- [Charlie] I know these rules can feel constraining. But remember,
the point of this course is to learn
how to write clearly and persuasively.
Think about that.
Think about the truth of your argument.
- [Brendan] Charlie is introduced at home. Alone.
Where he lives. Has done. He’s in poor health.
He's been overeating.
He quickly becomes
aware that unless he reconnects with his daughter
in the very little amount of time that he has left, given his health,
he'll have to live a life too unredeemed. And
so that's that's where we find him
from a standpoint of
deciding to make the choice
to connect with her or to just let his life play out.
And
thankfully, he he does speak up for himself and at least try.
- [Charlie] You don't have to be angry
at the whole world.
You can just be angry at me.
- [Ellie] Okay, you know what?
You can't throw me away like I'm a piece of garbage and suddenly
just want to be my dad. Eight years later,
you left me for your boyfriend.
- [Sadie] Ellie is Charlie's daughter, and they have not spoken
or seen each other in ten years. Since Charlie
left her and her mother to go be with the love of his life.
And we find Ellie
essentially seeing him for the first time since then.
And she is a little twisted.
She has a lot of pain inside of her that's kind of manifested
into this rage and anger and sometimes
violence. But
she is kind of, you know, facing the most confusing
week of her life this week that she has with Charlie
as she gets to know him better and tries
to find closure in their relationship.
- [Ellie] People are assholes.
- [Hong Chau] I play Liz.
She is Charlie's best friend and she's a nurse
in real life, so she is sort of his de facto caretaker.
They have a long history because Liz's brother
Alan was Brendan’s... Charlie's...
the great love of his life who who passed away and who-
whose death Charlie is still dealing with.
- [Samuel] I've seen a lot of guys do this role over the years.
You know, I followed it around
for the first four productions and, you know, and I saw it elsewhere.
So, you know, I've seen
how this part can work and what the pitfalls are.
Snd there's something really essential to it-
this is just one thing that Brendan brings to it-
But if you bring an ounce of cynicism
to this role, then it just kind of collapses.
But Charlie needs to be this kind of beacon of hard-won hope.
And that's what
that's what Brendan navigates so beautifully, is it never gets treacly.
It never gets, like, easy.
It's always this hard-won, you know, like, faith in other people.
And he just had that in spades from the very beginning.
If you're able to work from a place of
personal experience, then use it.
If you can't.
You're an actor. Beg, borrow or steal from the best and emulate that or just pay
attention what is on the page. That should let you know everything you need.
I don't think there was any room for
going halfway or phoning it in. We were living
under existential threat, all of us, in our homes,
at the time when this was made during the pinnacle of the pandemic.
For my part, I gave it everything I had
with the same voice and everyone else’s head,
is that we might not be able to have the privilege of being able to do this
tomorrow or next week. We could get shut down or worse.
So there's an effort that went into this film that I believe is
the is the secret engine behind it.
The secret empathy engine behind it.
- [Charlie] People are amazing.