Don McKay: Elisabeth Shue and Jake Goldberger on Making a Miracle

One day, there will be a movie made about how this movie was made.
By Jordan Burchette
Premiere.com

There are a million ways to get a film produced, but never before has “become friends with Thomas Hayden Church” been one of them, until now. Were it not for the Oscar nominee’s unlikely backing, Don McKay, the baby of first-time writer/director Jake Goldberger, may never have been born. He and leading lady Elisabeth Shue try to explain Don McKay’s tangled premise and its one-in-a-million chance of survival.



What kind of movie is this? Thriller? Mystery? Comedy? Thristerdy?

ELIZABETH SHUE: It works on so many levels, it really doesn’t have a genre. I guess it’s half-thriller, but the tension leads to a lot of absurdity and dry humor. It’s a roller coaster ride.

JAKE GOLDBERGER: I like to use the term “quirky thriller.” Because it’s all of these things. Part of genre jumping is keeping the audience off balance, which is exactly where they’re supposed to be until everything comes together at the end. So is it a noir? Yes. Is it a thriller? Yes. Is it a comedy? It’s not There’s Something About Mary, but it is comedic in its dialogue and scenarios… Hopefully... If I did my job right.

ES: Most people, I’ve been so happy to hear, have said that they really had no idea what was going on until the very end, and I think that’s a pretty cool thing to pull off.

Sounds like kind of a hard sell. How do you pitch this premise to moviegoers while preserving its secrets?

ES: It’s tough. I think the only way they could sell it was to lean heavier on the “thriller” aspect because, if you sell it as a comedy, and you got there and realize it’s so dark, it might put people off. But if they go in expecting something dark and tense and dramatic, and then happen to laugh and have a good time, that’s a better way to go. It’s not a gross-out comedy, so it’s a little harder to pull off.

JG: The audience is not 100 percent sure what to think and feel until the movie starts rolling. Hopefully you can’t feel yourself getting invested, you’re just—BAM—"Holy shit, I’m totally into this.” Because we’re not distributing information the same way most American movies do.

Elisabeth, without giving anything away, at what point while reading the script were you sold on it?

ES: I didn’t even finish the script before I talked to [Jake] because I liked it so much. I got on the phone with him and I started getting more and more excited about the movie. I think it appeared to him that I had committed, and I kind of had. Then I got home and thought, “Jesus, I didn’t even finish the script.” So I sat down and finished it and the best part of the whole movie is the very end.

So you agreed to do this movie without even knowing how it ends?

ES: Yeah, I didn’t even know where it was going. I knew that [her character, Sonny] was not what she seemed, but that last scene is so incredible and when I read it, I thought, “Shit, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to pull this off.”

Speaking of Jake, where did he even come from? There are two credits on his IMDB profile: production assistant on Anger Management (2004) and this.

ES: Well, it helps that he’s a really great writer and it’s obvious when you read his script. That gives me a lot of confidence. And getting to be in a movie with a great actor like Thomas [Hayden Church] really grounds my choice again because, at the end of the day, my experience will still be great even if the movie doesn’t turn out well. That’s all that, at the end of the day, I’m going to have in my blood.

JG: I had no experience as a director, so I hired a casting director at the suggestion of a producer I was working with at the time; you pay her a small amount of money and she takes your script and gives it to agents. We sent [Church] the script and, by some miracle, he read it, he loved it, and he wanted to get on the phone with me. And remember, he’s getting huge offers at this time, including Spider-Man 3. So we got on the phone and, in my head I’m thinking to myself, “Holy shit, is this really happening right now?” I’m talking to a guy that was, literally, nominated for an Oscar that day and he’s telling me he wants to make this movie. We had a very fun, funny four-hour conversation. By the end of the call, he said, “Dude, I like you and I’m going to take a chance on you.” And he did. And it’s amazing how the world opens up to you when you have someone like that vouching for you.



And then you can put him to work in trying to get more people and money on board?

JG: Exactly. Because when you’re going out to different actors, they’re not aching to work with Jake Goldberger. They care about working with Thomas. He knew that and I knew that, and I’m completely comfortable with that. He said to me, “Dude, you can use my name to try to attract—"

ES: He’s lying, actually. That’s not true. The reason why I did the movie is because I got on the phone with him and he was really open to my ideas and he was really excited about this movie and he’s such a great writer and it was obvious that he’d be someone to work with. He’s full of shit.

JG: …and if you’re working with a first-time director, you want to make sure there are other actors in the movie that are going to do it with you.

That’s hedging: if the movie tanks, you’ve got someone to share the blame.

JG: That’s how I would feel if I were them. I would definitely want to be able to share the responsibility. If I were Thomas, I don’t know if I would have done what he did, but I’m thankful beyond anything in my life that he did.