“C’mon, C’mon”This movie is sort of a buddy road movie, with Joaquin Phoenix playing Johnny. He is a radio journalist who tries to care for his nephew Jesse (Woody Norman), but finds it difficult. Mike Mills states that the movie’s focus on family, parenting, relationships, and responsibility ultimately leads to the director making the case for the importance of the topic. “hidden center” of the film is the third wheel, Johnny’s sister, Viv, who is Jesse’s mother.
Gaby Hoffmann loved the role of Viv before she even read the script. “I had a very long, luxurious dinner with Mike where we began a conversation about all the things the movie is about, and it felt like the beginning of a conversation we might be having for the rest of our lives,”She speaks of their sympatico sensibilities.
Mills mentions the Hoffmann, an ex-child actor who was nominated for Emmys. “Girls” “Transparent,”Performs performances that are both grounded and unpredictable. “She’s wildly intelligent and funny —you never know what she’s going to do next, but you totally buy everything. She does little jazz moves inside the lines so even when the lines were 98% my words, they didn’t feel written.”
Mills’ Mike Leigh-esque approach uses pre-rehearsal discussions and time together to create chemistry and help the actors bring their own authenticity and personal touches to the role. “I want the actor to be a co-author with me,”He said.
But Hoffmann and Phoenix also veered off from Mills’ plan.
Hoffmann, meanwhile, was with Mills and Norman. “Joaquin and I should not do that— while I’m not a Method actor, our characters had been estranged but also I had this instinct that there would just be this energy between us.”
Phoenix had the same instinct and Mills went along with it, accepting the idea that the first time the actors met would be on the set when Johnny arrives at Viv’s door. “A film involves so many bets and you have to push your chips in,”Mills said. “It just was like an electric shock in that first moment and hot seared this chemistry in for them.”
Hoffmann said that they did several takes, and each one taught Hoffmann something new about her costar. Finding the chemistry proved crucial because most of Hoffmann’s biggest scenes took place via phone calls with Phoenix. She praises Mills for breaking with the tradition of filming phone calls by having a script supervisor read the other character’s lines while that actor relaxed in a trailer or at home.
“Every phone called we filmed, Joaquin was on the other end for me and I was for him,” Hoffmann says. “That made a difference. Also, we’d done most of our in-person scenes first so we’d been in each other’s space, breathed each other’s smells and developed a rapport. That meant the phone scenes felt like any other part of acting.”
Mills’ notion of actors as co-authors meant that he looked to Hoffmann to ensure that the dynamic between Viv and her son rang true. “Gaby is a mom and it’s embedded in her so I could ask does this make sense and she could test drive it as a mom,”He said.
Hoffmann believes that finding the essence truth is crucial for him. “I’m an instinctual actor and I’m not good enough to fake it — if I’m not feeling it I can’t do it.”
But she wasn’t putting just herself into Viv but also ideas from conversations with other women she knows. She was determined to make sure that Viv was more than just someone caring for her son, dying mother, or mentally ill husband. “I wanted to make sure we see Viv beyond that,” Hoffmann says, “I wanted to allow some space and time to see her deeper colors.”