Ideal Home review
Out today is Ideal Home, a comedy-drama starring Steve Coogan and Paul Rudd as Erasmus and Paul. This gay couple’s lives are turned upside down by the arrival of a little boy (Jack Gore), who it turns out is Erasmus’s grandson.
The writer/director of the movie is Andrew Fleming, a filmmaker who doesn’t stand still when it comes to his craft. Speaking of which, one of his best-known films is The Craft (1996). He also helmed Threesome (1994), Nancy Drew (2007) and the remake of The In-Laws with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks (2003).
We sat down with him to chat about his eclectic career and how he brought this non-typical family story to the screen…
THN: Where did the story come from?
Andrew Fleming: It kind of came from a couple of different places. I outlined a script that featured Paul and Erasmus, but it didn’t quite work so I put it in a drawer. And then somebody suggested I write a script about a gay couple with a child and because I was living in a situation where my partner had a son from a previous relationship, a marriage to a woman… this was a while ago when it wasn’t so common to see a male couple with strollers, so I kind of migrated the fiction of these 2 guys with our home life. It’s not an autobiography but it’s informed by the truth of what happened in my life.
How did Steve Coogan come to be cast?
The character was written as English and I thought ‘I know someone who’s English and funny’ so I showed him it and he really liked it. So we worked on it for a while, and he’d give me ideas and ask questions. I’m good friends with Steve and we have a rapport. When it came to who Paul would be, literally the first person we thought of was Paul Rudd and Steve sent it to Paul because he knew him and Paul took a liking to it. It’s not that exciting a story…
It sounds okay to me…
I mean it’s not filled with rejections and weird happenstance, it kind of just happened!
Related: Ideal Home review
How did you find Jack Gore?
Strangely enough I had worked with him a number of times before. I did some episodes of a TV series with him when he was 7 years old. He was good but he was 7, so he was running around being 7! I worked on a TV pilot with him after and found out he was a really smart kid, a brilliant young man. We did a wide search and he turned out to be the best choice. I was always rooting for him but it was a group decision.
Tell me about how Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan worked on their onscreen relationship.
Steve and Paul are fans of each others. They would do their work and then when we were lighting the next scene they would go to the side of the set and gab and laugh. I think they had a great time working together… I know they did.
You mentioned the characters started off in another script. Could that become a follow up?
It was a non-story, a premise lacking a story. It needed something, the catalyst of a child showing up. So there’s nothing there, but that happens a lot. I did another movie called Dick, and the two teenage girls in that (played by Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) came from, I think, 3 different stories into that story. You know if you really love a character and the story isn’t working you can put them in a different circumstance and make something good out of it.
Looking back over your career so far, it’s been quite varied. Because Hollywood is about pigeonholing people has that been difficult to maintain?
Well as one of my agents said once, ‘Boy you don’t make it easy for yourself Andy!’ I just don’t want to make the same movie twice. You get up very early, around 4.30 on the Monday. You don’t do it for the money. I do it to make something new and challenge myself. All of the best filmmakers I admire have tried all different types of genres.
What’s been the most creatively satisfying movie you’ve worked on?
With Ideal Home I’ve personalized it more than my other movies, apart from one I made a long time ago called Threesome. It’s very much a big slice of my life and it’s been satisfying and also a little terrifying to put it out there because when people judge it, they’re judging me!
Ideal Home is now playing in select UK cinemas.
