Cholodenko had tried to mount a version of the film (cowritten with Stuart Blumberg) almost five years ago, but the financing only came together when Cholodenko herself got pregnant, scuttling the production. The Laurel Canyon director then took a brief break from features before revising and remounting Kids last year, and she says that extra time was all for the better -- and after its levitational Sundance screening, Oscar buzz, and tremendous limited opening last weekend, who's to argue?
I talked to Cholodenko about how being a new mom affected the film, how nervous she was about that Sundance screening, and how she'd defend one of the few quibbles detractors have for her film -- the ending.
Julianne Moore was attached to the 2005 version of this film, but how different would that version have been if it had been made then?
You know, I think the spirit was there, the plot was there, the setup and all that were the same, but I just don't think the characters were as deep and well-drawn as they became. It's a little bit of what you know and always dread when you start a new draft, but you've just got to keep at it and sculpt away until you get at the fine essence of what the movie is.
Did the fact that you became a mom along the way impact the way you looked at those characters?
Yeah, in a way. I could really identify with the Annette Bening character and the kind of mama-bear quality of her. Are you a parent?
No, I'm not. An involved uncle, though.
Yeah, if you're around kids you just know that there's a...not a "possessiveness," but a protectiveness that happens because they're so vulnerable. I think I could really identify what that experience must have been like for both characters, but in particular, Nic is really going through it. She's about to say goodbye to her first kid, who's going off to college. [Parenthood] brought me closer to that experience, which before, had just been fiction in my mind. It became more grounded.
Does it change the way you might interact with younger actors like Josh and Mia?
Yeah! I feel sensitive to their vulnerabilities. Those guys are amazing, though. They're so pro and they've been on big sets before. They're very self-possessed people, so I didn't feel like I had to do a whole lot of coddling, which was great. They're tender, though.
You wrote this role with Julianne in mind and had been developing it with her for years. Once you got on set, was there still room for her to surprise you with what she did with it?
A lot. It's a character that was fully drawn in our imagination, and then you bring this actor in and there has to be room for this newness. It's who she is as a personality, and then her interpretation of what this role is going to be and what my vision originally was. We have to bang it out together for a few days or a few minutes, and then we go.
One of my favorite details is when Jules and Nic are watching gay male porn. I know quite a few lesbians who do that, but it's a detail I'd never expect to find in a big mainstream movie. Can you tell me about the decision to include that?
It's probably like the conversations you've had with your lesbian friends. I felt like, here's this couple who's been together for a long time. They're doing their thing! That's what they like to do, and I'm not going to be shy about showing that. Everybody's got their thing. [Laughs] On top of that, it seemed funny. It's odd, and it's kind of arresting and seems truthful -- at least for some people. And now it's hooking into the plot? That's good. It sort of went from there.
I know you rushed the film to get it ready for its big Sundance debut in January--
It was hard.
Really?
Yeah. I wasn't horribly insecure because enough people had seen it and been positive about it, but I knew there was a lot riding on that screening. We were there to sell it, you know? There had been a lot of buildup, and I had literally just jammed through a pass. There was some fine cutting to do and we hadn't finished the score -- we actually ended up rescoring it. There were tweaks, timing, sound work, music to work on...I felt vulnerable. That said, I knew the performances were great and the structure was what it was going to be. Maybe the timing wasn't impeccable, but it was really close.
"Josh told me that when he read the script, he thought it was a drama":http://www.movieline.com/2010/07/josh-hutcherson-everybody-has-roles-they-wanted-and-didnt-get.php, but when he saw it at that screening, he realized how funny it was. Did you think you were writing a comedy all along?
Well, Stuart and I definitely set out to be comedic. I think we laughed when we were writing it -- we thought the stuff was funny -- but somehow, I wasn't totally sure it was going to translate until I sat at that screening. That was stunning, actually. I almost felt like it was Candid Camera: the joke's on me.
Did you let yourself enjoy that reaction? It played like gangbusters.
I did. I mean, it was a little surreal: I was sitting there with my partner at a Sundance screening, I was having my own anxieties, Julianne was sitting next to me, Mark was sitting in front of her, and they hadn't seen it. It was all a little psychedelic! But you know, when the screening was over and distributors came up to me and my manager and the deal-making started to happen, I felt like, "Oh, OK. This is good. This is going to work."
And then it went to Focus, the studio that seemed perfect for it all along.
You know, I'm a big fan of Focus. I think they've done really great work and have great taste. I've known [Focus head] James Schamus for a long time. He was a professor of mine at Columbia.
Did that give him an edge in acquiring the movie?
No. [Laughs] It was a long time ago. But I just really respect him -- he has a lot of integrity in a business where that's up for grabs a lot. That was interesting to me, to work with somebody heading a company that had real vision and integrity. I did always feel, "Wow, this does feel like a Focus film -- it'd be great if it landed there." There was some discussion about it, but we said, "We're going to take it to Sundance and see who bids on it." I didn't know. I didn't know that there would be so much interest. We did have a bit of a situation where we had to decide, because it wasn't the best offer financially, but it was a solid offer and I really felt like they were going to do an enormous outreach for it and make it work.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
Some viewers feel like there's no closure with Mark Ruffalo's character at the end of the film -- they want to see what happens with him after he's left this family.
Right.
Was it a conscious decision you made, that you felt his storyline had been wrapped up to your satisfaction?
You know, we went back and forth. We had a couple drafts, and one was a little bit more milquetoast, I felt in the end, where there was a reunion scene. We quickly felt like that was not honest to where this film was ending. For this film, for this story, it was right. It's about this family going through a huge jog and a bit of a blow, and big things are going on. It's about ending with them and seeing whether they can stay intact.
We didn't feel like we cut off the Mark Ruffalo character -- we felt like, "This is where it's organic for him to end." This is a person who's kind of lived a certain lifestyle -- he has a certain je ne sais quoi and joie de vivre, for better or for worse -- and now, when it really counts, he sort of bottomed out. He need to kind of rethink how he approaches people and makes choices, and what the consequences are. We didn't feel like it was evil, like we'd killed the Wicked Witch or something -- we just felt like, "OK, the guy landed on his ass a bit. There's potential for him to reunite with the family, but it's just not gonna be that week."