Today the comedy Friends With Kids arrives on DVD and Blu-ray.
The movie, which features an ensemble cast with Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Chris O’Dowd, Megan Fox and Edward Burns, is a comedy about a close-knit circle of friends at that moment in life when children arrive and everything changes.
Earlier this year Jennifer Westfeldt, who also wrote and directed Friends With Kids, and Adam Scott discussed their roles in the film.
For Adam, he was drawn to the movie because he felt Jennifer realistically captured what it is like to have children.
I was really moved by it because I thought Jennifer really pinpointed what it’s like to have a kid and how it changes you. I was taken aback by it especially since Jen doesn’t have kids of her own, and I was surprised she really got what it feels like to have kids. It’s a great character, a great role, and I was really thrilled that they wanted me to do it. I wasn’t totally sure why, but was more than happy to oblige.
For Jennifer, the idea for FWK was born from her own experience.
None of the characters are directly based on anyone in my life. But the kernel of the idea does come from my life — that is, from being out of sync with my peer group, and observing so many friends and people in my sphere making this profound, seismic life transition — and observing the ways in which different people handle that transition, the ways in which the friendship dynamic can shift and morph for a time, the ways in which the romantic relationships can be affected, the way you miss (and your friend misses) the one on one time you used to have, and the like… I am lucky that I have so many close girlfriends who were incredibly candid with me about the experience and the identity shift and I noticed a theme or thread in what they all said — they all said (in one way or another) that they had never experienced a love as profound or deep or rewarding as the love for a child — and also, that it was the hardest thing that they had ever done. (And that no one had told them that part!) It was that duality that really intrigued me.
Jennifer also knew Adam was right for his part the first time he read through the script with her.
Adam came and read the role at our house the very first night I finished the first draft — we had a group of actors and sat around our dining room table, pasta and wine and a cold table read. Adam was fantastic, as I knew he would be [Adam] — and after that, I honestly couldn’t picture anyone but him playing this role. I didn’t want to make the movie without him. I think the film is really about Jason, and we needed an actor with tremendous range to pull it off — that’s Adam. I’ve known Adam for fifteen years, and I’ve seen him in almost everything he’s ever done — onstage, on TV, on film. I think he’s just as good as it gets.
Besides its amazing cast, the movie also took advantage of some unusual filming locations due to budgetary and time constraints. For instance, scenes in the film that were suppose to be set at a Vermont ski resort, where actually filmed in a cabin on a waterfront strip nestled between the Throgs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone bridges in the Bronx. Jon Hamm would playfully call the home “Ver-Bronx” throughout the shoot.
You can buy Friends With Kids on DVD or Blu-ray now at Amazon.com.
Why specifically did you recommend this, Christine?
Just curious, out of all the DVDs being released, why this? Is there something special about it? (genuinely curious)
Honestly, I did like it and I had been wanting to do a post about the location they used for the lodge so that worked out but more importantly I had taken part in those interviews a while back and never used then and so it was an opportunity to use some of that info as well.
I’m not being paid to promote it if that was what you were thinking…
Just bought the DVD
loved it! Thank you for the recommendation (: