‘Goodrich’ Interview: Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis
(L to R) Mila Kunis and Michael Keaton star in ‘Goodrich’.
Opening in theaters on October 18th is the new dark-comedy ‘Goodrich’, which was written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer (‘Home Again’), and stars Michael Keaton (‘Batman’, ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’), Mila Kunis (‘Black Swan’), Carmen Ejogo (‘Alien Covenant’), Kevin Pollak (‘A Few Good Men’), and Andie MacDowell (‘Groundhog Day’).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis about their work on ‘Goodrich’, Keaton’s first reaction to the screenplay, Kunis’ approach to her character, working together, collaborating on set with director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, and how the movie has similar themes to Keaton’s 1988 classic, ‘Clean and Sober’.
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(L to R) Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis in ‘Goodrich’. Photo: Ketchup Entertainment.
Moviefone: To begin with, Michael what was your first reaction to Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s screenplay and playing this character?
Michael Keaton: I knew I was halfway in already once I read it because I thought, “This is really good writing. I just really enjoy this.” I also hadn’t played anything like that for a while, which was not a big stretch as they say. It’s not that terribly far from me. I mean, on one hand, this is totally unlike me for the most part, not that big a deal. After a couple meetings with her, maybe even truthfully, after one meeting with her, I was even more inclined to do it. Then it was a question of is this going to work out in my schedule, and then all those practical things. But being able to shoot in LA was a huge thing for me. I liked what it was about, too. It’s universal and it’s a contemporary comedy/drama. I knew what her taste was like. She has good taste, not just in comedy, not just in movie making, but in life. We were talking about it earlier. She’s very stylish, but in a kind of clean, classic kind of way for a woman her age. She’s young. Normally, that comes later.
MF: Mila, can you talk about Grace’s relationship with her father, the resentment she has and how she masks it from him?
Mila Kunis: I think that that’s one of the things that I found to be the most intriguing about the character was the idea of playing her with, you almost have guilt over the resentment because you have the resentment, but you also know that in this world that your dad was probably busy doing other things and you can’t really hold him accountable for doing the best that he could with what he had at the time, but you can’t argue your own feelings and your end result. So, I love the idea of playing the push and pull of her own wanting to accept the dad for who he is, and still resenting him for who he used to be, even though who he used to be was still a pretty okay guy. He wasn’t that bad. He just wasn’t who she wanted him to be or who she needed him to be. I think sometimes, it’s fun to play characters that have their own set of expectations that aren’t always met.
(L to R) Michael Keaton and Mila Kunis in ‘Goodrich’. Photo: Ketchup Entertainment.
MF: Michael, what was it like working with Mila to create this complicated father and daughter relationship?
Michael Keaton: She played it in a way that she wasn’t, she never, and this is her, too, in life, there’s no element of whining about anything. Everybody has the right to complain and state your case and tell people how you feel. But I grew up in a house where, oh, boy, whining, that wasn’t going to go down too well. And her character and the way she played it, there’s never that sense. She’s the best, this one. She’s just ridiculously down to earth, refreshingly, frankly. It’s fun. Just easy, and a lot of laughs. I always thought it’d be nice to have a daughter. This one would be a great one to have.
MF: Mila, what was it like acting opposite Michael?
Mila Kunis: Every night I would dream about Michael. I was like, “Is he thinking of me the way that I’m thinking of him?” I love working with Michael. Everybody loves working with Michael. Find one person that’s ever going to be like, “Michael’s awful”. Find one. I dare you. It’s not going to happen. One of the loveliest, most fun humans to work with.
‘Goodrich’ director Hallie Meyers-Shyer.
MF: Michael, can you talk about collaborating with director Hallie Meyers-Shyer on set?
Michael Keaton: Hallie makes for a really nice atmosphere. She stayed really calm for this when you think back because that’s a lot of pressure. I think it’s only her second feature. Then you must live up to the “mom and dad” thing, and that’s a lot, and she never really seemed under pressure. Because when you direct a movie, it’s pressure from the time you start until now, and finally going out and promoting it because that’s just life. That’s how it is. But it was never freak out time at all. She’s ridiculously organized.
MF: Mila, what was your experience like working with Hallie?
Mila Kunis: She’s very young. She’s younger than me. But she’s very calm, very cool and she knew what she wanted. Some directors shoot endlessly because they don’t have the movie edited in their head yet, so they don’t really know what they’re going to need. She had the movie edited, so it was all very structured. Her and the DP had everything outlined. When they knew they got it, they got it, and they moved on.
Michael Keaton in ‘Clean and Sober’. Photo: Warner Bros.
MF: Finally, Michael, one of my favorite performances of yours was in ‘Clean and Sober’. While I was watching ‘Goodrich’ it struck me that this is really the other side of that story. Instead of playing someone with an addiction, you are playing the husband of a person dealing with addiction. Did that ever cross your mind and what was it like playing the other side of that?
Michael Keaton: Wow. What a great observation/question. Yeah. Boy, that’s interesting way to look at it. I can’t honestly say. No, I didn’t think of it like that specifically, but I have a fair, everybody these days has an experience with addiction to some degree now. After I did ‘Dopesick’, someone made a statement, I hate to even talk like this, but “It’s the new cancer, everybody’s been touched by it”. It’s like at that point now. So, when I did ‘Clean and Sober’, I did a lot of research and asked a lot and had seen it. My grandfather, my mom’s mom was an alcoholic. So, I didn’t think about it like that, but how it affects families, or addiction, and how easily it happens now, and how you deal with that. This guy, by the way, what I loved about the beginning is how for a person living today, how clueless he kind of was about it. How does a guy not go, “Whoa, I think we might have a problem here”. It was just right over his head. He never saw it. I mean, dark is often funny. It’s dark, but kind of fun. I love that scene, and I just watched it recently when I was watching the trailer, where I immediately call (Mila’s character) being kind of a baby in a way if you ask me, depending on her again, going to her again. She’s going, “How could you have not seen this?” She’s probably been watching it for years going, “Oh, boy, there’s a problem”. Sometimes I love stupid people. That’s another thing I like to play because it’s easy for me to play stupid.
“If life isn’t kicking your ass, it’s not doing its job.”
Andy Goodrich’s (Michael Keaton) life is upended when his wife and mother of their nine-year-old twins enters a 90-day rehab program, leaving him on his own with… Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘Goodrich’?
After his younger second wife (Laura Benanti) leaves him and enters a 90-day rehab program, Los Angeles art dealer Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) seeks out his adult pregnant daughter Grace (Mila Kunis) for help with raising his nine-year-old twins.
Who is in the cast of ‘Goodrich’?
(L to R) Mila Kunis and Michael Keaton in ‘Goodrich’. Photo: Ketchup Entertainment.
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