PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — 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’d decided that he was ready to tell other people’s stories.
That’s when Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon approached him with a special project that fit the bill, Adam Cayton-Holland’s 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.
“You really have to be like irrationally in love with the movie that you’re making,” Duplass said. “We’re really standing on the shoulders of the Cayton-Holland family in Denver who got hit with something surprising and unbelievable. It’s the story not only of how they survived it but came through better people.”
The film, “See You When I See You,” 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.
“I kind of see it an heir to their film ‘The Big Sick,’” 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’s been Raiff’s 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.
“He’s just so talented and smart and funny and emotionally available,” Duplass said. “Frankly there aren’t a lot of 27-year-olds who are all those things.” (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’s harder to get big name actors to join smaller art movies. Part of that, he said, is that actors are making “so much money in TV” 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.
“It’s not a lot of money,” Duplass said. “These 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.”
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For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival
By LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer
