The Knockturnal chatted with Director Shana Fest and leading actors Vera Farmiga and Lewis Macdougall in an exclusive interview about their upcoming Sony Pictures film, “Boundaries.”
Set to open in late June, the film focuses on Laura (Vera Farmiga) and her relationships with her mostly-absent father Jack (Christopher Plummer) and her troubled son, Henry (Lewis Macdougall). With the help of her therapist and her always-present crew of rescue animals, Laura tries to set boundaries to get her life in order, but these boundaries always seem to be crossed.
Laura and Henry’s life is turned upside-down when Jack suddenly comes back into their lives in need of a place to live after being kicked out of his nursing home. Laura makes a deal with Jack–she’ll drive him to L.A. to live with her sister if he agrees to give her money to pay for Henry to go to a private school. The ensuing road-trip is full of frustration and ulterior motives as Jack enlists Henry to unload his stash of Marijuana on the way. The trip is Laura’s opportunity for second chances, acceptance and forgiveness.
The Knockturnal: I would imagine that it’s a particular challenge when you’re taking about something that happened in real life to you. What were some of the things you learned about your family and yourself when you were writing the screenplay?
Shana Feste: I guess I learned how totally out of touch with my own anger I really was. My father was in and out of my life for most of my life and when he was with me and visiting me and taking care of me, it was the best thing ever, it was Chinese restaurants, order everything on the menu. But when he was gone, it left a huge hole. And I think as a kid, you try and make every visit the best visit so you’re always really positive and really happy when your dad is around, and you don’t get to express some of that resentment that you really do feel when you’re doing your ordinary kid things, and you’re looking around at other parents that are on the sidelines at AYSO games and you know your dad is in Africa, digging for diamonds to smuggle back in the brim of his cowboy hat. You know, some kind of crazy adventure he’s going on. So I think during the process for me of writing…it was therapeutic for me.
The Knockturnal: When did you know that Vera would be the perfect person to play you in the movie?
Shana Feste: Well this was one of those dream situations where I got to cast my first choices for all of these roles. I had met Vera a few years before, and I always wanted to work with her…and I just remember being so taken with Vera and trying to play it so cool, and then cut-to I have this role and I know that she would be the perfect person. I had never seen a lot of comedy from Vera, but I remember as being so funny and so sharp. And that was what just what was really important, the intelligence behind the funny. And that was Vera for me.
The Knockturnal: What was it about the script that spoke to you Vera?
Vera Farmiga: Honestly I suppose I felt enlightened by the script. For me it was a very personal reminder to lower my expectations. I don’t want to go into it but certainly, it read like a really comedic parable. And I loved parables as a kid, I loved prodigal son, and this was like prodigal papa, but a comedy. And I love that it also highlighted animal rescue. It’s a reminder that people often disappoint us but animals don’t.
Question for all of you, what was it like interacting with the animals on set?
Shana Feste: The hardest thing with the animals for me was that I wanted all the animals to look natural. And usually when you have animals in the movie they’re like doing backflips or doing some sort of Airbud tricks, so not that it was hard to find the rascally scruffy ones to cast those, it was really hard to get the animals to act natural, like to go to bed was the hardest thing. So we would have to, the animals would come first, they’d get on the bed…they’d all be looking up like “who’s here who’s here?” and then everybody would have to be very very very quiet, we’d bring the actors onto set, they’d get in bed, people were not talking on set, everybody was very calm, one by one, they would kind of look around and start to nod off, but sometimes this would take up to 20 or 30 minutes and in a movie where you’re shooting ten pages a day, you do not have time to make sure six animals are asleep in a bed. But we did it.
Vera Farmiga: I think the hardest thing for me was my allergies. I would take Benadryl and then I acclimated to that particular dander, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t hives.
The Knockturnal: Shana, what was it like watching this cast interact in the beginning as near strangers, to the end as a family on screen? What was it like to see that transformation through the process of filming?
Shana Feste: I think it was really magical, I remember the first time I had met Lewis we were doing the camera test and I’m thinking, “this is one of the closest relationships I have ever written between a mother and a son.” And Lewis is just meeting Vera for the very first time and we’re gonna have to go on this journey. Like how do you accomplish something like that? And I just remember the physicality of the relationship changed so much, whereby the end, Vera was just like, he was in her arms. And it was such a really beautiful thing to see. And I so admire things that I cannot do. And I’m so closed as a person I feel like sometimes, and actors are so open, and they’re so available. And you guys just embraced it, and you’re so empathetic that you were able to just love these characters and then find love for each other and that was really just kind of beautiful to see.
The Knockturnal: Lewis for you, your character gets bullied and harassed throughout the film, what message do you think this film sends about that?
Lewis Macdougall: I think you get to see Henry, you know he’s experiencing bullying at school, and he’s not really in the right place at school, but I think the film gives you an opportunity to see what kind of guy he really is. And you know if a bully is looking out from their perspective, they may just see some weird kid who draws naked people, but you really get to see a whole side of him that you know, you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. And I think it really just sends a message that it’s not right, and that he just has a special way of going about things.
What do each of you hope audiences take away from this film?
Lewis Macdougall: think in the film there’s a lot of secondary chances, and I think Jack in the film, wasn’t really an attentive father to his daughter, so I think when Henry comes along, that’s kind of his second chance to be a father, and it’s also a second chance for Henry to be a son, because his father’s been absent. So I think the film sends the message that people can change and to give them second chances.
Shana Feste: I hope people rescue and animal after watching the film. I mean really, that was one of the goals.
The film opens on June 22.