Steven Rogers has had a long career in Hollywood but he is probably best known for the critically acclaimed I, Tonya which centered on the life and career of notorious American figure skater Tonya Harding. His latest project, Everything’s Going to Be Great also draws upon real events, but is a little more personal to Rogers. Recently, we spoke with the screenwriter about the upcoming film ahead of its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Everything’s Going to Be Great follows parents Buddy and Macy Smart (Bryan Cranston and Allison Janney) as they pursue their show business dreams working their way up in regional theater. The unpredictable lifestyle proves challenging raising their two different sons Lester and Derrick (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Jack Champion). Together, the family embark on a journey to find where they belong.
While searching for his follow up to I, Tonya, Rogers was offered other true stories to adapt. That lead him to reflect upon his own experiences instead. He said, “I didn’t really respond to any of them and I thought well why don’t I do one based on the way that I grew up. My dad produced regional theater, which is what Bryan Cranston does in the movie. It was never big time. It was very hopeful.”
Though the story for Everything’s Going to Be Great was partly inspired from his youth, Rogers also drew upon the present. He added, “But while I was writing it, a lot of my friends were going through that period in their life where they were either going to double down on making their dreams happen or give up on them and find something else to do. That was just very moving to me and that made me ask the question how long do you gamble on yourself? How long do you wait for your dream to happen? What happens if you move on and what happens to everyone else? That was the jumping off point.”
Rogers and Janney have a long history. Their relationship began even before collaborating on I, Tonya, where the latter won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. They first met when Rogers was only 17 years old while both attended acting school at Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Despite their working relationship, Janney wasn’t originally considered for Macy.
When asked if he wrote the role with Janney in mind, he replied, “Stupidly I didn’t. You would think I would have. No, I was just writing the movie. What happened, in real life, my mom was much younger than my dad. So, when we were casting it, that’s what I was looking for.”
Rogers continued, “It was really our executive producer, Scott Morgan. We were out to dinner, I said, ‘You know who would be really good for this would have been Allison Janney.’ He just shot hate rays at me. I said, ‘No, my mom was much younger than my dad.’ He said, ‘That’s literally one line in the script, and it’s not a good line. Just cut it and let’s give it to Allison.’ Yeah, let’s do that. Happily she said yes.”
Lucky for us, she said yes too.
Everything’s Going to be Great opens in select theaters June 20th.
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