‘Adulthood’ Interview: Director Alex Winter

The film stars Josh Gad (‘Frozen’), Kaya Scodelario (‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’), Billie Lourd (‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’), and Anthony Carrigan (‘Superman’).

Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with director Alex Winter about his work on ‘Adulthood’, his first reaction to the screenplay and why he wanted to make the movie, balancing the right tone, the situation that brings the characters closer together, his casting process, and how being an actor informs the way he directs other actors.

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Director Alex Winter on the set of ‘Adulthood’. Photo: Petr Maur.

MF: To begin with, Alex, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay and why you wanted to direct this movie?

Alex Winter: I wanted to make something that was very cinematic but that I could make on a budget. So those were specific parameters that I was working with, and my producing partner, Russell Hollander, knew Michael Galvin, the writer, and knew of this script that was great in its bones but needed some work specific to the vision I had for what type of movie I wanted to make. So, I loved the essence of what Michael had, there was very good stuff in there. Then I came on board, and we started working on the script to drive it towards what it became. It was very much a commentary and a farcical in an entertaining way, hopefully, about the conundrum of modern life. The impossibility of modern adulthood and generational secrets and life. What it’s like to wake up to the fact that you are now officially an adult, and your parents are getting old, and life is not exactly what you thought it was going to be. They find a kind of proverbial skeleton in the closet, right? You realize there are things about the generation in front of you that are more complex than you had thought when you were a child. So, it’s obviously symbolic for the revelation of growing up and becoming an adult and confronting these things. Also, what the consequences are of that, right?

MF: Can you talk about the situation that the siblings in the movie find themselves in and how it changes them and brings them closer together?

AW: I wanted to make a film about family and about the relationships that we have with our families that can be, in some ways, distant and sometimes challenging and complicated. But the deep bond that underlies that and at the end of the day that we are inextricably entwined, regardless of those conflicts and challenges, which can be a good thing as well, as a difficult thing. But I also wanted to make a film where characters change substantially from the beginning to the end. So, I wanted actors that could really convey two sides of their personality in a very convincing way. Both Josh and Kaya are very good at that. I’ve seen that in their work in other projects. I knew that they could really sell what I would call the twist of the movie, which is that they both become different people about halfway through and then take over from there.

(L to R) Josh Gad and Kaya Scodelario in ‘Adulthood’. Photo: Petr Maur.

MF: Can you talk about your casting process and finding actors like Josh Gad, Kaya Scodelario, Billie Lourd and Anthony Carrigan for this film?

AW: I got Josh signed on relatively early and was very supportive and helpful all the way through when I was putting the financing together and building the movie and getting it up on his feet and all of that. Then I was very enamored with Kaya’s work all throughout her career going back to ‘Skins’, frankly, and her work in Andrea Arnold‘s ‘Wuthering Heights’, which I just love. I knew of her, and I felt like she’d been untapped as a comedian because I’ve always found her funny when she’s doing roles that required her to be very funny and have a great sharp wit, but I also knew she could get very serious when it needed to happen. Once I was able to get the cast assembled and Billie Lourd came on, who’s just a genius, and sort of built to be a noir femme fatale. Then Anthony Carrigan, who’s a friend of mine and had been in ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ with me came on and we had this amazing ensemble cast. We just started working together in the lead up to the shoot, sometimes over Zoom, building chemistry and creating the report.

MF: Can you tell us more about your rehearsal process and is that something you try to do on all the movies you direct?

AW: I feel that in the modern industry, things have gotten very fast. I would say too fast. I think that what I really try to aim for is as much rehearsal time, as much time with the actors being together, and as much prep as humanly possible. You’re usually having to claw that out in various ways, and sometimes in informal ways. You’re off the clock. You’re meeting on Zoom at crazy hours. But you do it, and you get it done. It was very helpful here because by the time Josh and Kaya got to set, they had this amazing chemistry, just right out of the gate. But that didn’t come from nowhere. They’d been working together for a little bit.

(L to R) Josh Gad and director Alex Winter on the set of ‘Adulthood’. Photo: Petr Maur.

MF: Do you think that your experience as an actor informs the way you direct and work with actors on set? Do you think they naturally trust you more than other directors because you are also an actor?

AW: I find it extremely helpful. I know how I would like to be spoken to as an actor. I know what creates trust for myself as an actor and what breaks that trust. I said this to my cast, I really consider them partners and collaborators, and I want their opinions, I want their thoughts on theme and tone and things like that. I want to be able to process that with what I’m doing. I mean, it’s helped me, in innumerable ways, but largely, I just have a gut instinct for what, works for me as an actor and what helps me to prepare and know what’s going on. So, for example, on this film, we were shooting very quickly, and we’re shooting totally out of order like most movies do. The arc of the film was very specific emotionally, who they are can change radically from one scene to the next, based on consequences and circumstance. So, I literally created an emotional flow chart day by day or even hour by hour for these characters for those scenes. I just handed them to Josh and Kaya. I said, “You may want to stick this up in your dressing room if it’s helpful, because you’re going to be Noah as one type of person in the morning and then Noah is a completely different type of person in the afternoon. You may just get very scrambled on who you are and where you are. This may help guide you.” If I was an actor, I would find that very useful.

MF: Finally, can you talk about the challenges of balancing the movie’s comedic and dramatic tones?

AW: I mean, that’s the whole ball of wax on a movie like this. You live or die on balancing tone. What helped me greatly was that I’m an old school aficionado of Noir and have studied them very carefully. I think this movie, the work of Fritz Lang, the work of Hitchcock‘s early period, were things that I was studying closely. But keeping that balance working through with the DP, with the composer, with the sound designer, and obviously, most importantly, with the editor, was the most critical thing. Doing that with the actors is the whole thing, but, I mean, that was our shoot. All my work in post was on underscoring tone. Then I wanted people to laugh, so I wanted it to continue to be funny while things got hairy, you know?

(L to R) Director Alex Winter and Josh Gad on the set of ‘Adulthood’. Photo: Petr Maur.

What is the plot of ‘Adulthood’?

A brother (Josh Gad) and sister (Kaya Scodelario) discover a dead body in their parents’ basement.

Who is in the cast of Adulthood’?

• Josh Gad as Noah
• Kaya Scodelario as Megan
• Billie Lourd
• Alex Winter
• Anthony Carrigan

(L to R) Josh Gad and Kaya Scodelario in ‘Adulthood’. Photo: Petr Maur.

List of Movies Directed by Alex Winter:

Buy Alex Winter Movies on Amazon