The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down to chat with
A Family Affair
director Richard Lagravenese.
Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, and Joey King star in Netflix’s new romantic comedy, along with Kathy Bates and Liza Koshy.
During this interview, Lagravenese discusses working with the ensemble cast, the inspiration behind the main character, and what real-life experiences drew him to this script.

Coming down from the rom-com high of The Idea of You? If you’re on the hunt for your next guiltless pleasure, look no further. It’s been 10 years since director Richard Lagravenese helmed a production, but Netflix’s A Family Affair, a unique coming-of-all-ages take on the genre, was just the script to get him back on set. In fact, all the elements of a rom-com are served up from a stellar cast led by Zac Efron, Nicole Kidman, and Joey King, but it’s also a fun peek behind the scenes at the dynamics of the industry, which is exactly what inspired Lagravenese.

A Family Affair introduces us to Zara Ford (King), an aspiring Hollywood producer who’s currently working as the personal assistant to action star Chris Cole (Efron). She’s put up with a lot from her out-of-touch boss in the hopes of reaching her goals, but when Chris’s demands become a little too outrageous, Zara finally puts her foot down and quits. This move derails her plans, but at least she doesn’t have to put up with Chris’s antics anymore! Until a chance meeting between her ex-boss and her mother, played by the Oscar-winning Kidman, proves too steamy for the pair to deny their feelings for each other.

Ahead of the film’s streaming premiere, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff got the chance to sit down with Lagravenese, writer-director of P.S. I Love You and Beautiful Creatures, to find out what exactly it was about A Family Affair that was too good to pass up. During their conversation, the director reveals which Hollywood studio CEO inspired King’s character, what was so unique about this particular romantic comedy script, why no one else could have played the three leading roles, and tons more.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.

A Family Affair (2024) An unexpected romance triggers comic consequences for a young woman, her mother, and her boss, grappling with the complications of love, sex, and identity.Release Date June 28, 2024 Director Richard La Gravenese Runtime 111 Minutes Main Genre Comedy Writers Carrie Solomon Expand

This Hollywood CEO Inspired Joey King’s Character
Image via Netflix

PERRI NEMIROFF: One of the things I loved about the story was the emphasis on Zara being an underappreciated assistant. Whether it’s a personal assistant or someone on set, can you name someone you would dub an unsung hero who deserves more credit for the work that they do?

RICHARD LAGRAVENESE: Every good assistant. I’ve been in this business so long. I have seen assistants good and not so good, and the ones who really care about that job and make that job a priority and do well are the ones who wind up running studios later on. This character was based on a specific person for that — my friend Pam Abdy, who’s running Warner Brothers now. When I first met Pam she was Danny DeVito’s assistant, and she’s from Jersey and Danny’s from Jersey. Watching the two of them was such a joy because Pam never let Danny get away with it just because he was a movie star, and he loved that about her. That’s why he loved her. And so, that dynamic of why Zara speaks back to Chris and why he loves her is because of that dynamic. That was inspired by them.

In the movie, Zara goes to work for Chris as an assistant in hopes that he’ll help her rise in the industry.

LAGRAVENESE: And she’ll learn the business. Exactly.

He’s gotta come around to doing that, but can you name someone in your career who did that for you? Someone who believed in you and gave you the nudge up just when you needed it?

LAGRAVENESE: Stacey Sher, who was the first person to read The Fisher King, and then she gave the script to Linda Obst and Deborah Hill. Those three women really gave me the confidence and started my career.

I love putting the spotlight on people like that. It’s a hard business. No one goes up without help and support from others.

LAGRAVENESE: They were extraordinary. I was very lucky with those three women.

Coming-of-Age Stories Aren’t Just for High School

So this is your first film that you’re directing in 10 years. What was it about this script that made you think, “This is the material and now is the time?”

LAGRAVENESE: I loved Carrie [Solomon’s] script. I thought it was smart and fresh and of today. It was a millennial voice that I don’t have, and I was attracted to it. I liked the idea of a romantic comedy that could evolve into a coming-of-age story for three different characters at three different stages of their ages. The Cole character, being similar to my age, goes through what I call a Second Adulthood, where you wake up after you’ve achieved a lot of things in life, and you are this person that everybody thinks you are, and you go, “Wait a minute, who am I really? And who did I forget or drop along the way?” You come out from hiding. That’s what’s happened to me in my personal life, so that’s what attracted me to do it now.

I love the emphasis on a variety of coming-of-age experiences because I feel like everyone boxes it into, “Oh, it’s a high school movie — it’s a coming-of-age movie.” You come of age at so many stages!

LAGRAVENESE: Always. That’s what’s great about life. You can keep growing up. I’m still growing up.

We literally all are, whether we’re willing to admit it or not.

What is something about what you’ve experienced in the last 10 years that you found evolving your craft as a director here?

LAGRAVENESE: I have to say the last movie I did, The Last Five Years, which wasn’t a movie to do for the market or anything like that, it was just because I love musicals and I love that musical. I did it for the fans of the musical and for myself. It was kind of experimental because it was all song. What I was able to do with the camera and with my cameraman gave me confidence in movement and in visual storytelling. That helped a lot. That kind of opened me up because there wasn’t any pressure about Hollywood. I knew it wasn’t going to succeed. I knew it was gonna be just a small movie for me, but that was my favorite experience before this one.

Nicole Kidman Was at the Heart of ‘A Family Affair’
Image Via Netflix

I have to talk about the casting in this movie because I look at your three main roles here and I see actors who just so heavily defined those characters. When you first signed on, how did you picture those three characters, and when you found out who was going to play them, how did those characters change?

LAGRAVENESE: When I first found out, I was really excited and a little intimidated because they’re all so talented. When we started working, it was one of those things where no one else could have played those roles. Zac understood him immediately. He got the humor and the tenor and the tone of him completely. Joey was amazing, versatile, funny, and moving. She has access to all her talent. And Nicole is Nicole. Here is this iconic actress in the middle of all of it, glowing and being the spine for the whole thing with her humor and her ease and her truth. They were all honest. They were never faking it, in a way. They were never pushing it. They were all genuine, and that’s what makes the humor funny and that’s what makes the emotion real.

Image via Netflix.

Joey and Zac were telling me a little bit about how much improv and riffing happened on this set, so that made me wonder, of all the scenes in the movie, which one changed the most from script to screen because of it?

LAGRAVENESE: The one that keeps coming to mind is the scene in the car, because we shot that over and over and over from different angles, and Zac would come up with different things to say each time. [Laughs] The idea of him winning an improv contest when he was a kid, that’s Zac, and he only said that once. His riffing off of Cher, the list of things he left at his girlfriend’s apartment, a lot of that stuff would change. That’s the one that comes to mind.

I’m gonna end with my most important question of the bunch. It’s another personal question inspired by the film because I love the grocery store bit and his enthusiasm for cereal at the end. I need you to rank your top three cereals.

LAGRAVENESE: Right now my top one is Kashi [Berry Fruitful]. That’s my top right now. I don’t really have any others.

I like that you came to play and you had an answer in your back pocket.

LAGRAVENESE: I’ve been eating it nonstop for some reason.

I’ll add one more layer to that because Oreos are also brought up. What is your favorite kind of Oreo?

LAGRAVENESE: Oh, I like the Thin Mint ones because I put them in the fridge and they get cold.

You are a snack pro!

A Family Affair is now available to stream on Netflix.

Watch on Netflix