Let's start at the beginning: How did you two wind up working together?
ER: Freddie was already attached when I read it. He was the only one attached. I found the idea very intriguing because obviously I've seen his work from when he was younger. So I thought, "That's cool." And then I read it and loved it; I thought it a real script. I felt it wasn't contrived, even though it's a coming-of-age story and we've all seen coming-of-age stories. I just thought it was really original.
FH: I spoke to Gavin [Wiesen, the film's writer-director] -- I guess it was a couple years before we started shooting. I'd read the script, and even then you could easily identify with it. I think, for me, it was the chance to work with somebody on something that really represents what growing up is about. There are so many high school romance films that have all this teenaged, heightened emotion. That's not how it happens. I think this portrays life as a teenager.
It portrays life as a very specific kind of teenager: A teenager growing up in New York City in this modern-ish era. How did you, being European, adjust to and refine that extra level of sensibility?
FH: You know, it's interesting. New York is like another character, almost. But at the same time, those core issues that George and Sally have to deal with common in the whole world: The feeling of being in love, or feeling unloved at times, how you become an active person as you get older and start to make decisions -- instead of being passive and letting the world go by. It's choosing who you want to be. I guess that's a worldwide issue that everyone deals with. This is just a very specific context that I found interesting.
The two of you didn't have conventional educations or upbringings, either. To the extent actors draw from personal experience, how did that inform these characters -- if at all?
ER: I think as far as the coming-of-age aspect of it -- you're getting to an age where you're coming into yourself and finding out who you are and you begin to realize you need to figure out who you are for yourself, not for your friends or your family or your teachers. You kind of need to figure that out for you. That I found really interesting. I think everyone's been through that. I know I've been through that.
FH: Yeah, there are those times you've been through the conflicts that George has to deal with, so you kind of tend to react perhaps in the same way he does. You can easily imagine yourself in that situation.
And these kids are in a pretty sophisticated, independent-minded, adult headspace, too -- which I'd also think you'd relate to, considering your careers and backgrounds.
ER: I think as you get older, you tend to think of teenagers as really young. In this movie they're portrayed as they actually are, which is, "Hey, we're people." As much as you're a kid in some ways, you worry about the same things that you worry about as you get older. You see things in a way that you realize the adults see the same. They're dealing with just as many issues as the kids are. So I like that the younger cast is portrayed as mature, because I feel that's how most kids are at that age. Or they're becoming that way, at least.
But what New York is this? These kids hang out at bars go to a club for New Year's Eve.
ER: Did you grow up in New York?
I didn't.
ER: That's why you... [Laughs]
Oh, please. I have 30-year-old friends who are carded everywhere they go. Are we talking about a great fake-ID culture, or is this like some parallel-universe New York, or...
ER: No. It's totally accurate.
Really?
ER: Definitely.
How so? What's your experience?
ER: I'm not sharing anything. I'm just saying! As a movie, it's completely accurate. At least to my generation of kids in New York.
FH: I'd say it's slightly different in the UK just because you can drink at 18. But definitely at 16, people are drinking. I imagine it's like that in the US as well. Not everybody waits until they turn 21.
Of course. It's this New York, though.
FH: At the same time, [the director] doesn't try to glamorize it. He doesn't say, "It's great to drink!" He says, "This is what happens." And again, that's a real interpretation of kids growing up -- which I think people will like -- as opposed to saying, "Oh, we'll pretend none of this actually happened."
How seriously do each of you take your continuing educations? Freddie, you're at Cambridge, right?
FH: That's right.
How much longer do you have?
FH: I've got three more years. I just finished my first year on Friday.
Congratulations!
FH: Thanks! Yeah, it's nice to get out, I guess, after finishing all that hectic exam time. But that's been fantastic. I have three more years, and the third year is abroad, so...
Emma, are you interested in college?
ER: I'm enrolled right now in the School of Life. I deferred from Sarah Lawrence, so I think I'm going to try to find time to go there. But for now, no. I read all the time, though. I read a book a week. I try to keep my mind working.
What have you read recently?
ER: I just finished this book called The Autobiography of an Execution, about this lawyer who represents people on death row. It's really morbid, but it's really good. Now I'm reading a memoir by Elizabeth McCracken (An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination), which is also really depressing but also really amazing.
FH: Emma is incredibly well-read.
ER: Thank you! But the best book I've read this year is Art and Madness. Have you heard of that one? By Anne Roiphe?
Oh, yeah.
ER: I read that in literally a day.
So a lot of memoirs. I'm about halfway through Keith Richards's book (Life). Have you read that?
ER: No, but I have it. Everyone says that's really good. But you should read Art and Madness! It's really interesting.
All right, we'll trade. Back to this parallel New York, though, I was thinking that if George were a real public high-school senior in the city today, he'd be diagnosed with a learning disability and/or medicated. Do you think George has a learning or personality disorder of some sort?
FH: [Long pause] I don't know. If he did, I wouldn't say it was that strong. Although it does seem rather easy now to prescribe people various things. I don't know whether it's a learning disorder or not, but I would say that George is extremely intelligent and just can't come out of his shell.
ER: I feel like he's dealing with so many pressures that instead of dealing with each one, he just doesn't deal with any at all. I think that can be taken as something that it's not, when really life is just too much. You remove yourself from it completely as opposed to fixing what you can. I think sometimes that's mistaken as a [disorder], when really it's just people not wanting to apply themselves or not being able to cope with a situation.
Have you ever felt like that?
ER: I have felt like that. When I was homeschooled, I fell so behind -- months behind at school -- because I'm not good at keeping up. And so I had to sit down for literally three weeks to a month and just do all of it. And it was not fun, and I didn't want to do it, but I had to. I totally relate.
What do you two make of the title change of this film from Homework to The Art of Getting By?
ER: I still call the movie Homework, just because I lived with that title for so long. But I think this movie isn't just for teens, and Homework made it sound like it was just for people in school. So I like The Art of Getting By because it speaks to a bigger audience. And I think adults will like this movie. There's an audience that is out of school that will see this and feel very nostalgic and appreciate it for the story that it is -- appreciate it because they were there, too, once.
FH: Yeah, I prefer The Art of Getting By. Homework refers to him trying to sort out his life at home as much as it refers to everything going on at school. But without having seen the film, its hard to get that impression.
[Photo credits: Don Flood (top) and Mark Schafer (page 2)/Fox Searchlight]