Hospital Births

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<p>LOS ANGELES &#8212; Writer and director Brett Haley knew he wanted a &#8220;That Thing You Do&#8221; moment in his new music-loving film, &#8220;Hearts Beat Loud,&#8221; where Nick Offerman&#8217;s character hears the song he wrote with his daughter in public for the first time. In 2018 it wouldn&#8217;t be on the radio, he thought, but it might make it onto a Spotify playlist that a local bakery would play in the background. And bingo: A perfect, charming moment that is ardently rooted in reality, just how Haley and his actors like it.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to take this to 11 just because it&#8217;s a movie,&#8221; said Haley, 34, on a recent afternoon in Los Angeles. &#8220;Movies don&#8217;t often do what would actually happen. They do what&#8217;s convenient for the plot.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s his small, John Cassavetes and Richard Linklater-inspired rebellion against the plot-obsessed entertainment industry, and one of the reasons he&#8217;s become a favorite director of some of Hollywood&#8217;s most respected veteran actors, including the likes of Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s frustratingly young, but he has a certain wisdom. He and his writing partner have the wherewithal to write these really simple human stories,&#8221; Offerman said.</p><p>That can come with a bit of a downside when it comes to, say, selling the concept to a talent agent.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no logline. Like, &#8216;A killer comes to town for one last vendetta.&#8217; It&#8217;s more like, &#8216;Some people are dealing with some stuff and hopefully they find their way to being loved,&#8217;&#8221; Offerman added. &#8220;My agents had a little ambivalence. They were like, &#8216;I don&#8217;t know, is this exciting?&#8217; But that&#8217;s his secret. His story lines are not exciting and that&#8217;s exciting.&#8221;</p><p>He has in just a few films, &#8220;I&#8217;ll See You in My Dreams,&#8221; &#8221;The Hero,&#8221; and now &#8220;Hearts Beat Loud,&#8221; which opened in select theaters Friday, carved out a unique spot in Hollywood by making intensely earnest films about life, and giving leading roles to talented actors who have either been relegated to supporting roles or a niche they can&#8217;t quite break out of.</p><p>For Offerman, who has the mixed-blessing of being known for an iconic television role in &#8220;Parks and Recreation&#8217;s&#8221; Ron Swanson, it was an incredible opportunity.</p><p>&#8220;No one has said I want to write you the lead in my movie, period, let alone this vulnerable, fleshed out guy who gets to sing cool songs with his amazing daughter,&#8221; Offerman said.</p><p>Both Danner and Elliott had similar reactions to their movies. &#8220;Gift&#8221; is a frequent refrain among his actors.</p><p>Haley doesn&#8217;t have big budgets (his latest, and biggest, was just over $2 million). His shoots don&#8217;t typically last more than 18 days and he doesn&#8217;t waste time on &#8220;fancy camera angles,&#8221; but he and his writing partner Marc Basch know that good movies come down to writing and performance. He&#8217;s also supremely, almost unbelievably, nice (and not just &#8220;for a director&#8221;). While speaking to students recently at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, he had one message: &#8220;Be kind and be gracious.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;re in a position of power, you&#8217;re in a position of privilege, especially as a white, straight male,&#8221; Haley said. &#8220;Just be good to the people around you: That goes from the craft service person to the actors. Create an environment so that people can do their best work. You shouldn&#8217;t have to be a tyrant on set to get what you want.&#8221;</p><p>And not only do actors like Danner, Elliott and Offerman keep coming back to work with Haley again (each have appeared in at least two of his movies) &#8212; they recruit their friends to come along too. Haley met Offerman through Elliott. And he got Ted Danson to play a bartender in &#8220;Hearts Beat Loud&#8221; through Offerman. Danner, who has a bit role in this film too, calls it a little &#8220;repertory troupe.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;They don&#8217;t just write throwaway, supernumerary characters,&#8221; Offerman said. &#8220;The supporting cast all have something to chew on. That makes it really easy to call your friend Ted and say, &#8216;it&#8217;s just a few scenes, but I think it&#8217;s going to be fun.&#8217; And by God it was,&#8221;</p><p>Now, Haley feels like he&#8217;s at a crossroads in his career and is ready to take the next step. His last three films have all premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and he said that, &#8220;There are other people who deserve that platform now.&#8221; They&#8217;ve also all scored well with critics &#8212; &#8220;Hearts Beat Loud,&#8221; at a 96 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is one of his best reviewed &#8212; and have performed well at the box office for indie films.</p><p>Last year Sam Elliott told The Associated Press that he wanted &#8220;The Hero&#8221; to do well just simply so that Haley could, &#8220;get on with his career.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Working for a studio might not work for him,&#8221; Elliott laughed. &#8220;But you&#8217;ve gotta get in there and find out.&#8221;</p><p>Haley himself wonders if a studio will embrace him and his earnestness. But he&#8217;s hoping for a shot.</p><p>&#8220;I want to make movies that aren&#8217;t just about people like me or people who look like me. This movie, I think, does that and I think that&#8217;s just the beginning,&#8221; Haley said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t have the right to tell every story, but if there are certain stories that I want to tell, I will go through the process of talking to people who&#8217;ve had that experience to try to get that right. If I have a platform to make films, you&#8217;re goddamn right I&#8217;m going to represent things that are not like me.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Brett Haley, writer/director of the film &#8216;Hearts Beat Loud,&#8217; poses for a portrait at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. The film was released on Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_AP18142841128614.jpg</photo0><caption0>Brett Haley, writer/director of the film &#8216;Hearts Beat Loud,&#8217; poses for a portrait at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. The film was released on Friday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Photo by Chris Pizzello | Invision/AP </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_AP18158077526203.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nick Offerman, left, and Megan Mullally, right, attend the premiere of &#8216;Hearts Beat Loud&#8217; at Pioneer Works on Wednesday, June 6, in New York. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_AP18158077526203.jpg</photo1><caption1>Nick Offerman, left, and Megan Mullally, right, attend the premiere of &#8216;Hearts Beat Loud&#8217; at Pioneer Works on Wednesday, June 6, in New York. </caption1><photoCredit1>Andy Kropa | Invision/AP </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_Haley.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Writer/director Brett Haley has earned a reputation for getting the best out of his actors by fostering a supportive environment where people can do their best work. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_Haley.jpg</photo2><caption2>Writer/director Brett Haley has earned a reputation for getting the best out of his actors by fostering a supportive environment where people can do their best work. </caption2><photoCredit2>Photo by Chris Pizzello | Invision/AP </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Lindsay Bahr</p><p>The Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div>

The nice-guy director who actors can’t get enough of