PARK CITY, Utah (AP) \u2014 Jay Duplass had come to a turning point in his life and career. After years of mining personal stories, add those of his family, he\u2019d decided that he was ready to tell other people\u2019s stories.<\/b>
\nJay Duplass had come to a turning point in his life and career. After years of mining personal stories, add those of his family, he\u2019d decided that he was ready to tell other people\u2019s stories.
That\u2019s when Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon approached him with a special project that fit the bill, Adam Cayton-Holland\u2019s tragicomic script, and memoir, about his PTSD after his sister dies by suicide. It had Duplass both laughing and crying and wanting to help tell the story.
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\u201cYou really have to be like irrationally in love with the movie that you\u2019re making,\u201d Duplass said. \u201cWe\u2019re really standing on the shoulders of the Cayton-Holland family in Denver who got hit with something surprising and unbelievable. It\u2019s the story not only of how they survived it but came through better people.\u201d
The film, \u201cSee You When I See You,\u201d is having its world premiere Tuesday at the Sundance Film Festival where it is seeking distribution. It stars Cooper Raiff, Kaitlyn Dever, David Duchovny, Hope Davis and Lucy Boynton.
\u201cI kind of see it an heir to their film \u2018The Big Sick,\u2019\u201d Duplass said, of Nanjiani and Gordon’s Oscar-nominated romantic comedy.
Putting Raiff in the lead role over a more established movie star was an unconventional choice, to say the least, but Duplass was certain it was the right one. He\u2019s been Raiff\u2019s de facto mentor since before Raiff made his first feature. He saw in him a range that he hadn’t quite observed in some of his peers.
\u201cHe\u2019s just so talented and smart and funny and emotionally available,\u201d Duplass said. \u201cFrankly there aren\u2019t a lot of 27-year-olds who are all those things.\u201d (Raiff is now 28).
Rounding out the cast with more well-known names was then non-negotiable. But Duplass has noticed in the past 10 to 15 years that it\u2019s harder to get big name actors to join smaller art movies. Part of that, he said, is that actors are making \u201cso much money in TV\u201d and that the talent agencies are gatekeeping their talent on the off chance that a last minute offer will come in for one episode or a limited series.
He credits Dever, Duchovny, Davis and Boynton for being willing to commit to this film in spite of everything.
\u201cIt\u2019s not a lot of money,\u201d Duplass said. \u201cThese people are people who want to make art and who really were willing to take a chance and, you know, make something crazy with me.\u201d
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For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/sundance-film-festival<\/p>\n