Actor and Oscar-winning documentarian Fisher Stevens tells EW about making this little movie with a big emotional punch.
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Eddie Palmer is ready for a new start.
His drug addict mom, who just skipped out of town on her latest bender.
And they’re like, well there’s somebody attached.
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I pitched my take on it I just related to the script.
From the time I read it to filming till now was probably a three-and-a-half-year period.
And then, when somebody brought up Justin…
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I was like, wow, he would be amazing.
But it still was not a big budget.
We shot it very quickly, in 25 days.
He’s a professional and his work ethic was incredible.
But once Justin said yes, we were good.
But then we had this other big problem, which was to find the perfect kid.
Which was going to be my next question because that role you found quite a gem in Ryder.
Tell me about that part of casting.We got so lucky.
They were incredible together and they just had that magic, that chemistry.
And Ryder issocomfortable with who Ryder is like Sam.
Sam is a beautiful soul and Ryder is a beautiful soul, so it just really worked.
June Squibb, I have to say I was a huge fan of hers fromNebraska.
Even though that was set in the Midwest, she was great in the southern accent.
But imagine directing in a scene a 90-year-old woman and a 7-year-old boy.
It’s not the easiest thing to do.
She was a very good influence on this guy, on Palmer.
Sam, like you said, very much knows who he is.
But he doesn’t care, nor should he.
He’s just a boy who is who he is.
Sam is kind of the wisest of all.
I think it makes Palmer feel like, you know what, I’m okay too.
It gives Palmer his own strengths.
He’s just very comfortable with his gender, doing whatever.
And that’s why we got so lucky casting Ryder because he just is who he is.
Gender identity is a complicated issue, but Sam is just very comfortable with expressing himself.
Sam’s mom Shelly is, like you said, a disaster in so many ways.
I wish she was in this more," because she’sso goodand she’sso committed.
She really studied addicts and would look for people on location who were struggling.
I like to have a go at do this when I act, but she’s other level.
you’re free to do the scene 100 percent emotional, 50 percent emotional, 25 percent emotional.
The edit was very difficult because there were so many good, different variations.
And I liked watching her, so we would do a lot of takes.
It was really exciting to work with her.And she’s British, and you’d never know it.
We found her a vocal coach and she worked hard on the accent.
She worked hard on the look really, really specific on the tattoos, on every single element.
She totally elevated the film.
And, again, credit to Justin, totally Justin’s idea.
He had an acting coach named Lori Lively who got him revved up.
I asked Ryder if we could try it one more time.
And he’s like, [casually] “Okay.”
[Laughs] We just did two takes.
I would have loved to have done more but it worked out and we got it.
Palmerdebuts Jan. 29 on Apple TV+.
