Brendan Walsh is reuniting with Edie Falco for the moving family dramedyI’ll Be Right There. Across his 12 years of experience in the director’s chair, Walsh has worked with Falco on both her award-winning Showtime dramedyNurse Jackieand her short-lived CBS crime drama,Tommy. He’s also brought his directing skills to a variety of other movies and TV shows, including USA Network’sRoyal PainsandbothPower Book II: GhostandBook III: Raising Kanan.
ForI’ll Be Right There, Falco and Walsh not only team up as director and star, but also on the producing side of things, with the former acting as an executive producer alongsideOscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg, with the latter being a producer. Falco leads the ensemble cast of the dramedy as Wanda, a woman who has dedicated her life to taking care of her family, though becomes increasingly stressed out as her eight-month daughter prepares for her wedding, from which her ex-husband retracts his financial support, her directionless son seems primed for rehab or jail, and her mother acts recklessly while also frequently thinking she’s dying.
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Alongside Falco, the ensembleI’ll Be Right Therecast includes Oscar nominee Jeannie Berlin,Ozarkalum Charlie Tahan,
Jeannie Berlin,Mrs. America’s Kayli Carter,Justified’s Michael Rapaport,Mayor of Kingstown’s Michael Beach,The L Word: Generation Q’s Sepideh Moafi andGet Out’s Bradley Whitford. Having previously made its debut at the Hamptons International and Newport Beach Film Festivals, the movie has thus far garnered strong reviews from critics, all of whom have praised its charming tone, emotional story, and performances of its cast.
In anticipation of its wide release,Screen Rantinterviewed director/producer Brendan Walsh to discussI’ll Be Right There, getting to reunite with Falco for the dramedy, the joy of letting his cast improv, how the ’90s were a major inspiration for the movie’s visual style, and the major support Eisenberg lent during filming.
I’ll Be Right There’s Family Story Really Resonated With Walsh
Screen Rant:I’ll Be Right Thereis such a sweet little slice of life movie. I’d love to hear what it was about Jim’s script that really sparked your interest to want to get behind the camera for this one.
Brendan Walsh: I think that, when I first read it, what resonated to me — when I read it, it was 2020, we were all stuck in our houses, it was the summer, and I loved that it is a sweet, slice-of-life film, and the overall messaging is it’s okay to want to take care of your family and that can be enough. We don’t always have to be keeping up with the Joneses and posting on social media to try to figure out — I’m not saying don’t chase your dreams, I’m just saying sometimes, it’s okay to want to be with your family, and I think that was something that we all experienced in 2020, being locked down, being with your family, being kind of forced to communicate physically, to talk with your kids. I have three kids of my own.
That’s kind of really what drew me in, and I think that’s what drew Edie in as well. In the end, everybody’s asking in the film, “Don’t you want more?” basically, or like, “What about you?” and it’s like, “This is great, I love my family. They give me all the happiness and all the frustration and all the kind of torment.” So, I thought that was just a sweet message to get out there, and it didn’t feel like a message, it didn’t feel preachy. I don’t like a preachy film, I like to be like subtly layering a message in there, so by the end, you’re like, “Oh, there’s a message here!” [Laughs]
Falco Not Only Pushed ForI’ll Be Right There, But Helped Walsh On Another Film
You mentioned Edie, and I did want to ask, you two, obviously, have history going back toNurse Jackie.I’d love to hear who approached who first about this script, since oftentimes actors will get these scripts at the same time as a director will.
Brendan Walsh: Yeah, I actually called Edie up, because we had this history that we worked together, and I had this film that I was pushing, which has recently been made, and it was made incredibly. It was called Bang Bang, and I was calling Edie and I said, “Hey, Edie, I need someone. Indie film’s going to be the first thing to come back. We’re all stuck in. This is what it’s going to be like. We’ll test. I just need someone to play James Caan’s daughter for like three days. Would you want to come out and do this?”
And she’s like, “You know, it’s funny, my team and I, we were talking about like doing an indie film, and I kind of got this really sweet script. Mark Duplass is looking at it, but if he doesn’t want to do it, do you want to do it?” I was like, “I mean, if Mark Duplass doesn’t want to do it, then sure.” [Chuckles] “Of course, of course I’d want to do it, Edie.” And I read it, and I loved it, it had a great family of people around it, and that was it. That was kind of how it all started.
I’ll Be Right There’s Cast Were Just As Important For The Movie’s Tone As The Script
I’d love to hear about building the family around Edie, since that is such a central core to this movie’s story. Charlie is fantastic as the sort of erratic son, and Jeannie’s incredible as the grandma.
Brendan Walsh: Yeah, putting that cast together was — Ross Meyerson was a casting director on Nurse Jackie, and, at the time, it was ICM, which is now CAA. Toni Howard was kind of an instrumental person that pushed this film, loved it for Edie, and we got in front of this kind of great talent that wasn’t — Jeannie was just such a strong idea from Edie. She was not very involved. I mean, she likes to be involved, she would probably hate that I was like, “Edie was very involved.” She had great ideas. Jeannie was one of them. Charlie was, of course, great in Ozark and liked a film I did.
Charlie was great, I remember the first day that he showed up, and he had this super long Ozark hair, and we were like, “You’re going to shave that hair off.” [Laughs] And Kayli Carter was somebody that auditioned through submissions that were coming through, and she just kind of really popped off the screen and really nailed the humor and the heart of Sarah. Every character is funny in the film, they all have their moments.
Edie has this kind of very dry, matter-of-fact kind of reactionary response to things, and very quippy. And Charlie’s humor kind of just plays off of everybody else, and Kayli was really great at falling in and bursting in with a good energy and humor, and all of them have very sweet family-loving moments that I think really help keep it as this kind of — everybody’s always like, “It’s a dramedy,” and I’m like, “Sure,” it’s a comedy with drama, it’s a drama with comedy, like whatever. I think it’s entertaining, and I love a film that gives you a lot of feels. So that’s what I’m hoping everybody says after September 6.
Walsh Was Very Inspired By The ’90s For The Movie’s Look
I’d love to hear about putting together the visual palette for this film, because I love how it feels very naturally lit, but also very vibrant at the same time.
Brendan Walsh: So the DP is a friend of mine, we’ve worked together, Aaron Medick. We were going for this kind of ’90s indie film look. We were like, “Let’s make it feel like this kind of ’90s indie film. Let’s make it feel warm.” We looked at different movies, like, The Tender Bar was kind of a color palette that we kept looking at. There were a lot of old Hal Hartley movies. And some of that is kind of us going, “This is a small $1 million movie, you’re only going to get certain things.”
So, you do things in post, and we wanted everything to feel very organic, to kind of not have it feel contrived, and to set shots where actors get to act like a play, and let it not be wrapped up in everything, and then just kind of move the camera around when we needed to, and not have it feel like the performances are forced to the camera, but the camera was kind of forced to performance. There were a lot of yellows. I don’t know how many times we shared cars back and forth, or how many times I looked at cards and were like, “Is it this card? Is it that card? Is it this card? Is it that card?”
Walsh Really Allowed His Cast To Go “A Little Off-Book” (Particularly For One Scene)
I did actually want to touch on that, too, since you mentioned letting the camera move with the performances rather than vice versa. What was one scene in which you found you really just let the actors go and improv for a scene, where you put all the reins in their hands?
Brendan Walsh: The scene on the porch when Kayli has caught her mom, and she is just realizing that her mom is in a relationship with a woman. That’s a one-shot scene. It was not really planned to be one, and it was very hard to pick the take, because it did just become a little off-book, and a little just, “This is what it is, you’re dealing with this.” She’s coming out, and their comedy and playing off each other in this kind of natural play. It’s just one frame looking at these two actresses, one sitting on the stoop with a big pile of soda, and the mom coming out knowing that her daughter is going to say something, is going to burst at the seams, and it’s just a little bit of quiet, and then she just goes, “Okay, let me explain,” and then she starts firing off.
I think that was one of the scenes that I was like, “Oh, this is so quick,” and I think it was written very quickly, and it’s still quick in the film, but it was interesting to let them play with the scene. The script is the movie, the movie is the script, but there was definitely a lot of improv at times. We would do the versions, and then we would be like, “Try this, do this, do whatever, try something out.” It was fun for a lot of the cast to play, at times, to be kind of led off the leash and just say, “Oh, I have an idea,” and they would come back.
We started calling it an improv movie at one point, because I think Bradley Whitford showed up, and we did the scene, and then I was like, “Okay, now what if you say this or that?” and he was like, “Oh, that’s this kind of movie.” I was like, “Yeah, let’s mess with it and see what happens.” [Laughs] I think that allows the actors the ability to kind of feel like they’re all together, and they’re a family. Everybody just kind of asks about the family dynamic and how it feels natural, and I think it’s because we let them be natural and play with each other.
Jesse Eisenberg Was A “Tremendous Support Person” During The Movie’s Production
I also noticed Jesse Eisenberg was on board as an executive producer, and I love seeing when actors lend their support to, like you said, a smaller movie like this. How did he come to be on board this film?
Brendan Walsh: Jesse and Jim are good friends, and they write projects together at times, or they read each other’s stuff and give each other notes. Jesse was actually, I think, the first call that got the script in Edie’s hands, and he’s been a good supportive partner. He would always be like, “Do you guys want me to do anything?” We’d be like, “Whatever. We don’t want you to not do stuff. Whatever you want to do.” [Chuckles] It’s always like, “Hey, should we ask Jesse if he’s got an idea?” He’s been a tremendous support person, and he came by set, and he talked to me a lot when I was just kind of questioning things. He was just a great sounding board for all the little problems of indie film that you run into.
AboutI’ll Be Right There
Wanda has her hands full: her 8-month pregnant daughter wants a wedding which her ex-husband is flaking on paying for, her mother thinks she’s dying, her wayward son is either going into rehab or the army, her long-time boyfriend doesn’t excite her, but her new girlfriend doesn’t either, and she barely has time for herself, not that she would know what to do with it anyway.
I’ll Be Right There
Cast
Wanda tries to keep her own life together while simultaneously taking care of everyone else around her.
