“Driveways” is film therapy—a restorative dose of the pace and patience small-town America can brew in us. It’s also the sophomore film of writer-director Andrew Ahn, whose first film, “Spa Night,” received ample praise at Sundance in 2016. After a lauded premiere at the Berlinale in 2019, “Driveways” debuted to American audiences two months later at Tribeca with a special slot in the revered Critics’ Week section.
READ MORE: ‘Driveways’ Provides The Neighborly Hug That Many Of Us Need Right Now [Review]
Though “Driveways” isn’t a new Disney blockbuster that has been marketed for a full year before release, you are likely familiar with the film’s great cast. First, the late Brian Dennehy, the veteran actor whose credits range from “First Blood” to Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” to voice acting work in “Ratatouille.” Second, there’s Hong Chau, who you might recognize from her recent performance as Lady Trieu in Damon Lindelof’s wildly popular adaptation of “Watchmen” for HBO, or maybe as the ever-appearing Jade from Chick Planet in “Inherent Vice.” Her biggest role is no doubt her leading part in “Downsizing” alongside Matt Damon.
In “Driveways,” Chau plays Kathy, single mother to her 8-year-old son, Cody (Lucas Jaye), who doesn’t fit in with most kids his age. The two travel to Kathy’s recently deceased sister’s house in a suburban neighborhood so they can sort through her sister’s belongings, which becomes a miserable prospect once Kathy realizes her sister was a hoarder. To busy himself, Cody befriends the Korean war vet Del (Dennehy) that lives next door (while it’s not a focus of the narrative, it is worth noting that Del’s war history and Kathy and Cody’s Asian-American heritage don’t look good on paper). At first, both are a bit awkward and quiet around each other. But as the film unfolds, so does a timeless and unlikely friendship.
Barring the distribution uncertainties that pandemics bring, 2020 is poised to be a huge year for Chau, with major releases slated in both television (“Homecoming”) and film (“Artemis Fowl“). We recently spoke to the actress about her newest project and what it was like to work with Ahn, Dennehy, and Jaye.
“Driveways” is this quiet, healing film. We follow people of different backgrounds being kind and open toward one another, leaving space for common ground and growth. And right now, everyone is at home, hungry for social interaction. It seems a little serendipitous that a film this pure is coming to the public now.
What you’re feeling is coming from Andrew Ahn, our director. He said he wanted to make a movie that somehow encapsulated the feeling of being a kid on a summer day. And that’s where you feel that warmth, that easiness, that joy. This is a quiet story where nothing novel is happening, but it does feel fresh because it’s kind of that feeling you have when you’re a kid where every day is something new and fresh and exciting.
It didn’t feel burdened. That is a way you could interpret the story. You know, her sister is a hoarder and you’re dealing with the theme of loss. It could be something that’s carried out in a way that feels heavy, and Andrew, I think, very skillfully steered us away from that without losing any of the sincerity of the story elements.
It feels like he’s putting a lot of emphasis on what’s unseen and what’s felt through watching you all experience mundanity, even though it’s in this major life moment when a lot of change is taking place. Your sister has died, and your son is coming into his own.
I think it’s hard to view a quiet movie without also feeling inert, and I did not get that feeling as I was watching as an audience member divorcing myself from having been a part of making the movie. This movie really moves and flows, and I’m interested and I want to stay with it. Because sometimes when you’re watching a “quiet film” where nothing really happens outside of mundane details, it doesn’t really hold your interest. I think it’s actually really difficult to do a film like this that’s so unattainable.
It’s very restrained. You have a diverse filmography, but is restraint something you typically look for in a script? Is that what drew you to this one?
I had a pretty good feeling about the execution of the script. And I loved the script. But I actually signed on, primarily, because I was familiar with Andrew Ahn’s first feature, “Spa Night.” I saw it at my local theater, and I was really moved by it in the same way that you said you were quietly moved by “Driveways.” That’s how I felt about “Spa Night,” and about Andrew Ahn as a director. He’s able to be concise about what it is that’s touching about a relationship or a moment. What’s the significance of it? And what can we imply about the character or the situation from this little detail. I think it takes a very sensitive intelligence to do that.
So, he was a name that I just kept in the back of my head, because I felt that “Spa Night” didn’t get as much attention or press as I was hoping it would have.
How did you meet him?
The thing that really made me fall in love with Andrew—when I met him for coffee and we talked for like three hours—was when I asked him how the script came to him, and he told me about how he had met with Joe Pirro and James Schamus and they had all seen “Spa Night,” and they were all talking to him and asking like, “What do you want to do? Where do you want to go after this? What kind of films do you want to work on?” And he said, “I want to work on intimate family stories.” [Pause] Who gives that answer?! You know, usually after someone has got their first feature under their belt they’re really ambitious and career-ist. It’s always something like, “I want to take on the James Bond franchise!” And here’s this guy talking about intimate family stories and I thought, “I got to ride with this guy.”
He was a delightful human being, as well, and I just felt like I wanted to be with him throughout his career and make sure that he, you know, gets to do more things, because I think he’s so talented. When we talk about being deserving, I think he deserves. And it’s not because he checks boxes of being Korean or being gay, or any of that. That is the thing that sort of bugs me whenever we talk opportunity and progress and diversity. I think the individual work often gets tossed to the wayside and people focus too much on the boxes being checked. And I just don’t think Andrew Ahn is the same kind of director as James Wan, or Jon Chu, or any of these other people. So, it’s like, let’s just talk about his work and what makes him unique and special.
Were decisions like the one made to casually say “fuck” around your 8-year-old son and not really be worried about him misinterpreting your words—are those the kind of decisions you two talked through and figured out as you went along? Or are most character decisions played as they were written in the script?
I think I might have added a couple more fucks than what was in the script. [Laughs] And I think that they were edited out. I think I dropped a lot more F-bombs during the shoot. I’m sure they had a discussion about that afterward.
But yeah, we worked on character a lot. I think he was the perfect director for each of the actors. Lucas was 12 at the time when we filmed. And I think Brian was 80.
This was Lucas’ very first film ever. He had done some episodic work on “Fuller House” or something like that. But, this was his first film, and a film like “Driveways” asks different things of you than “Fuller House.” So, you know, we needed to give him room to learn and get things wrong without feeling like he was failing at it.
What was that like? Did you all have to do numerous takes with him for each scene?
Yeah, I knew when I signed up for this that the kid and the old guy were going to get way more takes than me. [Laughs] You go into it knowing that. And that’s exactly what happened. You know, Lucas needs a lot of takes to hit a mark because he doesn’t quite understand what the frame looks like, or how soft or hard the mark is. It’s something you have to learn as you go. It’s not like somebody is gifted at actually hitting their mark. It just takes practice.
And then Brian. He was 80 years old! It’s hard! It’s really hot in Poughkeepsie during the summer, or at least it was that summer. And we didn’t have trailers. We just had little spots in the house where we could put our stuff down and sit. He’d sit in the living room right next to the crafty table and talk to people all day. He just loved to chat with people, and he has this really great youthful energy. Certainly, more than me. I find that I hit a wall at a certain point, and I need to be by myself. But Brian can talk all day long, so I was really impressed by that.
“Driveways” arrives on VOD on May 7.