Life for Alison (Florence Pugh) couldn’t have been better. Happily engaged and in a brilliant professional moment, everything changes after an unfortunate accident. That’s the official synopsis of the new Zach Braff film, starring Florence Pugh, the director’s partner at the time, and a stellar cast led by Morgan Freeman. And we took advantage of this to speak exclusively to Zach Braff himself.
Worst streak possible
Ten years apart Zach Braff’s first feature, Something in Common, was released in 2004, and his second feature as director, Wish I Was Here (2014). It took nine more years for this one-man band on screen to become known to the general public for their comedic roles – ‘Scrubs’, the Bill Lawrence-created sitcom that they led for nine seasons, but which Becomes a filmmaker as he writes, delve into his neurosis and personal passion, presenting his fourth film as a director. Certainly the one that has taken him the most to pursue: ‘A Good Person,’ a drama starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman. “The film was born out of the agony of the last four or five years,” Braff said in a virtual chat with Photograms. “In 2016, my sister Shoshana suffered an aneurysm, though she didn’t die until 2018. Then my father was diagnosed with cancer and died a few months later. Then me and my friend Nick Cordero — the actor with whom Braff played the musical ‘Bullets Over Broadway’ on the New York stage – who lived with me in my guest house, became infected with COVID and passed away with a young son at only 41. My life was a series of painful events And seeing the consequences of this I decided to write something about what it means to rise again after a tragedy, on my family, in my closest circle. I wrote it in the middle of a pandemic and I Having done it with Florence, who was my partner at the time, I did it thinking of her because I think she is the best actress on the planet,” he says confidently.
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A story of atonement
Allison, Pugh’s role from that pain, is the central point of a plot populated by characters coping as best they can with their loss and duels that Braff associates with one of the greatest social and medical tragedies of current American society. IS: The opioid crisis. “It’s something that infuriates me, that you can’t understand. And after reading ‘The Empire of Pain,'” he says of Patrick Raden Keefe’s essay, which inspired the TV series ‘Dopesik: Story of an Addiction’ (Disney+). , “It’s a very American problem, I know, but it seemed logical to me to include that version of Alison’s future. Not only because it makes sense from a medical point of view to be able to treat her pain.” had become addictive, but because emotionally it gives him what he’s looking for: to stop feeling”. Something that contrasted the outburst of emotion, he says, were the scenes that Florence and Morgan Freeman shared on set. “I love seeing that when you put two good actors together, the scene elevates because one demands the best from the other.”
The power of humor
After that first sword duel, Celeste O’Connor (2Ghostbusters: Beyond 2) and comedian Molly Shannon (2A Promising Young Woman 2) allow Braff to stay on the other side of the camera and defend. the act itself. “Let’s see, I think I’m a good actor, but not like him,” he jokes. “The writing and direction are terrible. I thought I could have made a better film if I didn’t act in it.” A creative balance that Braff is also in charge of transferring to the narrative stage, as “A Good Person” blends the pain and heartbreak of Allison’s descent with humor that stems from the most dramatic moments. “Something that connects to my own experience of loss in recent years,” he says. “I remember being in a hospital waiting room and suddenly someone says something unexpected and everyone laughs. It’s something universal, but it also has to do with my preferences as a viewer. I’m ‘The Force of Endearment’ (1983), by James L. Brooks, ‘Harold and Maude’ (1971), by Hal Ashby, or films by Cameron Crowe. Stories that make you laugh, but your heart Breaks even. Of late, there aren’t too many…Hollywood would have us believe that sad movies don’t have an audience. I think differently. I think they do have an audience. Definitely is that, as a viewer, I don’t want to watch something that has no humor in it because drama and humor are mixed in life. I want stories with characters with struggles that have room for smiles and if possible If it ends with a message of hope, it would be my ideal film.”
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Cinema as therapy: something to write about
“When I started the script for ‘A Good Person,’ I had no idea what it would turn out to be. When I finished, I thought that, for the first time, I had written something that wasn’t just mine”, says Han Braff is aware of the autobiographical significance of his first two films, Something in Common and I Wish I Were Here. “When I told my psychiatrist, he laughed. ‘Do you really think this isn’t about you?’ On a more superficial level, I swear I didn’t think so, but I was right. Underneath the plot is my life, my heart beats. All my films are my version,” he says.
