ROLE CALL: Mandy Patinkin (left) stars as Gabe and Zach Braff as Aiden in Braff’s new comedy, Wish I Was Here, the follow-up to his indie breakout hit Garden State.
By Steven Rea
No secret: Zach Braff is a Woody Allen fan. Braff’s 2004 emo indie, Garden State, which he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in (opposite Natalie Portman), drew comparisons to Annie Hall, to Manhattan. More than 10 years before that, a teenage Braff had a small part in Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery, as the progeny of Allen and Diane Keaton’s characters.
So, landing the lead role in Bullets Over Broadway, the Tony-nominated musical adapted from Allen’s 1994 comedy, was “a dream come true” for the actor.
Allen attended every preview of the Roaring Twenties-set show back in March. “He would follow up with notes, with changes,” Braff recalls. “To be working so closely with someone who is one of the inspirations for me becoming a filmmaker, one of my heroes, how great is that?”
Braff’s new film, Wish I Was Here, is, like Garden State, more than a little autobiographical, and more than a little Allenesque. In it, Braff is a struggling actor whose wife (Kate Hudson) is the family breadwinner. The couple have two kids, a boy and a girl, attending a yeshiva school in LA. The children’s granddad (Mandy Patinkin) is paying tuition, but when the payments stop, the kids get kicked out.
Pretty much everything in Braff’s character’s life starts to unravel. But as the monetary, marital, religious, and filial crises mount, so does the comedy. There are even whimsical superhero/sci-fi fantasy sequences. Wish I Was Here opens Friday in limited release, expanding to more screens July 25.
“One thing that I liked about Annie Hall was that there were no rules,” says Braff. “Nowadays, you try and get anything made, there are just so many rules. ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ ‘No, this is just a drama,’ or, ‘This is just a comedy.’ Annie Hall was such a wonderful throw-the-rules-out-the-window archetype.
“It was hilarious in parts, it was slapstick in parts, it was heartbreaking. All of a sudden there’s a scene that’s fully animated. And I really thought that that was the way to make a movie — as long as you tell a good story, why do we keep being told that we have to follow all these rules?”
Not having to follow the rules was one reason Braff — the New Jersey native who became a star thanks to the long-running medico sitcom Scrubs — decided to go on Kickstarter in 2013. He wanted to raise money to make Wish I Was Here without being beholden to the studios, to producers demanding script changes or cast approval.
In 30 days, Braff raised $3.1mn — $400,000 in the final four days alone. More than 46,500 people pledged anywhere from $10 to $10,000. “It was always meant to be an experiment,” says Braff of his crowdfunding campaign. “What if we got the fans involved? What if we just flipped the whole thing on its head and created this community around making the movie?
“And in selling T-shirts, or online access to videos, or set visits, or extra roles, or cameos, you could finance a film and give everyone a fun experience. Wouldn’t that be crazy? And then it worked!”
And then it backlashed. Critics jumped all over Braff, suggesting he already had financial backing in place, that he was unwilling to put his own money into the project, that he was soliciting donations, not investors.
“I think a lot of it was misinformed, to be frank,” Braff says of the vehement, Web-driven reaction to his Kickstarter drive. “Anyone who takes the time and does a little bit of research realises that most of the detractors’ talking points are incorrect.”
And that’s that.
Here are a few, somewhat more agreeable talking points about Wish I Was Here:
Writing the screenplay with his brother, Adam: “We really wrote well together, and he’s diligent and good at keeping us working. I can get distracted ... and so it’s helpful to have a schedule. One of the greatest things about having a partner is that it helps to make sure you don’t procrastinate. It’s like keeping an appointment. You make sure that you do it. You don’t get distracted by the leaves that are blowing.”
Mirroring his own life, his own experience: “Not so much. ... It’s more like there are aspects of Adam and myself in (my character) Aidan. Adam’s a dad with two young kids whose wife has a day job, a normal job, and he’s very involved with raising the kids, so I think that we combined aspects of both of our lives into one character.”
Casting Kate Hudson as Aidan’s wife: “I was just so blown away by Kate in Almost Famous. And I just remember thinking at the time, wow, Cameron Crowe has really discovered a new super-talented actress. Not just a movie star, but a talent. I’ve been trying to work with her since then.”
Casting Mandy Patinkin as Aidan’s dad: “I’m a long-time fan. So many things that he’s done — Princess Bride is one of my favourite movies. And I love musical theatre, and he’s a musical theatre star. ... He turned in this performance that was beyond any of our expectations.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT
Charlie Sheen wants
more children
Actor Charlie Sheen, who has five children already, plans to increase his brood further, says his fiancee Scottine Rossi. However, the pair is in no hurry to have kids just yet.
Sheen, who already has a grown-up daughter Cassandra with ex-girlfriend Paula Profit, daughters Lola and Sam with ex-wife Denise Richards and twin sons Bob and Max, from his marriage to Brooke Mueller, is preparing to tie the knot with Rossi. They are also keen to start a family of their own, but not so soon. “Yes. Yes, that’s pretty much as far as we have got though,” Scottine told TMZ when asked if they have planned to have a baby, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
“He has five amazing kids. That’s as far as we got. I think we should focus on this awesomeness that we have right now,” she added. — IANS
Jenny McCarthy to
marry soon
Actress Jenny McCarthy is likely to tie the knot with Donnie Wahlberg “in the next couple of months”. McCarthy opened up about her wedding plans on a radio show with host Howard Stern, and she even spoke about her career plans after her sudden exit from a talk show, which she says was just a “stepping stone” for her. The 41-year-old TV personality, who recently left hosting the show The View, will marry Wahlberg later this year, and will be setting off on a new career path, reports contactmusic.com.
When Stern asked McCarthy about her marriage with Wahlberg, she said: “There will only be 80 guests in attendance, with no celebrities, and it will take place in the next couple months.”
Talking about her experience as the co-host of The View, the former model said: “The most rewarding part of being on The View has definitely been working with Barbara Walters for a year, I mean working under her and just asking her questions backstage has been the most intriguing thing.” — IANS
Robert Downey Jr ‘proud’ of son
Actor Robert Downey Jr is reportedly pleased that his son Indio is seeking help in rehab for his addiction to drugs. The Iron Man 3 actor himself has battled with substance abuse in the past. “Robert clearly understands the struggle, and while of course this relapse was very upsetting to him, he is very proud of his son. Indio truly wants to stay clean. And no matter what, his dad will be right there with him,” people.com quoted a source as saying. Indio, whose mother is Robert’s ex-wife Deborah Falconer, has managed to stay clean for a while, but fell off the straight and narrow last month. The youngster was arrested for possession of cocaine in West Hollywood after police caught him smoking something out of a pipe in a car. He was booked for possession of cocaine, but was released from jail a few hours later after posting $10,000 bail. — IANS
