Producer Stacey Sher Talks Chris Pines Directorial Debut Poolman, His Love Letter To L.A. Toronto
EXCLUSIVE: Chris Pine’s directorial debut Poolman is set to make its world premiere Monday night at the Toronto Film Festival. Pine won’t be in attendance, choosing to stand in solidarity with his fellow actors amid the SAG-AFTRA strike. The film’s producer, Stacey Sher, says that not only is Pine proud to do so, she thinks the character at the center of his story would be on the same page.
“Chris comes from a family of actors who have struggled and he understands, especially given the time we are living in, Darren (the character Pine plays in Poolman) would of been out there on the picket lines making sure people were hydrated,” Sher says. “We all felt the film belonged at TIFF and so honored to be here because it is an audience festival. It is a place where things that are optimistic can connect with people as well. It is a different premiere and Q&A then we had hoped for, but there was never a second where Chris was going to do anything but stand with SAG and the WGA.”
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Screening for festivalgoers on Monday prior to hitting the market for buyers (CAA Media Finance is co-repping the film’s domestic rights with AGC, who financed the film), the film is Pine’s love letter to Los Angeles, the city where he grew up, and was a product of the quarantine during Covid. In an interview with Deadline in 2022 to talk about his new production banner Barry Linen Productions, Pine talked about how the idea for Poolman started with a conversation over drinks with Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins (who also produced Poolman) and her husband that got them laughing and he decided to “follow the giggle.”
The idea for the lead character Darren stuck with him all the way up to quarantine, when he and his producing partner Ian Gotler began working on a script.
“Quarantine was in many ways the best thing that ever happened to me because I really had to create my life,” Pine said at the time. “I had nothing. I had to create what I was going to do with my life because I didn’t have a project to lose myself in, and finally, I wasn’t getting much of anyplace with this writer because he was doing his own thing. I finally called Ian. I was like, ‘F*ck it. Ian, what’s the best script ever written in your life?’ Citizen Kane and Chinatown. He says Chinatown. We took Chinatown. We got the script. We read the script. We broke down the script as if we were writing Chinatown. We did the board with all the note cards and just studied it like a f*cking Ph.D. class.
“We watched it, talked about it and then, like simpletons, we were like, ‘OK, our story is about this.’ Then we transposed our story onto Chinatown and then we were just off to the races. Then we just made it our own and we wrote it, I think, in a deep month and a half of just like, again, follow the giggle.”
The comedy tells the story of Darren Barrenman, a pool man who is committed to bettering his beloved Los Angeles but finds himself mixed up with shady individuals that may be looking to do they city and its citizens wrong. A lovingly crafted tribute to L.A. with a nod to L.A.-set noir classics like Chinatown and The Long Goodbye, the irreverence of The Big Lebowski and the whimsy of Bottle Rocket, the film’s original story was something that spoke to Sher, who has spent decades championing directors like Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh who were known for delivering on original ideas.
“Poolman is wildly optimistic, wear-its-heart-on-its-sleeve-but-for-the-better sort of way type of movie,” Sher says. “I think for all of us, in times that were kind of challenging and we were all coming out of the pandemic, to have something that is optimistic and positive and singular, that you can have as a shared experience, I think is what we all got into film for.”
And as for it being Pine’s directing debut, Sher couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it, having had her own experience helping actors like Zach Braff on Garden State and Ben Stiller on Reality Bites break into the directing world.
“He (Pine) had a very specific vision and its there on the page, the tone, the idiosyncrasy, the specificity that he was going after for the performance, was all there and then when we first met it was clear to me what he wanted,” Sher said.
And once prep for the shoot was underway, Sher said Pine became even more impressive in how he handled his directing duties, immersing himself in every factor of the process whether it be fighting to make sure the movie was shot on film to the costume design on outfits Darren wears throughout the movie.
“When you are a super-experienced actor and spent your whole life on set, you develop a rhythm and understanding of things, like knowing what an AD is going to say to you before they even come to you,” Sher said. “Chris has an incredible eye for design and wardrobe, he has exquisite taste, and a great attention to detail, so it was pretty seamless. Because he is such an empathetic person, he started with character and went into plot from there and he was great with all these cast members.”
One of those cast members, Danny DeVito, who has also directed movies and is Sher’s former producing partner at Jersey Films, could not have been a more helpful mentor to Pine when it came to directing his first film.
Sher knew early on DeVito’s involvement would go a long way for Pine when it came to juggling both jobs.
“Danny and Chris instantly fell in love and when we first called him and sent him the script (DeVito) was in right away,” she says. “Danny is an incredible cheerleader and he is just always there if Chris wanted to bounce things off him or if he didn’t. He was also a great scene partner for Chris, and it was just a blast to watch them on set.”
Given that Pine is passionate about acting and the history of the movie business, Poolman is filled with tributes and Easter eggs from films that inspired him, from Chinatown to Big Lebowski; you can’t help but compare when looking at the main characters at the center of both films.
The other element that cannot be ignored: Pine’s admiration for his hometown Los Angeles, through all of its faults and imperfections. From making sure the entire film was shot in L.A. in order to help support local business to making sure Darren is seen wearing an “I Love LA” shirt throughout the film, Sher says that at the end of the day Poolman is Pine’s love letter to the city from conception to finished product.
“It’s a love letter and a kind of cautionary call to L.A. because the frustrating part of L.A. is we are always erasing our history,” Sher says. “His love of everything that was and his nostalgia is very Chris and not just Darren. His letters to the writers are written on his vintage typewriter that is also used in the film. It’s no coincidence that Darren’s two spirit animals are Erin Brockovich and Bruce Lee because they represent his philosophies.”
“This is a town of dreamers, and not all of those dreams come true in the way people who first come to this town think they are going to, and this is that story,” she says. “This is Chris paying tribute to the hard work of his parents in order to find the journey that he’s on. You can have that experience here in our town or any town.”
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