Out today on digital and VOD, Monuments is a quirky comedy about grief directed by Jack C. Newell. 1091 Pictures’ film stars David Sullivan, Marguerite Moreau, Javier Muñoz, Rivkah Reyes, and Joel Murray.
“When Laura (Moreau) is killed in an accident, her estranged husband, Ted (Sullivan), wants to honor their time together by scattering her ashes where they first fell in love,” reads the official synopsis. “But, he’s being chased by her family and the memory of the mistakes he made in life.”
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Monuments star Marguerite Moreau about the emotional comedy, its themes of grief, and her incredible career.
Tyler Treese: It’s not super often that you get to play a character that dies very early on in the film and keeps showing up what really attracted you to the project. And was it kind of weird that you knew you were going to be dead for most of it?
Marguerite Moreau: It was definitely weird that I was going to be dead for most of it, but I was kind of excited because I could kind of take what the writer wrote of the character and just run with it in terms of like what her life was and how she ends up. I thought it looks so fun to have so much permission that this girl gives herself when she’s dead. It kind of was like, huh, I wonder how much permission we are giving ourselves in life. I think that’s one of the things is life is short. Don’t assume you’re going to have tomorrow
Also a unique shooting experience because nobody else can really see or react to your character besides your husband. Was it strange playing that sort of imagined ghost and how’d you have fun with that role?
Well, as an actor, I was tickled pink because you can say all the things that you can’t say when you’re alive, right to people’s faces, but then the director sometimes was like, “Oh no, you’re not going to be on camera for this. You actually are going to be invisible,” and I was like, “But I’m doing great stuff,” and he’s like, “Marguerite…” I was like, sorry, that’s my ego, but it’s so funny. He’s like, no. I was like, I’ll just film it just in case in the editing room… I took it and I ran with it is what I’m saying.
Your chemistry with David Sullivan is fantastic and that relationship is really the heart of this film. Can you talk about working with him?
Oh my gosh. That was so fun. David and I just thought along right away, we had never met each other. We met in LA to do a little rehearsal and I think we were both delighted and relieved to have such a good playmate in each other. I think like he really complimented me and my weaknesses and vice versa and was always very open to take a moment that I maybe didn’t understand and ha you know, play with it and flesh it out and the same with him. When you’re together some days for a long time, some days you’re at 11 and other days, you’re at eight. So on those days that you’re like, “Hey, come over here and let’s create some things so that I can get up to speed.” It’s nice to have a partner to work with because sometimes working on a film for an actor, even if it’s an ensemble, you can feel really alone and working all by yourself. It’s kind of a practice like that, you know? So when you do have fun actors to work with, it’s great.
One thing I really liked about the film was that it has that small-town feel. it has that charm with the setting and there are so many fun characters in the film. Can you talk about that quirkiness that Monuments has?
I think I felt really lucky to very early on do a cast table read so that I could see what the characters that fill out the world were off the page. That really helped inform the sort of energy that the story needed to be told in that kind of heightened style that the director was looking for.
So much of the film is about dealing with grief and how to cope with loss. It’s such a relatable subject matter as it’s something everybody goes through. Is that what really drew you to the project and can you talk about those themes?
Yeah. My pop had died before that recently and it was something that I wanted to do. I have a small child and the opportunity to get to think about grief in a safe container by myself that was work and comedy seemed really restorative for me. I appreciate that the film and the makers were so honest about how grief is different for everybody. It’s a weird thing that you don’t really know until you experience it and there’s no one way, and it’s hard to face. I don’t think David would mind me saying that on the first night that we got to Chicago, we went out for a glass of wine and I shared the story I just did with you about my dad, and he said, you know, my dad died too. And I said, “Okay, so it looks like we’re going to do some processing here.” At the end of the film, he’s like, “Yeah, I didn’t really think about my dad.” I was like, I really have come to a next place in my grief. We were like, all right, we just had a great time together, but we’re totally doing different things. So funny. I was like, David… [groans].
This film got to have a theatrical release in June and with the pandemic, there’s been so much uncertainty. What did it mean for you to that people could see this quirky, heartfelt film get a theater release, even if limited, in such a time with so much uncertainty? People have been really worried about what this will do to independent cinema.
I really like what the distribution company is working on because they could support art house film by renting this movie. When you went on to rent it in the theatrical, you could choose which theater to support. So if you weren’t comfortable going to the theater, you can say Santa Ana, California, the art house there is where I would have seen it, and half the ticket price would go to them. So it seemed like there was really a space in the marketplace for smaller films that you still want to see on the big screen. Even if right now we cannot attend as much as we’d like to. Mostly I sort of felt there was like maybe that the pandemic provided a better audience. That sounds perverse, but what I mean is right now, more than ever, I feel like we need support in our collective grief and our individual grief. I feel lucky to be able to offer in my own small way as participating in this. I feel like it’s not so heavy-handed and it sort of sneaks in, there’s a lot of levity in the film, so you can feel your feelings and not feel like you’re getting whacked over the head.
I’m a huge fan of The O.C., so I have to ask you about your character in that show. You worked as a comic exec named Reed Carlson. How do you look back on that character, especially with her being a woman in the comics industry, which can be very male-dominated? And were there any funny stories on the set that you can share?
Well, I feel like she would have been at the forefront of all of this development into movies and TV, for sure. Because the comic book is on fire as a visual medium, at least cinema-wise. I would say that I do have a regret to share and that is that with my son growing up, I had gotten to fall in love with Star Wars so hardcore. I just adore it and I always liked it before, but didn’t have that passion or understand that passion that others had until organically I learned the hero myth stories and I went through the small golden books and then we rented books, we did the whole thing. Now looking back and seeing as I had a whole day with George Lucas and it was nice on the day [since] I wasn’t nervous and we can hang out and chat because it wasn’t George Lucas to me, it was just this guy named George Lucas. So I kind of kick myself or I would go back and just ask him about the AT-ATs and ask him about this and that. That would have been really fun to do.
Yeah, I bet. You recently got to reprise your role as Connie in The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. What did that mean for you and was that a bit of a full-circle moment for your career?
Oh, certainly a full circle moment because it’s the first movie I ever did. T get to visit your 13-year-old self, it’s not an opportunity that a lot of actors get to do. I just feel really lucky to kind of go say thank you to the filmmakers and the fans for this amazing experience I had as a kid that really changed my life.
Another very memorable role for you was in Wet Hot American Summer. As an actress, how satisfying is it to know that 10-15 years can pass and people still remember these characters that you played fondly and want to see more of these roles?
It makes my heart swell. I think that we put a lot of work into the projects we get to be a part of and you hope that they find their audience. To be part of those kinds of experiences gives you the energy to just keep being curious and playing. It feels wonderful.
Monuments is out on VOD today. Why should people check it out and what makes it so unique?
I think it’s like if the Cohen brothers and Wes Anderson movies had a baby. Monuments is this quirky, magical, wonderful road trip with a surprising ending of heartbreak.
