I’ll Be Right Brendan Walsh will be reuniting with Eddie Falco, allowing his cast to improve and the support of Jesse Eisenberg

Brendan Walsh is reuniting with Edie Falco for the moving family drama I’ll be right there. Over his 12 years of experience in the director’s chair, Walsh has worked with Falco on both her award-winning Showtime dramedy Nurse Jackie and her short-lived CBS crime drama, Tommy. He also brought his directing skills to a variety of other movies and TV shows, including USA Network Royal pains And both Power Book II: Ghost And Book 3: Helat Canaan.

for I’ll be right thereFalco and Walsh not only team up as director and star, but also on the producing side of things, with the former acting as an executive producer alongside Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg, with the latter serving as a producer. Falco leads the drama’s ensemble cast as Wanda, a woman who has dedicated her life to taking care of her family, but becomes increasingly stressed as her eight-month-old daughter prepares for her wedding, from which her ex-husband withdraws his finances. . Supportive, her directionless son seems primed for rehab or prison, and her mother acts recklessly while also often thinking she’s dying.

Along with Falco, the ensemble I’ll be right there The cast includes Oscar nominee Johnny Berlin, Ozark Elm Charlie Tahan,

Johnny Berlin, Mrs. AmericaKaylee Carter, justifiedMichael Rapaport, Mayor of KingstonMichael Beach, The L Word: Dor Ks Sepideh Moafi and Get outS. Bradley Whitford. The film has previously made its debut at the Hamptons International and Newport Beach Film Festivals, and has so far garnered strong reviews from critics, all of whom have praised its charming tone, emotional story and performances from its cast.

In anticipation of its wide release, Screen Rant Interviewed director/producer Brendan Walsh to discuss I’ll be right thereGetting reunited with Falco for the drama, the joy of letting his cast improve, how the 90s were a major inspiration for the visual style of the movie, and the main support Eisenberg gave during filming.

I’ll be right theres family story really resonated with Walsh

Screen Rating: I’ll be right there is such a sweet little slice of life movie. I’d love to hear what it was about Jim’s script that really sparked your interest in wanting to get behind the camera for this.

Brendan Walsh: I think that, when I first read it, what resonated with me – when I read it, it was 2020, we were all stuck in our houses, it was the summer, and I loved that it was a Sweet, slice-of-life film, and the overall messaging is that it’s okay to want to take care of your family and that can be enough. We don’t always have to be keeping up with the Joneses and posting on social media to try to figure it out – I’m not saying don’t chase your dreams, I’m just saying sometimes, it’s okay to want to be with your family, and I think that was something that we all experienced in 2020, being locked up, being with your family, being kind of forced to communicate physically, to talk to your kids. I have three children of my own.

That’s really what drew me in, and I think that’s what drew Eddie as well. In the end, everyone’s asking in the film, “Don’t you want more?” Basically, or like, “What about you?” And it’s like, “This is great, I love my family. They give me all the happiness and all the frustration and all the kind of torment.” So, I thought it was just a sweet message to get out there, and it didn’t feel like a message, it didn’t feel preachy. I don’t like a preachy film, I like to be like subtly layering a message in there, so by the end, you’re like, “Oh, there’s a message here!” [Laughs]

Falco not only pushed for I’ll be right thereBut Walsh helped on another film

You mentioned Eddie, and I wanted to ask, you two obviously have history back to back Nurse Jackie. I would like to hear who was the first to whom about the script, because often the actors get the script at the same time as a director.

Brendan Walsh: Yeah, I actually called Eddie, because we had this story that we worked together, and I had this film that I was pushing that was recently made, and it was incredibly made. It’s called Bang Bang, and I called Eddie and I said, “Hey, Eddie, I need somebody. Indie film is going to be the first thing to come back. We’re all stuck in. This is what it’s going to be like.

And she’s like, “You know, it’s funny, my team and I, we’re talking about how to do an indie film, and I have a really sweet script. Mark Duplass is looking at it, but if he doesn’t want to. To Do it, do you want to do it?” I was like, “I mean, if Mark Duplass doesn’t want to do it, then sure.” [Chuckles] – Of course, of course, I would like to do it, Eddie. And I read it, and I loved it, it has a big family of people around it, and that’s it. That was how it all began.

I’ll be right thereThe cast was just as important to the movie’s tone as the script

I’d love to hear about building the family around Eddie, because it’s such a central core to the movie’s story. Charlie is fantastic as the sort of erratic son, and Johnny is incredible as the grandmother.

Brendan Walsh: Yeah, putting the cast together was – Ross Meyerson was a casting director on Nurse Jackie, and, at the time, it was ICM, which is now CAA. Tony Howard was kind of an instrumental person who pushed the film, loved it for Eddie, and we got in front of this kind of great talent that wasn’t – Johnny was just such a strong idea of ​​Eddie. She was not very involved. I mean, she likes to be involved, she would probably hate that I was like, “Eddie was very involved.” She has great ideas. Johnny was one of them. Charlie is, of course, great in Ozark and liked a film I did.

Charlie was great, I remember the first day he showed up, and he had this super long Ozark hair, and we were like, “You’re going to shave that hair off.” [Laughs] And Kaylee Carter was someone who was auditioning through submissions that were coming through, and she just really popped off the screen and really nailed the humor and the heart of Sarah. Every character is funny in this film, they all have their moments.

Eddie has this kind of very dry, matter-of-fact sort of reactionary response to things, and very quippy. And Charlie’s humor kind of just plays off of everybody else’s, and Kylie was really great to drop in and burst into with good energy and humor, and all of them have very sweet family-loving moments that I think Really help keep it like this kind of – everyone’s always like, “It’s a drama,” and I’m like, “Of course,” it’s a comedy with drama, it’s a drama with comedy, like whatever. I think it’s entertaining, and I love a film that gives you a lot of feels. So I hope everyone says after September 6th.

Walsh was heavily inspired by the 90s for the look of the movie

I’d love to hear about putting together the visual palette for the film, because I love how it feels very naturally lit, but also very vibrant at the same time.

Brendan Walsh: So the Deep is a friend of mine, we worked together, Aaron Medic. We were going for this kind of 90s indie film look. We’re like, “Let’s make it feel like this kind of ’90s indie film. Let’s make it feel warm.” We looked at different movies, like, The Tender Bar was kind of a color palette that we kept looking at. There were a lot of old Hal Hartley movies. And some of it is like we’re going, “This is a little $1 million movie, you’re only going to get certain things.”

So, you do things in post, and we wanted everything to feel very organic, to not feel contrived, and to set images where actors can act like a play, and not let it be wrapped up in everything, and then just move the camera Around when we needed to, and not have it feel like the performances were forced to the camera, but the camera was kind of forced to performance. There were a lot of yellow. I don’t know how many times we dealt cards back and forth, or how many times I looked at cards and was like “Is this the card? Is this the card? Is this the card? Is this the card?”

Walsh actually allowed his castle to go”A small off-book(Especially for one scene)

I really wanted to touch on that too, since you mentioned letting the camera move with the performances rather than the other way around. What was one scene where you found yourself really just letting the actors go and improvising for a scene where you put all the reins in their hands?

Brendan Walsh: The scene on the porch when Kylie caught her mom, and she’s just realizing that her mom is in a relationship with a woman. This is a one-shot scene. It wasn’t really planned to be one, and it was very difficult to pick the names, because it just became a little bit off-book, and a little bit just, “It is what it is, you deal with it.” She’s come out, and their comedy and playing off each other in this kind of natural game. There is only one frame that looks at the two actors, one is sitting on the stoop with a big pile of soda, and the mother comes out knowing that her daughter is going to say something, will break into tears, and it’s just A little. A little quiet, and then she just goes, “Okay, let me explain,” and then she starts firing off.

I think that was one of those scenes where I was like, “Oh, that’s so fast,” and I think it was written very quickly, and it’s still fast in the film, but it’s They were interested in letting them play with the scene. . The script is the movie, the movie is the script, but there was definitely a lot of improv over time. We’d do the versions, and then we’d be like, “Try this, do that, do whatever, try something.” It was fun for a lot of the cast to play, at times, to be kind of off the hook and just say, “Oh, I have an idea,” and they’d come back.

We started calling it an improv movie at one point, because I think Bradley Whitford showed up, and we had that scene, and then I was like, “Okay, now what if you say this or that?” And he was like, “Oh, that’s the kind of movie.” I was like, “Yeah, let’s mess with it and see what happens.” [Laughs] I think that allows the actors the ability to feel like they’re all together, and they’re a family. Everyone just asks about the family dynamic and how it feels natural, and I think it’s because we let them be natural and play with each other.

Jesse Eisenberg was a “Great support personDuring the production of the movie

I also noticed that Jesse Eisenberg was on board as an executive producer, and I love to see when actors lend their support to, as you said, a smaller movie like this. How did he come to be on the film?

Brendan Walsh: Jesse and Jim are good friends, and they write projects together at times, or they read each other’s stuff and give each other notes. Jesse was actually, I think, the first caller to get the script into Eddie’s hands, and he was a good support partner. He would always be like, “Do you guys want me to do something?” We’d be like, “Whatever. We don’t want you not to do anything. Whatever you want to do.” [Chuckles] It’s always like, “Hey, should we ask Jesse if he has an idea?” He was a great support person, and he came through set, and he talked to me a lot when I was just a question of things. He was just a great sounding board for all the little problems of indie film that you run into.

About I’ll be right there

Wanda has her hands full: her 8-months-pregnant daughter wants a wedding that her ex-husband is reluctant to pay for, her mother thinks she’s dying, her illegitimate son is going to rehab or the army, her longtime boyfriend didn’t bother her, But neither does her new girlfriend, and she barely has time for herself, not that she would know what to do with it anyway.

Stay tuned for our others I’ll be right there Interview with:

• Kaylee Carter and Charlie Tahan

• Michael Beach

• Director Brendan Walsh

I’ll be right there Hits theaters on September 6.