Original-Cin Q&A: Director of the Anton Yelchin doc Love, Antosha talks about discovering the late actor through his writings, journals and music
Love, Antosha is a beautiful and heartbreaking look at Anton Yelchin’s short life. Through his journals and other writings, his photography, the original music he wrote, and interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues, the film looks, not just at Anton’s impressive acting career, but offers a broader portrait of the man.
Born in the former Soviet Union to a family of artists, Anton and his parents came to the U.S. when he was six months old. He started acting at nine. He had a genuine curiosity and love for people, for art, and for family. And he had a willingness to explore, and be open with, the darker parts of himself.
The late Anton Yelchin, looking back at you.
Love, Antosha explores his successes and his struggles, and lets viewers get to know this extraordinary person the world was cheated from seeing grow old. (The actor was accidentally crushed by his car in 2016 when it rolled in his driveway)
Hollywood Suite is premiering the documentary on Friday, November 13 at 9:00 pm on the Hollywood Suite 2000s Movies Channel – HS00 and kicks off a Anton Yelchin weekend with films including 5 to 7, Only Lovers Left Alive and Green Room.
Bonnie Laufer spoke with director Garret Price about working on this touching documentary.
ORIGINAL-CIN: The film is clearly a labour of love for Anton’s parents. Did you know him before you even decided to dive into this?
GARRET PRICE: “No, not at all. I knew him from his work, but that was about it. So I always tell people, Anton found me to tell his story. I didn’t go out and seek him to tell his story.
“I am really close friends with a filmmaker named Drake Doremus who made Like Crazy, a movie Anton starred in. So when Anton’s parents were looking for a director to possibly hand off their archives and tell their son’s story in the documentary form, they went to Drake because he was very close with their son.
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“Drake told them that he wasn't the right person to tell the story and that they needed an objective storyteller. And knowing Anton, and what an honest and raw and true person he was, he would agree with that. So he suggested me as the guy who should direct it and he would produce it.”
O.C.: Watching the doc, it really was eye opening to see how many films and projects he had under his belt in his short life.
PRICE: “Not just that. It wasn't until I met with his parents and started learning more about Anton and I began to review their collection of footage that I thought, ‘Not only is there a story that can be told, the story has to be told.’”
O.C. You had so much material to go through from his entire life. How difficult was it to sift through everything and decide what to use?
PRICE: “I think the editor in me is helpful when it comes to that part of it - being given all of this material of someone's life, including his personal writings.
“It felt very invasive as an outsider going through it. They were never meant to be seen by me, let alone used in a movie. But it's what I wanted and needed to tell the movie from his point of view. That was really important for me. This is Anton's story to tell, it's not my story. I'm just there to help out and that was really important to me.”
“What stood out for me was his relationship with his mom. It's something that I can relate to. And I think something the audience will relate to it too.
“I think as a filmmaker telling these types of stories you need to find those themes that people can relate to especially when it's a movie about a famous person. That's why I chose to use his personal writings as a device to take me through his life.
“That was more important to me than using tons of interviews with famous people. They were all important in their own right, but his words are the most important thing to me in telling the story.”
O.C: The access you got from his parents is astounding and heart breaking at the same time. Losing a child at such a young age is devastating beyond belief. The love and admiration he had for his mother just gutted me.
PRICE: “That was the intention there, it got to me the first afternoon I sat down with her.
“They had a very unique and special relationship. Yes, we all love our parents and we all have relationships with our kids. But there was something so special about his love and respect for his parents. It comes from them giving up their whole life to give him a better one. They built this special bond and it was something that was really important to me in telling this story. He was writing letters to his mom from the very beginning up until the end of his life.
“I always tell people this is a movie about life and not about death. Death is part of a story but for the most part it’s about living a life to its fullest which I found so fascinating.”
O.C: Plus, you were able to speak with so many of his past co-stars.
PRICE: “There really wasn't anyone that we approached that didn’t want to talk about Anton. You could from his Star Trek castmates that he was so loved. There wasn’t a dry eye after we finished interviewing them, it was as though they’d lost a family member.”
O.C: His work ethic was astounding and not many people knew that he also had cystic fibrosis. He never missed a day of work, never complained and as you say lived life to the fullest. He certainly was loved and admired by everyone he came in contact with.
PRICE: “What I found so interesting when I started going into these interviews, especially with his co-workers, was exactly that. Everyone I spoke to was so unguarded and were never worried about showing their true feelings for Anton.
“I didn’t originally notice it, but when I went back to the edit bay and re-watched the interviews and saw his friends tell stories. Just watching their eyes, you can see them remembering the moments they had with this incredible human being. It's not that they didn't want to say anything bad, they just didn't have anything bad to say. Trust me, I tried! (Laughs).
“It's really important to show both sides of a coin of a person's life but for Anton it really was all positive when it came to the people he worked with and was close to.”
O.C: You definitely show his curious side and things that he did that might have seemed a bit adventurous or odd. But he was just a kid exploring life.
PRICE: “Yeah, it's all about exploring. He was always excited to see the next thing, just digging in and discovering and figuring things out. He was that type of person and it was all about curiosities. He was fascinated by people, learning and art and just everything he could to better himself and enrich his life as much as he could.”
O.C. What did you learn about yourself after making a film about a person like that?
PRICE: “I have two young sons, and I would come home every night and look at my kids. Then I would think, ‘Why don't you treat me the way Anton treated his parents? What am i doing wrong here?’” (Laughs)
O.C: Tell me about it. I felt the same way watching it!
PRICE: “I think what I learned most after working on this film and getting to know Anton in this way is to constantly push yourself, don't settle. Constantly explore, keep creating, and don't be scared to fail.
“Anton did so many projects, most of them no one's ever seen or heard of. But he tried new things all of the time. He had to keep pushing himself. Whether they were big projects or small projects, he treated both equally. He truly loved the art form, whether it was film, TV music, photography. He was such a gifted talented young man who is really missed by many people.”