Is Easier With Practice the Year's Best Phone-Sex-Identity-Crisis Drama?

How did you settle on Brian Geraghty, and how did the two of you settle together on a comfort level for those tougher scenes?

We probably saw like 200 people, but when I first started writing in 2006, I wrote down people I'd seen, even in commercials -- anyone I thought was interesting. And I'd had his name down all the way back after Jarhead. He was on one of my original lists. But there were a lot of tapes from New York, just so many people. It was really tough. But we knew we had to have a character actor who, at the same time, could have a little bit of a movie-star quality because he's onscreen all the time. It was tough to find someone that watchable. Brian really fit in.

After that, it wasn't really rehearsal, but we'd go through the script; I knew we had a unique situation where he'd be onscreen by himself a lot of the time, so it was my duty to make him extra comfortable. Even if it just came down to syntax. We did the improvising ahead of time, and I started modifying a lot of the dialogue around that. Just via that process, I hope I showed a lot of trust in him. I know he showed a lot of trust in me. Having said that, we scheduled almost all of the phone-sex stuff on the third of our four weeks. He had a strong sense of the character and the crew; I think everyone was nervous about it except for him.

What were your apprehensions as a first-time director?

It was just my general shyness. I was in the room next door watching it on a monitor. It was just so sexual; I think one of my student films had one kissing scene in it. Once. but it was only one scene, and we didn't really talk about it that much. Brian said, "Don't worry -- I'll have it covered." That's why I give a lot of credit to Brian, because he hit a lot of the beats that weren't even scripted. We just talked through them. The take in the film is like 10 minutes, 45 seconds -- it's the second of two takes, and the first one is totally usable. If everything shut down that day, it would have worked. And it was his birthday that day, too! He handled it really well. He knew exactly what to do, the crew knew exactly what to do. If any day went perfectly, it was that day. There was nothing to fix. It was such a good feeling.

Apart from the jury awards, what is your sense of how audiences are responding to Easier With Practice? What kind of questions are you getting as you take the film around the festival circuit?

I have that weird anxiety about making everyone happy or trying to make everyone like me or one of those things. But what I'm working through with this movie -- what I just had to accept when I started screening it -- was that not everyone will like it. Every movie I've loved, a lot of people have hated. But the response has been so positive and encouraging, and that's why I love the festival circuit. It does seem to revolve around encouraging people. And the audiences have been great. People in Vegas and especially the people in Woodstock have had really thoughtful questions. We were trying to make a commentary without throwing it in your face -- something about technology and modern relationships, and it's generally hit people. I think once people get through the first few minutes of it being shocking or not shocking to them, then people stick with it.

What kind of counsel, if any, did you solicit from Warren Beatty?

None, specifically. I definitely told him about it. We had kind of a funny talk about the subject matter, and he's always been really encouraging. But there was never any specific advice. I don't want to necessarily quote him on this, but he said something to me once that making a movie is like throwing up. It feels awful while you're doing it, but afterward it feels so much better. But I have to say I enjoyed throwing up this time! I had a really good experience with it, because you just have to keep the end in mind. I spent three years trying to get people to see this. And even with all the drama that comes with it, it ends up being so satisfying just getting an audience see it and watch them react to it. I just want to get another project going so I can be there again.

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