SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
In Sarah Friedland's new film "Familiar Touch," Ruth Goldman prepares lunch for a special visitor.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FAMILIAR TOUCH")
KATHLEEN CHALFANT: (As Ruth Goldman) So...
H JON BENJAMIN: (As Steve) Steve.
CHALFANT: (As Ruth Goldman) Sorry.
BENJAMIN: (As Steve) It's OK. So after lunch, we're going to go...
CHALFANT: (As Ruth Goldman) A surprise.
BENJAMIN: (As Steve) We're going to both...
CHALFANT: (As Ruth Goldman) Don't tell me. You'll ruin it.
SIMON: Steve is Ruth's son. And after their lunch, she's on her way to live in a senior care facility. Kathleen Chalfant plays Ruth. The film also features Carolyn Michelle and H. Jon Benjamin. Kathleen Chalfant, who starred on stage in "Angels In America," played a 70-year-old Peter Pan and a judge on many "Law & Order" episodes, joins us now. Thanks so much for being with us.
CHALFANT: Thank you so much for having us, Scott.
SIMON: And Sarah Friedland, who directed "Familiar Touch," is also in the studio. Thank you so much.
SARAH FRIEDLAND: Thank you. It's a joy to be here.
SIMON: Sarah Friedland, the territory you show in this film, you know this from some of your jobs on your way to becoming a director, don't you?
FRIEDLAND: I do, yeah. The earliest kernel came from experiences with my own grandmother. But about a decade after that, I started working as a caregiver to New York City artists with dementia.
SIMON: You wanted to show this in a film?
FRIEDLAND: To me, there was an opportunity to take the coming-of-age genre and adapt it for an older character to show how she's transitioning and show her relationship to herself and her characters in a way that's not about a withering away or a sort of fading away of self, but about the self that persists and transforms. And the genre of the coming-of-age film felt like a way to do that, that challenged some of the ageism that I think we often see in depictions of older adults in American film and TV.
SIMON: And Kathleen Chalfant, what did you see in this opportunity to play Ruth?
CHALFANT: I was very, very moved by the script when I read it. And I read it at a time when my best friend, the playwright, Sybille Pearson, is now suffering or living with dementia. And at the time that I got the script, which is almost exactly two years ago, Sybille was in the very place that Ruth is now. And so, in a way, this was a kind of gift to her, but more than that, it was her gift to me to teach me how to be this person.
SIMON: You know, early on, there's a scene where a perfectly nice server in the dining room of this care facility calls Ruth sweetie. And I had to cringe. Is that the right reaction?
FRIEDLAND: Yeah. I mean, there was an important balance to strike in this film between depicting care workers in all of the immense skill of their work. I think it's the most skilled and valuable work there is, in my opinion. And so, on the one hand, wanted to show what good care work looks like, but at the same time, wanted to be really honest about the sort of ageism that creeps into all of our behavior and language, even if you're working with older adults regularly.
SIMON: Kathleen Chalfant, what was it like for you emotionally to play Ruth?
CHALFANT: The thing about dementia is that you live in the moment. And as an actor, we're taught from the beginning that that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to live in the moment. To play Ruth meant that I lived Ruth moment to moment without an attachment, either to the past or a notion about the future, so that the things that were hard for Ruth were hard for me. When she is betrayed or feels that she's been betrayed, that was a terribly difficult moment. By the same token, the glorious time in the swimming pool was a glorious time in the swimming pool.
SIMON: (Laughter) What can I tell you (ph)?
FRIEDLAND: Kathy actually pitched from - while floating, Kathy pitched a version of the rest of the movie being in the pool and pitched this vision of our film just being an Esther Williams movie from there on out.
SIMON: (Laughter).
FRIEDLAND: I unfortunately had to veto it.
CHALFANT: We could have done it. We could have done it. I still believe in it.
FRIEDLAND: (Laughter) The sequel. The sequel.
SIMON: Ruth kind of pushes her way into working in the kitchen. What does that add to her life?
CHALFANT: The thing that's true, I know from my friend Sybille, who now recognizes hardly anyone, but in her house, where she lives, there is a wall with posters from her play, and when she walks by it, she says, I wrote those. And when she and her husband, Tony, watch television together, she says, I wrote that. So she is, until the end, a writer, and Ruth is, until the end, a cook.
FRIEDLAND: And I think, you know, one thing I noticed when I was a caregiver is that people with memory loss, and I think to a certain extent, all of us are able to access all of the selves we've been. And so I think this is a morning that she wakes up and thinks that she's late for a shift. I think another way that ageism manifests in our society is that as soon as someone is not kind of productive within our marketplace, we see them as no longer able to contribute, especially if someone needs care. And I wanted to show the way in which Ruth can still contribute to the people around her, and still is capacious and talented, even as her care needs shift. And so in her world, that's food.
SIMON: May I ask you both? Almost 20% of the population of this country are now senior citizens. It is the fastest-growing age demographic. Yet was it hard to get backing?
FRIEDLAND: It was. I heard, you know, over and over again that this is not a sexy film, and I just strongly disagree. I think, just to ground us in the present moment, Trump's current budget bill would be devastating to Medicaid. You know, and we tend to think of Medicare as the program that supports older adult health care, but 60% of nursing facility residents rely upon Medicaid. So it's a moment in which the availability and the accessibility of care to people in the last, you know, phase of their life is immensely precarious, and I think is something we need to fight for. But certainly, it was a challenge to get this made, and it took close to a decade.
SIMON: Who do you hope will see this film?
CHALFANT: We hope - I think we hope everyone will see it. And it's been our experience so far on - in the festivals, where it's been lots and lots of young people come up to us and say how much it meant to them, not just because they might have a grandparent who had dementia, but because of the humanity of it, and, in a way, because it's from the point of view of Ruth, and therefore, in some way, it's about living, which is an experience that all of us have no matter how old you are.
SIMON: Kathleen Chalfant stars in, and Sarah Friedland has directed the new film "Familiar Touch." In theaters now. Check your local listings. Thank you both so much for being with us.
CHALFANT: Thank you so much for having us, Scott.
FRIEDLAND: Thank you so much. It's been a joy.
(SOUNDBITE OF RICHARD HOUGHTEN'S "FADING INTO PURPLE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
