Amanda Peet & Mathew Shear’s Real Lives Inspired Fantasy Life’s Funniest Scenes | Interview
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Fantasy Life star/director Matthew Shear and Amanda Peet about their new romantic comedy movie. The duo discussed it being in the vein of classic New York rom-coms, some of its funniest scenes stemming from real life, and more. Also starring Alessandro Nivola and Judd Hirsch, the film is out in theaters on March 27.
“Fantasy Life follows an anxious law school dropout (Matthew Shear) who stumbles into a job babysitting his psychiatrist’s three granddaughters and falls for the girls’ mother (Amanda Peet), an actress in a rocky marriage. A smart, New York-set romantic comedy co-starring Alessandro Nivola, Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban, Andrea Martin, Zosia Mamet, and Holland Taylor. Winner of the SXSW Narrative Feature Audience Award,” says the official description.
Tyler Treese: Congrats to you both on Fantasy Life. I thought it was a really charming film. Matthew, I was curious, sometimes when actors make their directorial debuts, they do something very different from the films they typically act in. Fantasy Life felt more in step with some of your past work. So I was curious what inspired you to undergo this creative risk and do all this additional work to tell this story?
Matthew Shear: So, yeah, I mean, I think the movies I’ve been in as an actor are, or the ones that I think you’re referring to, Noah Baumbach’s work, Nathan Silvers’ Between the Temples, they all draw from a kind of 70s/80s New York romantic comedy style. It’s just something that has kind of been a part of my love for movies, and something I’ve sort of unconsciously absorbed from being in these kinds of movies. So when I set out to write something, that’s what came out.
Amanda, you’ve done such great work on TV recently, but this was your first film in a decade. What was it that grabbed you about this script and this opportunity that you didn’t just want to star in Fantasy Life, but also be a producer?
Amanda Peet: Oh, well, I really loved the scene with the psychiatrist in the beginning. When I read it, I thought that this idea that this young man has these sort of intrusive thoughts about his Judaism was so funny and weird and brilliant. Immediately just thought the writing was so special. Like you said, charming, but also really like that scene is special. Once I read that scene, I was pretty much like, “I’m in,” because I like this writer. And once I like the writer, then I’m like, “What can I do for you? I’m here for you.” So that’s sort of how it happened.
That’s a great segue because I did wanna ask you about that scene, Matthew. The opening therapist scene with the internalized antisemitism. Where did that idea come from? It just seemed like a movie I could see coming straight out of a Woody Allen movie. It was so funny.
Shear: Well, thank you. It came out of a real experience. Not of that particular complex, but being familiar with obsessive compulsive disorder and how intense and kind of full of shame it can feel. I, writing that scene, just found a lot of humor in sort of revealing character stuff by getting to see this whole kind of therapy session unfold.
Amanda, one of my favorite scenes in the film is when you’re mistaken for Lake Bell. I read that that came from a real-life experience. Can you speak to not just being able to find the humor in that situation, even though it’s played in a pretty sad way in the film, but also to having a collaborator like Matthew who’s willing to fully collaborate with you and throw these real parts of your life into the character?
Amanda Peet: First of all, it’s happened to me probably more than five times that I’m mistaken for Lake Bell. So it wasn’t just like a one-off, which, you know, I’m delighted. I’ll take it. But with Matthew, yeah, I just wanted to talk to him ’cause I wanted to make sure that he was collaborative and not a tyrant-type of person.
But that would’ve really surprised me based on reading this, the initial psychiatrist scene. Just because… I don’t know why… That’s sort of a stupid thing to say. There are tons of people who are really funny, who are assholes, but yeah, I wanted to make sure he would have a collaborative spirit and that he wasn’t gonna be really ego-driven or just kind of that he would try things to see what worked. I like to work that way.
A lot of people, some of my closest friends, like it to be much more strict, but I find that having a slightly loose kind of vibe between the director and the actor can be very fruitful within reason. Like, if you trust that they’re kind of holding it, they’ve got you, but within reason, they’re gonna let you kind of do your thing. Like, I find that to be the holy grail. He seemed to be game for that, and since he was an actor too, first of all, I thought, “Oh, that’s part of why he’s so good at dialogue.” Then, I also thought he would be really understanding about the need to feel spontaneous.
Matthew, one of my favorite scenes is when you’re both watching Battlestar Galactica, and you get one compliment, and you immediately start talking about your Blu-ray collection. I felt very seen in an embarrassing way. How was it adding these small human moments to the script? Because so many instances just feel so real in this film.
Matthew Shear: Well, thank you for saying that, and that is one of my favorite details. The Battlestar Blu-ray moment.
Peet: You were like, “You don’t understand this?”
Shear: You still don’t understand, Amanda?
Peet: No, I was saying, remember how I was like, “I don’t really understand this,” and you’re like, “No, this is actually very highbrow, Amanda.”
Shear: Yeah! …Did I say that?
Peet: Well, I think you didn’t say highbrow, but you were like…
Shear: Maybe I talked about how Battlestar is Golden Age television?
Peet: Kind of. Yeah. Sorry, Tyler [laughs].
Shear: To answer your question, I love details in writing and, you know, so that I just go for that kind of dialogue when it can work and sound real enough. And so I hope that it has the effect you’re talking about.
Thanks to Amanda Peet and Matthew Shear for taking the time to talk about Fantasy Life.
Source: Comingsoon.net