LAUREN GRAHAM ON ‘ MAX: MOVIE WITH A DIFFERENCE’

auren Graham was on a trip to Japan with her friend when she got a call from her agent. Director Boaz Yakin needed someone to play a wife and mother in his upcoming movie Max, about a family struggling to survive the loss of a son in Iraq.

“I was told, ‘ The filmmaker wants to talk to you, but they’ve already asked Thomas Haden Church’s opinion of who should play his wife, and he really responded to you,’” she recalled. Graham is a veteran of two popular television series, Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, but she insisted that she had only one thought.

“I was hit with this horrible feeling that he thought I was Heather Graham,” she said, sitting for an interview at a Los Angeles hotel. “It was inconceivable to me that Thomas even knew who I was. I couldn’t believe he ever watched an episode of Gilmore Girls. I was sure he didn’t watch Parenthood.

“I do have to say that his comments gave me the street cred that I needed in that moment,” Graham added with a laugh.

The title character in Max, set to open on June 26, is a pre- cision-trained military dog who eats, fights and sleeps at the side of US Marine Kyle Wincott on the front line in Afghanistan until Kyle is killed. A traumatised Max is discharged and sent stateside, where he connects with Kyle’s grieving family, including his mother (Graham), his father (Church) and his teenage brother, Justin (Josh Wiggins).

The transition isn’t easy for any of them. Max is a dog who doesn’t trust strangers, while Justin has his own issues with Kyle’s death and doesn’t want to have to deal with his brother’s troubled dog.

“I was struck at how poignant the story was,” Graham said. “We really delve into the world of these military dogs and how vital their work is for our military. This is also a story about a family healing from loss. They come together over this dog.”

There is a poignant scene during Kyle’s funeral in which the grieving dog lies down by the casket.

“We did research,” Graham said, “and that’s what these military dogs do when they lose their people in war. They actually won’t leave the casket.”

Graham based her character on members of her own family. “She reminded me of my grandmother, who was a missionary and Southern Baptist,” the actress said. “She was a kind woman, but an incredibly strong one. I also based her on certain traits of my grandfather, who was a man of few words, but had this quiet strength.”

This mother isn’t like her television alter egos, Graham added.

“I always play these flaky, extremely verbal people,” she said. “This was different. This woman felt like a part of my childhood.”

Relating to the dog who played Max was easy for Graham, who considers herself a dog person.

“I had a wonderful German shepherd,” she said. “I remember getting my Hannah from a Burbank rescue.

It didn’t take long for her to find Hannah, though. “I found the girl in the next cage,” Graham recalled. “It was a crazy, instant connection and the best, smartest, sweetest dog I could ever find as a friend. She was with me during tough times, and I even had someone drive her to New York to be with me when I was working.

“This was a major dog friendship,” she said. “I haven’t been able to get another dog since she passed. I’m working on it.”

A two-year-old dog from Kentucky named Carlos played Max, along with several stunt doubles. Carlos is a Belgian Malinois, one of the breeds most favoured by the military. They are lean and highly focused, and can sniff out drugs, bombs and dead bodies. They have a 270-degree field of vision and a bite force that equals 1,400 pounds per square inch, and can run 30 miles per hour.

“There is something really special about that breed,” Graham said. “They’re more intense and restless than German shepherds, but they also have this extreme intelligence and the adaptability. I was around Carlos and knew there was so much going on with him. All of us really bonded with him.”

Born in Honolulu, Graham grew up in northern Virginia and was raised by her father, Larry Graham, longtime president of the National Confectioners Association, the main lobbying arm of the candy industry.

She earned a degree in English from Barnard College in New York and a master’s in fine arts from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Graham began her career on the television series Townies, and went on to roles on Caroline in the City and News Radio, as well as such films as Bad Santa,The Pacifier, Because I Said So, It’s Kind of a Funny Story and A Merry Friggin’ Christmas.

Her breakout role was Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls. “The fan base still knocks me out,” she said. “It’s so interesting to see how people still embrace the show so many years later. The enthusiasm never dies down.”

There are rumours of a Gilmore Girls movie in the works. Graham denies them, but sounds intrigued.

“It’s not up to me,” she said. “We didn’t have a last season, and the fantasy would be to finish the show the way the show’s creator wanted to do it.”

Parenthood did have a planned ending, but Graham still felt sorry to say goodbye to Sarah Braverman. “It was really difficult to think that the show is over,” she said, “but really nice to have a great ending. I felt really sentimental. Every moment counted. It was that melancholy feeling of senior year of high school, where you don’t want to leave your friends behind, but it’s time to move on.”

The finale featured a flash-forward to the family’s later years, which Graham found disorienting.

At 48, the actress said, she doesn’t feel like someone who’s been around for nearly a half-century. “I feel so young,” she said.

“I guess I’m playing out the next chapter.”