Chosen Family is a romantic comedy that stars Heather Graham (Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me), who also serves as the director and writer. It follows Yoga teacher Ann who can’t seem to escape her manic family, miserable dating life, and the inability to say no, resulting in her trying to fix everyone else’s problems. However, that may change when a new love interest walks into her life.
Thomas Lennon (The Dark Knight Rises, Reno 911, 17 Again) portrays Max, a very supportive friend who helps Ann out. This marks the second time the actor has been in a film directed by Graham, with the first one being Half Magic.
“Julia plays Heather’s sort of complicated sister, and then Heather’s parents are pretty complicated,” Lennon tells Nerd Reactor. “And then it’s sort of about the people that she’s picked to be that would be sort of her family unit, if you got to pick that. And it’s nice to be in that part of the picture.”
John Brotherton (The Conjuring) plays the love interest of Heather Graham’s Ann, and the director knew he was right for the part when she saw his audition tape and looked at his Instagram.
“You know, this is kind of a funny story because you never know who’s looking at what,” Brotherton explained. “When I met Heather for the first time, you know, I auditioned for it. And honestly, we’re doing this thing in LA now, after Covid, you send everything in on tape, right? So it was one of those auditions I did, I’m like, ‘To play Heather Graham’s love interest? Yeah, right. Like, you know, it’s one in a million.’ Throw this thing on tape, hope she likes it. Never going to hear from her again kind of thing, right? That’s just usually, we’re trained as actors to, like, do it and throw it away and not like think about it. So then some time went past, I think, couple weeks or whatever, and I get the call that I’m getting an offer on the Heather Graham movie. I’m like, ‘Wait what?’ And I was obviously so pleasantly surprised and couldn’t wait to get to work.
“Fast forward to meeting Heather for the first time. I had just done an Instagram post where I was kind of messing around. A buddy had sent me some clothes. He has a clothing line. He’d sent me some cool clothes, and I was trying to think of a creative way to put it on blast and then also have some fun with it. That was a little different for me. And so literally, I filmed this thing where I’m doing some funky, old-school dance moves from my era, like the C walk – totally silly.
“The first thing Heather says to me when she meets me, and she’s like, ‘You know what? After I saw your tape I went right to your Instagram,’ and it was the thing I had just posted. And she’s like, ‘I saw that post of you dancing in your living room or something.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ She goes, ‘I just knew in that moment this guy likes to have fun, and I really liked your tape. And I thought, yeah, this is the one.’ And I’m like, ‘Get out of here.’ It just showed me that you never know who’s looking at what because that was the last thing I ever thought would catch someone’s eye. That was me being goofy for my buddy.”
The actor feels comfortable when he knows that the director wants the cast and crew to feel safe.
“People are like, ‘Oh, what makes a good director?’ Because I’ve worked with a lot of good directors, and they’re all very different, but the one quality that every great director has is you feel safe with them, and that can mean a lot of things,” Brotherton said. “But it means you trust them, trust the direction they’re going in. Because some directors are really actory, directors want to talk to you about the work. Some are just concerned with the shot, but at the end of the day, if you feel safe with them, you trust them. And she just makes you feel safe and secure, and she showers everyone with compliments. It’s who she is. And so, you know, you have a hard time not feeling good around her. She’s just a bright person and just brings brightness to everyone around her. So I just used her as my source of motivation and hopefully the camera caught some good stuff.”
About Chosen Family
Synopsis: Ann (Heather Graham) is a yoga teacher struggling to achieve inner peace despite the fact her family is driving her crazy and her dating life is miserable. She doesn’t know how to say no and wants to fix everyone’s problems. In the meantime, Ann struggles to save her sister Clio (Julia Stiles) from addiction with disastrous results. With so many expectations on her, Ann leans on her good friends Max, Frances, Roz, and Ella for support. They in turn set her up with a cute divorced dad Steve, who has an adorable 7-year-old daughter. When Ann meets Steve’s daughter Lily, she is immediately smitten. But Lily does not feel the same, and as Steve and Ann get closer, Lily grows increasingly jealous and competitive. When Lily starts to misbehave, Ann sees that Lily can do no wrong in Steve’s eyes – she’s in the battle of her life with a 7-year-old.
The cast includes Heather Graham, John Brotherton, Andrea Savage, Michael Gross, Julie Halston with Thomas Lennon and Julia Stiles.
The film is directed and written by Heather Graham.
The producers are Chad A. Verdi, Andre Relis, Michael A. Nickles, Michelle Verdi, Chad Verdi Jr., Paul Luba, Heather Graham, Anthony Gudas and Chris Collins.
Chosen Family releases in theaters and On Demand on October 11, 2024.
Featured image: Chosen Family with John Brotherton and Heather Graham. Courtesy of Brainstorm Media.
