Will Poulter on Union County, character psychology and making movies that matter • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

My greatest hope for the film is that people will see that if you take a more compassionate, factually supported, statistically based, psychologically informed approach to the subject of addiction and recovery, you will see that programs like this work. Criminalizing and taking a dehumanizing approach to people with substance abuse disorders doesn’t work. I hope that will benefit not just the community that we had an opportunity to be a part of, but many other communities around the world facing similar challenges.

How do you find the right headspace to act in a film this muted and matter-of-fact about such terrifying subject matter? The sequence in which Cody and his brother relapse and crash their car plays out in such a subdued manner that it feels more plausible, and more painful to witness in a way. Even when Cody opens up about the guilt he feels over his brother’s addiction, he’s exposing this inner anguish he’s held so close that he can’t even see fully how much it’s holding him back. There’s a grace to portraying Cody so softly, without the dramatic eruptions a showier film might orchestrate.

Interacting with people who have lived experience with this epidemic, one of the realities that became apparent is the way that addiction and recovery are traditionally represented in film isn’t accurate, because they are leaning toward dramatization, toward what is deemed to be the more exciting version of events. Adam realizes the most emotionally affecting version is the one that reflects reality—even when it’s mundane or strange, because such is life. He’s interested in the smaller minutiae, odd details of the reality that comes with being complicated individuals in a situation that is more common than we’re all aware of. The more we dramatize and mine these subjects for entertainment purposes, the more we become desensitized to the reality of them; sometimes, the most refreshing thing you can do is remind someone of that raw reality.

When I’m opposite a first-time actor from within the community, I’m never able to be as good as them in any one scene. My challenge is to meet them where they’re at, because they’re perfect as they are. They were so generous in allowing us a space in their community at any given moment. For all of us, it was about trying to match their generosity and energy—and make sure that we were also in their slipstream, as opposed to disturbing their waters.

I’m also fortunate that, in addition to having the recovery community be part of the film, we had a group of actors who approached this with the same level of care that Adam stipulated we ought to make it with: Elise Kibler, a phenomenal actor who integrated seamlessly; Noah Centineo, who’s also so well-integrated as to be unrecognizable, which is one of the biggest compliments you can give him; Emily Meade, who played my sister, Katrina, and is unbelievable; Danny Wolohan, an incredible actor as well… The sun around which we all orbited was Annette Deao, who’s not only the beating heart of a community but of our film. She personifies this humane, compassionate, empathetic approach to recovery that we’d all do well to emulate.