Exclusive: Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky on The Good House and Filmmaking

Hildy Goody (Sigourney Weaver) is a successful realtor in New England with a knack for Pinot Noir that concerns her family. She’s spent her entire adult life providing for them and avoiding her inner demons. Things change for Hildy when her family no longer wants her around her grandchild unless she quits drinking, when her grip on the competitive real-estate market loosens, and when she reignites an old flame with another local business owner (Kevin Kline).

The Good House explores human struggle through themes of addiction, ageism, and more, intertwined with a light touch of humor to balance. Although Hildy experiences a lot of non-desirable circumstances in her life, whether it be her addiction or the previous catalyzers of it, she remains smart, funny, and charming.

“We felt like that story of older women and their whole lives, their work, their family, and their romance, their relationships with themselves just weren’t something that we’ve seen very often,” said Maya Forbes. “And it was funny. The book was funny,” she added, referring to the novel of the same name by Ann Leary.

“It has our favorite starting point, which is a very well-developed, unreliable narrator. That’s where all the juice is, in what’s true and not true. Ann Leary did a really terrific job of creating this character, and so it was reading the book that immediately presented to us as a great idea for a movie,” said Wally Wolodarsky.

When either Forbes or Wolodarsky have a good idea for filmmaking, it’s what’s true, as both have built quite remarkable resumes in the industry. Infinitely Polar Bear, directed by Forbes and starring Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana, previously premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim, of which Wolodarsky produced. He also has experience writing for shows like The Simpsons, and their lists could go on and be reinforced by their latest.

The Good House Movie and Novel

“We really tried to be faithful,” said Wolodarsky about how close the movie is to the book. “We really liked the book, so we made it our best effort.”

“And the book had a lot of I think maybe 10 years ago, or something a long time ago, but it had a lot of fans. So, you just had to peel away and focus on the Hildy story. It’s challenging in that we’re staying exclusively from her point of view, so things that are happening off other characters, those weren’t a part of the story as we told it,” added Forbes.

They continued, noting how Leary acted as an interested reader and provided them with her thoughts, allowing for good conversations and insights that informed subsequent drafts of the script.

“She would take about classical music of the day, and the rock n’ roll of the night. That was sort of her mode,” said Forbes, which relates well to Hildy in her novel and in the script as like classical music, she’s put together during the day and at night, is cracking open a bottle or Pinot Noir or sneaking vodka, doing things she can’t remember, more akin to the rhythm of rock n’ roll. Yet this behavior, paired with her ability to break the fourth wall and spill secrets, makes us root for her even more.

“I think she’s got a lot of agency. She’s a person who’s struggled to really make something of herself and of her life, and we always like characters who are reaching for something, who really are striving or moving toward, who are not reactive but are reacting and going for things,” said Wolodarsky.

“Also what we really liked about her is that the things that have helped her survive and forge ahead in life, the coping mechanisms are not working anymore. The things that have made her so strong are also the things that are kind of holding her back… and that’s an interesting crossroads,” added Forbes.

It’s at these crossroads where we can truly get inside her head as she breaks the fourth wall, making her all the more interesting as a narrator despite how unreliable she may be at times.

“We envision that as sort of sitting at a bar with someone, and they’re telling you their side of the story. You feel like, ‘God, those kids of yours, they don’t seem like they understand you or they don’t seem like they care if you’re happy.’ You’re hearing that story. So, the movie is really about denial. It was a fun way to start off with her, thinking, ‘Yeah, Hildy. Right on. Everyone’s on your case.’ And then you slowly start to catch up to, ‘Wait a second!’ Which is something we feel like we’ve gone through in our own lives with people where it starts to slowly dawn on you, or you’re in the uncomfortable position of whether or not you have a problem,” said Forbes.

“We just experienced the story the way we experienced life. It’s lots of funny things, lots of tragic things, and you kind of never can have one without the other,” added Wolodarsky.

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Character Driven Filmmaking & Infinitely Polar Bear

“We always start with character, always, on every project, and the plot is born from that character and where we want to see them go,” elaborated Wolodarsky on how they decide what projects they take on. That, and always wanting to be a bit funny, as they both came up in the world of comedy.

This rings true based on their previous work, especially when looking at a story like Infinitely Polar Bear where the story unfolds from a complex character who suffers from bipolar disorder and takes on sole responsibility for his children while his wife attends graduate school.

“Infinitely Polar Bear is based on my growing up and my dad. That came out of telling my kids stories… our children never knew him, I was telling them bedtime stories, and it sort of started from there. I realized I wanted them to understand him and my sort of very unusual upbringing, and it just evolved from there… Infinitely Polar Bear is the truth, but it’s not exactly what happened. So, creating the plot, because you’re working with these really young actors and if I were really telling the real story, it’s going to unfold over many more years, but that’s just not how movies are. Things had to be sort of compressed and condensed and a new story had to emerge from a version of the truth,” explained Forbes.

A process that lent itself to catharsis as well, as Forbes continued, sharing that it deepened her connection to her mother and self.

“It was very cathartic for me with my mother, and for her. When she read the script, she understood the pressures that my sister and I had been under in a new way. When I wrote the script, I understood the thing she had to do in a new way. It really created a lot of empathy between us… it took a few years to get it made… but even if I hadn’t gotten to make the script, I would have just been so happy to have written it, and for me and my mother to have this seeing of each other,” said Forbes.

Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky currently have a couple of different projects in the works but confirmed that they adapted a book titled “Worst Case Scenario,” and that they hope to have it together next summer.