Most films have a fairly prescribed audience, or certainly unfold in a manner that makes their intentions clear. At Middleton is not most films. Co-written by Glenn German and director Adam Rodgers, the movie puts a pleasantly bewildering spin on existential life crisis, tossing lighthearted adult romance, slightly goofy (pre-) college ensemble comedy and something a bit more barbed and bittersweet into a blender, and hitting puree. While their respective headstrong kids (Spencer Lofranco and Taissa Farmiga) take a college visit and disengage from their parents, two strangers with different personalities, George (Andy Garcia) and Edith (Vera Farmiga), disengage from the official campus tour and tumble into an afternoon that leaves its mark on each of them. For Paste, Brent Simon had a chance to chat with Garcia recently, about the film, the inspirations for his character, his penchant for song, and his long-gestating next project behind the camera as a director.
Paste: In the late 1990s, you started producing as well as acting, and transitioned into directing, too. Because I know you’re pretty hands on, what elements are you most looking for when you decide to take the extra step of taking on a producing credit?
Andy Garcia: Usually it’s a combination of how the material speaks to you. And this was like City Island, which also came to me as a written script with a director attached, but no money. First, [you want to see] if you get stimulated by the material, and get that tickle in your belly and say, “I want to play this part. I’d like to see this film get made.” It brings up your sensibilities and sensitivities about a part, and the challenges of a part that maybe wouldn’t normally come your way. Once you meet the director—who in this case was Adam Rodgers, and also one of the writers, along with Glenn German—you see what kind of feeling you have about them becoming your partners, because when you’re raising money independently, you’re basically shaking hands and going on this journey together. So you basically ask yourself, “What can I do to help this movie get made, and what am I prepared to do?” Of course, you can also say I like the part, let me know if you ever have the money to make the movie, and walk away. But if you feel like you can help then you can take a more proactive approach to help get it to the finish line.
Paste: In City Island, your character, Vincent, has a secret passion that he hasn’t shared with his family. George is more contained and stuffy, and a lot more of a formally educated, intellectual character, but do you feel like George is similarly a guy who’s been living a lie in some respect?
Garcia: You know, I think the way Glenn German put it is that if 10 is bliss and zero is hell, then [George and Edith have] been coasting at five-and-a-half for a while, and not because their relationships are necessarily dark ones or anything like that. It’s just that the fuse has gone out for a long time, and they’re kind of coasting, and they’re both vulnerable enough to have this experience. And little by little, they find their potential soul mate at this one day at college. I just thought the conceit of that, and the way that the piece was structured in one day, and how they declare themselves at the end of the day but have to then ask themselves what they’re going to do about it—I thought that was very powerful. And also I thought that the piece had potential for certain humor and stylistic elements because of the architectural settings of a campus and the predicaments they were put in. I saw George as sort of a throwback to a Jacques Tati. There was a Buster Keaton quality about him, or sort of like Harold Lloyd—this sort of conservative man out of his element. Edith has this energy that he’s never come across before.
Paste: The manner in which George’s physical discomfort is manifested through these slight mannerisms and ticks provides a nice parallel to the kids, because it reminded me of the way that especially as a teenager you feel so overwhelmingly uncomfortable around a woman that you’re attracted to—that the nervousness just comes off of you in waves.
Garcia: Absolutely! He becomes like a child. Edith is like a vortex of energy, and George gets sucked into her wake. That’s kind of the image that I had when I read the script and saw the potential of the physical humor regarding the film—that he gets sucked into her energy, and at the same time has an ability to make her laugh, which is something that she hasn’t really done in quite some time. So that kind of thing is what they find in each other. She awakens in him this teenage enthusiasm or effervescence, but at some point in the movie the game’s over, the tide turns and they have this experience in the acting class where they get lost in this psychological experiment, during an acting improvisation. And it’s like, “Okay, what just went down?” And he becomes the more mature one in the relationship and asks what happened.
Paste: The chemistry you have with Vera is great. How did she come into the project?
Garcia: I knew of her work and was certainly a fan, but had never met her. But she was on my bucket list of actors who I wanted to work with, so we sent her the material and she responded to it immediately, and I guess I was on her bucket list. On a movie like this, the essential thing is who your partner is, so she jumped on board and she came in on a Saturday and we met on Sunday at a wardrobe fitting—which of course is very simple and short because there’s just one wardrobe since the movie takes place on one day. I came out dressed as the character, but instead of the pants I had in the movie like chinos I had on these seersucker pants [because] I saw this formality in George and thought that would contribute and make him even more out of time. When she saw me walk out like that, Vera started laughing at me, just cackling uncontrollably. I just looked at her and remember thinking, “Okay, we have this. I can make her laugh and that’s the movie.” And we did a couple shots with the kids that day, just to see what the look of the movie was, and we had to change the pants because the seersucker would strobe in the digital camera we shot on, the Arri Alexa. So we changed it to chino pants. But I said to her, “Do you want to go over the script? Do you have any issues?” and she said, “No, I just want to execute.” So we got to know each other as actors and the characters on camera—we never really rehearsed the scenes. We started shooting, and every scene the first take was the rehearsal, and we shot that, too. Everything was very spontaneous, and I think in this particular case it contributed not only to the way me and Vera like to work as actors, but also to the spirit of this thing that we were discovering moment to moment.