Even before The Son had its world premiere, director Florian Zeller knew it wouldn’t be the critical darling that his 2020 debut (powerful dementia drama The Father) was.
“When I made the decision to make this film, I immediately knew it would be divisive”, Zeller explained to Zavvi. “The Father was much more complex in its structure and so, I made the decision to make something very linear and simple.
“I wanted the audience to directly face the experiences this family are going through, which I think for some people can be uncomfortable. But these are conversations we need to have – I wanted to start an open dialogue about our ignorance towards those with depression.”
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With the filmmaker’s latest effort, adapted from his hit stage play of the same name, Zeller aims to explore the impact of clinical depression on a family unit who have no idea how to handle the situation.
Hugh Jackman plays Peter Miller, whose successful career is derailed when his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) re-emerges out of the blue to ask if their son Nicholas (Zen McGrath) can now live with him, his new wife (Vanessa Kirby), and newborn son instead.
Over the past month, Nicholas hasn’t shown up to school and has demanded a change of environment – but, of course, this isn’t the simple fix to his underlying depression everybody assumes it will be, with Peter also frequently deluding himself into thinking things are getting better by default.
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As Zeller explains, depicting the effects of depression required a substantially different approach to how he tackled the portrayal of dementia in his previous feature. “They’re two very different plays, so they had to be two very different films.
“With The Father, my strategy was to put you in the main character’s headspace, with a lack of subjective experience, finding a visual way to play with the bearings you have as a viewer, which was an exciting challenge. But here, I knew I couldn’t tell this story from the inside.
“This is a story about people trying to go into someone’s brain without being able to do that, trying to understand and help, even though they don’t have the keys to open those doors.”
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“The best way to do this is in a simple, linear way, so you can’t shy away from this topic. You must face the pain, one that there’s no explanation or solution for. I never wanted to explain the source of this depression; sometimes these things are psychological, sometimes biological or chemical, but when you’re experiencing it, it’s impossible to know the source of it. So, I wanted to keep this feeling of mystery about it.”
The original play was set in Paris but has moved to New York in this adaptation. Although Zeller has personal experience with this issue, he and co-writer Christopher Hampton set out to research how doctors and psychiatrics diagnose and treat depression across the Atlantic, so the emotional impact of the play wouldn’t get lost in translation.
But ultimately, the depiction of depression “doesn’t come from research – it comes from what (I) knew”, Zeller continued. “There’s so much ignorance, shame, guilt and denial around this issue, and that’s why I wanted to tell the story of a loving, caring father who can’t deal with this situation when it confronts him.”
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Upon initially meeting with Hugh Jackman to discuss the lead role, it took less than ten minutes for Zeller to conclude that he found the best actor for the part.
“While I was working on the screenplay, he wrote me a letter and said that if I was already in conversations with an actor for this part, then forget him. But if I wasn’t, then he’d love to spend ten minutes explaining why he was the right person for the part – it was a surprising move, as it takes a lot of humility and courage to do that.
“I wasn’t planning to make any decision at that meeting, but after eight minutes, I needed to stop the conversation and say the role was his. It wasn’t about anything he said: I just felt that as an actor and a human being there was something about him that was honest, brave and humble, which impressed me. I knew It would allow us to explore this emotional territory without pretending. I knew this was a part he connected with, and it would be something truthful, which is all that matters to me.”
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Zeller confessed that his approach to casting actors is almost entirely down to following his own instincts. He knew that the role of Nicholas would be played by an unknown actor prior to finding Australian Zen McGrath in an extended round of Zoom castings and knew that he would reunite with the star of his previous film, Anthony Hopkins too.
The director’s favourite part of the filmmaking process is working with actors due to his “admiration and love” for his casts – and that infectious joy at working with his collaborators on the other side of the camera is something which is keenly felt throughout the interview. However, there was one performer he was eager to work with prior to production.
“Vanessa Kirby is one of the greatest actors here”, he gushed. “We didn’t want to make this without her, although if I wasn’t working with her on The Son, I’d be trying to find a way to get to work with her on anything else.
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“We both come from theatre, and we both like this idea of having a regular troupe – that’s what I did with Anthony, asking him back here, and I really want to create that with Vanessa as well. This is only the start of my story with her; she’s just so creative, and so magnificent as an actress”.
Their next collaboration might be a long time coming, as Zeller is still recovering from the intense process of making The Son.
“It’s the resting in-between projects that feels more like work to me!”, he laughed. “After The Father, I knew I would do The Son, as it comes from such a personal place – I wasn’t interested in anything else.
“And now that it’s done and out there, I can take the time to dream and think bigger.”
