Lili Reinhart Miami Film Festival “It didn’t feel like we were creating something that fit neatly into a box,” Lili Reinhart said of her Mubi series Hal & Harper as she accepted the Art of Light Award during the Miami Film Festival Monday night. “It was messy and emotional and sometimes uncomfortable and that was the point. We were trying to tell a story about grief, codependency, love and family in a way that didn’t simplify or commercialize any of it. This project reminded me of how powerful it is when we let people be seen in their full humanity and not just the polished version, not the easy or likable version, but the real one.”
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The eight-episode comedy-drama created, written, directed and produced by Cooper Raiff, who stars in the series as Hal, opposite Reinhart’s Harper, is as uncomfortably real as the pair intended it to be, the brother and sister facing the yearslong dysfunction of their relationship upon news that their father (Mark Ruffalo) is going to be a dad again with his current partner, Kate (Betty Gilpin). The root of their troubling sibling dynamic can be traced back to childhood with the loss of their mother, the pair’s story told through present-day sabotaging behavior and flashbacks in which Raiff and Reinhart also play the 7- and 9-year-old versions of their characters.
Following her awards presentation, Reinhart, who’s also an executive producer of the show, chatted with The Hollywood Reporter about the realities of making and selling the Indie series and why she’ll never play a 9-year-old again.
Cooper has said that you were the very first person he thought of for the role of Harper, saying that casting the character was a matter of “who do I want to follow into this dark tunnel of exploring oneself and one’s pain and trauma.” How did he approach you for the role and did you share that same sentiment of immediately feeling you could be Harper?
I got a call when I was on vacation in Hawaii and I was annoyed that I was getting a phone call on a vacation in Hawaii, but it was the best phone call ever. It was my manager saying that Cooper wanted to meet about a show he was doing, and it was sort of thrown at me a little bit that you’d be playing the nine-year-old version of yourself. So we went out for a coffee in L.A., and he kept his cards really close to his chest for this one. He really didn’t give me a lot of information up front. He sort of wanted me to discover it on my own. So I think he sent me the pilot first, which was just like 30 pages, and then he sent me the 300-page show all at once, and I was so blown away by it. I had watched his other two movies, Shit House and Cha Cha Real Smooth, and I loved the tone of his work. It felt so human and accessible. And after doing something like Riverdale and thinking about what I wanted to do next in my career, this was the perfect tone. I’m always very flattered when someone can see me in a role that isn’t just Betty Cooper. I think that’s just sort of at face value what people would see me as, which is fine. But for a director to see me as something other than that, I find very flattering and exciting. So it was a very quick yes for me.
Tell me about playing the 9-year-old version of your character and the adult version. What was it like for you in those scenes opposite real children?
Well, as a woman getting older in Hollywood, I’m never going to play 9 ever again (Laughs). No, it was very exciting, sort of like a depressing Pen 15, as you will. Cooper was playing more of a true 7-year-old. Young Harper is 9, but she’s a little bit more of what a 24-year-old version of Harper would be remembering herself as. So not quite true 9 years old, a little bit jaded is the word that I’ve been using. Cooper has said it had to be the older actors playing younger because then you are basically watching the same actor and you’re seeing the same eyes and seeing the character’s inner child so you can have a lot of sympathy and empathy for what their current present-day experience is because you’re really seeing how they were as a kid.
You and Cooper spent a year together before filming. How unique of an experience was that for you with a role, and how do you feel that time enhanced your performances?
We got to know each other a year before we shot the show. We went on like a spiritual retreat together, which was pretty perfect because I think with spirituality, you’re always trying to heal your inner wounded child, and that’s the whole purpose of the show. We were both going through breakups actually, and I said — it was kind of like an empty gesture — “Do you want to come to Mount Shasta with me?” Which is a very spiritual town in California. And he was like, “Yeah.” And I was a bit like, “OK.” So we went there together and, yeah, it is rare that you get to know someone for that long before you shoot something. And while we were shooting, it continued to be very intimate. He was not only my scene partner for a lot of it, but just very close. Some directors are a little bit more out of reach. They’re in a tent, they’re far away, they’re in their own little room and you don’t really get that much conversation with them, honestly, which sounds a little bit crazy, but Cooper was right there, and I appreciated the access I had to him. I do find that rare, so I really loved that.
What else went into your preparation?
I read a book called Motherless Daughters, kind of explaining the experience of a kid and the role that they have to take on when they lose a parent or when they assume the role of a parent, whether it be through a parent dying or being emotionally absent. And if you keep watching the show, you’ll obviously see why and how Harper assumed that role in her life. Aside from that, I had very little rehearsal time with Mark and Cooper. My first rehearsal with Mark, I texted Cooper and I was like, “I hope Mark doesn’t think I’m the worst actress in the world.” Rehearsal is so hard because it’s truly like the underbelly of a performance. It’s like a rough draft that you’re putting out into the void to hear the words out loud. It’s not even a fraction of what it ends up being so sometimes when you have only one rehearsal, you’re like, “Oh shit, that was not a representation of what I’m going to bring on the day,” but Mark is the nicest person in the world.” And I think he texted me after a rehearsal and said, “You’re going to be great.” Very dad energy.
Betty Gilpin’s character adds so much to the series in the sense that she’s sort of the only one who kind of sees Harper and the weight that she carries from her father and brother, but Harper also holds, I think, a healthy space for her as well. It’s surprising that when you were trying to sell the series, some studios wanted to take her character away and possibly the dad too.
We faced a lot of challenges trying to sell the show in general, having it be too slow for people. I believe it was 10 episodes and then made into eight. Originally, the show opens on a long montage of Kate, the stepmom and dad, and we had to change that. I just think in this world of binge-y television, studios don’t respond to slow storytelling. They don’t want to slow burn; they want to get right into it. So we were like, “Let’s throw in a Sabrina Carpenter song.” You do things that you didn’t think that you’re going to do — and I love that song — but you shapeshift the show, honestly, to sell it. At one point, when we thought the show wasn’t going to sell, I was begging Cooper, “Can we make this a movie?” He’s like, “No, it’s a show.” So it takes on different shapes in order to fit the world that we’re in now, which is sad, but also amazing that we get to be in places like Miami Film Festival because it’s a place where stuff like this can be appreciated. I don’t feel like, “Oh God, are people bored?” when this show is airing at a film festival. I’m like, “You’re the people who are going to appreciate it the most.” It’s, I think, harder when people are sitting on their couch and looking at their phone at the same time trying to connect to a show that kind of demands your attention. If you look away for a minute, you’ll miss something.
You’ve said before that you’re an indie girl at heart. How do you feel about the landscape now and the opportunity that exists for creators as more indie TV streamers come into play?
I love indies. I champion independent film. I’m always excited and blessed to be a part of them. They’re hard. It’s really hard to make a movie or show that you’re not sure if anyone will ever see you or if they’ll resonate with it. I’m attached to 10 of them and maybe two of them will shoot. It’s just kind of the reality of it. Getting funding, getting financing, actually shooting something, it is a miracle when you can shoot anything. And yet the best scripts that I’ve ever read are all independent or have never been made, which is sad, but it’s why I’m going to forever try to push forward those filmmakers who I’ve worked with in the last two years — I think four first-time feature directors — and I plan on continuing that. I like to champion new voices and people who haven’t been given their shot yet, that’s how you find the next great filmmakers of our generation.
What do you say to this room full of budding filmmakers and aspiring industry professionals about the road ahead?
It’s no illusion that it’s really hard to get an independent film made, but I do find that the best scripts find their way. They do, even if it’s because of one actor reading it and resonating with it and they have the power to make that happen, or finding an incredible producer and hanging on. The advice that I would give is not to be discouraged by the amount of time it takes because it will undoubtedly take multiple years. I don’t want to give a minimum because that might be depressing. It just takes time, but we’re all in it together. And I think the more projects you have out there in the works, the better because you never know when one of them is going to hit at the right time and when it’s going to be able to go ahead. So having your hand in a lot of things, I think, is the best way.
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