As screenwriter and director of the quirky, comedic “Fantasy Life,” Matthew Shear not unexpectedly gave himself the lead role.
He’s mentally troubled Sam Stein who, on medication, finds himself in manny mode babysitting his shrink’s grandkids.
It’s there that he finds himself romantically if inappropriately attracted to the kids’ mother Dianna (Amanda Peet of “Your Friends & Neighbors”).
A once popular actress who hasn’t acted in years, Dianna, also on meds, is in a troubled patch with her jazz guitar-playing husband (Alessandro Nivola) and can barely function.
Shear’s award-winning debut – a SXSW Film Festival Narrative Feature Audience Award and Special Jury Award for Peet – has taken literally years.
“There was a six-year delay between its inception and Amanda getting the script,” Shear, 41, said in a Zoom interview.
He began writing without a clear goal. “I was not getting a lot of parts as an actor, so the initial goal was I just needed something consistent that was moving forward.
“When I finally completed it and started thinking what maybe I could do with it, at that point you definitely feel the clock starts ticking.
Only when he found a serious producer did “Fantasy” become reality.
How personal is this with Sam’s mental health issues and daily prescription doses?
“The story is based on my experience and memories, of being a male babysitter for families on the Upper East Side while I was pursuing acting. So the mental health issues in the film are not mine but I definitely struggled with mental health. And I used that as a way to get inside the heads of these characters.”
Shear’s world is expansive and an ambitious debut, populated by children, very senior citizens, a troubled married couple and Shear’s Sam, this interloper.
“It was useful to have my character Sam be a thread throughout the whole film. It ended up being fun to separate him from the action and have scenes with just Alessandro and Amanda, or just the grandparents, and have Sam not there.
As a first-time filmmaker how was it when actors took over his characters?
“It’s an incredible experience to see Amanda and all of the actors act this. Basically, it’s like a totally new version.
“What was so exciting and fun was that, even as Judd Hirsch” – an Oscar winner for playing a similar psychiatrist in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” – “is saying the lines in this beautiful and funny and perfect way, I had opinions about it that I could express.
“In, as you know, as heartfelt and kind of way as possible. It was just an incredible opportunity to engage with the material afresh.”
“Fantasy Life” is in theaters April 3
Matthew Shear and Amanda Peet star in “Fantasy Life.” (Photo Fantasy Life Productions)