original screenplay that she wrote with Stuart Blumberg. The film features a stellar cast in Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska, Annette Benning, Josh Hutcherson and Yaya DaCosta.
How did you build such great chemistry with the cast? Everything felt so natural.
Lisa Cholodenko: I think it was a combination of me and Stuart Blumberg spending a lot of time writing it so that the characters felt lived in. We done a lot of that work for them. They didn't really have to figure it out, that was a big part of it. I think also I spent a long time casting it and being very careful and thoughtful with who the actors would be. I knew that all these actors had a really good earthy quality to them, there wasn't going to be a lot of diva energy, every one was on the same page, that helped. We didn't have any time to rehearse really, just a few days, then barely any time to hang out as a unit at all.
When you were writing the script did you have any particular people in mind for the parts?
Lisa Cholodenko: I think maybe midway through the writing process Stuart and I started talking about actors, and started making a list. If I went back and looked at that list I'm surenot the kids, but each of the adults were on that original list.
Even though I enjoyed everyone's performance, I particularly enjoyed Mark Ruffalo. One minute he's the sweetest guy, then the next he's an ass. What was it like working with him?
Lisa Cholodenko: Mark is an amazingly wonderful, lovely, gentle, easy going guy, SUPER easy going. I had met him a couple of times before we made the film and I had always heard nothing but great things about him. He just made it fun, he made it easy. It was kind of a perfect fit because Annette Bening is intense and dramatic and it was a hard role, so she really had to concentrate, then Julianne was kind of this other thing. Then Mark came in and really blended it in a great way.
The film has some intense and emotional moments, but at the same time it's incredibly entertaining and funny. Was it a fun film to make on set?
Lisa Cholodenko: It was yeah. It was exactly really the way it is on screen. It was so fast, we shot it in twenty three days. Everybody had to be ON. There wasn't a lot of d*cking around and rethinking things, just on, on, on. I really felt like it played emotionally the way it was supposed to play, even before it was scored or cut. The funny bits were funny and made you laugh, and with the more heavy emotional things we all felt them. That was a good indication that it was going to work.
It must feel gratifying receiving such great feedback about the film, and with all the Oscar buzz surrounding the film and the performances.
Lisa Cholodenko: It does, it's one of those things where it's the one off. It was great because everyone was trying to do the same thing. It was one of those weird things, it's a quarter of a percent amount of time that, that happens. Everyone was on the same page. If it never happens again in my career I'm ok. It's awesome that I get to have this run. It's awesome because it was hard work.
To be honest with you usually when I hear family drama' I run for the hills. But this film seems to really connect with people. Why do you think so many family drama's fail at that authenticity?
Lisa Cholodenko: (Laughs) Because I think that they're not brave enough. I think they're really sappy, timid and sanctimonious. They kind of go for the melodrama. The thing about family is that you have to go through such denial about the bullsh*t that it takes to keep it going and intact at times. There's so much subtext, family is all subtext. I think that's what's gratifying to people because they respond like oh yeah, that's the sh*t people don't talk about, that's the sh*t that really goes down.' I just think people need to be more brave, you can put that on screen, people will dig it if it's not bullsh*t.
When you came up with the idea for the film, what type of sources did use for the characters? Were they based around people you had met or knew?
Lisa Cholodenko: At the time my girlfriend and I were about to have a kid with an anonymous sperm donor, so I think there were pieces of ourselves in it. I have a number of friends as well who've done similar things, so I kind of grabbed at people I knew who had kind of been in this experience. That really helped me and Stuart mold the characters. Then at a certain point you have to get into the textures of personality's and make good choices for the dramatic potential. I had these archetypes then kind of worked with them. Storage for Kids Bedrooms Psychology behind the child and the toy telephone How To Learn Spanish Online For Kids Kids Shoes - Adds Grace To Your Attire! Teach Teens to Deal With Anger Overweight American Children and Adolescents Getting Fatter Are Your Kids Practicing Unsafe Texting? WebWatcher Mobile Knows How To Get Your Kids To Go To Bed Raising Your Child – Teach Them about the Consequences of their Actions Jamaica for children Childless and Empty Nesters: Get Insured Insurance for teens American Children Are At Risk