{"id":180579,"date":"2026-03-31T07:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180579\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:52:08","slug":"matthew-shears-fantasy-life-debut-based-on-life-as-a-nyc-manny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180579\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Shear’s ‘Fantasy Life’ debut based on life as a NYC manny"},"content":{"rendered":"

As screenwriter and director of the quirky, comedic \u201cFantasy Life,\u201d Matthew Shear not unexpectedly gave himself the lead role.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s mentally troubled Sam Stein who, on medication, finds himself in manny mode babysitting his shrink\u2019s grandkids.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s there that he finds himself romantically if inappropriately attracted to the kids\u2019 mother Dianna (Amanda Peet of \u201cYour Friends & Neighbors\u201d).<\/p>\n

A once popular actress who hasn\u2019t acted in years, Dianna, also on meds, is in a troubled patch with her jazz guitar-playing husband (Alessandro Nivola) and can barely function.<\/p>\n

Shear\u2019s award-winning debut \u2013 a SXSW Film Festival Narrative Feature Audience Award and Special Jury Award for Peet \u2013 has taken literally years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a six-year delay between its inception and Amanda getting the script,\u201d Shear, 41, said in a Zoom interview.<\/p>\n

He began writing without a clear goal. \u201cI was not getting a lot of parts as an actor, so the initial goal was I just needed something consistent that was moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I finally completed it and started thinking what maybe I could do with it, at that point you definitely feel the clock starts ticking.<\/p>\n

Only when he found a serious producer did \u201cFantasy\u201d become reality.<\/p>\n

How personal is this with Sam\u2019s mental health issues and daily prescription doses?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shear\u2019s world is expansive and an ambitious debut, populated by children, very senior citizens, a troubled married couple and Shear\u2019s Sam, this interloper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n

As a first-time filmmaker how was it when actors took over his characters?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible experience to see Amanda and all of the actors act this. Basically, it\u2019s like a totally new version.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was so exciting and fun was that, even as Judd Hirsch\u201d \u2013 an Oscar winner for playing a similar psychiatrist in Robert Redford\u2019s \u201cOrdinary People\u201d \u2013 \u201cis saying the lines in this beautiful and funny and perfect way, I had opinions about it that I could express.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn, as you know, as heartfelt and kind of way as possible. It was just an incredible opportunity to engage with the material afresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFantasy Life\u201d is in theaters April 3<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Shear and Amanda Peet star in “Fantasy Life.” (Photo Fantasy Life Productions)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As screenwriter and director of the quirky, comedic \u201cFantasy Life,\u201d Matthew Shear not unexpectedly gave himself the lead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[72884,72883,158,9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-180579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-matthew-shearer","9":"tag-fantasy-life","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}