Veteran television and indie film actor Zach Braff is currently promoting his newest work, Wish I Was Here.
Braff is most well known for his work on NBC’s hit comedy show Scrubs, which aired for nine seasons. However, he also worked his way onto the indie film scene a decade ago with his cult classic, Garden State. Now the 39-year-old actor-writer-director is back at it again with another soul-searching film, Wish I Was Here. The film stars Braff alongside Kate Hudson and talented youngster Joey King, who work together as a family dealing with interiority, illness, and religion.
The New Jersey native spoke to NJ.com about what inspired him to make the film happen, despite the backing of a big Hollywood production company and guaranteed distributor. "I was thinking about getting older," Braff said of the initial idea. "I was thinking about my brother, who is such a great, out-of-the-box dad. And I was thinking a lot about religion, too.” He continued, “Am I really doing everything with my brief years on this planet that I can?”
Braff commented on the state of the film industry and how good movies are becoming increasingly expensive to produce. The result—he said—is a mass migration of actors moving back to television. “Look at the actors going to cable TV! There are no great roles in film, they’re all dried up,” he told TIME.
But it seems that the actor is determined to fight the trend and produce films that mean something to him.
"Look, I will do everything and anything to make my movies, come hell or high water," he said. "This is what drives me. It's like what I'm saying in Wish I Was Here— this is it. This is life, this is all there is. These are the years you get, and if you're lucky you'll get 90 or so, but what are you going to do with them? Seize the day. Carpe diem, man."
Wish I Was Here hits theaters July 18.
Image courtesy of INFphoto.com