Q&A: 'Spectacular Now' director on the 10th anniversary of the Athens teen drama

Last year, powerhouse indie film distributor A24 swept the Oscars with seven wins for its $100 million-earning blockbuster, "Everything Everywhere All At Once." But when the company bought Cedar Shoals High School graduate James Ponsoldt's "The Spectacular Now," the Athens-shot feature was one of the first five movies A24 released in its inaugural year.

On Oct. 14 and 15, Ciné will host the 10th anniversary screening of "The Spectacular Now," with writer-director Ponsoldt in attendance on the 15th for a live introduction and audience Q&A after the movie. In this interview with Banner-Herald arts and culture reporter Andrew Shearer, Ponsoldt details the reasons why he made the film in his hometown and what its success has meant to him.

Video: Watch the trailer for "The Spectacular Now"

Andrew Shearer: "The Spectacular Now" was your third feature film. Why did you choose to set it in Athens and what was it like making the movie here?

James Ponsoldt: Athens is just in my DNA. I grew up here, I went to school here, and my parents still live here. Our production office was downtown in R.E.M.'s former office, so you don't get more Athens than that. I was able to spend summer 2012 with a film crew that was made up of, in some cases, folks that lived in Georgia or had gone to UGA. For the cast and crew that were brought in from elsewhere, I got to introduce them to my hometown. It just felt like summer camp and people really fell in love with Athens. Whether you're teaching art at UGA and you're also doing your art on the side, or you're in a band and you also work in a restaurant, there's a million archetypes that we know. That was what my sister and her friends did. That's what my friends did. That's what my parents friends did. That's what I grew up knowing. To be able to make something in that community, to feel supported and to be able to get to film in a place that I love with all my heart was one of the most gratifying things that ever happened to me.

Shearer: "The Spectacular Now" premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. What do you remember from that first screening?

Ponsoldt: It played on the opening weekend in a theater that I really liked called The Library. The opening weekend of Sundance is pretty electric, and when you're with people in a crowded theater, you can tell when something's connecting with people or not. You're kind of having an out-of-body experience and probably nervous. I was sitting with like the cast and crew in a room full of people who didn't work on ("The Spectacular Now"), I think there were like 400 people in the room or something. Most people there were complete strangers, and you could just feel in the room that people really connected with it. The opening title comes up a few minutes into the movie, after Miles Teller's character is driving down the street screaming out the out the window of his car. When the movie's title came up and the score started, people applauded.

Shearer: I've had people tell me that "The Spectacular Now" is a very important movie from their youth. Why do you think it continues to connect with people?

Ponsoldt: I think it's because the teenagers are the core of the movie, but most films about teenagers are kind of patronizing. They're either about the immaturity of kids or they're just using easy genre conceits to explore, like they happen to be werewolves, or whatever it is. "The Spectacular Now" is more of a drama about adolescence. It has romance at the core, but that romance is also sort of toxic, and the main character might be an alcoholic. It has a lot of things that people probably wouldn't expect from a movie about teenagers. They can be fundamentally complicated the way that adults in movies can be. I had faith that if it meant something to me and if we tried to put our hearts into making it, in time it would find people for whom it also connected. And that's what happened. It's very humbling to know that the film continues to connect with people, whether they're the age of the characters in the movie or whether they're much older. I'm grateful for it and Athens is so lucky to have an independent theater like Ciné to show it in.

Shearer: In the years since "The Spectacular Now," you've made three features and directed an Emmy-nominated TV series ("Daisy Jones & The Six"). Are there any upcoming projects you can talk about?

Ponsoldt: I'm working on a movie that is set in the Athens music scene in the 1980s. I was born in 1978, so it was really gratifying to grow up with an awareness at a young age that this is a cool place. I was obviously a child when ... the B-52s and Pylon were starting their careers and getting famous, but I was always very aware of them. R.E.M.'s longtime manager, Bertis Downs, was one of my dad's law students. I knew that they were super cool, not just because they were famous but because they cared about politics and they supported local causes. They make music that people listen to in other places and they're good people as well. Later, I became a music junkie because my sister was a music junkie. She's 5 years older than me, so all I wanted to do from the time I was like 10 or 11 or 12 was hang out in downtown Athens and go to clubs. When you watch a film set in New York or L.A. that was made in the 1960s or 1970s, you're getting a document of what it was like to drive down Sunset Boulevard, in that period and you see tons and tons of stores and restaurants and fashion and hairstyles. I want to create a snapshot of a time, place, vibe, and a way of living that doesn't entirely exist anymore.

Athens Ciné is located at 234 W. Hancock Ave. For tickets and show times, visit athenscine.com.

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This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Q&A: Director of 'Spectacular Now' on Athens film's 10th anniversary