SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
"Fantasy Life" brings us Sam - paralegal - who loses his job, has a panic attack in a bookstore, sees his shrink and winds up looking after his psychiatrist's three young granddaughters - he'll be called the manny (ph) - in a New York townhouse where he winds up watching "Battlestar Galactica" reruns on a couch with their mother.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FANTASY LIFE")
AMANDA PEET: (As Dianne Cohen) You don't have a partner, Sam?
MATTHEW SHEAR: (As Sam Stein) No, not at the moment.
PEET: (As Dianne Cohen) You're kind of nice to be around.
SHEAR: (As Sam Stein) Thank you. You know, "Battlestar Galactica" sort of helped me through my first depression.
SIMON: That's Amanda Peet and Matthew Shear. Matthew Shear has written and directed "Fantasy Life" in addition to starring in it with Amanda Peet and a cast of audience favorites that includes Judd Hirsch, Bob Balaban and Andrea Martin. Matthew Shear joins us from - can it be any place other than New York? Thanks so much for being with us.
SHEAR: I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
SIMON: How does Sam see his life when we meet him?
SHEAR: I don't know if he has so much introspection going on. He's surviving, working a job that's really, you know, not suited for him and succumbing to panic attacks and trying to get through the day.
SIMON: He has no particular qualifications to babysit, but he is nice, and he respects the young girls, doesn't he?
SHEAR: Yes. I think that is probably his best qualification for being a babysitter, is that he has a kind of pleasant demeanor.
SIMON: And their mother, played by Amanda Peet, is at a tender point in her life, too, isn't she?
SHEAR: Yeah. She is at a crossroads in her career. She's, you know, had a successful career as an actor and kind of fell off, had kids, you know, trying to break back in and really not having an easy time with it and taking it personally and sort of going internal.
SIMON: And, of course, nobody can see Amanda Peet here and not reflect on what she wrote about so beautifully in The New Yorker last month. She's going through cancer treatments, a lot of this while she cared for her terminally ill parents in hospices on opposite coasts.
SHEAR: Yeah.
SIMON: What did it mean to you to work with Amanda Peet?
SHEAR: One thing I learned about Amanda very quickly was how sharp and thoughtful person she is. And when she received the script, I was able to work with her on it in various ways that didn't just have to do with her character, which is kind of the cliche of, like, the big actor coming and giving notes. She had really thoughtful suggestions for various parts and really worked with me - and feel like the script got into a much better place. And so learning that she was the showrunner of "The Chair" and also reading this piece and being very blown away by it - she's just an incredible writer and creative person.
SIMON: Yeah. The scenes of Sam in therapy with his psychiatrist, Judd Hirsch, are hilarious. And I'm afraid we can't present a clip (laughter). I laugh, but it's not the kind of conversation you can - you know, you can share.
SHEAR: (Laughter) Sure. You have to go to the movie theater.
SIMON: All right. Right. You have to go...
SHEAR: Yeah.
SIMON: ...To the movie theater.
PEET: Yeah.
SIMON: But it's interesting because the doctor says, you know, it's what Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory used to say. If you use those words, you rob them of their power. That's not what popular opinion is anymore, is it?
SHEAR: I guess not in the sort of popular discourse, but I think it is still a much used concept in treating obsessive compulsive disorder, you know, that becoming familiar with the thoughts and not hiding them or pushing them, repressing them, that they lose power when you sort of really can interact with them.
SIMON: May I ask how you know so much about OCD?
SHEAR: I don't know. I just - you know, it has, really nothing to do with me, so I...
(LAUGHTER)
SHEAR: Yeah. You know, it's - I've dealt with OCD and some of the other mental health ailments in the film, and it was useful and fun for me to kind of explore them in the narrative.
SIMON: So many prescription drug names are mentioned in this film.
SHEAR: Yes.
SIMON: So I have to ask, is that product placement?
(LAUGHTER)
SHEAR: No. In fact, I was worried when we finally got to having a production draft and, you know, having our lawyer look through it and make sure everything was OK. I was like, oh, my God, they're not going to let me use these drug names, you know. But I got, like, one note, which was, like, a useful note. And so I didn't get any pushback. Maybe they did in the end feel it was useful product placement.
SIMON: Yeah. Well, it depends on what you think about the characters as to whether...
SHEAR: (Laughter).
SIMON: ...Or not the pharmaceuticals are doing the job, I guess.
SHEAR: That's right.
SIMON: I found myself imbibing a message from this film. I hope that's not wrong. A lot of people in our lives may not be along for the whole ride. But they help us along the journey.
SHEAR: I really like that. You know, one of the narrative pieces that was interesting to me was to develop a relationship that, in the end, you don't know if it will be a friendship, a romance, or they'll maybe never see each other again, and that having those kinds of relationships do support life.
SIMON: Support life. I like that phrase. It makes it seem like, you know, a UFO has landed.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Matthew Shear has made the new film "Fantasy Life" with Amanda Peet and many other familiar names. It's in theaters now. Thank you so much for being with us.
SHEAR: Thank you so much. This was a thrill. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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