Zach Braff, Kate Hudson Share Masterclass Experiences on “Unmasked”

Zach Braff, Kate Hudson Share Masterclass Experiences

This week, Zach Braff’s new movie Wish I Was Here opened in limited release.  Director Zach Braff and his co-star Kate Hudson sat down with Ron Bennington for an episode of Unmasked, to talk about the film.  The interview with Bennington was Braff’s last stop on his press tour, which was appropriate because the journey to make the film started with an appearance on Unmasked, when Braff was still trying to raise funds for the film.  Zach had been under fire from filmmakers, writers, and bloggers for his decision to crowdsource funding for the film.  Despite the criticism, his Kickstarter campaign raised millions in just a few days.   One year later, Braff came back to sit down with Bennington again in front of a live audience, and this time he brought co-star, Kate Hudson.

Now that the film is in theaters, and opening in hundreds more this week, Braff couldn’t be happier with the result.  “It’s exactly the movie I set out to make,” he told Bennington.  “I wrote it with my brother, and it was exactly what we had in our minds, with no compromise.”  It was this unwillingness to compromise that led him to Kickstarter in the first place.  When he made the film “Garden State” ten years ago, it was financed by someone from outside of the business, who gave him the very rare, and much coveted “final cut” on his film. Now, ten years later, he didn’t want to have to turn the final decisions over to someone else, by having the film financed by a movie studio.  “I know what that means,” he said, “That means everything everyone is going to love is gonna be snipped out by test audiences, and suits.”  And so he fought hard to retain that final cut, even if it meant he would have to “whore himself out to have artistic integrity and to have final cut of the movie.”

The price of that final cut, was selling t-shirts, flying around from city to city to do Q&A’s and allowing many of his 47,000 backers show up on the set. Kate Hudson, who is Braff’s co-star, loved sharing the filmmaking experience with some of those backers.  “We had times that were wonderful, and I sat and would talk to them, and they’d sit behind the camera,” she said.  “It’s exciting when you have people who love film, and really want to be a part of that process. Thousands of backers that are going, we want to make the best movie.  Very cool.”

wish i was hereThe film follows Hudson and Braff’s characters as they make parenting decisions, while still having difficulty managing their relationships with their own parents.  One of the themes in the film, was being handed a belief system from the previous generation, and deciding what parts to reject, and what elements to pass on to your own children.  Braff was thrilled to have Mandy Patinkin, one of his favorite actors, represent that previous generation, playing Braff’s father.

The Mandy Patinkin, I think he deserves a “The” in front of his name, so ‘The” Mandy Pantinkin– who is one of my favorite actors ever. Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies of all time. I’m a musical theater geek, and he’s a musical theater legend. My father made us watch Yentl on a loop.”

Braff was able to cast Patinkin after literally running into him on a New York City street one day, and approaching him about the film.  Braff describes Patinkin’s performance as “pretty insane” particularly considering they only had him for four days.  Working with Patinkin was undoubtably a hero moment for Braff, but it’s not the only amazing experiences Kate and Zach have had recently.   Both actors have been working on additional separate projects that they described as “Masterclass” experiences; Braff is working with Woody Allen on Broadway, and Hudson just finished shooting a film in Morocco with Bill Murray.

Woody offered Braff the lead in Allen’s first Broadway musical which of course, was a dream come true.  Unfortunately the timing couldn’t have been tougher for Braff who was  right in the middle of his press tour, and was also  flying the country paying off Kickstarter incentives.  “I wasn’t about to say no to my hero,” Braff told the audience.  So in between flying around the country making good on his kickstarter promises and promoting the film, Braff also does eight shows a week on Broadway.  But, he says, it’s been surreal working with Woody.  “I’m sitting there, getting notes directly from him, and I’m playing a version of him. The whole meta thing of this whole experience is that i’m playing a neurotic jewish playwright who doesn’t want compromise for his art,” Braff explained.

“I can’t tell you how surreal it is, that I’m in a scene where I’m yelling at the producer– like “no more compromises” and then to have Woody there, giving me line readings.  And just these little moments–  where he was kind of tweaking the joke and I go ‘well it got a titter’…and he goes ‘Yeah…titter. That’s the road to the poor house.’   Or there was one time I skipped a joke, by accident, just skipped it and he goes, ‘probably get a bigger laugh if you actually say it on stage.”

And Kate just returned from Morocco where she was filming Rock the Kasbah with Bill Murray and writer Mitch Glazer.  “I just worked with Bill Murray in Morocco,” she said, “which was a dream.  It was really amazing.  Special.”

“It was great. Bill murray– that’s like a master class. You watch him– it was amazing to see him find certain things, and how quickly he does things, and how fucking funny it is. And I don’t mean, funny, like ‘oh he’s so goofy funny.’  I mean deeply, dry, funny. He’s just so brilliant. Then again, I’m biased. He might be my favorite of that generation and genre.”

This was her first time in Morocco, which would have been particularly exciting to her character in the unforgettable film Almost Famous who had dreamed of some day seeing Morocco.  “I finally got to Morocco! Exactly! That’s so funny!  Now wait until you see what she turned into!” Hudson said, hinting that her character in the new film will be pretty wild.

And speaking of “Master Class” experiences, the experience of working with Cameron Crowe, even though it was over 14 years ago, is still fresh in Hudson’s mind.  She particularly remembers how Cameron worked with music on the set.

Cameron is all music. It inspires him and the fibres of his body. Music is what inspires him and so it’s completely incorporated into everything he’s doing and he does. And then he gives that gift to people. And when he puts on a song and you’re doing a scene and all of a sudden he starts playing something in the middle of the scene, and its so perfectly timed and it hits you in a way that is the way music is supposed to affect you. and that’s where Cameron is so brilliant.


 

Wish I Was Here is in theaters now.  You can get more information at wishiwasheremovie.com and you can follow Zach Braff on twitter @zachbraff. You can also see Zach in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway.  Watch for Kate Hudson to appear in Barry Levinson’s Rock the Kasbah due to hit theaters some time next year.

Ron Bennington’s Unmasked with Zach Braff and Kate Hudson will premier this Friday, at 2pm eastern time on the Ron and Fez Show. You can listen on SiriusXM’s Raw Dog Channel 99. The episode will re-air on Channel 99 on Tuesday July 29th at 7pm, and Wednesday July 30th at 3pm. You will also be able to hear the full hour-long interview in its entirety on SiriusXM On Demand.


 

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