Zach Braff has a strong connection to his hometown of South Orange, New Jersey. The actor/writer/director made his feature film directorial debut and shot in it (2004’s condition of the garden), and nearly 20 years later, made his second return to basics with his latest film, A good person. This time, he’s brought along the legendary Oscar-winning talent of Morgan Freeman, shooting scenes in a few locations steeped in childhood memories, including the duck pond in the local park and his high school principal’s office.
I can personally identify with Braff’s hometown love because I grew up in the sister city of South Orange and graduated from the same high school. Watching the film, it’s amazing to see Morgan Freeman in places I remember growing up, and I told the director that when I interviewed him last week at the virtual press day for A good person. I asked him about his experience filming scenes with Freeman in his hometown and the locals’ reaction to the beloved star, and Braff said:
It was wonderfully surreal to bring Morgan Freeman back to our high school… I don’t think people really knew that. He was in COVID. We shot in the middle of the pandemic and people were covered. There were definitely a handful of people who were surprised to see Morgan Freeman in the duck pond. But we were a bit stealthy as we were all covered in masks and gear.
In A good personMorgan Freeman plays Daniel, an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic who reconnects with his ex-stepdaughter, Florence Pugh star Allison, when he shows up for one of her support group meetings. Their relationship is strained as she was in a car accident that killed Daniel’s daughter and son-in-law (she was driving and they were passengers). In the months that followed, he broke off his relationship with Daniel’s son and became addicted to opiates. The drama centers on their respective attempts to deal with the aftermath of the devastating event.
As the director pointed out, A good person was filmed in his hometown, and Zach Braff says the choice was an extension of his creative vision. A common piece of advice shared by writers is to “write what you know,” and what Braff knows is South Orange, New Jersey. he explained,
[The locations are] important for me. And to be honest, when I was writing the film, when you picture a high school principal’s office, you think of your high school principal’s office. When you think of a pond with benches, you think of the pond with benches from your childhood.
A good person it’s Zach Braff’s heaviest and most dramatic directorial effort to date, and in the challenge of meeting him, his connection to place was his support system. He continued:
I was trying to write honestly and be vulnerable. And it almost felt like there was this safety net if I actually wrote what I knew. I know what a public high school in New Jersey is like. I know what it’s like to dive in South Orange. I felt like I was just as authentic with the locations, there was a bit of a safety net to then hopefully be really authentic with the direction of my performance.
Also starring Chinaza Uche, Molly Shannon, Celeste O’Connor, Zoe Lister-Jones and Alex Wolfe, A good person it is now played in a limited version. If not currently playing at a theater near you (check local listings via fandango (opens in a new tab)), you can stream many Zach Braff movies online. For more information on all the films releasing later this year, check out our 2023 film release schedule.
Source: Cinemablend
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