For a summer blockbuster, this film has some really nice, quiet character moments.
I don’t think you can watch a film that is full of explosions and care about it if you don’t have some care about the people that it is happening to.


For a summer blockbuster, this film has some really nice, quiet character moments.
I don’t think you can watch a film that is full of explosions and care about it if you don’t have some care about the people that it is happening to.

There was such incredible chemistry amongst the cast. How did you build that? What was the rehearsal process?
Viggo Mortensen: Early on, which was great and doesn’t always happen, Matt brought me into read with the last couple of kids we were casting.

Can you talk about some of the sources of inspiration for this film?
Joey Kuhn: I’ll start with the emotional inspiration for the film: In college, I accidentally fell in love with my gay best friend, and was afraid to tell him for years.

How did you get involved with this project?
I came to this book as a casual reader. I got it from the same bookstore you see James [Franco] signing books in at the start of the movie.

What was your relationship with Anthony Weiner before starting to work on this film?
Josh Kriegman: I actually met Anthony while working for him in politics. I was his chief of staff for a couple of years while he was in Congress.