Hollywood Speaks spoke with Our Friend stars Casey Affleck, Jason Segal, and Dakota Johnson about their emotion new drama and how it changed them.
Five Things You Need to Know:
- The film is based on the true story of a couple and their best friend who all have to deal with Dakota Johnson's character going through terminal cancer. Star Jason Segal had a life-changing experience after making the film saying, "Depending on how you view yourself in the story, would you show up for your friends if they needed you? Or who would show up for you, if this happened to you? I really reflected on if I was as good of a friend in real life as I am in my own head and playing the part really changed how I am in real life."
- The story is based on real life husband Matthew Teague's Esquire magazine article. His wife was just 34 when she passed away, leaving behind two young girls.
- The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2019. It also was screened at AFI Fest on November 16, 2019. It co-stars country star Jake Owen, "Game Of Thrones" actress Gwendoline Christie, and Tony-winner Cherry Jones.
- Jason Segal is also a comedian, screenwriter, singer-songwriter, author, and producer. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, as well as for his work with director and producer Judd Apatow on the television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. He had some commercially successful in comedies like Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Despicable Me, Bad Teacher, The Muppets and This Is 40. He talked about his success, saying, "I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world. When I’m at my best that’s what I’m living in, that I’m so so lucky, when I’m at my worse, I’m scared, I’m scared of all the different things everyone else is scared of. For me this journey is trying to figure out how to be happy."
- Casey Affleck won the Best Acting Oscar in 2017 for his performance in Manchester By The Sea. He says, "Life hasn’t really changed, you know what will change your life is a quarantine, but an Oscar, it is really a nice honor, really, one of the things I love about being an actor is it’s a pretty good group of people. Sometimes we have a bad reputation and sometimes we deserve it, but by and large, it’s a great group of people."
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly state the title of the film. This has been updated to reflect the movie's actual name, "Our Friend." (Jan. 28, 2021)