So, a story about these folks in their thirties trying to find that balance between the ideology of their past and the responsibilities of their present, especially given the fact that they have a newborn baby daughter…and lastly, from a production standpoint, it resonated because it was something that could be done in Los Angeles as a truly independent film, it was a story that could be told in large part with a group of collaborators that I already had surrounding me. Fortuitously, when I read the short story, we were right in the thick of doing press for Humpday, which was getting a very warm audience response…and, y’know, I read T.C.’s story in the New Yorker and it just struck a chord, on many different levels, first and foremost because I’ve got a dark sense of humor and so it made me laugh, secondly, on a cultural level…subtextually, it was about something very familiar to me and people in my peer group, those of us who, our first memories are the rejection of the Reagan ‘80s, and the apathy of the Clinton ‘90s, and all of a sudden we wake up and find ourselves as adults, and don’t really have a template or a toolbox to deal with it. And this flick happened…Mary Pat Bentel, my producing partner, and I had been trying to do another flick for a couple of years, and it kept almost going, and I was really sick of hearing myself talk about being about to make a movie. I consider myself someone who doesn’t get good ideas very often, but when I do they resonate on a very deep level, so I hold to to ‘em like a dog with a bone. JL: It happened quickly and with only a nominal amount of premeditation. What was it about the short story that made you say, this is it? This is your first time directing a feature. I spoke with Leonard over the phone about his career move, the process of making the film, and the industry as a whole. The World), which Leonard stars in as Lonnie, an unsatisfied family man and would-be musician who tells his employers that his newborn daughter has died in order to get out of work. This week, Leonard releases his first feature as a writer-director, a dark drama-comedy titled The Lie, also featuring Jess Weixler ( Teeth) and Mark Webber ( Scott Pilgrim vs.
Not only was he one of the gang that helped revolutionize no-budget filmmaking with The Blair Witch Project, but he’s also become a go-to character actor over the last few years, including his acclaimed turn in Lynn Shelton’s Humpday. Joshua Leonard should look familiar to you by now.