Interview with Manic's Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Jordan Melamed makes his directorial debut with Manic, a startlingly honest look inside the walls of a fictional juvenile mental institution. The film follows Lyle (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a teen filled with rage who gets committed to the institution after brutally assaulting a classmate. Once inside the hospital, Lyle begins therapy with a group of his peers who each suffer from some form of mental illness. In this in-depth interview, Manic stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel talk candidly about researching their roles and dealing with such an intense subject matter.

How did you get involved in this independent digital video project?
ZOOEY DESCHANEL: It's interesting, as negative as people are about show business and [no matter how often we hear] there's no money for any good movies, if there's a good script, artists will find it. People will be so supportive and come out of the woodwork to help you. I mean, that's what I've noticed about really good scripts that I've read. It may be that some studio may not be dying to do it, but there are going to be a lot of artistic people, and a lot of producers, [who] just want to make good movies. I think it's just that this was a really good script and a really good project.
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: That's so rare. It's so good to read a really good script. When I read Manic, I was reading script after script after script of just shit. What people write for teenagers is insulting. As soon as I saw Manic I was like, "I don't care what kind of budget it is. I don't care that it's being shot on digital video. Oh my God, I finally am reading something that I care about, that I like as a human being."

What type of research did you do for your characters?
GORDON-LEVITT: I spent a lot of time with people who had been in hospitals just like this. I didn't get to go into a hospital like [the one in the movie] because I think that would be rude and intrusive – and we weren't allowed to. I went to support groups and halfway houses. We talked to a lot of people.
DESCHANEL: We did a lot of research as a group, and on our own, to get information and be as well informed as we could possibly be about the subject matter. Obviously it's not something that everyone knows about. You know a little bit or you might have heard a story, but really it's kind of one of those things that people cover up and deny and keep hush-hush because they are embarrassed about it. I think it was wonderful to talk to the people that we did because they were so open, expressive, and smart, and really willing to share with us their experiences.
GORDON-LEVITT: Even besides the kids that this movie hooked me up with to talk to that had been in hospitals, I knew - and know - plenty of people who are really angry. I'm really angry sometimes. My research wasn't just talking to people who had been in hospitals. I spoke to all my close friends because everyone has something that makes them angry.
DESCHANEL: You'd be hard pressed to find somebody who doesn't have one of these problems, especially when you are a teenager.

Was it important to do a serious role like this after your comedy series, 3rd Rock from the Sun?
GORDON-LEVITT: What was important to me was to do something where the people involved really cared about it, and it was more than just a job. Adequacy was not good enough. There was no big machine running the whole thing where everyone felt like a cog. It was a few people who were investing their whole lives into this and that's what was important.

There's a scene in Manic where all the patients go wild responding to music. Was that scene just chaos or was there any choreography to it?
GORDON-LEVITT: There wasn't so much physical choreography like blocking, but it wasn't chaotic at all in that we still were telling a story. With every character in that scene, you see what they are going through. You see where they are in their storyline, in that scene. It wasn't just like we were wigging out. We were concentrating as much on where our characters were at emotionally, during that scene, as any other scene. It was just a more violent, visceral manifestation of it.

Were the fight scenes choreographed or were you just given basic instructions on what the scene should look like?
GORDON-LEVITT: They were fairly choreographed. They were nothing at all choreographed like how big movies are. We didn't have a stunt coordinator. They weren't showy; they were more like how real violence is. They were done before you even realized that they started. It's over – and someone's hurt. I guess that's what we were going for and I guess that's how it happened. I got hurt constantly making this movie. I got really bruised up. The second day of shooting we did a scene where there was some violence in it and it wasn't particularly choreographed. I tried something that we hadn't rehearsed. It looked really good and it made it into the movie, but I sprained my wrist. I was in a brace whenever we weren't filming.

I'm going to ask what the counselor in the movie asks each of you: what gives your life meaning?
DESCHANEL: Friends and family. I think what my character [answers] in the movie, "Love." It's all about the love that you have for other people. That's what can really get you through things.
GORDON-LEVITT: Obviously I love my family and I love my friends but I've been acting for 15 years and it's gone in and out of how meaningful it is. I've gone through periods where I'm like, "It doesn't mean that much, the work that I'm doing." Doing Manic has been more meaningful to me than any acting I've ever done for the last 15 years. It's kind of shown me what it is to have it be meaningful. People come up to me and they recognize me from 3rd Rock and it's great. They are like, "I watch your show every day. I love that show, it's really funny." But a kid came up to me in Philadelphia when there was a film festival there. He was like 16 and he said, "I was in a hospital just like that and I had problems. I was you," he said. "I came to see this movie two days ago and I came back again today." He looked me right in the eye and said, "Thank you." That's a whole other level than 3rd Rock. I know how important movies are to me when I'm having trouble or if I'm hurting. A movie can be a big deal to me. The idea that something that I did can be a big deal to someone else, that's pretty meaningful.
DESCHANEL: Always the aim for me is making people feel like they are not alone. That's just the greatest feeling.