‘Ex-Husbands’ Q&A - Palm Springs Int’l. Film Fest - 1/13/24- Griffin Dunne, Miles Heizer, Eisa Davis

[Music] [Applause] star Griffin D star miles Kaiser Isa Davis [Music] we let's let's go back to the beginning we were sort of you were joking at dinner about how um a story about how this was such a personal that this was based on your parents divorce which isn't quite true uh but what what made you want to tell this story um I uh I started writing it my parents did in fact get divorced around the time that uh my older brother was getting married and just kind of looking at those two things uh side by side I think was what got me you know just thinking about um the the kind of humor and sadness around a marriage and a divorce happening simultaneously um and the questions that that raises from you know everyone and the spouse and everyone kind of going through it together and then the you know I think where it broke away from that was the character of Peter doesn't really resemble any you know there's no one to one of anyone person in my life but he just when I started writing the character of Peter um he felt sort of I I felt like I knew him pretty quickly and started following him around and then it kind of took on a life of its own uhhuh well did you know what when you sat down to write it did you have a genre in mind I mean one of the interesting things about the movie to me is that it's kind of swerves it's it's a comedy but it's Melancholy um It's a drama it's about heavy things but it's light yeah I think when I sat down to write it I I fooled myself into thinking it could be like the hangover or something and was like I'll finally just write a broad comedy and um and that'll be that and not be too precious about it and then um you know was sort of uh you know saw it um you know in maybe in a exciting maybe in a self-defeating way turned into this more um personal uh melancholic thing that I was more connected to I think than what I what I set out to write um and uh and sort of yeah I think it it you know took a long time to come together the pandemic happened um and uh oh I think the on the screen it just said that no marriages were harmed in the making of This which is not true there were many divorces and breakups that happened throughout um and uh uh yeah but then you know at some point I I uh had the idea that Griffin Would Be Kind of Perfect in this movie and then once I met Griffin and started talking about it it kind of just took on a whole other life of its own that makes it hard for me to kind of remember what I was thinking when I was first writing it I can't I can't remember a version of this movie that didn't have Griffin in it so you you had him in mind as you were writing I not on a first draft um but once he became involved um you know then the pandemic happened and Griffin and I would have a lot of conversations and then every now and again I would fantasize that we would get back to making movies someday and I would open up the script and rewrite it with Griffin in mind and so it you know sort of became about making it with Griffin yeah it's a great part for you I when when did what was your reaction when you first read the script um well very much you described it quite well of that it had all of those uh tones in it that appealed to me uh as a an audience member as a reader of books that are both funny and then can be sad and then there's a lightness to it and it's it's just sort of you know my soundtrack um so uh I read this this part I I I related to it um you know very closely I it reminded me of uh the movies I loved in the 70s um it reminded me of uh foreign movies I love um RoR and just different kinds of of of genres that just took a chance with tone and were unpredictable emotionally unpredictable MH and how did you find miles uh yeah I have um all of um Issa as well I found through um my Cas director Doug Abel who um I've worked with a few times and and trust and sort of from the beginning um he told he thought thought that both Isa and miles would be wonderful and um hoped that he could you know pique their interest for it um and then miles um I met through a series of auditions and I think we were all sort of excited and scared about going on location after the pandemic and so we're all kind of interviewing each other to make sure that we would want to be um you know on location for a period of time together just you know socially in addition to being right for the movie and um I think it it sort of um was uh a relief to be back in the world with people you were excited to to work and collaborate with yeah what was it like for you miles I mean the Rel the father son relationship is not one that we've seen very often on screen between a straight father and a gay son and it's it felt fresh yeah that's um I definitely agree I feel like most of the times with like queer especially son and father relationships you see what is unfortunately very common which is a father who can't accept their son or conceptualize it or or understand them and I think that that's something that's so refreshing about this is seeing what that looks like for a queer person who's in a family that does accept them and treats them like a normal person um which also I think ends up being sort of funny at times because again we don't really see a straight father talking to their gay son the way that you know they stereotypically do with their straight Sons about women um and yeah it's I think that that was something I hadn't really seen in anything and was really fun it's actually the very first scene we shot was Griffin and I talking about me having sex with Royo and it was truly nothing I've ever done nothing I've ever seen so it was yeah it was very exciting for me to get to do that we improvised a lot too they did not make it into the movie I ask really breing [Laughter] questions feel free to just imagine and Issa you're your character too you you you know you think the movie is going to go in a certain predictable Direction and then you throw him a curb yeah I mean I that's our joke between Griffin and me that you know that we really should have gotten together right but of course no no um it's I think something that um was so wonderful about this process there was all the Serendipity actually so like before I even um met with Noah there were all these things like the characters from Berkeley from the bay area where I'm from and um also single you know no kids which is true for me sadly um and then you know I got to work with Noah about really making this character someone that I felt I could really step into and and feel full with um and that was just so great to be able to do and something that Griffin said to me when we were working um was he was like you're you're acting is like it's like you're like an openface sandwich is what he said and it it that's something I just got to see again today I was like yeah my face is like wide open with smiles because you know when you work with a comic genius like this um and you have someone like Noah who's really just open to what everyone as an actor is really bringing um personally to the party then um you can't help it's smile it was also I think unique for me and that Issa and Griffin are also you know have backgrounds writing um and have done so many different jobs in the industry and I feel like came to this project to support me making this movie but also wanted to contribute and never in a way that felt like you know that there were just team players who wanted to to make the movie better and that was you know a hugely exciting thing for me so there was a certain amount of change when you were all down in Mexico together coming up with a new you know because of um because of the schedule we were moving around between cities and then these guys went and got Co we had a nice break between um locations so it wasn't you know there wasn't like a lot of improv and then I got it as soon as I left I wouldn't say that there was a lot of improv on the set but there was a lot of conversations leading up to the movie where you know we kind of by the time we got to set we knew what we were doing but you know I had time to talk to Issa about her character and her scenes and kind of what worked and what she did thought could be you know maybe could be different and so I had time to you know rewrite and send it and talk about it and that was that was you know very unique for me how long were you actually in talum and and and how did you choose talum in the first place it was always written for Tuma had spent some time there and struck me as like a very kind of fascinating peculiar uh complicated place that sort of reflected um some of the things that Nick was going through as a character and uh we spent we ended up spending about five or six weeks there which is a very long time to spend in tum there worst places to be and you discovered all the CB about that yes that was not in the script until we showed up and um you know had to embrace the the gifts of uh the the planet dying right right well I mean you Incorporated it into into the movie let's get some um some questions from the audience U the first one is always the hardest always on gang over here [Music] yeah the question is about the casting of James Norton which I was going to ask you about which not exactly on type you know we don't think of him as a depressive yeah I didn't I wasn't uh all that familiar I knew him a little bit from the um Tom Hopper war in peace which is a gentler character that he plays in the the British crime shows um and I met him also he turned up in the in the casting process and we had a conversation you know just kind of met on zoom and chatted and got along and then um I was a little anxious about his ACC I just didn't know I hadn't seen him do an American accent so I was curious about that and he made a video for me and you know as soon as I saw it I think I think I just knew what a good actor he was and how how interesting he would be it was so different from what I ever imagined for the character um writing it um how would you how had you pictured him originally um I don't just that jawline is not something that exists in my in my world um so you know but when that when you're you know when you have an opportunity to have have a guy like that here movie you jump at it sure so some more questions yeah way back there I think I saw yeah I love the soundtrack how does that come about is is that a collaborative effort or do you hire somebody to come up with it because I was just so aware of the great music there were a few tracks that were kind of written into the movie from the beginning that were cleared ahead of time I had a really wonderful music supervisor Joe rudj who um I have to give a lot of credit because when you're first you know making your your director's cut or whatever you want to call it you're kind of just not thinking about your budget and putting in all of your favorite songs and then look at what that would cost and then have to dig for other stuff and Joe was um hugely helpful finding songs that were you know within our budget but that actually worked for the movie better than what I had initially envisioned and then we found a really wonderful uh composer Rob kudair who's who's in the band Phoenix um and worked with him you know and it was a hard score to figure out because it's a sad movie but there are moments that are funny and it was it was hard to find the tone of the movie to let people know that it's okay to laugh it's okay to feel sad it's like you know I think on earlier Cuts we wanted it to be um to like lead more with the comedy and that never felt totally true to what it was I think that was sort of a defensive position once you're in the edit room um and so yeah the music you know was was sort of its own its own Journey how did you I mean you have some amazing people in small parts in this movie like Rosanna orat and Richard Benjamin yeah um all the all the Rosanna credit goes to Griffin who had a you know a long relationship with Rosana and and she was so game to come jump in and and play for a couple of days with us us and Richard Benjamin was somebody who Griffin and I had talked about who we would dream of playing his father and you know I think we kind of sent it to him as a on Lark almost like yeah let's see if Richard Benjamin will come to New York for a week and when we heard he was up for it I think we were all kind of blown away and that was one of the highlights of the whole project for me was just watching Griffin and Richard talk about Hollywood and and their connections and history you know it was an enormous moment for me too cuz uh you know both as an actor and him and Paula um I I I love them both so much as a character and then U one of my the closest I got to a starring part was uh between me uh and the actor who got the part in um uh I just went on I had my uh Richard's movie uh Favorite Year my favorite year and it came down to me and I can't remember the other guy who done to the part no not Peter I didn't aition but Peter Tool Part no the kid um and uh and uh so anyway it was always like one of those and I love the movie and it was but it was one of those things as an actor you look I go oh I almost had that part oh and I reminded Richard of that um and he said uh I don't remember that at all but I it was it was great we did we just talked about you know movies it was like uh it was it was really fun to to to have a relationship with him like that he was such a mainstate 60s and 70s let's get more more questions okay yeah you were aast in right I was it's good to see you again thank you from to thisall yes if I'm being candid I struggle not to play myself in everything that I'm in so uh this movie included it was not much of a stretch for me um which again is something I think like getting the audition there's so many so many things come around I'm like these don't I don't fit these things at all like there's not even a point in trying and this was one of the few where I was like this I this makes sense and I'm going to try really hard and I I love the script and so I gave it my my best effort and here we are uh yes more questions let see you so what's going to happen with the film at this point do you have a distributor we're we have we're working on on State Side distribution we've kind of been on tour with it on the festival circuit and you know hopefully we'll know more in the coming weeks about when it will actually come out here the film has opened overseas uh it has distribution overseas um and we start coming out probably in the you know in the summer sometime I mean it's I mean it's getting increasingly hard to get independent movies made yeah I mean was it was it a struggle to to raise the financing for this film yeah it was I you know I think about all the life events that I thought would interfere with the making of This film of like my wedding I was worried that that would interfere and then I thought having a child that that would get in the way and you know these life events kept passing by and it um I think I was talking to somebody the other day about how I think filmmakers feel kind of equal measures of um pride and shame about the amount of time it takes to make these movies um I wrote this you know pre pandemic and was it felt like it was going to come together and then it didn't and then the pandemic happened and then um you know managed to pull it off but every every phase of it is hard and then you know you feel like you've you're at the top of the hill and then you're trying to get accepted into festivals and then you're looking for distribution and um you know it's sort of uh so you know I think we all feel incredibly grateful for festivals like this one because as we're talking about at dinner it's like the this is how you show um movies like these to audiences on a big screen makes such a difference to see it up on my big screen at what point miles did you get Co was it in the middle of shooting so we had about 5 days in between we were shooting in Mexico City um we had like 5 days off uh before we went to Tulum and we very genuinely got along very well like we all became sort of a family really quickly and on the 5 days Griffin James and I decided that we were going to go to an island together to to spend the 5 days in a house that we were all sharing and the morning I woke up to go to get on the plane I was essentially dead I was like not well couldn't hardly walk um and I like went down to the lobby and I was like I don't feel well my memor is the Griffin was like get on the plane and we got on the plane went to this island and then yeah the first day I like sat down somewhere and I coughed and it was excruciating and I like went to some little Pharmacy took a test it was positive and I was absolutely horrified like called our producer and Noah and apologized and it seemed like everyone was fine but on our way to Tulum everyone went down Griffin was positive James was positive yeah it was sort of a nightmare and my first scene that I had to film was a kissing scene so I was like we really oh got to wait for this one to to die down so obviously the film was not shot in sence if your first scene was a king scene no it was the first scene after our break all right yes it was not shot in sequence so we started in Mexico City where we shot um all of the airplane and airports and also the Griffin's New York apartment was shot in Mexico City uh then we moved to Tulum and shout all tum and then back to New finished in New York yeah uh why to be not to be is that a movie that has a special import for you um it's a movie I love dearly I think it's such a perfect movie and it I and um I think it was also just felt right for a movie that Griffin's character that Peter and Simon would have you know that Peter would have remembered watching a few times that you know made him think about his father and his father's laugh and um you know I think we all have those things with our loved ones of like the the thing that that makes you think about that best aspect of your relationship and um I I know that with with my in my family those like Mel Brooks movies and um Ern Lu [ __ ] and Jack Benny and and that was kind of the vein of the the stuff that I grew up with and so I think that just kind of felt right to me do you have a do you have a next project L I do I'm you know anxious to talk about it because I know how long it takes to to get these things made right now I feel hopeful that I'll be back back on set soon with a new movie um and uh but yeah so I've been I've been showing this movie and back to writing and trying to get the next one the next one going and how about you pres uh yeah I have um I have a series coming out uh that I'm in um an ensemble series for HBO Max it's called girls on the bus um it's a play on the uh book boys in the bus about journalism and uh I play a character inspired by David Carr I I I presume you probably knew and some point in your life and uh so I play a New York Times editor and it's about a political campaign a fictitious political campaign and and the women who are covering it and Miles what's next for you I actually I'm filming a TV show right now like uh a Netflix show that's based off of a memoir called the pink Marine about a teenager a teenager joining the Marines in the 9s yeah so that will be out God knows probably in years from now Issa what's on your agenda yeah um I got to shoot this really exciting movie with Riz Ahmed last spring so that should be coming out at some point soon and then I also uh work as a writer so I've just been because obviously we were on strike half of last year um I I have been just doing a lot of different theater projects and um there's one that should be coming out that's a musical project in this year in New York or um it'll be it'll eventually be in New York but first it's coming out in a different form so it's it's a bit of a secret project right now yeah all right are there any other any other questions let pick up right here significance of the um picture falling off the wall um questions about the picture falling off the wall yeah I think it was sort of this thing that had been haunting I felt like there was this um kind of curse hanging over this family um and felt like that you know the shattering of that poster um you know was emblematic of that curse whether it was kind of being broken or you know being you know there's something kind of haunting this family um and I feel like after that they're able to kind of come back together and and move on um and I don't know I just when I was writing it that that poster and that movie kept coming back and I just felt like it had to I had it had to go away before I could get get to the end of the movie Yes uh congratulations on the film oh thank you uh since we're talking about the poster summer I have I really U wanted to know about the theme of connection because when the poster Falls you cut to Griffin's character waking up to go to the Cenote and I noticed that in a couple of scenes um when the couple's breaking up and he he's reading the letter and then she appears on the sofa and I just thought that was such a beautiful way to show connection uh so was how did that thing emerge throughout the process to to show it like that yeah I think um it was always clear to me writing it and that that Griffin's character and James's character and to some extent miles's character are all kind of going through these same things and same crises at different points in their lives and uh you know have each other but are also grown-ups and trying to figure out how to form their own families um and I think there's both you know there's a lot of longing and loss in knowing that your you know immediate family can't meet all of your needs in the way you would like them to and yet take enormous comfort in their being near and um and uh yeah it's I don't know it's hard to to analyze my own my own movie but I think that's what um you know I think what occurred to me writing it and looking at Miles and at Mickey and Peter and Nick was you know seeing how they're you know trying to be there for each other around their own heartaches yeah can I ask one more uh the um the gruesomeness of the hand what did you have any preconceived notions on what how the audience would react and and why did you put it in the plastic bag versus just evid question is about the hand why do you have a prec notion of which body part it was going to be I I felt like the hand just had to be there um I there was a ver we did cut a version without the hand and it just didn't feel um right and and when I pop in sometimes at the end of the movie and watch you know hear the audience watch that scene I do I you know always appreciate the reaction to it that I do feel like they've kind of understood the movie in the universe um you know based on the reaction to the hand as it tell whether or not the the movie is working or not yeah somebody yes the maum was in the uh is out by JFK and uh I was in [Music] bed one night reading and my phone started buzzing and I thought that like a thought somebody had died or something and then I was notified that the location had been used in succession and everyone felt an urgency to tell me that I had in thisis before I had started showing the movie anywhere but it's the Roy family plot any other any other questions I guess not all right well thank you all so much for coming thank you tell your [Applause] [Music] friends