The makeup department of the upcoming movie ‘Being Flynn’, met with Paul Dano at the latter’s home, “and we looked at pictures of Nick Flynn through the years. We discussed how to blend Paul’s look with Nick’s look; since Nick had many throughout the years, there was one particular photograph we fixed on. Nick came over at one point and said, ‘This hair looks great!’,” said hair specialist Jerry DeCarlo.

When Aude Bronson-Howard quizzed Nick Flynn, the author who’s self-portrait is the drive behind the story, on clothing worn during the times depicted in the movie, he revealed to the costume designer that he often wore clothing that had been donated to the shelter. “Nick is now actually rather stylish with his dissembled pieces,” she comments.

“But back then, it was just being grungy.” As with the city not being actively named, director Paul Weitz “didn’t want you to be able to put your finger on exactly what year it was, so Aude, Carla and I didn’t go for ‘period’ styling,” reports DeCarlo. “The flashbacks are scenes in a lower-middle-class area, so we couldn’t have anything ‘pop’ anyway. As time progresses in the story, Paul didn’t ever want to see anything that was too contemporary, either.”

With regard to the film’s earliest depicted period of Nick’s life, Bronson- Howard remembers that “for Jody [Nick’s mother], Nick told us what ambiance she conveyed, rather than specific items of clothing worn; there was no money around the household, so she didn’t have a big wardrobe.”

Makeup specialist Carla White notes that “for Jonathan’s one appearance in a flashback scene, we did not try to make him look younger in any way; he is playing ball with his son, but this is just Nick’s memory of what he had hoped for back then – despite his father’s absence.

So we chose to leave Jonathan looking as he does after Nick has seen him for the first time in years.” In working with De Niro, DeCarlo ascertained that “he is the kind of actor who pulls the character up from within, from deep down inside. He knew that it would be better to have his hair longer for this project, but I believe that for him the visual pieces – hair, costumes, make-up – are secondary.

“Jonathan Flynn’s look at the beginning of the picture is more together. As his life falls apart, he becomes more disheveled, yet we see scenes where he continues to groom himself.” White says, “Paul Weitz wanted a realistic look for the characters; we had to get the characters across to the audience but not have obvious makeup that viewers will be aware of. For Paul Dano, it was especially subtle; you work around the eyes to make him look a little more rough, a little more disheveled. His acting would take care of the rest.

“We tried to achieve only some of Jonathan’s stages through make-up; for example, reddening Robert De Niro’s skin for when Jonathan is out on the streets at length.” Bronson-Howard elaborates, “We had phases for Jonathan; by phase 7, he’s not in good shape at all because of alcohol, outdoors exposure, and his own arrogance.

“I had found that people who sleep outside on subway gratings wear layers and layers. So we show Jonathan with toilet paper in the ear flaps on his hat; and three or four pairs of gloves, all gaffer’s-taped-together as one unit.” The costume designer states, “There is no one more dedicated than Robert De Niro; if there are five racks of clothing, he will try them all on to make sure that the end result is right. For that ‘pre-shoot’ in the snow, we tried on things at the Greenwich Hotel and then out he went.”

De Niro and Dano were not the only dominant on-screen presences to be transformed; Emmy Award-winning production designer Sarah Knowles (Warm Springs) and her team made over interiors of the now-shuttered St. Patrick’s Old [Cathedral] School in Manhattan’s SoHo as the movie’s Harbor Street Inn shelter. By way of contrast, the remnants of a gutted Greenpoint, Brooklyn bar became the seedy Good Times, the strip joint- turned- living space that Nick and his roommates reside in.

Real life and reel life locales were on a bit of a loop, as Nick elaborates; “Good Times was where I lived while working at the homeless shelter in Boston. When I left Boston, I lived in Brooklyn – just 10 blocks from that gutted bar which we were shooting in.” For Nick, being a regular presence on set was something he found satisfying. He remarks, “For me, memory is always like a film. You go through an experience and then ‘see’ things afterwards.

“As I would sit and revisit this emotionally charged territory with my father and people in my life, something else would often be found in those moments as the scenes unfurled. In telling this story, I never wanted to limit the emotions, or easily phrase them. So it was very rewarding and sometimes unnerving to watch these talented artists at work.

When the takes were working, you could see the emotions passing over the actors’ faces, one turning into another. That, to me, was the closest possible representation of my reality in those moments I’d lived through.”

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Director Paul Weitz encouraged a wholly collaborative approach with his actors so they could all learn more in concert in preparation for the drama ‘Being Flynn’, in cinemas around the US on March 2. Paul Dano, who plays Nick Flynn remarks, “From the first time we talked, when I didn’t yet have the part, Paul was receptive to any input or ideas.

He had an answer for every question, and at the same time would be really open, which is something that I always look for in a director. He let me play around, but he also knew what he specifically wanted.”

“I would ask for direction on every single take, because he works so viscerally,” adds Olivia Thirlby, who welcomed the opportunity to create a character since “Denise doesn’t exist in the book; unlike the other characters, she’s a mostly fictitious one created for the screenplay, so I was able to color things in on my own and work with Paul Weitz to figure her out.

She has an unchecked directness that can result in some awkwardly funny exchanges with people; she has been through past trauma and is now on the healing path.” Nick Flynn, the author of the memoir behind the film, notes, “Denise protects herself and is tough on the Nick character, not putting up with his bulls–t, but is also warm and comforting.” On the set, Thirlby would find her regular scene partner Dano “never false; there’s always truth in what he does.

There are so many avenues that you can take at any given moment in any given scene, and it seems like he’s always choosing a different one. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with him.” Nick says, “Olivia Thirlby and Paul Dano do have a natural chemistry between them, but Denise doesn’t stand in for a specific girlfriend I had.”

Lili Taylor’s character of Joy, by contrast, is “based on someone I knew at the shelter,” admits Nick. “Lili was one of my favorite actresses even before she became my wife; she can show just a little glimmer of the depth that’s in Joy, and it all comes across.” Taylor muses, “One of the themes of this story is that the lack of self-pity is a virtue. You see that with Joy.”

Even though Being Flynn focuses on Nick’s life as it intersects with his estranged father Jonathan’s, his relationship with his mother while growing up was kept central to the film by Weitz; as in Nick’s memoir, Jody epitomizes the goodness in an otherwise tumultuous life. Yet the mother/son relationship is not without its own emotional land mines, as Jody was gone too soon and by her own hand.

Nearly all of Julianne Moore’s scenes pair her with actor Liam Broggy, who portrays Nick as a pre-teen. She comments, “The bond between a child and a single mother is a tight one. Paul Weitz captures the intimacy of that, getting a dynamic between Liam and I for our scenes together.”

Nick says, “My relationship with my mother is the central wound of the film, and of my life. The most difficult part of the movie for me was watching the scenes with Julianne and Liam in a re-creation of my childhood home. “I view my mother as a good person who suffered. On the set I couldn’t even look at Julianne at first, except on a monitor.

Finally, around noon, I was able to speak to Julianne, who was happy to talk with me. Then the next day, I went through it all again and so I left the set early. But I had to try to normalize that for myself so I would be able to watch the movie.” As Moore sees it, “My character in the film is often in her scenes as just a memory. It’s all very much a young person’s memory of what happened, or what might have happened.

“Nick’s primary memories of Jody are how she was present as a parent, whereas his father was not. Jody was the one who was always there, the one he would talk to, the one who cared for him and who encouraged him. He worries sometimes that he might have triggered something in his mother which led to her act.”

Taylor feels that “Nick’s story is very inspiring, because it’s about how you come through things, with curiosity and generosity. You fall apart but then you become whole.”

Image Courtesy of   https://www.facebook.com/BeingFlynn

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During casting for the upcoming drama ‘Being Flynn’, producer Andrew Miano identifies as “a key theme in the film, that of a young man in his late 20s grappling with life and trying to figure out where he belongs,” drew several notable young actors to the role of Nick Flynn, the main character and real-life author of the memoir upon which the movie is based.

Paul Dano found himself “moved by the script” and landed the part. Dano was keen to meet with the real-life Nick, and vice versa. Once a meeting was scheduled, Dano made tracks to get ahold of the memoir. He explains, “I went to my local bookstore to buy it, and the people at the bookstore said, ‘Oh, no, we have a different copy for you.’ They brought me out a copy – with a note written in it to me from Nick. I was spooked; how did he know what bookstore I’d visit to buy the book? Turns out he lives in my neighborhood.

“I loved Nick’s book. It’s a beautiful memoir. I feel that he’s a survivor, given what he went through with his parents. My story is not his, but I could relate and empathize with his.” Before the in-person meeting with Dano, Nick asked his wife Lili Taylor for advice. With her actor’s perspective, Taylor – who has an on-screen supporting role as drug-addict-turned-shelter worker Joy – recommended Nick honestly answer questions Dano asked.

Nick says, “What Lili told me turned out to be the way to go; I followed Dano’s lead that day he and I first met at a café. He is the age I was while I worked in the shelter, which was appropriate. But, you know, it’s a strange experience to sit across from someone who’s going to play me.”

Even if it was a bit unsettling at first, the real Nick and the reel Nick soon found their conversation to be surprisingly fluid. Dano and Nick also reasoned that since they lived within a few blocks of each other, they could meet up often, which they proceeded to do. Dano elaborates, “When I first met Nick, I was a bit taken aback because he was much different than my initial impression from the script, or even the book.

First of all, he’s older and at a different place in his life, having conquered some demons. But in the screenplay, he’s more terse, and here I was with this gregarious guy. Yet he’s also a no-BS kind of guy. I have to say that I enjoyed filming scenes where you see the anger Nick had in him.

“As an actor, you want to be faithful to the material, but also to personalize it, so as we talked a lot and spent more time together, I was able to take what I could from both the script – into which Paul had put so many pieces of Nick – and Nick himself, and then make my own contributions to the characterization. I wasn’t trying to do an impression.” Taylor remarks, “We have to go into this story through Nick, and Paul’s openness as an actor invites us in.”

Part of Dano’s process entailed “listening to music that Nick listened to at the time, which I learned about from either asking him or from reading the memoir. For me, music is an art form that I feel slips into your bloodstream. Hearing it on-set helps me stay focused. I would also listen to music that I found relevant in some way to Nick or his story; I think that Nick has a little bit of a punk rock spirit in him.

“The lyrics of songs were useful to me as well, since Nick is also a poet – which I’d guess is even harder than being a novelist or a screenwriter.” Ultimately, Nick sensed that “Dano is a fine actor who was able to find levels of complexity in the story that I probably couldn’t find when I lived it the first time. I was startled sometimes by his acting; he got to different levels of emotional resonance.”

To that end, Dano joined other members of the cast in spending time at New York shelters in order to get acclimated to the milieu. He remembers, “I found there were people who made a choice, or felt forced to make a choice – and there were certainly people who had no choice.

“The theme of homelessness is not just Jonathan’s being homeless and people in the shelter being homeless; Nick no longer has a mother and never knew his father.” Olivia Thirlby volunteered for several days and reveals, “After being in the shelter all day, I’d walk out into the night with a very different perspective. My eyes were opened to people on the street.

“The experience influenced my portrayal of Denise; to be at work full-time in a shelter speaks volumes about a person’s character, their tendency to help others – and themselves.”

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