“Is your dad here?” A moment from Eighth Grade

That’s Missy Yager there, as the mom of the Queen Bee of middle school in Eighth Grade (which I reviewed for Ebert.)

What is so funny about this small moment is that the mother is happy to see Kayla come to her daughter’s pool party – she greets her warmly and excitedly – but REALLY she’s happy because she was looking forward to seeing Kayla’s hot dad. There’s a voiceover from Kayla going on, plus music, so you can’t even hear the dialogue, but Missy plays the moment: she’s like, “Kayla!! Hi!!” Then she does a quick sweep of her eyes behind Kayla, asking, “Is your dad here?” Kayla: “No.” Then there’s a brief flash of disappointment on her face, before she shakes it off and welcomes Kayla inside. It’s one of the little details I love. It’s not even developed in the script but it’s just there as texture. Because Josh Hamilton totally would be “that dad” to the other moms, especially since there is no wife in the picture. They’d look forward to flirting with him even if it never went anywhere. Later, you hear the mom off-screen scolding her husband for bringing the cake down too early, and the argument gets toxic almost immediately. So in 5 minutes you get the whole picture of this woman’s whole life.

Missy was the first person to read the role of Neve in my script, in the very first reading of the only scene I had written thus far (it would be the scene eventually turned into the short film July and Half of August). At that time, the script didn’t even have a name, and neither of the characters had names either. Her reading was so extraordinary I will never forget it as long as I live, and it was the first inkling I got that what I wrote … worked. A year later, she directed the workshop of my script – which was by then a full length script, called “The Black Wave” at the time – out in Los Angeles. She was essential in helping me ask the questions that needed to be asked to whip the script into shape. She was so good at script and scene structure, and she really helped me achieve what I wanted to achieve. I will be forever grateful for her work in bringing July and Half of August to fruition.

She’s also a wonderful actress. Ask anyone. Ask Kenneth Lonergan.

So this is a shout out to good actors like Missy Yager doing their thing, helping a movie be good, in ways big and small.