This is A Personal Touch, a chance to check in with ordinary people making an extraordinary difference in the world. I’m Rebecca Cressman and today our guests – and I say guests because they’re plural – are the men or two of the faces behind and in front of the camera on the new movie, One Good Man. The subtitle is Life as a Latter-Day Saint. We have Christian Vuissa who is a filmmaker, the writer, the producer and director of One Good Man; and also the leading actor, Tim Threlfall, who’s playing Aaron Young, the one good man, who is featured in the movie. Good morning to both of you.
Tim: Good morning.
Christian: Good morning, Rebecca.
Q: Thank you so much for joining us. Now, Christian, you’re out in Cambridge, Massachusetts, today and I imagine you’ve had screenings all over the country and all over the world for your movie. As the writer of One Good Man, what was your primary goal? We see the life of a man who is trying to live his faith and raise his family at the same time, but where did that nugget of, “You know what, this is a true story or this is a story I’d like to reveal,” when did that come to you?
Christian: Well, I’ve been living now in Utah for over ten years and I see a lot of these kinds of men that really are dedicated to their family but also to the Church and often are sole providers for their family. So just this balancing act was intriguing to me, and also I wanted to see if I could tell a story about an everyday type hero. Someone people can easily relate to and who doesn’t save someone’s life in one heroic act but sacrifices his life for the people around him on a daily basis kind of thing.
Q: And so I’m guessing as you said that balancing act that you chose to have your character be called to be a Bishop because there is always the challenge of that person becoming the shepherd of hundreds of people in their congregation and they are responsible for them at the same time as they are raising their own family. And there is sometimes that conflict of interest.
Christian: Yes. I mean, that’s what he has to balance and sometimes it’s actually overlapping. His different roles become mixed up and he has to deal with that as well. But, yeah, I just saw being a Bishop as an extension of his role of fatherhood that he already has and so he becomes now the father of an extensive family, so to speak, as well.
Q: And now, Tim, Tim Threlfall, also joining us and you are a professor at Brigham Young University and have been teaching and involved in acting for a number of years. How close to life was this for you? I mean, you are an LDS man. When Christian approached you and you heard about this movie, was this something that spoke to you as both an LDS man and as an actor?
Tim: Well, occasionally during the shooting, I actually felt a little guilty. I haven’t been a Bishop before but I served in two different Bishoprics and the parallels between my own family and my own life were so close occasionally I thought, “Wow, I shouldn’t be paid for this because—no, don’t ask for the money back, please, Christian.” But at the same time, I shouldn’t be paid for this because it’s so close to my own life that occasionally there wasn’t much acting to happen really.
Q: When you say it’s so close to your own life, is that because the balance that we all try to accomplish, whether when we are serving in the Church or working fulltime, or where did you see the personal parallel?
Tim: Well a lot of it, even just in the text. A lot of times, as actors we try to pull up things in our own past that emotionally resonate with us that could be replacements for what you are portraying in the scene, what we call the given circumstances. For me, most of it was very similar to my own life, even dealing with your own children and the difficulties with the children, finding time for your wife, promising to do something for your wife that you didn’t quite have the time to take care of, so the parallels were numerous.
Q: And your family in the movie, there are six children is that correct?
Tim: Right.
Q: Okay. And when the movie begins there is one missionary who is already out, one son who is preparing to leave on a mission all at once. You have a daughter who has announced her engagement. I don’t want to give too much more than that, but there are all kinds of events occurring all at once in the life of this ‘one good man.’ So was it your intention to portray a man who is humbled by all of these events or baffled by life as it’s unraveling in front of him or I guess building in front of him? Talk to me a little about what you were trying to capture.
Tim: I think the biggest thing is the story – and I put quotes around that word “story,” –because it’s not particularly a plot-driven piece. It’s a slice of life. It’s something that I think a lot of LDS people will be able to relate to. In fact, I was in a restaurant a few months ago with my brother and this fellow came up and said, “I saw Father in Israel” – in fact, well, he didn’t say that first. He just came up to me, walked up to me and said, “My company declared bankruptcy the same day that this Stake President called me to be the Bishop. I told him about the bankruptcy and he said, “Well, we’ll help you work it out, but he didn’t take away the calling.” And I thought it was so telling that this person would walk up to me, a stranger. I guess he felt like he knew me because he had seen the screening of the film and he would share that with me and say life goes on, and that to me just encapsulized the entire experience that I think a number of Latter-day Saint people will have when they see the film.
Q: Well, and I appreciate that. Now, Christian, Tim is talking about that, that people are actually experiencing the very things that this man Aaron Young is experiencing in life. You have challenges at work, you have challenges in your family. Not all children are going to be easy to raise. Some of them are going to be more problematic in their own journey and therefore the parent’s journey as well. We don’t often see movies that are complimentary of fathers. And, Christian, I wondered if you thought about that, that for over the last 10 to 15 years from my perspective, men and fathers in the media have been poked fun of or belittled a little bit, and greatly so in some ways, and yet this movie says these are three-dimensional men with quite a burden in front of them. Talk to me a little bit about that.
Christian: Well, it was interesting to see because we had a lot of grown-up men cry in these screenings and really be touched by the movie and related to it so well as Tim said. We also had a lot of women and wives and also younger women that said this film helped them really to better relate to their dads or to their husbands in the sense of what they go through. So I think, yes, I think that sometimes in our culture - not really appreciated enough maybe the different roles, the different responsibilities that men have to carry and especially if they do it on this daily basis. Again, they are kind of not the standout heroes. In some ways the film for me is an action movie where this Aaron Young tries to just dodge the bullets of life that come towards him and really try to be there for the people that need him. So I hope that it’s a film that our culture can embrace and really relate to strongly and feel like this is a piece that they can show their children to explain how – what things – yes, in the end bring families in a sense to that point where they can understand each other’s roles and the importance of what everyone does in their family.
Q: So as you were writing it, Christian, as you were writing this and you were putting together this man, this symbol of fatherhood, that many men from many faiths will probably identify with. All the different things that he’s trying to balance: his relationship with his wife, his relationship with his children, his relationship with co-workers, and neighbors, et cetera. When you were looking at the child dynamic, you chose to focus on one child who was the black sheep or the one who seems to be struggling the most. Were you looking at that saying, “I just want to find one black sheep,” or how deep were you considering going when it comes to problems with raising children. Because it’s very real for parents that you want to have an ideal family where all the children are happy and going along with your program or your goals, and yet reality in life is that we’re also individuals and each child will make their own choices. So talk to me about that, about that decision.
Christian: Well, I think it was just important to see – for me most important was relationships, the relationships that Aaron has in his life and how he deals with them. And this was one particular case where he just had the daughter. And I think he always related strongly to her and so he had a sense to understand where she’s coming from. And so that helped him to communicate with her well. But we have a lot of these relationships that he deals with, so in some ways it would be actually interesting to explore just that relationship by itself. But in the context of the story, we really realize that this particular relationship with his daughter, people strongly related to it. I don’t know how many scenes there are, but it’s just again where he suddenly is a dad but he’s also the Bishop and he has to relate and has to approach his daughter. And we had – we actually cut a scene out where he doesn’t have time for her and he actually because of his responsibilities has to say, “I’m sorry, I can’t. I don’t have time to do something with you.” So in some ways, I don’t know if we really get too much into that but I still hope that people – we didn’t want to show a dad where everything is perfect, you know? This is a human being that deals with real life.
Q: Well and, Tim, I’m thinking about that powerful scene when your character, Aaron Young, is a new Bishop and he has been struggling and trying to find out what’s happening in his daughter’s life but giving her some space as well. And then she on her own comes into his office as a Bishop and says, “Can I just talk to you, and not as a father but as a Bishop?” And there’s a keen look on your face as well as she explores that. And so, Tim, you were saying that you drew a lot from your own experience in life in this role as Aaron. What about that complex relationship with that child who’s struggling?
Tim: Well, it’s interesting because as I’ve said I’ve never been a Bishop but I could just imagine that scenario of seeing someone come in your office and you know right away you might as well shut the door, get out a box of Kleenex, and know it will be an hour or two. And then to have that be your own offspring would be, again, it didn’t take much acting to imagine what might transpire during that time together, just having done your interviews that you do with your own children. Again, there wasn’t much of a leap of faith there.
Q: No, no. It was quite beautiful. It was very simple, but very powerful, both from her part and on your part as well. The movie was set in Salt Lake City and there are numerous scenes of the Temple and beautiful cinematography not only within the home but outside the home. And, Christian, your choice to set it in Salt Lake City, is that because it magnifies that this is one LDS father?
Christian: I want it to be a Utah story too, kind of in this environment where we – in some ways, I wanted to see what is really still something that’s unique about our culture and I felt that was something particular to kind of like bigger families…and in this case also the sole provider of the home and that also served in a bishopric seems to be pretty common in Utah.
Q: But this wasn’t this screened also in your home country, right?
Christian: Yeah. I was in Europe to just do screenings with Errand of Angels and we also did a screening of – several screenings of One Good Man among – there’s an LDS Film Festival in Brussels, for example, so we screened there. And so, it was actually nice to see how – there was no – I mean, they had to watch it with subtitles and they were still very, very touched by the film and could relate to it strongly. So, yes.
Q: And that in itself is beautiful, that it’s speaking to people and audiences, not just in the Salt Lake City culture that’s heavily influenced by it’s Mormon membership, but by other communities all around the world. Tim and Christian, I appreciate your time with me. I know our time is limited. But, Tim, I want to go back to you very quickly; again it used to be called Father in Israel. It’s now called One Good Man: Life as a Latter-Day Dad. After the movie closed up, do you continue now to have echoes of that movie with you in your life? Did it add any more meaning to you and what you try to accomplish day-to-day?
Tim: Well, it’s funny that we shot the scene of the eldest son coming home from his mission I think in October and November, and my only son came home from his mission in Argentina in January. So it’s a fun dry run at the airport.
Q: Life imitates reality. Yeah. How beautiful that would be, huh, to have those scenes. We’re still waiting for that opportunity to reunite with our son as well. And, Christian, now this movie will be made more available to the larger audience coming up within just a week or so, correct?
Christian: Well, actually it will be – we have an advance screening in September, but we’ll open in theaters October 9th.
Q: October 9th in theatres in which communities?
Christian: Mostly here in Utah, but we have a number of screenings where it’s going to be shown. Just check the local listing and we’re really excited to be able to showcase that still.
Q: Wonderful. Well, thank you to, both of you, for joining me on a Personal Touch, Christian Vuissa and Tim Threlfall from the movie One Good Man: Life as a Latter-Day Dad. Thank you so much.
Tim: Thank you.
Christian: Thank you.
Q: And we want to thank you for joining us for this week’s edition of A Personal Touch. Be sure to check your email next week to find out who else is making a difference in our world with a Personal Touch.
End of interview.
