Exclusive: Sigourney Weaver on Balancing Drama and Comedy in The Good House

Hildy Goody (Sigourney Weaver) is a highly regarded realtor in New England, though her grip on the competitive marketplace is loosening. Gripped in her other hand is a glass of wine, causing surmounting concern from her family. She’s managed to keep everything together despite a few hiccups. As she reignites an old romance and becomes more secretive with her escalating addiction to alcohol, she is forced to face her inner demons and family secrets or risk losing it all.

“This is the story of an older woman, from her point of view, who is luckily very funny, who’s been at the top of her game, worked hard all of her life, taking care of everyone around her. We suddenly meet Hildy at a point when her husband dumped her for a guy, her kids have sent her to rehab, and her business is being taken away. We see her in an extreme circumstance,” explained Weaver.

Alongside Weaver in the cast of The Good House are Kevin Kline, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, David Rasche, Rebecca Henderson, Molly Brown, Kathryn Erbe, and more. It’s directed by Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, who co-wrote with the screenplay alongside Thomas Bezucha, based on the best-selling novel by Ann Leary.

Rooting for Hildy Goody

As Weaver explained, audiences are thrust into a point in Hildy’s life where we see her unraveling from the top of her game. We know a bit of her history and how much she prides herself on her success and ability to provide for her family. She has a wry sense of humor and speaks directly to us, allowing her to truly resonate and share secrets. She’s a brilliant and charming woman who we want to see win. We can’t help but root for her, especially with what’s at stake.

“We really root for her to come out on top of all this ageism, and all these forces that she feels are against her. In the course of it, you meet the wonderful Kevin Kline, who plays a hunky garbage man, and I get to reunite with him as an actor and in the story,” said Weaver. “It’s a comedy, but it definitely has its other side, because Hildy’s best friend has always been alcohol. I think in the course of the story, she realizes that can’t continue. That interested me, both her downward slope and her relationship with alcohol, and at what point it stops being a friend and starts being something she has to watch out for.”

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Balancing Comedy and Drama in The Good House

Hildy consistently battles with addiction, in addition to other serious themes from her past that serve as catalyzers. The stakes include removal of her access to her grandchild if she’s unable to recover, financial danger as her business slips away, and even her sanity. Despite all of this, her sense of humor remains, allowing for points of relief, yet without taking anything away from the seriousness of her situation.

“Hildy is very funny,” commented Weaver, “and she’s particularly charming when she’s had a couple of drinks. You see this woman give her all, keeping herself quite contained, then you see her go home, kick off her shoes, unhook her bra and open a bottle of Pinot Noir and just have a few drinks. She says she feels more like herself after three drinks. She’s incredibly good company, especially when she’s had a few drinks, and does things she can’t remember. Skinny-dipping, driving, and things like that.”

Weaver continued, explaining how they further strike that balance between drama and comedy by how she confides in the audience. “She turns to us and says, ‘Can you believe what’s going on in my life?’ And so, we are kind of at the bar with her, if you will, having a drink with her some of this time. It really caught up with me as the actor playing her. At a certain point, I realized that I couldn’t encourage Hildy to drink because it wasn’t working for her anymore, and that was tough. That’s the tough part of the story. One of the things that was so moving was when she finally moves toward a serious rehab instead of a kind of pretend one, we had a scene where a lot of the people in the meeting were guys on the crew that I kind of hand-picked. They turned out all to be sober. They’d been sober for like 30 years… it was a very meaningful movie to me, and a great story about an older woman.”

The Good House comes to us from Lionsgate and is available only in theaters on September 30, 2022.