TORONTO – Director Shawn Levy saw glimmers of his own big Montreal family in the Altmans — the raucous, outrageous brood at the heart of his new dramedy This Is Where I Leave You.
“My family, like the one on screen, will sometimes have huge loud, blowout theatrical arguments. My brothers and sisters, I’m sure, are driven nuts by me sometimes, and I by them,” he said in a recent interview.
“But like the characters in the movie, they bear witness to the craziness of our parents and I think there’s a real comfort in that. Long after my parents failed to be the perfect (people) I envisioned, my siblings were there for me.”
This Is Where I Leave You, opening Friday, boasts a star-studded ensemble cast, with Jane Fonda playing matriarch Hilary Altman and Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Corey Stoll and Adam Driver as her adult children. Supporting actors include Rose Byrne, Timothy Olyphant and Dax Shepard.
The film, which screened at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, focuses on the siblings who return home to sit shiva after the death of their father and are forced to confront their frayed relationships. Drama and comedy are evenly mixed in the screenplay by Jonathan Tropper, who also wrote the best-selling novel upon which it was based.
“I first became emotionally involved five years ago when I read the book and I loved it,” said Levy. “I think it was the tonal blend of the funny and the poignant, which I think is the truth of all family relationships. That resonated for me personally.”
But the director — best known for the Night at the Museum movies and comedies like The Internship and Date Night — had to fight to direct This Is Where I Leave You. He said he had been “somewhat pigeonholed” as the “big family event director.”
“I would always keep track of this movie as it almost got made by other people, with other actors, and it would drive me crazy with anxiety because I really felt that I was supposed to tell this story,” he said in an interview during the movie marathon.
“Then about a year ago, there was a moment where the movie went fallow. It was not going to get made. And I recognized a moment where I could pounce.”
He then turned to building his outstanding cast by simply picking the actors “one by one.” Some he selected personally, and some auditioned, including two-time Academy Award-winner Fonda.
“It was such a ballsy, awesome move. She was willing to put herself out there and to put herself on the line to fight for what she wanted and it worked,” he said. “It’s an iconic performance, an emotionally honest performance and so funny.”
Her character, Hilary, is a celebrated child psychologist and author who speaks frankly — too frankly — with her kids about sex. Fonda had to wear a pair of prosthetic breasts for the role, as Hilary also has a penchant for plastic surgery.
Levy said that when he decided to cast Fonda, he called her at home and told her she got the part.
“She celebrated, she got teary and then immediately the next words were, ‘Now, about my breasts,'” he recalled. “She said, ‘We need to find the best prosthetic boob-maker in the business and we need to mould it to my body. But I want big, beautiful unnaturally horizontal breasts.'”
As for Fey and Bateman, both actors are widely known for their comedic skills but not necessarily as dramatic performers. That quality made them perfect for the film, said Levy.
“They’re the fastest wits I know. They’re incredibly funny. They’re unbelievably grounded, good people. But they also have a soulfulness that I know, because I know them personally, but that I hadn’t seen to this extent in a movie with them,” he said.
“So I was very excited because this was my moment of quasi-departure. I was excited to get those two actors so that we were taking that leap into new territory together.”
Most of the film was shot inside a real house in Long Island. Once the home was filled with lights, cameras, crew members and a hilarious troupe of A-list actors, it felt “so small,” said Levy.
“We were on top of each other. But that greatest challenge, the confined space, became the best possible asset. It created a unity and a warmth between us as fellow actors and as a director that is now very palpable in the final movie.
“I don’t know that it would have existed if everyone had time and space to go back to their trailers. We were all together, all day, every day. And that family spirit is very much on screen.”
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