In From Embers, director Kate Bowen throws together the story of two parents trying their best to be there for their children against insurmountable odds. Lily Xu (Kara Wang) struggles to support her young son Kevin (Alexander J. Lee) after the death of her husband in a lab fire, while getting the runaround from their insurance company. Meanwhile, divorced dad Marty Baker (Matthew Morrison) seeks to spend as much time as possible with his daughter Chloe (Kayla Bohan), who shares his love of music, though their relationship also faces hurdles of its own, as Marty struggles with addiction.

I had the chance to speak with stars Matthew Morrison, Kayla Bohan, Kara Wang, and Kathryn Morris — who plays Angela, a confidant of Lily’s — as the film wraps up its limited release in Los Angeles and ahead of its premiere in San Francisco and New York City. We talked about what drew the cast to the project, with Wang and Morris highlighting the complexities of their characters, while Morrison and Bohan shared how they bonded over music, just as their characters did. They also talked about the challenges of filming during the historic Hollywood strikes last summer, and shared the hopeful messages they hope the audience take away from the film. Read on for the full transcripts below:

Music Helped the Stars of ‘From Embers’ Bond
Image via Indican Pictures

COLLIDER: In From Embers , a big part of your character’s relationship is music. Could the two of you speak to getting to explore this musician side of yourselves alongside the acting side?

KAYLA BOHAN: Behind the scenes, I’m in a band. We are a cover band but we are working on our own songs, mostly indie rock or anything we want to play. But that’s where I mostly got my musical skills. I play guitar — electric and acoustic — and I like to sing sometimes. That’s my background, but I have written some songs, my personal songs, and two of them are in From Embers.

MATTHEW MORRISON: That’s where we first connected. She had this song called Panorama, they sent it to me and I was like, “this is so cool, but I would love to collaborate just to make it beefier and juicier and more connected to my character,” since my character is the one who’s singing it in the movie. And that was how we bonded before we even shot anything. We just got to be in a room creating music together, and it was so much fun and so bonding. Just a great setup for where we, our relationship ultimately would, it would end up being on screen.

To your question about the acting part of it, I feel like the father-daughter bond is so at the heart of this film and I feel like the innocence in her eyes and stuff is something that really keeps him grounded when his whole world is crumbling around him. I feel like music is such a bonding thing for so many people, and so many people who are coping with things. I love that that was a centerpiece in this movie.

Kayla, you mentioned that you got to write a couple of songs for the movie. I wanted to ask — I enjoy music, but I’m not a musician myself — so is it very different writing for a movie soundtrack versus writing music for your band, or do you find it kind of comes from the same place, inspiration-wise and process-wise?

BOHAN: It’s definitely not challenging in that way, but there are some differences between my personal songs and songs for movies. You genuinely have to take it more seriously for movies. And for these two, since they both have different topics — one’s a lullaby, one’s more of a deeper song — and the way I wrote them was from just personal feelings. I really just put a lot of emotions into writing them. How these songs are different to my personal songs are really just the lyrics and the topics.

MORRISON: Can I ask you a follow up question? In your own personal music, what are you writing about?

BOHAN: My personal music is really just about my life. I’ll write a song, like “LA to New York,” that was my first ever song I wrote when I was like seven or eight. It was about “I miss my brother who lives in New York.” Then I wrote another song, “Last Day of 10 Years Old.” It was my first rapping song, definitely wasn’t the best, but it was a great experience. All my personal songs are just freestyle, whatever I like to write because I don’t take it too seriously, it’s just a fun hobby for me.

The Hollywood Strikes Presented a Hurdle for ‘From Embers’
Image via Indican Pictures

Diving into the movie itself, this is a bit of a two-parter. For the two of you, what was something about the process that went surprisingly smoothly, like something you maybe did not anticipate going this well. And then on the flip side, something that was surprisingly challenging.

MORRISON: I’ll go with the challenging part first. We were four days into shooting, and that’s when the writers strike happened. So we had to stop shooting four days into it, which I think might have been a tactic, because the movies that actually started production already had more of a leniency to be able to get the rider that said you could actually start filming again.

But we had a week [off], and I don’t live in Los Angeles, where we were filming the movie, so I was like, “am I staying here?” There was just so much, and I know everyone on the creative side, Kate [Bohan], our director, were working like crazy to try to get production back up and going. That was an interesting block, and a challenge that we had to go through. Ultimately, we shot this film in 22 days and that sounds like such a short period of time, and it is. But I was just so amazed by how smooth everything went. The whole crew was like a well oiled machine, and the acting, everyone came on set with their lines memorized, and ready to just be creative and just let loose and have fun. It was incredibly smooth with being so piecemeal and then so many people just figuring this thing out. It was very collaborative.

BOHAN: I don’t know too much about the strike, but I do know it really caused everyone to be under a lot of stress. I also thought it was really impressive how well the movie came out. 22 days is honestly not that long, right? It’s less than a month, and we finished that in less than the span of one summer. I just knew that was the main challenge for everyone, the strike and not really knowing what to do for the first couple of days. But it really surprised me how fun it was to be on set, how let loose we all were, and the bonds that were created and the friendships that were created on set. This has got to be one of my favorite projects so far. I got closer to the crew, I got closer to my actor friends like Matthew, and it was just so surprising how it was such a big success.

This is such a beautiful family story, such a grounded story. I was wondering what you are hoping that audiences take away from it at the end of the day.

MORRISON: For me, I feel like this is the story of our culture. This is our tragedy, this is our ongoing pandemic. We don’t know how love works, right? Love falls apart and when we don’t want it to, it hurts, it leaves dents, and then we end up watching our children being raised by other people. I think this film is such a great conversation starter, and a question that it leaves us with, hopefully, is where are we gonna find the wisdom, when are we gonna figure this out? When are we gonna get the story that doesn’t have this be something that so many people can relate to? I think in order to heal our wounds, we have to uncover them, and it hurts, but we have to kind of look at what it is so we can address it.

BOHAN: I just hope this movie can be a reminder how people have their own lives, they have their own thoughts, they have their own situations behind their social life. I hope this movie can really just be a reminder to everyone that if you have a friend that is going through something, reach out, really reach out, even if you might think you’re just being a burden to reach out, reach out anyways. You might not know what’s gonna happen. But this movie is just about love, family and our society.

MORRISON: And to the other side of what Kayla just said, I feel like, if you’re going through something, don’t be afraid to reach out to someone else to get help, because you don’t have to carry the burden of what you’re going through alone. Be it family member or a friend, a therapist, going to a hospital and checking yourself in and getting help. Because it’s a tough world out there, and we’re just all trying to figure it out. We’re all just playing make-believe. We’re all going through this. I think about our currency, and money and stuff, it’s all make believe. We all just made everything up. Luckily, we get to tell stories that might affect people in a way that helps them with their own lives, and they can feel seen through the art that we were putting out in the world.

The Dynamic Characters of ‘From Embers’ Appealed to the Stars
Image via Indican Pictures

COLLIDER: What was it that drew you two to this project?

KARA WANG: I was really drawn to the character of Lily, because Lily, as a character, is very different from who I am as Kara. One of the driving forces for her character is that she is a mom, and that her son is on the autism disorder spectrum. I really wanted to make sure that that was one of the things I focused a lot of my energy on, because I wanted to make sure there was care taken with that storyline in particular. But I was really excited to take on this challenge because I think that Lily, as a character, is very complex, very three-dimensional. There was a swath of emotions that she experienced just in the time frame of the film.

KATHRYN MORRIS: When I read the script, I was interested in being part of it because I am a single mother of twins with autism, and I thought it would be interesting to play a member of the fabric of the hero’s life, the hero being Lily. I understand the story because it is my story as well.

So often the surrounding characters are not really fleshed out in the way of “I don’t know what to do”-ness, and I thought that was an interesting challenge for the character of Angela is that she’s there, and she’s present, but she doesn’t necessarily know what to do. She has complicated aspects of her personality and her corporate-ness, and just how she weaves into the family.

When you sign on to any project, you go into it with a certain level of expectation based on what you know about it and what you’ve seen going in. But was there something, once you joined, about Lily and about Angela that really surprised you as you began the process?

WANG: We shot this film in the middle of the strike, and right after the pandemic and we shot it in, I think it was like 22 days, or something like that. So it was a pretty short shoot for something [where] there were, like Catherine said, so many fleshed out and dynamic characters in this film. But going day to day to set, and getting a chance to experience these scenes in real time with my incredible scene partners, because Catherine and Matty and Alexander [Lee] were fantastic.

I was surprised a lot actually, in some of the scenes. I think the different colors of Lily, and her true driving force and intention became very clear as I was doing these scenes because for me, it was very clear that Kevin’s — my son, in the film — wellbeing and his normalcy, as much normalcy as possible, even though there’s so much change happening is my first and foremost priority. I had a great time. It’s also always a treat to work with great scene partners such as Matty and Catherine, because that also brings a lot of surprises while we’re just getting the opportunity to do the scenes of play together.

MORRIS: I would say it was a refreshing surprise to see how upbeat and positive everyone was shooting in a complicated strike period of time. It just reminded me of why we do it. To see the way that Kara was so professional, and so effortless. And with Alexander Lee, this young actor, playing a really challenging role, very emotional and very intense. Everyone was just upbeat, and happy, and the crew was extremely efficient. Kate Bohan was so positive and that’s really a feat in itself in a business that’s really undergone massive challenges.

We touched on the challenge of this, the filming during the strike. But I’m curious what was something that during this process was just unexpectedly smooth and straightforward and maybe a way you hadn’t thought it would be. Maybe you thought it would be a challenge, but then you’re like, actually this is not proving to be as complicated as you thought.

WANG: What comes to mind for me is, you know, when you start any project, you, you really don’t know what you’re going to get, especially with an indie, because there’s so many moving pieces just to make any film happen, whether it’s a big one or a small one. And you go on set with other actors, we’re all creatives, sometimes you just don’t know if you’re going to gel, or if you guys have the same working style, or how people are on and off set. But for me, I thought one of the most joyful things in this experience was how well I got along with the other members of the cast.

I had mentioned earlier, I really enjoyed my scenes with Matty Maddie Morrison, because we just got along so well from day one. So it really felt like I was going on set and just getting to hang with a friend, and actually do our jobs together, which was really great. We had great chemistry and we built great rapport and so I think that came through in the scenes as well.

MORRIS: I would agree. I also was very surprised at the efficiency with the locations department. It sounds like a little small thing, but those things really can make or break a film, and they seem to just have it way organized. How do I put it? Things were very well mapped out so that it would be easy when you just came to start to do the acting.

‘From Embers’ Felt “Unexpected” For the Cast
Image via Indican Pictures

This movie plays with a lot of genre. It’s a family drama, a very intimate family piece. There’s elements of a thriller to it. Can you talk about striking that genre balance as a performer? I know this might just be part and parcel of the job, but jumping between genre in that way in the same project?

MORRIS: I liked the unexpected nature of it. I personally hate when I start watching a movie and I go, “oh, I don’t need to spend two hours, I already know the ending.” I liked how you thought it was about one thing, and then it became about another thing, and then, “oh, wow, that’s affecting me in a way I didn’t expect. And, oh, here’s some joy. Here’s some really beautiful joy.” [to Wang] I wanted you and Alexander to have your moment. Just the two of you with the quiet, as I understand that with my twins, I’m always trying to find individual time with each child, and I felt like this movie did a good job of weighing out all of the different the genres that came together into one family story.

WANG: Ditto Catherine’s answer because I think she hit all the points.

What is it that you hope audiences take from the story and from this movie at the end of the day?

WANG: For me, I would love for audiences to walk away feeling like the human experience is messy, but can be a beautiful thing. Life is just not neat, in a box with a bow on it, and no matter what human experience you’re living in, and what roles you have to play in your life, if it’s a mom, a friend, a sister, et cetera. Those dynamics can be messy, but they also can bring so much joy and so much complexity into life. I think that the other thing I would love for audiences to walk away from is that women are very resilient and women are badass, period.

MORRIS: I would agree, life is complicated. My heart always does go to a movie that has autism as a topic, because it’s a hidden community and what the mothers go through was really the tip of the iceberg of what her character went through. And love can come at unexpected times, and everyone is struggling financially right now, it’s just complicated times, and I felt invigorated and also hopeful watching the movie.

From Embers will premiere in San Francisco and New York later this month.