Addiction is the battleground for a mother and son in Ben Is Back
Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges talk to Laura Harding about the threat of drugs to their screen family
Lucas Hedges never wanted to make a film with his dad. Even though his father is the acclaimed writer Peter Hedges, who penned About A Boy and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, the 22-year-old star thought they would never work together because it would be too awkward.
But then he read his latest script and found out Hollywood megastar Julia Roberts had signed on and that all changed.
“My dad said he always had me in mind for the part, which I believe,” says the young actor, who was nominated for an Oscar in 2017 for Manchester By The Sea.
“But he knew I wasn’t available and wasn’t interested in doing a movie with him because it was uncomfortable.
“That was before I read his script. Then when I read it and Julia came on and it felt like there were all these things that matter so much more to me than my fear of working with my dad and then it was like ‘Ah, this is the right opportunity’.”
That opportunity is Ben Is Back, a devastating portrait of a teenage drug addict who unexpectedly returns to his family home on Christmas Eve, where he is reunited with his mother Holly (played by Roberts) and sister, as well as Holly’s new husband and their children.
The older Hedges serves as both writer and director and it was Roberts who lobbied the filmmaker to cast his son.
“When I found out that Julia Roberts wanted me to play Ben in this movie, it was crazy,” Lucas says.
“She seemed like somebody from a far-off land. The fact that she wanted me to act with her was incredibly flattering.”
Roberts even sent Peter a photo of herself with her oldest son Phinnaeus, who is a redhead like Lucas, in a bid to convince him that Lucas was the right choice.
“The note said something along the lines of, ‘I just want Lucas to know that handsome red-headed men feel comfortable around me,’” he remembers.
“Julia took the pressure off my fear that if I did this movie it would be all about me and my dad.
“While my relationship with any director is obviously important, an even bigger part of it for this movie was my character’s relationship with his mother.”
Indeed it is that relationship which lies at the very heart of the movie, as Holly fiercely fights to keep her son clean and safe.
“What feels angry and stubborn one minute becomes determination and unconditional love the next minute, it’s so complicated,” says 51-year-old Roberts, who is mother to sons Phinnaeus and Henry and daughter Hazel with husband Danny Moder.
“You can’t grab hold of it and sort it and fix it because it’s this ever changing moving, water-through-your-fingers issue.
“There are so many things that are in constant flux with it, it just becomes such a mountain to climb, that any mother is willing to climb every day to finally save their child.”
To prepare, Roberts plunged into research about addiction and recovery and how it impacts the families of those struggling.
“Unfortunately in this day and age there is a wealth of information,” she says.
“There are all too many stories to read about and watch, portrayed in documentaries and all sorts of things. Just to see how parents inhabit these situations is so agonising.”
But for Hedges, his preparation was even more hands on.
“I went to meetings. I was out here in LA and I have a friend who is in a similar programme, not NA (Narcotics Anonymous) which is the one Ben is in, but in another one and he took me to some meetings.
“I set out to have an understanding of what the recovery process looked like because one of the interesting things I did learn was that a lot of people relapse on their 100th day into recovery, that it’s right when things get good that you fall on your face or overdose.”
Now Roberts hopes the film serves as a reminder about how complicated the drug problem in the US and the wider world is.
“There are all these different fingerprints of responsibility that are on these drugs before they ever get into the hands of a young person.
“I hope people take away that you can make phone calls and you can create change in the legislation.
“The other part of it for me is to be present for one another in our own households in whatever form that is, whether you’re fighting this incredible battle like they are in the film or just to be present and aware and together, humbly and wholly while we can be.
“Because really anything can happen to any of us, it doesn’t have to be this huge awful thing, it can just be some small awful thing and if you feel that you have fulfilled your responsibility as a present family member then I think that is a life accomplishment.”
“There are all these different fingerprints of responsibility”
● Benisbackisoutnowin UK cinemas.