{"id":450444,"date":"2026-05-20T02:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/450444\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T02:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:13:08","slug":"heidi-gardner-william-h-macy-to-star-in-the-swimming-lesson-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/450444\/","title":{"rendered":"Heidi Gardner, William H. Macy to Star in ‘The Swimming Lesson’ Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHeidi Gardner<\/a> and William H. Macy<\/a> are ready to make a splash with their forthcoming dramedy feature. <\/p>\n

\n\tGardner and Macy are set to star in the indie film<\/a> The Swimming Lesson from writer-director Casey Twenter, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Production is scheduled to begin this summer in Gardner\u2019s hometown of Kansas City. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Swimming Lesson centers on Tay (Gardner), a single mother who leaves behind her complicated life in Los Angeles to return to her childhood home. She winds up embroiled in a custody battle over son Albee, an autistic child who is obsessed with the ocean but terrified of swimming. Macy co-stars as Leonard, Tay\u2019s foul-mouthed father whose blunt nature can sometimes disguise the fact that he remains loyal to his daughter and grandson. <\/p>\n

\n\tMaking his solo directorial feature debut, Twenter helmed the project from a script he co-wrote with Jeff Robison. Twenter and Robison previously co-wrote the 2014 drama Rudderless, which marked Macy\u2019s directorial debut and landed distribution after premiering at Sundance<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Swimming Lesson\u2019s producers include Dan Koetting for KP\u2019s Remain and Robison for Kindling Productions, along with Jen Greenstreet and Mandi Kearns for Just Like You Films. Mark Williams serves as director of photography, and Mateo Messina is composing the music. Spark Casting\u2019s Stefanie Seifer and Hailey Giles are handling casting. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe knew Tay needed an actor who could carry the humor, chaos and heartbreak of this story, and Heidi is exactly that,\u201d says Twenter. \u201cFrom there, the goal was surrounding her with a supporting ensemble that could meet her at that level, and there\u2019s no better place to start than William H. Macy. Bill brings the bite, warmth and lived-in humanity Leonard needs, and I\u2019m thrilled to be working with him again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKnown for her eight seasons on Saturday Night Live<\/a>, Gardner\u2019s other forthcoming features include Scary Movie and the Will Ferrell-led Judgment Day, while her series work includes NBC\u2019s The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins and Apple TV\u2019s Shrinking. Macy is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actor whose recent credits include The Running Man, Train Dreams and Dan Fogelman\u2019s forthcoming Hulu series The Land. <\/p>\n

\n\tAdds Gardner, \u201cWhen I first read The Swimming Lesson, I thought this is both funny and real. And I\u2019m excited to be in a movie that emulates that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heidi Gardner and William H. Macy are ready to make a splash with their forthcoming dramedy feature. Gardner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,210547,85,102188,46,22676,19830,51642],"class_list":["post-450444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-heidi-gardner","tag-il","tag-indie-film","tag-israel","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-sundance","tag-william-h-macy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}