My Dead Friend Zoe stars Ed Harris, Sonequa Martin-Green, and Natalie Morales spoke to ComingSoon about the powerful comedy drama that deals with the aftermath of war. The trio discussed the film’s characters, working with legends like Morgan Freeman, and more. Directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, it is now playing in theaters starting today.
“My Dead Friend Zoe is a dark comedy drama that follows the journey of Merit, a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her family thanks to the presence of Zoe, her dead best friend from the Army. Despite the persistence of her VA group counselor, the tough love of her mother and the levity of an unexpected love interest, Merit’s cozy-dysfunctional friendship with Zoe keeps the duo insulated from the world. That is until Merit’s estranged grandfather—holed up at the family’s ancestral lake house—begins to lose his way and is in need of the one thing he refuses… help. At its core, this is about a complicated friendship, a divided family and the complex ways in which we process grief,” says the synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Ed, your character, Dale, is a man that’s kind of slipping away after the loss of his wife. He’s got a temper. He is a Vietnam vet. He’s just dealing with a lot of change. What elements about this film and this character really stood out for you to latch onto for your performance?
Ed Harris: Well, I just think those things that you just mentioned. He’s at a time of his life where things are changing for him and he is uncertain how to deal with them. And, you know, it’s the fact that his granddaughter finally comes to see him really throws a real change. Makes him deal with some things that he hasn’t been dealing with.
So I don’t know where else to go with it other than that. He opens up a bit and he realizes how important the people that he loves in his life are, you know, which he hasn’t really been thinking about too much. He’s been in his own head and isolated and cranky [laughs].
Sonequa, I wanted to ask you about sharing scenes with Morgan Freeman. Such a legend. How is he as a scene partner?
Sonequa Martin-Green: He’s phenomenal. Look, we worked with a couple of legends, you know? What I learned, I’ll say it quickly, they have so much seasoning and so much richness, so much depth and breadth. They are throwing so much life at you that you just gotta do your best to catch it [laughs] and throw it back. I quickly realized it’s like a really good tennis game…
Natalie Morales: … With a really good tennis player, but they bring a hundred balls.
Martin-Green: Mm-hmm. You only got one, so you’re gonna try to hit all hundred of these balls that they’re bringing at you. That’s the case with him and with Morgan. And so I obviously they pull you up to them and they make you rise. I’m so, so blessed that we got to that. We got to work with them. Well, vice versa.
Natalie, your character Zoe, as the title explains, is very much dead. Was there any difference in how you played the flashback scenes compared to the more PTSD imaginings? Because they are sort of different characters.
Morales: Yeah, I mean, I hope there was [laughs]. That was my intention. I think that the PTSD manifestation of her still had to be her, right? Because it had to be someone that was familiar to merit somebody that felt comforting and some a reason to keep her around. It couldn’t be an entire total monster, but it had to have these colors of, “That’s not actually Zoe.” And that’s what I was trying to streak through there whenever I could and whenever it felt like the right time to be that manipulative guilt demon.
