How Personal Tragedy Led to Indie Hit 'James White'
Cynthia Nixon and Christopher Abbott in ‘James White’
For Josh Mond, the new movie James White was more than just a chance for to direct his first movie — it was also a form of therapy.
The 32-year-old filmmaker wrote and directed the Sundance breakout, which hit limited theaters on Friday. The small and intimate film stars former Girls star Christopher Abbott as a young man struggling to take care of his dying mother, played with zero vanity by Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City). Mond’s mother had died of the disease several years prior, a personal tragedy that eventually provided the inspiration for his debut.
“Through the encouragement and support and pushing of my family and partners, I was able to work on something that needed to be worked on,” Mond told Yahoo Movies in a phone conversation last week.
After producing an experimental short film with Abbott in 2013, Mond began work on the semi-autobiographical feature. Abbott plays the title character, a native New Yorker whose twenties are hijacked by his father’s death and his mother’s cancer, a struggle that sees him become her primary caretaker. He boozes hard, picks fights, and takes the generosity of friends (his best bud is played by hip-hop artist Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi) for granted. James isn’t quite Mond’s alter ego — the character is far more extreme than its creator —but making the film helped the director finally reckon with his devastating loss.
“When you’re going through something, you’re so self-focused, and sometimes you forget how many people really care about you,” he said. “It’s hard to get into other people’s perspectives. You also carry a lot of shame and guilt, which is normal. You don’t know how to articulate stuff you’re feeling, [and even if you do], you feel like a nuisance.”
Mond and his partners did their best to ensure authenticity in not just the emotional journey, but also the locations where the struggle took place. Mond moved to the city when he was 11 years old, while his collaborator Antonio Campos (co-producer of the 2011 indie hit Martha Marcy May Marlene) is a New York native. Their intimate knowledge of the city allowed them to create an atmosphere that was appropriate for the struggling characters.
“One of the things I hate in movies is when you have these kids and they’re in their 20s and they’re broke, but they’re at the hippest places in New York,” Mond said. “You have spots that are comfortable for you. I’m really proud that, considering our budget limitations, we were able to shoot at the locations we wanted to shoot. The opening of the film was [downtown dive bar] Lit Lounge, and the apartment building we shot in was my mom’s apartment building.”
Abbott was born and raised in Connecticut, but has been a New Yorker for nearly a decade, working his way up in the TV and theater scene. He was more a suburban kid, he says, but had a deep understand of the city’s suffocating effect. Working closely with Mond from even before the script was written, Abbot dropped all pretenses and defenses for his portrayal of the grieving son. Much of the film is shot in close-up tracking shots, as cinematographer Mátyás Erdély follows James as he helps his mother and destroys himself, giving Abbott no place to hide.
“I was prepared for it, for the style in which it would be shot,” he said. “We jumped right into it. We shot the opening sequence first and I got used to it pretty quickly. I actually found it kind of an exciting way to work.”
With the film now in theaters, Mond is looking to new (and unannounced projects). And regardless of how it performs, or whether it earns any awards buzz, Mond counts it as a big personal win.
“I walked away with a little more patience,” he reflected. “I’m working on being more present and not worrying about the past and the future.”
Watch the trailer for ‘James White’ below:
