Madelyn Deutch has admitted that she was surprised to see just how chemistry she had with her younger sister Zoey in The Year Of Spectacular Men, which she wrote and starred in and was directed by her mother Lea Thompson.
“We were surprised by how chemistry I have with Zoey,” Madelyn admitted when I sat down with her and Thompson earlier this week ahead of the release of “The Year Of Spectacular Men.”
“The thing people talk about the most is that when we are together in a scene it is very compelling. I am really proud of that. Because you never know.”
“Chemistry is really weird. It is an alchemy that is hard to understand. I don’t think we quite knew that our energies together on camera in a scene would be so good.”
Thompson they jumped in with, “They are sisters so they are definitely combustible in real life sometimes. I think that combustion is what made it so compelling.”
The “Back To The Future” actress admitted that Madelyn and Zoey’s on-screen dynamic was immediately apparent behind the camera, which obviously made her “really excited. Super excited.”
“I know that Zoey is a great actress, she has been in a lot of movies. I know that Maddie is a great actress, but I didn’t know she was so funny. So has specific, difficulty comedy chops that I was so delighted to see.”
“The Year Of Spectacular Men” revolves around Madelyn’s Izzy, who over the course of 12 months strikes up several relationships with men in different parts of the US. Zoey’s Sabrina is her younger sister and a successful actress, while Thompson is their mother Deb.
This led me to wonder just how close the characters were to their real-life personalities, a question the duo were more than happy to answer.
“She is very unlike me. There’s not really that much in all three of the characters,” Madelyn insisted, before Thompson added the caveat of, “I have to say we are all probably way too close to be able to answer that. Love for sure, though.”
“We love each other like crazy. It is definitely made with love. Every single frame of this movie is made with love.”
This provoked Deutch to insist, “The use of love, co-dependency and support and being in mesh and up in each others’ stuff, for sure.
“But I on purpose wrote people that weren’t like us because I think the hardest thing for people to do is play themselves. So I looked to write something different.”
Madelyn was always adamant that she would be the one to play Izzy, especially because she wanted to make sure the character was brought to life in the right way.
“The reason I wanted to play her was that she was very unusual on the page. And people didn’t really understand her on the page.”
“Men liked her. But a lot of young women really didn’t. They were very intolerant of her choices. They were almost annoyed and angered by her.”
“Because she is very much her own person. And a unique character. Honestly the biggest reason I wanted to play her was to protect her. I didn’t think that people really got her on the page. I didn’t compromise as a writer. I don’t think people are annoyed by her as she comes to life.”
Izzy’s transformation from script to screen was such that Madelyn even decided to change the ending of the film to accommodate her growth.
“The big alteration along the way was that the ending changed. I had written an ending that in theory was awesome on paper, and as a narrative concept worked.”
“But then when we saw the movie we realized it no longer worked. We didn’t quite realize that when Izzie came to life as a character you would love her so much. I gave her much more of a bow ending in the script. It was abundantly clear that it wasn’t her real ending.”
“The Year Of Spectacular Men” is now in cinemas across the United States, and it is also available on VOD, too.
