Actress Kimberly Quinn. Photo Credit: Marc Cartwright.

Actress Kimberly Quinn. Photo Credit: Marc Cartwright.

GALO: And it created enough buzz that Bill Murray signed on. He is notoriously difficult to get ahold of, so how did you get him on board?

KQ: My husband wrote a letter to Bill’s lawyer (because that’s how you contact Bill), and sent the script along and didn’t hear anything. He tried following up and the lawyer told him he just had to wait. And one day Bill called and told Ted that he would like to talk to him about the script — he asked Ted to meet him at LAX. Bill has a house somewhere that is like a two-hour drive from LAX, so he told Ted they would just get in the car and talk about the script. So Ted met him, they stopped at In-N-Out Burger, and Ted sold him as they drove back to Bill’s house. And once Bill was attached, the project started to take off.

GALO: So was it Murray’s involvement that let the film grow from that initial plan of making a small, low-budget feature to a movie that cast Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts and Terrence Howard?

KQ: Yeah. Once Ted signed Bill, everyone started jumping on board. The Weinstein Company came on to produce and we were able to start recruiting talent like Melissa and Naomi, so landing Bill was a huge coup.

GALO: I read that your husband based Murray’s character on your father, and parts of the script on your relationship with your father. How much input did you have in the creation of that character?

KQ: Ted witnessed the evolution of my relationship with my father. My parents divorced when I was one and I kind of saw my father intermittently, but then when I turned nine, he left. He called me and told me that he got married to his third wife and when I asked him for his new number, he wouldn’t give it to me. So 20 years went by where I never heard from him, and I did the Landmark Forum in California — it’s a weekend self-help program — and their whole thing is to “get complete.” And I told them I was complete being incomplete with my father. But they insisted I reach out to him. So I ended up writing him a letter and he called me the day he got it. And after that, he called me every single day until the day he died. We developed the most amazing relationship.

He was an Irish alcoholic who — there’s a line in the film: “He didn’t like many people and not many people liked him.” And he had a temper that got in the way of him having a better life. Toward the end of his life, he got cancer. Long story short, he lost his voice box and couldn’t talk — and because he couldn’t talk, he could no longer be angry. So in the last two years of his life, he turned into this saint. It was the most amazing thing to see, because he was just all smiles and everybody loved him, and we had the best times. We had the best relationship those last two years, but he had four other children who, you can imagine, did not like him. He was an asshole, basically, to them and they saw no reason to reconnect with him. I remember being at the funeral with the other four kids, who didn’t like him, and realized that I was the only one who knew he had value. I was the only one who got to witness the beautiful transformation my father made, and I would talk about it with Ted and he got really inspired by my father and my projection onto how his life had meaning. So he took that and wrote this curmudgeon guy who ends up getting his own value in the end.

GALO: I was going to ask if you were hesitant to share a story that personal, but it sounds like you saw it as an opportunity to kind of publicize your father’s redemption.

KQ: Yeah, because I don’t see my dad as a bad guy. But a lot of people do. The way I saw him helped me reconsider how I saw other people in life, and I thought sharing that would be extremely valuable. There are a lot of people who are perceived as jerks, but you have to realize that that person is a human being and try to have a little empathy for them. That’s why I was so willing to share this story.

GALO: Considering how close you are both to the story and the director, I imagine you had your choice of who you would play in the film. So what was the attraction of the role you took as Nurse Ana?

KQ: I wanted to play her because, in the movie, Nurse Ana is the only one who really sees Vin as a great human being. She sees all of the good things that he does — he can’t afford the nursing home but he still comes, and he still does his wife’s laundry — so she sees him differently than every other person in the movie. So that connection was special to me, because that was my love for my dad. I was just really happy to be able to give that perception.

GALO: In addition to acting in St. Vincent, you took on the role of associate producer. What kind of work did you do on the film from that front?

KQ: I was really heavy into the creative process. Obviously, from the start, [I was] giving notes on the script and helping develop that, and then consulting with Ted all the way through casting and editing. I had a say in all of the little creative decisions along the way. Along the way, I learned how much work a producer does, because they are so involved in every step. You spend hours going through the film after editing, going through every single scene and trying to find ways to improve it.

GALO: And you recently directed your own short film, right?

KQ: I did! It doesn’t have a title yet — I’m still in the process of editing it and putting it together — its crazy [laughs]. I guess it’s like a drama/thriller. I’ve always wanted to direct and just haven’t, so I told myself I had to do it. I wrote it and it sat on my desk for five years, so I kept asking myself when I was going to do it. Once Ted was off and running with St. Vincent, I put it together and shot it in two-and-a-half days. And I’m proud of myself! I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.

GALO: In the past few years, your husband has been making the transition from a commercial director to a film director, with a few short films and one TV-movie. You’ve been able to work with him on each of those productions, so how have you noticed him grow as a director on St. Vincent?

KQ: I saw him direct for the first time in acting class, where we met, and from that first time 18 years ago, it was clear he was made to be a director. Watching him direct his short films, I saw him then the same way I see him now. The ways in which he’s grown have been technical and just knowing the business more. As a creative director, it’s a talent he’s always had. He didn’t all of a sudden become fantastic, he’s always been fantastic; people are just going to know it now. It’s all about getting that break, I guess.


Video courtesy of The Weinstein Company.

Featured image: Actress Kimberly Quinn. Photo Credit: Marc Cartwright.