Kiernan Shipka stole our hearts Mad Men, guided us through the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and now she tells through the life of a teenager with neurodivergent parents wildflower (Premiering at TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival) with Jean Smart, Jacki Weaver and Brad Garrett.
When we first meet Bea (Shipka) she is in a coma with her estranged family around her hospital bed. The film takes us on a journey to find out how she got there, with Bea providing (in the most appealingly sarcastic tone) flashbacks to her life, from having a baby through to the incident that landed her in the hospital as a teenager.
Growing up, Bea says she was always told that her parents, played by Dash Mihok and Samantha Hyde, were “special,” adding that she learned “that’s what grown-ups say when someone has a disability.” . For much of the film, Bea reflects on being a child and feeling responsible for taking care of her parents, including trying to cope with the possibility of going away from home to college.
Director Matt Smukler explained that the story was inspired by his own family, with Bea “loosely” based on his niece.
“It’s really inspired by her story,” said Matt Smukler Yahoo Canada. “Then I wanted to celebrate the humor that runs in the family.”
“This is a family that loves to laugh and dance, and music is very important to them, so it was really important for this film to have all of those elements.”
‘It was really easy, yes, I want to do it’
The beauty of wildflower lies in that great wit that Kiernan Shipka’s character has and the overall endearing comedic tone of the story. Of course, it helps to see the more chaotic group scenes where Bea’s grandparents, played by Jean Smart, Jacki Weaver and Brad Garrett, are all arguing while Bea’s uptight Aunt Joy (Alexandra Daddario) and her troubled husband, played by Reid Scott, mingle mix in the bickering.
For Shipka, a true teen dramedy star, signing on to the project as Bea was easy.
“I know if a script makes me cry in a really sincere, genuine way, it’s worth pursuing,” she said Yahoo Canada. “The character of Bea was a down-to-earth young woman.”
“She was written with such an individuality and such a dryness that I really loved… It was a really simple ‘yes, I want to do that’… This is a really fully fleshed out, well-written character that I hope can bring a lot of life to.” to.”
When it came to actually casting Shipka, Matt Smukler revealed that she was always his first choice.
“She was literally my first choice,” Smukler said. “I knew she could pull this off and add so much more to the character in so many ways.”
“It was an inspiration and so I really wanted her to make it her own and I really think she could do that.”
“It was super, super important for me that we did it right”
While wildflower Inspired by the filmmaker’s family, he wasn’t actually sure he would share that, but from the start Matt Smukler wanted to be able to portray these characters authentically, particularly Sharon and Derek’s characters, who are intellectually disabled .
“Actually, I didn’t think I was going to say it was a personal connection at all, so it was really important to me that it was very authentic,” Smukler said. “We hired a disability counselor who was with us and was really helpful to us … it was super, super important to me that we got it right and because my sister-in-law has a cognitive disability it was obviously so much very important.”
After her experience shooting this film, Kiernan Shipka celebrates all the “joy” there was on the set of the film, especially while working with Dash Mihok and Samantha Hyde and playing her character’s parents.
“There was so much genuine joy on set every day, and a lot of those scenes with the whole family have a kind of loose improvisational element that was really fun to play with,” Shipka said. “Often you really put a lot of effort into the chemistry and dynamic on set and maybe you’re lucky and there’s still some time to really bond, but that was really easy.”
“Samantha and Dash are both extremely vibrant individuals and I felt so close to them so quickly and there was something about the bond that just kind of made the scenes flow and was really fun to play around with.”
“I think everyone did this film for the right reasons, and that was really important,” Smukler added. “I felt great walking in and I had no qualms.”
#TIFF #Wildflower #Kiernan #Shipkas #endearing #dry #humor #anchors #comingofage #film
Leave a Comment