WEBVTT - Ep33 - Kumail Nanjiani / "The Big Sick" 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.960 You're listening to playback a Variety podcast. I'm your host, 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.080 Variety Awards Editor Chris Tapley, my guest today. Somehow finds 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:29.400 time to star in film, television, perform stand up, host 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:32.880 podcasts and awards shows, and write a very personal film 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.800 that took Sundance by storm earlier this year. The Big 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:38.879 Sick tells the extraordinary story of how he met his 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.720 wife in the medical crisis that transformed that story into 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.519 an emotional romance that hit screens later this month. And 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:46.680 here he is, the star of my favorite TV show. 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:49.199 Come on, non Johnny, thank you for coming on the show. 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.240 Thank you, And I mean that. It's my favorite show. 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:55.920 That's awesome. It's it's the best thing on TV. I'm 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:57.840 all caught up with the brand new season to like 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.080 eight episodes into it, how many they've given us access 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:03.440 to have watched them immediately when they're ready. I'm behind 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.240 a couple episodes behind. I amn't been traveling to I 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.680 haven't gotten to see him. It's it's so far, so 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.920 good man. Was the season four? Is this season four? 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:13.800 You know? We just got picked up for season five. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.200 That's very, very exciting. It's just good too. It's hard 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.679 to have a job, and then it's almost impossible to 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:21.600 have a job on a show that you actually can 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:23.600 be proud of and like and you'd watch even if 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.600 you weren't on it. So it's really I feel very grateful. 0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:31.080 I'm gonna talk about that later. Um, but let's start 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:35.600 with the big sick. Obviously, I want to talk about confidence. Uh, 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.840 you know, just talk to me about the confidence to 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.880 put a very personal story into the world. The confidence 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.959 to uh, you know, have the drive an initiative, initiative 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.040 to make it happen, to to put together the team 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:50.720 to do it. What is that journey of confidence been 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.360 like on this particular project. Um, well, for me, since 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:57.760 when it first started stand, I never felt I never 0:01:57.800 --> 0:01:59.680 felt like I was confident. Like part of my thing 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.080 is I don't I don't think too far ahead. So 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:05.080 the bad thing is I don't plan. But the good 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:09.080 thing is I don't really think of possible negative consequences. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:12.600 You know. So if if I want to like do something, 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.720 I'll just kind of start doing it and not consider 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:18.000 what if it doesn't happen. I'll just kind of do 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:23.200 it until it does or doesn't. So with this movie, UM, 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:25.840 that's kind of how it was. I started, we started 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.120 working on it, and I've never considered that we wouldn't 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:31.880 get to make it, even though I understand it's it's 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.280 so rare that anybody gets to make a movie, let 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:40.000 alone starring someone who hasn't started a movie before. UM, 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.240 So I didn't really think of the negative consequences. And 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:45.280 also when you have you know, Judge working with you, 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:48.640 he gives you a lot of confidence in just being like, 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:50.480 I've never been the lead of a movie and actually 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.359 never done anything but comedic acting. I hadn't done any 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:56.200 dramatic acting. And he was the one who was like, no, 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.040 you can do it. It's going to be you. You 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:00.320 write it, then you'll start and it you just have too. 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.320 From the beginning, sort of the deal with Judd was 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.560 if you can write a really good script, then I'll 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:10.440 help you. I'll make this movie with you. Um, but 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:13.440 it's kind of on you to work on it and 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.079 write a really good script. So it's one of those 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.520 things where like we wrote the script for three years 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.680 when finally Jed was like, all right, I think we 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.079 can start moving on. And at that point it's sort 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.160 of a ball rolling down the hill. You just um, 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:31.520 just sort of working in in isolation for for a 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.040 long time, and then suddenly the wheel start moving and 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:36.200 you just kind of like swept up in the journey. 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.680 You know, how driven mobilized were you to to do it? 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:42.800 If say, you weren't able to find the directors, like 0:03:42.840 --> 0:03:44.880 would you were you prepared to get behind the camera 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.240 yourself and put this out there? Or I really didn't 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:50.680 want to direct this movie. I would like to direct 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.480 at some point. I just knew that being the lead 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.120 of a movie that we had written that was about 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.680 our lives was going to be so challenging that I 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.200 really wanted to focus on my performance. Um. When it 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.320 game time to shoot the movie, UM, Mike, the director, 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:11.000 Michael Showalter, was very, very very UM. He was very 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.440 involved with us for the last year of prep, and 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.400 he was very very collaborative. So I got to sort 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.520 of learn a little bit of how directing works and 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:23.599 how much work it is. It's a lot of work, um, 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:28.040 And so for this movie, definitely wanted someone else to 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:31.240 to directed so that I could I could focus on 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:33.880 just the performance. Once he started rolling, What did Michael 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:35.720 bring to the table that made you feel like he 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:37.680 was a guy he could do this. Well, you know, 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.479 I don't Michael, because I had written for him for 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.200 a show called Michael Michael Have Issues, which lasted six episodes. 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:46.800 You know how some shows last six seasons. This last 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.240 six episodes. He was the So he gave me this, 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.160 He gave me that job. So I've known him for 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.000 those two names. I've known him for like a few 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.400 years at that point, and had a small part in 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:58.839 his movie Hello, my Name is Doris, which I thought 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:03.000 was really fantastic. So what Michael brought to it was 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.320 Michael has a great sense of story. Michael is really 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:09.080 great at structure stuff. So he read the script, liked that, 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.880 came in and pitched to us and Jet his take 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:17.040 and then his his whole thing was, um, just how 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.599 to focus the story, And he was like in the script, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.719 he was like this specific scene. All I know is 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.200 that this scene comes right in the middle of the movie. 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.640 So everything else, you guys sort of build around that, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:30.760 like movie scenes around whatever you gotta do, But this 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:32.560 is the middle of the movie. That's what I know. 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.960 So he really brought that. And he's a really emotional guy, 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.800 and he's really good at emotional stuff. Like a lot 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:41.320 of comedy people sort of shy away from emotions. He 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.640 really doesn't. Um, So he brought a lot of story, 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:51.360 just skilllet telling a story, skillet plum plumbing the depths 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:55.719 of emotions. He's great with actors with that. And also 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.640 he is just really funny, like he's just done a 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.640 lot of comedy stuff, so um. He also just was 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.479 like a really funny guy to have around and you know, 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.880 pitch jokes and stuff while we were shooting. And this 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.839 probably gets back to that idea of confidence. But what 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.800 was it like just to share this super personal story. 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.120 I mean, this is obviously a very private element of 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:21.560 your life that is now forever public, that's forever immortalized. 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.000 And that's a unique perspective not all of us have, 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.599 you know, So now you have this intensely private element 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.120 of your life that's writ large. So what does that 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.960 feel like? Well, you know, as a stand up, at 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.800 some point I started taking personal stories and porton experiences 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:38.640 and talking about them on stage. So I had a 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:43.080 little bit of experience being personal and sort of giving 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.680 of myself in little ways. This is sort of the deal. 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.640 I was thinking about this earlier today or last night 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.000 when I couldn't sleep. You know, there is a little 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:55.720 bit of you lose. A lot of people see your vulnerability, right, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.680 but a little bit I think that's sort of the 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.160 deal with the devil you have to make to do. 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.800 What I get to do, Like, what you get is 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:05.880 you get to live your dreams and tell your stories 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:08.520 and it's really exciting. But what the price of that 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.240 a little bit is that you are giving a piece 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:17.040 of yourself for everyone to analyze and judge. Um. But 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.480 I knew, like a few years after these the events 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.840 of the movie had happened, I knew that I wanted 0:07:23.880 --> 0:07:25.920 to like do something with it, like either do a 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.480 show about it or something, because it felt like this 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:33.400 very specific emotional thing that had happened. And I knew 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:38.160 that nobody else had this story, and that only Emily 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:40.160 and I were the ones who would be able to 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.720 tell this story, like kind of if we didn't tell 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.480 the story, this story would just not get told. Nobody 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:50.320 else has this so um And And I really think 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.280 for me, writing and I think the best writing is 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.840 sort of you're trying to deal with your concerns and 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.880 tackle stuff that's complicated and messy for you. And part 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.760 of it's a little bit of like self therapy working 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.880 on something like this. So I knew that this sort 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:13.960 of story I wanted to tell Emily took a little 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.640 bit more convincing. I knew this was a story I 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.360 wanted to tell because thinking about it would like paralyze me. 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.120 And I knew that I had a lot of like 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:27.080 stuff floating around inside this black box that I hadn't opened. 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:31.240 And I knew that in in order to be able 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.440 to move on from this kind of crazy event and 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.760 have to write about it and really get into it 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.199 and and and sort of figure out how I felt 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.040 about it, you know. And it's very easy to be like, well, 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.720 that was a tough time when you actually opened the 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.240 box and think about like what did I do this day? 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:50.240 And then this happened, and this happened. That is how 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.600 that made me feel. Like going through all the events 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.719 piece by piece is it's very difficult, but I think 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:02.679 it's also allowed us to get a handle on this big, 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.280 big part of our life. Did you get swept up 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.200 in any kind of emotion, like in the moment in 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.439 a scene that would obviously remind you of this very 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:14.400 emotional moment in your life. There are some scenes that 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.240 I cried when I wrote them, I cried when I 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.640 rewrote them, I cried when I rehearsed them, and and 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:24.880 then shooting them was the same thing. I was surprised 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.360 at how much of it actually felt like going through 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.440 the real thing. Part of it is, I mean more 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.920 of the hospital stuff, because when you were in a hospital. 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.160 This wasn't a set we shot in a real hospital. 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.240 The sense memory of being in a hospital, and I 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:44.600 hadn't that, it had been about nine years since that 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.280 stuff happened. Just the lighting, the smell of tape, the 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:55.080 smell of medicine, the sterility, yeah, the weird beeps you hear, 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:59.920 all that stuff, the sounds of wheels on um little 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.360 him or whatever it is. All that stuff took me 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.719 back immediately, me and Emily, both of us like immediately. 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.400 So it was actually more of a struggle to not 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:17.880 uh go back into that really sad space. It was 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:20.439 actually more of a star struggle to not do that 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.560 than it was to like get into it, you know, 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.360 like like waiting in the waiting room or all that stuff. 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:29.160 I hadn't been in a hospital really since all that 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:31.120 stuff happened to us, and going back into it and 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:35.280 shooting it there. It was very very It was very intense, 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:37.120 and it was very intense for Emily. It's about ten 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.760 years ago, right two seven. You said she took a 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.320 little more convincing Emily did, So what do you think 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:48.240 what did it take to get her there? I think 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.120 so I met with Judd and I had spoken to 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:56.600 him about doing this, and I sort of started writing 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:58.120 it and I told her. I was like, Hey, I 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:01.000 want to write about this event from from my perspective. 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:03.920 And she was very understanding of that, and she was like, 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.319 of course, that's you're right. But as I was writing it, 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:11.520 I just felt like it wasn't going to be good 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.400 unless both perspectives were in there, so I just had 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:18.200 to read. I think what happened was I wrote a 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:21.000 very rough version of the script from my perspective. She 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:26.080 read it and she understood a little bit how it 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.840 was for me to go through it, and she knew that. 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:34.080 I think that was a little bit exciting to her too, 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:38.000 was to see things through my eyes. And but she 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.240 also knew, like, listen, if you're going to do the story, 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:42.440 it's not going to be complete unless we have both 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:46.360 these perspectives. So I think she jumped on one because, um, 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:51.640 she realized the sort of there is a joy and 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.959 even um telling a story about something that's very painful, 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:57.880 there is a joint and I think, and there's an 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.720 excitement in it. And I think she she she sort 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.360 of got that, and she just knew that it was 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.319 going to be good for our relationship because I realized 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.720 I didn't know. I didn't understand these events from her perspective, 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.840 and she didn't understand them from my perspective. So she 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.319 started writing, we started writing together. She assumed it was 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:20.640 never going to get made, so for her it was 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.079 I think, more system, get it out of your system, 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.120 a little bit of therapy, let's get to know each other, 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:28.720 let's figure this out. She'd written a couple of things 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.040 about it, but nothing really so so I think she 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:33.760 jumped on being like this will never get made and 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:35.640 will just be like a great thing that we get 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.559 to do together for us and for each other. Was 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:42.760 her potentially playing herself, I just out of the question 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.679 from the beginning. Yeah, I mean, she's not an actress 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.440 and she didn't want to do that. From the very beginning, 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.600 you know, the plan was always like I'll play me 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.439 and we'll get a really hopefully a really great actress 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.079 to play Emily, which we which we were able to. Um. 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.560 Emily never wanted to play herself. She has all interest 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.320 in performance or anything. She's a writer. She used to be. 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.280 She wasn't practicing therapist, she's not anymore. But she's a writer, 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:09.960 and you know that's what she definitely wanted to do 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:11.439 with it. She didn't she didn't want to act in 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.000 the Yeah, I don't want to get in front of 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:16.240 any cameras either. They're trying to get me to do 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.880 it here all the time, though you were what like 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:21.360 six months were moved from Sundance. Now, that must have 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.520 been just a dream come true, right, Yeah, it's really 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:27.880 crazy because you know, we were at that point very 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.719 proud of the movie we've made, and we really liked it. 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:34.280 But the people who really have been working on it, 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:37.000 it was a very small group of people that really 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.120 had been working on it, and they're all the people 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.080 who obviously had the highest stakes and it we were like, 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.920 we're the least objective people. We think we did a 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:50.040 good job, but who knows, you know. Um, So, Emily 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.760 and I when we were sitting at Sundance it's very 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.640 you know, we were excited to get in and we 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.640 we started watching it with the crowd, and there was 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.600 acific point, like a few minutes into the movie where 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.719 I could feel like, Oh, they they liked this movie now. 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.960 Because there's always like, especially at Sundance, I think there's 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:13.640 a little bit of like in the beginning, you're like, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.440 what is this Do I like it? I want to 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:18.439 be on board? Am I going to check out? You're 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.720 evaluating it? But there was a specific point in the 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.640 movie fairly early on where I just felt like, oh, 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.400 they they want to see this movie now. Uh. And 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.800 from then on it was just sort of Actually, the 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:35.280 first screening was definitely a little bit deer in headlights 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:38.280 from me. I could put the Ecles. It was at 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:40.480 the The first screening was at the end. The first 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.360 two screenings were at the Eccles. So for the first screening, 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.640 it was just like I was like, Oh, here it 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:47.600 comes this. I hope this goes well. I hope this 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:51.440 joke lines, Oh, I hope this works and uh, and 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.600 I could tell it went really well and the reviews 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:55.440 were really good. But it was the next morning. We 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.720 had another screening at nine am. The next day. So 0:14:57.760 --> 0:14:59.440 we were lucky in that we had a screening at 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.160 six thirty pm, and so we've got a lot of 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.880 reviews from that, and then we had to meet a 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:08.560 screening immediately afterwards so that people could would continue talking 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.040 about it. So we had another screening at nine am 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.640 the next day, and that I watched and actually enjoyed 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.120 watching it. Um Uh, it was I mean, you know, 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.120 it kind of felt like Emith and I were saying, 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.240 it kind of felt like it was our wedding or something. 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.960 Because you walk around and everybody knows, even if people 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.280 haven't seen the movie, they know you're the guys who 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.000 wrote this movie that like sold for whatever to you know, 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.040 because that becomes a big part of the story too. 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.160 So it was exciting. It was mostly just exciting to 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.320 have so many people connect with it, um and come 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.120 up to us and tell us what parts of the 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:46.400 movie they really felt like, Um, just connected to you know, 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:50.240 Gray romantic gets me the whole time. He's so amazing. 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.400 Did you guys have like, obviously you're picturing yourselves when 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.960 in the real people whenever you're writing the script, But 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:59.800 did casting ideas pop into your head? Where did you 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.040 say of someone like Holly Hunter or like great Maman. 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:04.880 And when you're writing the script, well, for for instance, 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:07.640 for my dad character, I always wrote it. We always 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:09.760 wrote it for that actor under don't care. He the 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:12.440 Bollywood legends, so for him, from the very beginning, it 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.160 was my dad's voice. It helps it my dad and 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:19.760 the guy playing my dad look alike to um, so, 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:25.720 so with him certainly written in his voice. Um Holly 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.760 was the first, the second person cast after Zoe, And 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:32.720 what we did was we'd sort of written it with 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.680 these characters in mind, and we sort of had Holly 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.640 Hunter in mind writing for Emily's mom a few months 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.160 before we started casting it. So we rewrote it for 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.640 Holly Hunter hoping that she would do it. And that 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.960 was the person we really wanted to get for Emily's mom, 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.800 so so we did write it with her in mind. 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.920 At some point we were like, once we um got 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.000 a director, we were like, Holly Hunter will be the 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.640 best for this. Let's let's just try and write it 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.440 to her with Ray Romano. That was Judd's idea. Judd 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.280 was like, I think Holly Hunter and Ray Romano would 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.040 make a good pairing and they don't make sense in 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.359 the same way that the central couple kind of doesn't 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.439 make sense. Like when you see these two people together, 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.240 it's like interesting. They're not people that you would imagine 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.919 being together, like me and Zoe together, Like we just 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.000 look so different, it's interesting. And then Ray and Holly 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.880 look so different. It's interesting, and they have such different 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.160 energies in the New York and North Carolina vibe exactly, 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.560 you know, the exactly where Holly's from actually, but just 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.439 the southern She's from North Carolina in thee in the 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:35.800 movie she's from North Carolina, but I think she's actually 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.960 from West Virginia. Okay, um so yes, exactly. So we 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.640 wanted to mirror that relationship with our relationship a little bit. 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.080 And that was you know, Judd was friends with Ray 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.000 and had worked with them on Funny People, and Ray 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.040 has a quick, funny, very funny scene and he was like, 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:55.960 he's such a great actor and people haven't really seen 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.320 that yet. Um so I was you know, I've been 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.680 I've been a big fan of Race for a long time, 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.119 from like stand up to his show. So we were like, 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:08.560 I knew he was going to be really good because 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.800 even when he did everybody loves Raymond, which was like 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:15.280 sort of a broad multiicam sitcom. His performance is always 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.040 so grounded. This I've always found this like a melancholy 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.440 to him, no matter what he does, even when he's 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:25.399 doing stand when he's really funny, there's like a really appealing, 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:30.399 like sad sadness to him that I think. I think 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.640 that like sadness and comedy go really well together, which 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:35.720 is what a lot of our movie is. I think 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.760 they can really deepen each other. I think really funny 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.639 stuff can really set up sad stuff really well, and 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.200 I think really emotional stuff stuff sets up funny stuff 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:48.000 really well. So so we were like already we had 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:50.960 no doubt. We did not dish him or anything obviously, 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.439 we were just like we just asked him if he 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.640 if he wanted to do it, and just knew that 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:01.560 he was going to be fantastic. Yeah. Um, speaking in 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.080 North Carolina, Emily grew up in or did she grew 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.080 up in Weston Salem? Yes? You did. I went to 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.320 college in Weston Salem. No you did? Yeah, Oh my god, 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:10.919 I mean I grew up in North Carolina, grew up 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:16.360 in Salisbury. Really, She's from Kaye, Vegas in Cornersville they 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:20.040 called it. Yeah, I know it well actually, uh and 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.640 she she went to school in Greensboro too, right, Yeah, 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:24.800 you don't see Greensboro. She won't go down there often. 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:26.320 I go down there all the time. You think in 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.920 North Carolina, you know, in the beginning, I didn't. I 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:31.800 was like, because I'm a city guy. I grew up 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.040 in city. So at the beginning when I would go back, 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:36.840 I would be like, it was so alien to me. 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.240 I've never really been in the South that much. But 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.240 but I really have grown to love it. I think 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.359 the people are so nice and it's sort of tough 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.399 to reconcile that, you know. I had the eMate this 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:51.680 image of the South in my head before I went, 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:53.719 and when I was going there, I was like putting 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.560 that like filter on top of everything. But I really 0:19:57.600 --> 0:19:59.280 love it. I think it's really gorgeous. I think the 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:01.440 people are really Yes, I think for the most most part, 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.200 they're really genuine. And it's also like the people who 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:07.639 are cool. I found like so like if you're in 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.920 New York, right, the hipsters, there's like the tattoo hipsters, 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.000 there's like the hat hipsters. There's like the punk hipsters 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.119 are all different. In North Carolina, there's so few of 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:20.399 them that they're all the types s mushed together. So 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:22.840 you have a person who's like the tattoo hipster and 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:26.399 the punk hipster and the like the rockabilly hipster, all 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:29.840 smushed into one. And I think Emily had this experience 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.359 growing up where she was like all the weird kids 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.120 had to hang out together. So it was like, because 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.440 Emily was like a goth and the goth kids hung 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.040 out with, the gay kids hung out with like the 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:44.400 black kids, you know, so like whoever was sort of 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:48.080 an outsider, they all hung out together, so like the 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:52.040 Hispanic kids, you know. And so it's really neat when 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:54.080 I go back and go to where she used to 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:55.719 go and hang out with their friends. It's like a 0:20:55.840 --> 0:21:01.119 very diverse group of people because they all had to 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.280 sort of find solace and each other's otherness, you know. Yeah, 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:07.199