Writer/Director Daniel André Talks Fear of Death in “Running on Empty”
This piece was originally published on Film Obsessive.
There are a few inevitabilities in life, but death is probably the most feared. We all know it’s coming, but don’t know when. What if you could know when it’s your time? Right down to the exact day. Would you find out? Or would you let yourself continue to live in the uncertainty? It’s those questions that writer/director Daniel André asks in his feature directorial debut, Running on Empty. The film follows Mort (Keir Gilchrist) who has taken the test to find his Life Day Count. With less than a year to live and freshly dumped by his girlfriend (Francesca Eastwood), Mort signs up for a dating service that will pair him with someone who has a similar death date. There, he meets Kate (Lucy Hale) who reminds him that life is just as inevitable as death and to enjoy the time he has.
André sat down with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to chat about his upcoming film, Running on Empty. The transcript has been edited for clarity and space.
Film Obsessive: My first question is about the origins for the idea that would ultimately become Running on Empty.
Daniel André: Gosh, man, it came from a lot of different places. It came from a healthy fear of death from my entire life growing up. When you’re trying to figure out what your first should film be, you could literally spend your lifetime thinking about that. So what I decided was I wanted to do something that was paying homage to the films I grew up loving that were kind of left of center. The Man with Two Brains with Steve Martin, Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson, After Hours by Martin Scorsese, Punch-Drunk Love by Paul Thomas Anderson, and then pretty much any Charlie Kaufman film. Those films were who had an influence not just my art, but a lot of my humor comes from them. I don’t know if you know the comedian Steven Wright from the eighties? He was this very monotone comedian that had a very kind of weird, sarcastic thing. When you grow up watching stuff like that, then you see this movie and you’re like, okay, it makes sense.
Even though I’m not familiar with Steven Wright, it definitely makes sense you cast Keir [Gilchrist] in the lead. He really has that dry, comedic delivery. You have a lot of experience in acting, writing, post-production, but like you said, this is your first feature. What was surprising to you and making that leap from shorts to a full-length directing role?
I don’t know if there was such a huge leap. I’ve been in and out of the film industry kind of my entire life throughout my life. I’ve been on sets, worked as a producer, worked a lot in post-production, and worked as an actor. I was pretty much aware of the whole process. I guess what surprised me the most, at least on this one, was the huge gift of the film being such a really great shoot overall. Everybody was amazing in the cast and our crew. We really felt like we were away at summer camp and making art together. I think that really contributed to the final film. The biggest surprise was the fact that it went as smoothly as it did because I’ve worked on other films and you’re putting out fires left and right. Or this person isn’t getting along and this person didn’t show up. We had none of that. We just really got to have fun and make art together.
That’s awesome. Did you feel prepared based on your experience as a producer to handle pretty much anything that came with you? It sounds like you had no nerves going into this experience.
It’s weird. One of the producers called me, I think the night before our first day of production and I think he was more kind of checking in on my mental acuity and seeing where I’m at. I think the only reason he might have been nervous is because I was way calmer than he expected. He did say one thing that I’ve heard other people say before. He said, what you have to think about is that you have got to take yourself out of the equation. It’s not about you anymore. It’s about all of us. It’s about everybody. That was a huge help and huge weight off my shoulders. At the end of the day, it’s just you and a camera and an actor. I’ve been making movies with my camcorder since I was ten years old. You really just think of it as the bare basics. There’s a camera, there’s some lines. We know what we’re doing. We’ve got a bunch of other people who know what they’re doing and we do it.
Lionsgate
There’s a little bit of a high concept in terms of your story of the Life Day Count and scientific tests of figuring out when you die. For most stories, that’s presented in like a retro futuristic production design, but yours looked like a suburban 1980s. I was curious if that was always in your head when you were developing the script or if it came from your production designer?
I think it was definitely both, but for me it was base on the location. When I moved back to L.A. in 2012, I landed in Sherman Oaks and I just kind of stayed in the valley. I think the film was also a little homage to the Valley. Plus, it was great to get to shoot in places I drive past every day. As far as the look, I’m a big fan of making stuff that hopefully will will stand the test of time that somebody could watch this in ten, twenty years and you don’t have anything from like our current technology distracting you. I was very cognizant of trying not to use phones or texting too much to give it a sort of timeless look. It can kind of be retro. It can kind of be current. It can kind of be a little in the future.
It’s funny you bring up making an homage the Valley because when I lived in L.A., I always felt like the valley was this weird, limbo purgatory world. It made perfect sense that you would set the story there when you have a character who is essentially waiting for his time to die and exists in a limbo. Do you feel similarly about the Valley?
I think the Valley has changed over time. It’s much more hip now. It’s much more accepted as a place because L.A. got so expensive, so everybody went out there. It’s sort of like what happened to Brooklyn, you know? I lived in New York for a long time. I remember I lived in Williamsburg in the late nineties and it was like a ghost town. It was sort of what you’re thinking of as the Valley. Now it’s the hippest place in New York over Manhattan. The Valley isn’t that hip, though. I think another factor, too, is that I was also inspired by Punch-Drunk Love which that took place in the Valley. I think I saw that in the Angelika Theater when it came out years ago in New York City. It was just funny to me how, at the time, that movie had inspired me or kind of touched me in such a way. Then I found myself, 20 years later, living in the Valley and going back to to work on movies. That was another reason I kind of just wanted to to pay homage and put the Valley in it.
Lionsgate
You give good street cred to the Valley. Part of the film is about Mort’s job as a mortician and the effort that he puts into the funeral planning and the fun spin he puts on it. I was curious if you are just personally interested in the rituals of funerals and the rituals of people passing on and that is kind of played a role in creating his character.
I guess the personal end of it is I always had like a good, healthy dose of fear of death like my entire life and especially as a kid. I think I was ten years old when my grandfather passed away and we went to New Jersey to his funeral. It was the first funeral I’d ever been to and it was first wake I’d ever been to. I just remembered thinking this was like very traumatic and not the way that I would want to be remembered or remember somebody that I love or care about. That was sort of always in the back of my mind. Then I found, I don’t know when it was, but I’d come across some pictures online of what they were calling extreme funerals. In the film, we call it adventure funerals, but it’s a thing where the funeral home will put a deceased family member on a motorcycle or in a car or wherever. It kind of goes to like more of the celebration of their life.
My last question for you. Would you personally get your Life Day Count?
Not unless I got something in return that was really worth it. Like in Mort’s case, he needed a mortgage and a house. To him, it was worth it. But probably not, I’d say.
Thank you so much. Congrats again on the film!
Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Tina.
RUNNING ON EMPTY starring Keir Gilchrist, Lucy Hale, Francesca Eastwood, Rhys Coiro, Jay Pharoah, Dustin Milligan and Jim Gaffigan will soon open in select theaters August 9 with a nationwide VOD release in the US/Canada on August 27.
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