Mother-son relationships can be tricky. And if the grown-up son just got divorced and has to move in with his newly sober mother, perhaps it could be even trickier to keep the peace. Writer-director-star Chase Joliet’s new indie feature Grapefruit centers on Travis, an aspiring poet who was just released from prison and now resides at the house of his colorful mom (Rosanna Arquette). After attending an AA meeting with her, Travis meets the eccentric Billie (Steph Barkley, Joliet’s real-life wife), and a connection soon blossoms. It’s a sweet, grounded portrayal of family life amid difficult circumstances that shouldn’t be missed.

We recently caught up with Joliet and Barkley to learn more about bringing a COVID-regulated production to life and their favorite moments from the film.

An Intimate Portrait of ‘Imperfect People’

It must be challenging to star in a movie that you also wrote and are directing simultaneously, but Grapefruit certainly seems like a passion project for Joliet. The end result is a triumph, and sometimes, an acclaimed idea for a film doesn’t originate from a screenplay at all, but rather from a different medium entirely. “It all started with a play I wrote,” Joliet told MovieWeb in detailing how it all started. “I showed it to Steph and our friend Ashley Rae Spillers, she’s in the movie playing Pamela. And they’re like, ‘This is so contained. Why don’t we just try to shoot this?’ Because it was around COVID time that I sat down to try to turn it into a screenplay. And this story started to come out.” He continued:

In the play, the mother has passed away, the son and daughter live in her house. And so I was like, ‘Well, what if she didn’t pass away? And then what if she has these characteristics? And how do I turn a mother into an antagonist, but her wants are what’s best for her son and to love and make the right choices, what she thinks are the right choices?’ And that became really interesting and fascinating to me.

“I pulled on some of my own personal experiences there and then from so many people,” Joliet added. “It’s like, you take from your own personal experience and you kind of tweak those fictitious knobs a little bit to, ‘How can I make this more fun? How can I make this more interesting?’ And you put Travis into character here, and then you’ve got mom over here and Billie over here. So it’s kind of just like, which way do you want to go, and is there a way or can they all be connected? And can these three imperfect people save each other in a way?”

As mentioned earlier, Travis befriends Billie at his mom’s AA meeting, but it’s his mom (Evelyn) who warns against Billie, saying she’s trouble. It’s a dynamic many can relate to: a parent not approving of one of your friends or even a love interest. Anyone in AA may have also heard of the hidden 13th step — don’t date in AA.

Steph Barkley and Chase Joliet Have Chemistry
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Billie is played by Joliet’s wife Steph Barkley, who spoke about what drew her to the character in the first place:

“I love the idea of playing this complicated character and going through, really digging into some sensitive subject matter. I do a lot of comedy. And I think to do comedy, you have to be able to do drama, and I have only had a select few opportunities thus far to play really heavy characters, and this was one of them. And I loved from the beginning the idea of Billie being a friend to Travis, and then really her learning to let her walls down, which is so hard for all of us to do.”

Related: These Great Movies Featured Real-Life Famous Couples (At Least At the Time)

Together, Billie and Travis have a lot of fun, heartfelt, and sometimes tense moments in Grapefruit that make for a well-rounded little “indie that could.” One scene Barkley and Joliet both agree is one of their favorites is a diner scene, where the two of them sit down for lunch for an awkward first date of sorts. “It was the first time of me, you know, in my element,” said Barkley. “I’m having some reactions to whatever substance I’m dealing with, but that scene is so fun because you’re seeing me for the first time, and I really pushed it as far as I could.”

“And finding the balance there,” Joliet added, regarding the diner scene. “We had like a wide range of her performance in that scene. And I think I told her that Billie just represents life, like she’s so full of life, and that’s the thing that glosses over her pain. If I can push outwards into the world, I’m not so hurt inside, whereas [Travis’ mom] Evelyn’s more, ‘If I can stay inside, I don’t have to go outwards.’ So that scene was a lot of fun to do and play with the different levels of humor and really find the balance of our tone throughout the film.”

Rosanna Arquette Tackling Indie ‘Like a Champ’
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The diner scene is arguably the film’s centerpiece moment, since Grapefruit is ultimately a love story that concludes with both Billie and Travis becoming dual central characters. Joliet detailed another standout moment from the film that includes the two of them camping out in someone else’s backyard, looking in on a seemingly pleasant family having dinner, with Travis wondering what it’s like to be “one big, happy family.” Says Joliet:

“It was a scene that meant a lot to me when writing it and sitting down with Steph. And we did it in a two-shot at first, and it was when we sat right down and just hit it. It was just the pauses, everything felt so good. Like, we could just leave this whole scene in a two-shot, and I was like, ‘Yeah, we did it. We’re ready.’ But then I thought, ‘Well, of course I want to get coverage and break in and go tighter into these characters.’ But that was one when you see the scene, and it works. It’s so nice because, as a first-time filmmaker, you see some scenes are harder to work, some scenes are harder to tweak and find what’s working. So that one was really nice.”

Related: How Colossal Perfectly Portrays Alcoholism

And then, of course, there’s Rosanna Arquette, who filmgoers will recognize from classics like Pulp Fiction and After Hours. As Travis’ neurotic mom Evelyn, anyone who’s ever had difficult conversations with their mom — or any sort of parent/guardian, for that matter — will surely relate to the tough talks Evelyn has with Travis throughout the film.

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“She’s incredible,” said Joliet in discussing Arquette’s talent. “She showed up, she drove herself, brought her own wardrobe to this low-budget indie. She read the script, and I remember I got a text from her, from this random number that was like, ‘Hey, I love your script. I’d love to do it. But I can’t shoot it in Texas,’ because of everything that was happening with COVID still being around. So when she said that, I was like, ‘Well, what if I didn’t shoot in Texas?’ And she said, ‘Then I’m game.’ And it was incredible.” Joliet continued:

We FaceTimed, and we talked about the script, we broke it down together. She came in with so many ideas. And to have somebody like her do that, because you have all these actors that are like, ‘Hey, now’s the time to go do indies instead of studio movies,’ but they’re talking like $5 to $10 million indies or whatever. For her to come and do this movie, I think it’s a real testament to her as an artist.

“She loved the character. There were some things that I cut with her that just didn’t end up making the movie that are just so great and fun, too. But you have to kind of just kill your darlings at times. I mean, I would throw four or five scene scenes a day at her. And she would just take it like a champ.”

It’s a champion performance, in return. Grapefruit is currently seeking distribution, be sure to watch this space for more information.