ComingSoon Senior Movie News Editor Brandon Schreur spoke with Find Me Falling’s Harry Connick Jr. about the Netflix rom-com movie. Connick discussed what drew him to the project and what he brought from his own life to his performance.
“Coming off a flop album and his biggest hit’s dwindling popularity, aging rock star John Allman (Harry Connick Jr.) decides to take a break from his career to reclaim his spark,” the synopsis reads. “He moves to an isolated cliffside home on the idyllic Mediterranean island of Cyprus. His dream of keeping a low profile is derailed when he is routinely confronted by desperate souls and later faced with even more complicated surprises when an old flame reignites.”
Find Me Falling is now streaming on Netflix.
Brandon Schreur: I just wanted to say congratulations on Find Me Falling. I got the chance to check it out this past weekend and really enjoyed it. You’ve been involved with a number of different romantic comedies over the years, from various roles from doing the soundtrack to When Harry Met Sally…, which I absolutely love, to showing up in things like P.S. I Love You. Now you’re here, being the leading man. What drew you to the project?
Harry Connick Jr.: Well, I got the script. I like reading scripts, it’s a part of my life, part of my career, and something I like to pursue. I’m always reading things and seeing what’s out there. I read this one and was really taken by how sweet and complex the story was. When you read a script with yourself in mind playing a character, it takes on a different meaning. I was like, ‘Wow, this could be really something special.’
It’s from a second-time director, and she was also the writer. To be quite frank, there was some risk involved. It’s going to be a few months out of my life, it’s in another country, is this something I really want to do? I got the chance to talk to Stelana Kliris, who wrote and directed it, and I just fell in love with her, her artistic sensibilities, and her collaborative spirit. We jumped together. I’m very happy I did because it was one of the best filming experiences I’ve had.
Sure. You’re great in it, too, by the way. Was it a personal role for you at all? You’re playing a musician in the movie, and, obviously, with your background and all, was there anything you brought with you from your real life to this performance?
I brought myself, meaning — I’m a human being, he’s a human being, let’s start from there. The character kind of builds on its own from there. I think that there are certain things that, invariably, are going to be things that are me, that I bring to the character. We’re both guys that are the same age who started pretty young playing music and had a little bit of success. From there, you start to find little nuances that make you different. Some of the broad-stroke differences are that this guy is really not happy, he’s grumpy, he’s impatient and he’s alone. None of those things are things that I’m experiencing at that level right now. It was a fun trip for me to kind of go down that road and try to understand what he was feeling.
I thought one of the most interesting parts of the movie was that there were a bunch of different tones. It gets darker than you expect in some places, like just right at the beginning when you learn about who this guy is and what this spot he’s staying at is known for. Was that something that surprised you? Did you know it was going to be so many things all at once?
I knew that when I was reading the script, but I wasn’t expecting that. After the first couple of pages, it really compelled me to find out what was going to happen. I find, a lot of times, that love, music, and things that we associate with thrill and joy often work really well against a backdrop of tragedy and sadness. Like M*A*S*H or South Pacific. I mean, this is a horrific situation that these people are in, but that’s what life is, man. That’s what it is. You have good days and bad days; some days are a combination of everything in between. Catastrophe, trauma, sadness, these things find a way into our lives, and then some days are just blissful. Stelana didn’t shy away from any of that. This is real stuff, and I think that the people who play these other roles — it really feels like these are real people. I think that’s life at its funniest and life at its saddest. That’s what attracted me to this whole thing. It’s a snapshot of a bunch of unusual, wonderful, and tragic life situations.
Thanks to Harry Connick Jr. for discussing Find Me Falling.
