Meeting 'The Greatest' cast: Sarandon, Brosnan and more

How do you have fun in the midst of a film about losing a beloved son?  Cast Johnny Simmons. 

Previously seen in "Evan Almighty" and the new film "Hotel for Dogs," Simmons shows great range and laugh-out-loud comedic timing in first-time writer/director Shana Feste's film about a family coping with the sudden death of their eldest son Bennett (Aaron Johnson).

Playing opposite Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan may seem daunting to young actors, but both Simmons and British television star Carey Mulligan (who appears to be 2009's indie film queen) handle it with grace, humor and heartbreaking emotion.

"The Greatest" premiered at Sundance in the cavernous Eccles Theatre.  As Feste made her way to the stage after the final credit rolled, row by row the audience gave her a standing ovation.  In the large theater, Feste and her cast looked small on stage, but the audience was hushed as she thanked them and explained how the script, which she wrote in two to three months while working as a nanny, was a constant collaboration with the cast. 

When asked about the title of the film, Feste joked that she was wary in a room full of members of the press, knowing how they could spin it badly.  "'The Greatest' first feature, question mark?" "The movie's about the greatest love, the greatest loss, the greatest family."  Not that the family was by any means perfect.  There were communication breakdowns, walls erected, betrayals and abuses.  As one audience member noted later, Feste did a great job with the time-delayed phases of grief, and how the family  interacts through the grief. 

One of the men on the street, who had gone to the film unprepared, thought it heavy-handed, an attempt to generate emotion.  Maria Shideler disagreed.  After hearing that it was a tear-jerker sob story, she was surprised to find an uplifting story, "not what I expected, in a good way." 

It wasn't what Johnny Simmons had expected either. "One of the biggest surprises was the way it was cut together, a pleasant surprise, for sure.... The way Bennett's story was told all throughout and you got these little pieces, every time Carey (who played Bennett's girlfriend and first love) is looking for some sort of history ... and all she has to draw from are these little memories of these pieces that she has."  

Johnny's sitting with the rest of the cast and Shana Feste the day after the premiere, having made their way en masse up and down Main Street.  Gathered downstairs at Harry O's, circling around a table strewn with water bottles, they talk about the movie, their expectations, what it was like for many of them to see "The Greatest" for the first time, and the worst questions journalists had asked them.  (No pressure.  Sound of questions being scratched off list.)

 

Pierce Brosnan, who produced the film through his company Irish Dream Time, explains how it all began, when he first read the script and threw it under his bed.  "I said, I don't want to go there.  I don't want to have to dig in to the sense memory of dealing with losing a son."  Brosnan almost lost his son, who is now 25, to a terrible accident when he was 16.  Beau St. Clair, Brosnan's producing partner, suggested he read it again, and it stayed with him. "My expectations were to make something that was a study in grief ... that would have some cathartic healing power," Brosnan says. "And be entertaining as well."

To form the family bond that is so strong in the film, the cast used rehearsal time not only to lay down the big scenes, but to talk, to delve into the emotion of the script, to get to know each other.  "We had dinner together, at my house," Sarandon says.  "Chaos." 

"And you guys," Mulligan nods toward Johnny Simmons and Zoe Kravitz, who plays a friend Johnny's character meets in a support group.  "About 20 minutes after you met, you spent the rest of the day hanging out and messing around."  Shana nods.  "I felt good about that.  It was like, 'Wow, a lot of my work is done.'"

Everyone agrees there was a feeling of trust and lack of ego on the set, a feeling of safety that allowed each one to delve into the character.  They give the credit to Feste for setting that tone. "To walk away at the end of the day and feel happy about [your performance]. I probably learned to have more faith in the people around me to judge what they want," says Mulligan. 

"Anytime you do a low-budget film that has a first-time or untried director," says Sarandon, "you're going to tap into a certain kind of people who are up for an adventure."

-- Rebecca Snavely

Photo: From left, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, director Shana Feste, Zoe Kravitz, Pierce Brosnan and Johnny Simmons. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times.