Miles Heizer, actor; Noah Pritzker, director y Griffin Dunne actor de Ex-Husbans #21 FICM

thank you for this interview H this is a a movie that is talking about men relationships how do you explore them to write the script yeah I um the first character that I felt like I really had a handle on was was the the character Peter Pierce who Griffin plays uh and you know I was interested in in this man who for a long time had defined himself as a um as a a son and a father and a husband and kind of all at once that's all Stripped Away From Him uh and so kind of started following that character around and and watching him try to reconnect with his grown sons who have kind of moved on to their own adult lives um and uh and you know was lucky to have actors like these guys come in and and bring so much to to the script and to the characters in the world and mostly we think that for men is a little bit difficult talk about emotions so how do you do to talk about a depression and anxy sexuality how do you make this possible yeah I think um you know for For Better or Worse um that was pretty readily available to me I I grew up you know I think encouraged to talk about those things and um I think you know I I'm I I don't know if it's if it's just a male thing but I think it's hard generally for people to you know communicate what they're feeling I don't think our our feeling are always that easy to articulate even when we are encouraged to do and so I think the characters in this in this movie are sort of uh stumbling through that and figuring out how to get their needs met by each other and and relate and express what they're going through and for the actors how us does it was difficult for you to talk about your emotion to create your character can you talk us a little bit about it well expressing emotions are are never very difficult for actors uh we're uh you know open fa sandwiches we um but in terms of this it was interesting to uh to play a character that had so much going on and it had lived for a certain amount of time to you know see his parents pass away and to be married and divorced and be a father of of of adult children um and and I'd never read that um you know a story where that's the central Crossroads uh um for for a character and you know whose children are going through so much in their own lives um you know I found it very very touching and uh and and as you say it is unique that that you see male characters confronting all these emotions uh on screen in in one movie and how well for you yeah you know I think that uh I relate to the character I play in the movie very much so so um it was exciting to sort of get to um play that character and express those things that I personally have expressed many times in my own life um but yeah it's sort of true you don't see that um shown very often in in movies and TV shows and stuff so it was very very fun for me to get to play Someone So Close to myself and particularly you have a very close relationship in the movie you have a some dialogos dialoges yes dialog where you talk about sexuality I think they are very very difficult how do you take care of it um well those were talking to Miles about his sexuality was one of my more fun scenes um you know of just being um uh again that's a scene I've never seen you know uh portrayed in a movie it's usually um the the parent is usually filled with an unless it's a mother uh the mother is usually always accepting um but this was like the father not only accepting but being really curious and trying to have Guy Talk um that he would with a heterosexual guy only about a uh a gay experience uh with his son um which is right there just so awkward it's funny you know so uh anyway that I think that yeah that scene was was probably one of the most fun for me as well and it is something I don't feel like I've seen and anything else really um I think it was a very sort of um I don't know just like an exciting thing to get to portray on screen because so much of the time queer story lines especially with Father figures are sort of about the the struggle that the two have to relate or connect and I think that it was really um really fun to get to do something that wasn't like that this just shows a family that's accepting of someone and trying to have awkward weird conversations that they would with other their other children who are not gay I suppose now how you do you get interested in talking about depression anxy and health mental health um I guess I've always I've always been interested in it I think it's you know I think it's um you know it's sort of I think what a lot of uh art is about a lot of great books and movies and um you know I think it's impossible to talk about the uh experience we are all having without acknowledging the struggles we're all we're all having and the way we're all kind of wrestling for our own piece of happiness or understanding you know what that even means to to feel comfortable in what one's own skin um and I think you know this movie was was very appealing to me because it was at its core always a comedy and I think the premise kind of sets itself up to be this sort of broad comedy which I always really um kept me excited and kept me going on this on this project um and so I it's funny to sit here talking about these heavy issues when it is sort of this um you know there is some some levity there which I think is how I learned to kind of um make my way through my own adventures with um with my own and and other loved ones uh mental health yes because you were talking that everyone by this day have any mental issues so I I don't know what you think about it say that can you just say that one more time ah that in the movie you were talking that actually everyone of us have a mental issues yeah so I would like to also talk about this what do you think about this yeah um I'm trying to remember I guess there are a handful of conversations in the movie about about it there's a few conversations about medication as well I think there's a line that kind of like not being medicated is like uh is not using an iPhone to to prove a point um and I think you know these characters are um you know they're like contemporary modern guys who are comfortable with this idea of being medicated and being in therapy and yet understanding that it doesn't seem to be solving all of their problems um and uh yeah I don't know if that that fully answers the question I don't know I I mean I don't know what the statistic is in Mexico but in America I think I think there are instances of depression of at least every family and if not every family every other family it's a u it's a very it it and it's always been that way it's just it's now more talked about and medications are more readily available but mental health is um uh you know the precariousness of mental health is really familiar in just about every family and I think part of the you know the tension and humor in this movie is that that at its core is is Griffin's character who is of a different generation and wants to be able to relate to his children but he does I think his character lacks a certain self-awareness that his boys have he's not talking about being medicated he's not I don't think he's judgmental of it but I don't think he is self-aware in the way that his boys are and I think that's where the you know kind of tension in humor is is that he's behaving in in sort of crazy ways and I think he's so committed to his own vision and I do think there is sort of a um generational Gap where like uh you know I think the younger crowd maybe feels a little bit like crippled by by self-awareness and self-consciousness and it feels like maybe a previous generation um uh you know is just was was didn't think that way from from such a young age do I have something to oh yeah I mean I I do think that um sort of I think anxiety and depression I think that it's extremely extremely common I think a lot lot of people deal with it um and it isn't until recently that I think it has become so so much more talked about and I I think that's very healthy for everybody because it's not um it's such a human condition and even just talking about it and being able to voice it can really benefit people a lot so um yeah I think that that sort of dynamic between the generations is sort of shown with yeah the conversation that my character has with uh Ayo like about being medicated and I think it's good that we're talking about that stuff because there are ways that people can help themselves and it's they're very available and I'm glad that we're able to talk about that now more openly that's a this is a comedy yes it is yes yeah there a couple of depressed people in it but they're funny yes that's right and no why do you get interested in Parenthood in Parenthood yes um you know I I uh am a CH I was a child of of two parents who made all sorts of choices I think some good and some bad raising me and now I am a parent a father of two boys uh and making a lot of decisions that I'm sure that they will someday uh feel were uh only good decisions no I think they'll probably have some some some questions about some decisions I'm making and so I think it was it was at the top of my mind as my parents were going through a divorce and I was thinking about having children myself um you know is sort of a a moment I think uh of of reflection and curiosity about um you know Griffin and I have talked a lot about this about having children in one moment makes you a little more understanding of of your parents and how they did things and in other moments makes you very resentful of them because you wonder what they were like when you were a little kid and you know it's a very complicated um thing and and uh yeah so I guess it was just the top of my mind for for all of those reasons have you learned anything new about forign Hood after the movie I haven't no I have not have you yet anything new about well I have a I have a one-year-old and a three-year-old so I'm constantly learning new things about Parenthood um that one-year-old is really depressed though the one-year-old we've got medicated out the ass the saddest kid I ever saw yeah um he so I don't know I think um you know I think in the in the movie I think um I think miles's character and james' character are in the end able to show their father quite a bit of uh of Grace and I think in watching that and seeing how that came together I think there was something sort of aspirational in that for me that I don't know that I'm always that um a able to get over you know my own my own stuff uh to show up in the way that I want to and I think um watching that and how they how you know how how it worked out in the movie in large part because of their performances was uh was impactful for for me and particularly your character has a very um complex relation with her own father and when he looks her father has dead and he feels or F I think it's a he can take a look different about Parenthood in this very moment I don't know how you work with these ideas uh well that was a very um personal moment for me um my my both my parents have passed away some time ago and uh the that phrase I'm an orphan which I say in this movie was the first thing that came to my mind uh when when my father father was the last to pass um and so it was uh you know that was like a profound experience I got to you know relive I had something very similar to that as as well and uh what was uh fun about it for me if one could be having fun with playing off a dead body was that the dead body was Richard Benjamin who was uh you know one of my Idols in the 70s when I was starting out being being an actor uh he was starring in and uh the funniest movies you know of of that generation so I loved that Noah cast him in this in this part um and it really felt um very he felt very uh paternal to me and he had been culturally paternal to me before that and finally I would like to know how was your experience filming in tum uh um it was it was incredible I was really lucky to um to find Nico Nicholas CIS who is our our Mexico producer um I mean he was a producer on the on the whole film but really was focused on the Mexico unit which was you know over three qus of the of the movie uh and we were in Mexico City for about a month prepping the film and shot in Mexico City for a week and then we're in Tulum for I think we're supposed to be there for a month and it got extended because uh of the guys sitting next to me got Co so we were stuck in in Tulum a few extra weeks and I found Tulum to be a kind of endlessly fascinating place you know it's like it it's such an interesting history and is now this party destination and there's sarcasm in the water so it's hard to swim when we were there and um and it felt like there was like a lot of contradictions of this place that used to be so pristine and now you know like like a lot of places has been has been sort of spoiled in some ways um and yet I think the more time we spent there the more uh the more I saw there yes because you have a very beautiful cinematography at yes thank you yeah I was a Mexican cinematographer named um Alonso Herrera cedo uh who I was lucky to meet before coming here I was really eager to to find a Mexican cinematographer I thought that would be critical in in working here and pring up here and I think that was one of the best uh decisions that I made on the movie thank you thank you for you guys thank Youk