The Family Plan Interview: Simon Cellan Jones on Directing a Baby
ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with The Family Plan director Simon Cellan Jones about the Mark Wahlberg-led comedy. The filmmaker spoke about working with Wahlberg and directing a baby. The Family Plan is set to debut on Apple TV+ on Friday, December 15.
“Dan Morgan (Mark Wahlberg) loves his quiet suburban life as a devoted husband, father of three, and successful car salesman,” reads the movie‘s synopsis. But that’s only half the story. Decades earlier, he was an elite government assassin tasked with eliminating the world’s deadliest threats.”
Tyler Treese: The Family Plan’s very fun setup of an assassin-turned-family-man leads to some really fantastic action sequences where he`s trying to make it seem normal since he doesn’t want the family to know that anything has gone awry. Can you speak to those action scenes and how that premise lent itself to some really fun sequences?
Simon Cellan Jones: I think you are absolutely right. When you’re making a film that has an action side to it, you want those scenes to have something that sets them apart — something that zings a little bit. For example, we have a motorbike chase where people shooting at our hero in the car, and he’s trying to avoid them.
What I loved is that, aside from all of that, a central part of that scene is he cannot afford to wake up his family because, if he does, they’ll find out his secret. I think one of the great things about the script and the project was that it takes a few … not movie tropes, but scenes that we’ve seen in movies before and it just spins them around a little bit and and informs them with a different energy.
The leading man, Mark Wahlberg, is such a great choice here and he gets to show all of his multifaceted range here. We get the comedy, there are some more dramatic scenes, and there’s a great family relationship. What really stood out about Mark and made him the right choice?
Well, we sort of knew that this would be perfect for him or he’d be perfect for it. As you say, he’s an actor with a sort of amazing range. You’ve seen him do Lone Survivor, then you see him do Boogie Nights, and then you see him do The Departed. There are so many different sides to him, but you know, it’s always him. That’s the beautiful thing about that. You always go, “Oh, he’s not transforming himself completely.” He’s got the essence that makes it Mark Wahlberg. And he has that secret sauce — I don’t know what it is, I can’t put my finger on it — that when the camera’s rolling, I just go, “Oh, okay, this thing’s probably going to work then.” I just relax when I’m working with him.
The road trip formula is deployed here. There’s action throughout, but there’s also a time spent to really have nice family moments. Can you speak to making sure all four family members had a nice arc? I thought you really accomplished that nicely.
Yeah, that’s what drew me to the film the most, I think, is that aside from all the action and the comedy and the big scale and roaming and stuff, you’ve got a five-person family that’s nice and good and a little dull, a little suburban. Also, they’re all living their own lives and not noticing each other. One of them is a gamer and he doesn’t tell his parents. I wouldn’t call them exactly dysfunctional, but they’re a little stale as a family.
But you put them in a minivan and drive them across America and have a lot of people chasing them and then just watch them grow and become reliant on each other. really love that side of it where … I’m not saying it’s a sort of message-type movie, but it’s definitely got a thing about the family that you spend your whole life with. They’re the ones that you’re stuck with, so make the most of them.
You got the best reactions out of that baby. How was that done?
Well, we were very patient. [Laughs]. The baby was delightful and lovely, but it wasn’t always perfect — let’s be honest. I think we knew that when the baby was good, which was often, it was just gold dust. So it was worth it. And I’m really, really grateful to Mark, again, and Michelle [Monaghan] for having the patience to that. Again, a lot of movie stars will say, “Hey, baby? Forget that. You deal with that.” And he really worked with the baby and was a real sweetheart, and he’s very much responsible for helping that baby be so good.
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