Finding the Right Balance

Jake Hoffman’s directorial debut Asthma is charming, hilarious, heartbreaking and like the lingering cough its main character can’t get over, it stays with you for a while. The film isn’t painful per se, but it definitely holds a mirror to paths we’ve all been down: addiction, love and the challenge of accepting responsibility for your actions. It’s the beautiful and agonizing nature of growing up … in your twenties or thirties.

We’ve been following Hoffman’s career for a while. His name has come up at festivals like SXSW, on shows like Luck and in the films The Wolf of Wall Street and Enter the Dangerous Mind. He’s both an actor and a director. Oh, and he’s Dustin Hoffman’s son. Upon meeting him after the Asthma premiere at the Roxy Hotel in New York, an essence of his dad circa The Graduate was apparent. Jake is humble, wide-eyed at his own after-party and yet his intelligence and passion is palpable. It was our interaction at the event that convinced us—we’ve got to interview this kid.

Hoffman, though, is far from a kid. He graduated from NYU Film School in 2003 and has since directed a number of shorts and acted in many films. Asthma draws upon his real-life experiences to create a relatable narrative about a twentysomething lost boy, Gus (Benedict Samuel). An addict, an artist and a hopeless romantic, Gus meets a girl at a concert, Ruby (Krysten Ritter). Months later, they reconnect and Gus offers her a ride to her friend’s house outside the city … in a stolen car. Over the course of the road trip, with Gus’ asthma—as well as his infatuation with (or love for?) Ruby— worsening, the struggles of both lost souls surface. Their great chemistry leads the audience on a journey of bittersweet introspection.

Paste spoke with Hoffman a week or so after the premiere, leaving time for the film to marinate properly. It was one of Hoffman’s first interviews—it is his first feature after all—and he checked in to see if he was boring us or talking too much. He most definitely was not. Actually, his unassuming energy was refreshing. We discussed his amazing cast—working with Ritter, Samuel and (surprise) Iggy Pop as well as the duality that exists in the film. Hoffman had to balance the delicate addiction story with the energies of his two main characters, and the areas where youth, freedom and consequence collide.

Paste: You said in an interview once, “It’s important to do what scares you sometimes, and not what’s always easy.” Did making this movie scare you at all?
Jake Hoffman: There’s two ways to answer that. When you write and direct a film, that’s not an easy thing to get to do and you have to work really hard to get to do it. Then, there’s this surreal moment that I’m at now. You fight so hard to get your stuff seen and now IFC is putting it out and this is what you pray for and then there’s this moment like, Whoa, people are going to see this now. As far as doing what scares you, to try to grow, that in itself applies here. I’ve never done this before! As far as the subject matter goes, it deals with the very sensitive issue of addiction and substance abuse. Finding the right balance was a big part of the risk on this one. I look back at a time when I was more naïve to consequences and was hanging out with a reckless crew and didn’t think of certain behaviors as reckless because I didn’t know better. Now, thank god that those consequences didn’t catch up with a lot of my friends. It’s not just a cautionary tale because there’s something beautiful about that time of your life where you have this innocence and you’re not afraid of consequence. That balance is the goal of the film and the risk of the film.

Paste: That duality exists in the character of Gus himself. But what was the seed of this film—was it his character? How did it unfold as a script?
Hoffman: The writing process on this was unlike any other. This is the first one that’s coming out but I’ve been working on writing scripts for 10+ years. The process of writing was always a little slower and more thought-out. With this one, I tried to not over think it so much. It sort of poured out of me. I ended up writing the first draft in two weeks.

Jake Hoffman on set with Benedict Samuel

Paste: Benedict sent his audition in on tape from Australia. There is this taped audition epidemic right now! I’m sure you’ve also dealt with it as an actor. From a director’s standpoint, is there a big difference casting someone on tape or in person?
Hoffman: As an actor you understand how the process of auditioning is really a flawed process. When you don’t have an opportunity to be in a room … if you were given direction you might have been able to take it. As a director I think the answer is clearer and you have to do the best you can to find the guy or girl that’s right for the role. Benedict had really just done theater in Australia and a TV show. I was just floored by how good he was. I didn’t intend to cast an unknown actor in the lead role. When I saw him in it, my producers and I all agreed: He was our guy. I knew he was going to be great because the talent was clear from the tape but I didn’t know if he would be nervous or slower on set, but I thought, If he can be that good I’m going to take the chance on him. We got lucky because he was always great right away and is also the kind of actor that made other actors better.