‘It’s unfathomable to put yourself in the place of a mother losing her child’
Neve Campbell plays a woman facing the death of her teenage son in a new Disney+ film
Back in 2013 a viral folk-pop song about flying in the clouds where “the view is a little nicer” topped the itunes charts.
It hit number one on the day of the funeral of its singer, Zach Sobiech, who had died of cancer at 18.
He was still in school when he learned that the osteosarcoma - a rare bone cancer he had been diagnosed with - had spread, and he spent the rest of his short life pursuing his musical dreams, as documented in the memoir Fly A Little Higher by his mother, Laura, which has now been adapted into a film.
“I read the book before I met Laura,” recalls Scream star Neve Campbell, who plays her in the movie. “And I was just so blown away by this woman’s strength, spirituality, maturity, courage.
“It’s unfathomable to put yourself in the place of a mother losing her child; it’s even more unfathomable that someone could do it with such grace and bolster her family along the journey, including her son, Zach.
“I wanted to honour her, I wanted to honour that woman and her strength. It’s a big ask but she was so open. It’s very brave to allow people to tell your story, it must be very, very surreal for them.
“She wrote to me the other day and said it continues to be very surreal but they are so happy. She and Rob (her husband) watched the movie five times in a row and were thankfully very, very happy with it, with the way the story was told, so it was scary, but I think we did it.
“We tried to honour them in the best way, in the most honest way possible, and honour her words, and there are a lot of her words in this script and I’m so glad of that, she’s a profound woman.”
After learning that his disease has spread, the film follows Zach (played by newcomer Fin Argus) on his journey as he and his best friend and songwriting partner, Sammy (Sabrina Carpenter), land a record deal and make the music that would become Zach’s farewell to the world.
“I watched every video there is of Zach on YouTube,” says Argus over Zoom.
“I listened to all of his music and I think one thing that is really special about this movie is, while we weren’t going for exact replicas of the people, we did want to capture that spirit.
“I think, having watched all these videos of Zach and listened to his music and watching the documentary about him and reading Laura’s book, it added invaluable insight into the dynamics of their relationships and just how Zach was feeling, his emotional headspace during that last year, which was such a difficult year.
“I feel like a vessel, I felt like Zach was having an opportunity to speak through all of us and share his story in a new format, which was a feature film, and while we are not spitting images of the people, I feel like their essences were living with us and we have a really unique opportunity to share their personalities and share their love as family and friends, with the world.”
Campbell, 47, who is herself a mother to two young sons, formed a close bond with Laura during the making of the film.
● Clouds is streaming now on Disney+