ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Treasure stars Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry in regards to the emotional comedy-drama. Bleecker Avenue’s movie focuses on a father and daughter touring to Poland for the primary time because the father survived the Holocaust. The Julia von Heinz-directed movie is now taking part in nationwide.
“A father-daughter street journey set in Nineteen Nineties Poland, Treasure follows Ruth (Dunham), an American music journalist, and her father, Edek (Fry), a charmingly cussed Holocaust survivor, on a journey to his homeland,” says the synopsis for Julia von Heinz’s film. “Whereas Ruth is keen to make sense of her household’s previous, Edek embarks on the journey along with his personal agenda. This emotional, humorous tradition conflict of two New Yorkers exploring post-socialist Poland is a strong instance of how reconnecting with household and the previous will be an sudden treasure.”
Tyler Treese: Stephen, to start with, your character could be very a lot making an attempt to not grapple with the trauma of his previous and the results of the Holocaust. It’s a really pure response and I really feel it’s a really male factor to do as nicely, to very a lot push that away. What did you simply discover most attention-grabbing about actually exploring that wall that folks put up as a protection mechanism?
Stephen Fry: You’ve completely put your finger on it, I feel. I had the expertise of my very own grandfather and different members of my mom’s facet of the household who had been European Jewish and who’d clearly, by definition, survived. The armor, or the wall as you place it, is a mix of humor. Simply flipping issues away with a joke or simply merely ignoring it.
It’s comprehensible, as you additionally mentioned, since you think about going by means of that have and then you definately arrive in America and, you actually, are within the land of freedom, there’s Girl Liberty while you arrive and all of the cliches of Ellis Island, however you carry up a, a daughter and there we’re in a free nation, all that behind us. It’s very comprehensible. You don’t need to have interaction with it.
It’s equally comprehensible that some folks may by no means escape it, that they’d be serious about it and be form of closed down. However my grandfather and Edek had had that related factor of simply being on the market and embarrassing us as grandchildren by speaking to strangers on the street and changing into instantaneous greatest associates and all these issues that Edek does. I simply assume it’s, and I noticed this with the script; the character leaped off with such authenticity and truthfulness and his relationship along with his daughter, which is such a profound and essential factor. It simply appears so true.
Lena, this movie offers with quite a lot of heavy topics, however there’s additionally quite a lot of actually humorous comedy right here, they usually actually complement the gorgeous dramatic scenes that you simply share with Stephen. I used to be actually impressed by the sensitivity you present in these scenes. As a inventive your self, what did you want most about this steadiness of comedy and drama and discovering this humor out of such trauma?
Lena Dunham: Properly, I feel what was, so, I imply, moreover the irresistible truth of working with folks as proficient as Julia and Stephen, each of whom are heroes to me in several and important methods, I used to be so excited to learn a script that was prepared to interact within the humor that could be a survival mechanism for everyone who offers with trauma. The artwork of humor has been such a vital a part of Jewish survival, and we discover [it’s] such a vital a part of the survival of anybody who has… We talked about this so much within the course of, is there’s ache, after which there at all times should be jokes. Additionally, the place there may be household, there may be comedy. It’s the important recipe.
Stephen put it very well, which is, “There are movies which might be about historical past with a capital H, and people have to exist.” And I can’t take credit score for that quote. That’s all him. “After which there are movies in regards to the folks which have been affected by historical past and who come after historical past.” I feel for me, I actually did really feel my job was to only stand there and form of be as a lot as I may as scaffold for this extremely affecting efficiency of Stephen’s. As a result of for lots of the movie, my character is form of a petulant brat in that she has not but been in a position to perceive why her father is the best way he’s. It isn’t by going again to the place they’re from. She does get what she desires, which is a glimpse of who her father is, however in a really completely different approach than she anticipated. She develops an understanding of why she was raised the best way she was raised.
I actually associated to that as a author and as somebody who grew up in a Polish Jewish immigrant household the place these matters weren’t at entrance of thoughts. I used to be at all times the child who was pushing and asking and demanding. And I’m certain it was maddening for the folks round me. I really feel like this movie helped me perceive deeply why my grandmother, my grandfather, who jogs my memory a substantial amount of Edek, and even my mom, there have been issues that they wished to maneuver ahead, not backward. They usually noticed not sharing sure issues as safety, whereas I noticed fact because the antidote to every little thing. So along with an incredible inventive expertise, it allowed quite a lot of interpersonal understanding for me inside my family.
The director advised me that you simply lived just about in the identical place in New York Metropolis because the creator of the ebook and your households had been from the identical a part of Poland. It simply appeared like meant to be.
Dunham: That was only a loopy coincidence. It was wild to me that her household got here from the identical place that mine did in Poland and that each of us ended up dwelling in the identical four-block radius or so in downtown New York within the Eighties, which was a spot the place there was an enormous quantity of… it was an extremely numerous neighborhood the place many sorts of immigrants got here to stay, however there was an enormous preponderance of Jap European Jewish immigrants. The truth that we had been in a position to share all of that, and he or she was so deeply moved as a result of I feel watching Stephen made her really feel like she had her father again in a approach.
Stephen, you talked about modeling your efficiency in your grandfather, and I like the little touches that you simply each put into the father-daughter relationship. I like how he’s at all times embarrassing her and speaking her up. It’s a very cute dynamic. How was it growing that forwards and backwards with Lena?
Fry: It was made straightforward by the truth that I simply fell in love together with her the second we met. After all, she introduced together with her the wonderful historical past of her profession, which is so stellar. Women knocked my socks off. That’s the fitting phrase? Blew them off. Oh, knocked me off my socks, one thing to do with socks [laughs], and so much to do with intercourse. Let’s be trustworthy. It was eyeopening for a homosexual man to need to see what was happening on this different species that I had solely actually heard about and hadn’t correctly researched.
However no, we laughed on a regular basis, and it was so candy as a result of Julia, the director, when she was fairly nervous once we had our desk learn, and the second Lena and I had been collectively, she simply checked out us and noticed that we had been household one way or the other right away. After all, in filming, particularly when it will get to these extra emotional moments, you want the arrogance to try to fail in entrance of the digital camera to overdo it, underdo it, however to not be embarrassed, not in any technique to be self-conscious, which is absolutely the bane of a movie actor’s life. As a result of the digital camera sees it. So the truth that I used to be so fully comfortable with Lena made it actually only a pleasure each day to share digital camera area together with her and, certainly, share off-camera area.
Dunham: I simply, I used to be saying I really feel like from the minute that we arrived in Poland firstly. I imply, actually, from the desk. From the second we arrived in Poland collectively in February to the second that we wrapped firstly of Might, I felt like we began a dialog that simply by no means ended prefer it existed between takes; it existed throughout takes, and that’s not one thing you can essentially create. It’s there.
You may attempt to create bonds with folks, however it’s a bit like a blind date the place you present up, and also you go hoping this all works as deliberate. From the minute, he was such a hero of mine that, after all, there’s that nervousness. However he made me so comfy, his humorousness, his approach of being. He actually did really feel associated to me and has continued to. And I feel that lengthy, chilly winter would’ve been a really completely different factor had I not been laughing and smiling and feeling so secure and realizing I used to be growing a familial relationship off-camera as nicely.
Fry: So don’t overlook the second I arrived in Poland. I examined optimistic for Covid. They needed to movie the one scenes wherein you had been by yourself.
Dunham: Appropriate. They mentioned, “Now we have some excellent news. Stephen made it. Now we have some much less excellent news. He has Covid.” And I went and I caught a notice below his door. I used to be on the verge of asking if he wished to play playing cards below the door, however I don’t wanna overdo it. However the minute that he received on the market, he introduced the spirit.
I at all times brag in regards to the second that he delivered his massive scene the place he speaks Polish all through your entire scene to the household that has taken over the house that he lived in when he was youthful. I’ve by no means seen this earlier than. All the crew gave him a standing ovation, and that was like a type of moments the place you go, “I’ll always remember this. For this reason we do what we do.”
