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When Alex Kutzman walks into a room you immediately feel at ease. He sits down on the little stage right in front of us and smiles widely.
He is genuine.Real. And you can tell he LOVES what he does, even the part of answering questions in a room filled with 25 bloggers.
I immediately knew this interview was going to be fun, heart felt and I was going to learn something huge about the movie I had just finished watching.
When asked about where the story came from, Alex said, “Well I met my sister when I turned 30.” You could hear a gasp in the room. We had no idea that this story took on a huge personal meaning for him.
He had found out that his dad had another family before theirs. “I went to a party that night and a woman walked up to me and said, “I’m your sister.” So this began the 7 year odyssey of trying to worth through it.”
He also said that in many ways this film is very autobiographical and in other ways there is a lot of invention in the movie.
When he first started writing this film, he said he never thought he would pitch it. It was more of just a outlet for him. A safety blanket he kept returning to. “Our first draft was really bad.” Alex believed the reason for his draft being completely wrong was because he was going so far away from the truth of his own life. After 8 months he finally got back to where he wanted the film to be.
“When I gave it to everyone at DreamWorks I told them “you don’t have to like it and you certainly do not have to make it. I just want to know what you think of it.” Dreamworks received his script on a Thursday and on Saturday he got the phone call, “We are making a movie.”
A movie that took on a very personal and real story from the director was finally going to happen. His story of finding your family was about to come to the big screen.
One of the last questions was what it meant to him to be a father, what did he think was most important.
“I guess I would say that to me the most important thing is presence. It really is important.”
Well said Mr. Kutzman. Well said.
People Like Us is in theaters June 29th.
** I was given the opportunity to travel to Los Angeles for the People Like Us Screening and interview. No monetary compensation was made and all opinions express are 100% my own.
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