Austin Film Festival Conversations: The Cast and Crew of ‘For When You Get Lost’

Jennifer Sorenson as June Stevenson in ‘For When You Get Lost’.

For When You Get Lost is a powerful coming-of-middle-age story that recently screened at the Austin Film Festival and took home the Comedy Vanguard Feature Award. And to properly celebrate the film’s brilliance, we sat down the Cast and Crew of the film; Jennifer Sorensen (Writer/Star), Michelle Steffes (Director), Aja Bair (Mikey), Cat Hammons (Joann), and Brian Thomas Smith (Jack) to discuss what brought these fine individuals together to make such a powerful film.
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John Betancourt: So, Jennifer, what inspired you to write this film?
 
Jennifer Sorenson: Um, so I actually took this road trip, I didn't do it with my sisters. But I did this road trip right before my dad died. In a similar experience that I decided I wanted to go up there. I didn't tell him I was driving, I got up to San Francisco and told them I was flying in, and he told me not to come until three days later. So, I ended up on this road trip by myself. And as I was on the road trip, it was so cinematic, and I was already a writer at the time. And I was like, this will be an amazing movie, one day. I kind of was taking pictures and doing all this stuff. And, and so then when I got up there, and you know, as you've seen the movie, things happened. And so, when I got home, I just… it took a couple years, but I started to sort of piece it together. And there are many iterations of the script. It eventually, it was too close to home the first time I wrote it. So, I actually ended up fabricating the trip with the sisters and adding them in as part of a journey for June. So yeah, that's what inspired it sort of a very similar situation. But I, I ended up fictionalizing what actually happened,
 
John Betancourt: Now for everyone else, what inspired you to join the project?
 
Michele Steffes:I loved the way that Jennifer's voice came through. So clearly, I feel like her sense of humor, which has a little bit of a biting edge to it, and her big heart really came through in in the character of June and then the whole journey, right from the first sequence. I knew that this was going to be something special. And then it just kept getting better as I read it. I wanted to do it by the time I finished the script.
 
Cat Hammons: Oh, I just think I love the journey. The idea of you know, as you get older, you just turn into so many different people, you are not the person you are when you were young. For me personally, I don't know that person, I'd probably call the police on that person. And so, it really is one of those things where how do you apologize for a time in life when you didn't even know what right was from wrong, or you didn't have a life definition? And so, I love the idea that you know, then you have someone walk into that life when you've changed, when you've learned some stuff, and still have to deal with the wreckage that happened when they were young. And I just love that, I love the idea of being the mom and stepmom to these people who are trying to take care of a past I have nothing to do with.
 
Aja Blair: Um, yeah, I mean, I feel like right when I read it, I was like, just super… I don't know, I obviously don't have Jen’s voice… but I feel like reading it was just like really inspiring. And I thought it was so funny and I obviously thought Mikey was super funny. And yeah, I feel like Cat played so well. But I just… every time I laughed, I was like, “Oh, I want to do this. This is so funny.” And like, even and like being a part of it. I ended up like jumping into writing myself. Like I was just so inspired by the whole process. So yeah, I definitely would just say, I just really liked the dark comedy aspect, like how Michelle was saying she has like a bite to it, like this stuff that goes a little too far.
 
Brian Thomas Smith: You know, so I just worked on a show with Liz (Elizabeth Alderfer, who plays Cami), and she sent me a text and said, “Hey, I'm working on this movie. There's a great part would you be interested?” So already just knowing Liz, I'm halfway in the door and then I read the script. And I think I put the script down after my line was… “Did you just try to kill yourself in a low admissions vehicle?” And yeah, that sold me, I wanted to play the part. But yeah, no, I read the script. And it's so cool and like, so strange because it's very close. And similar to my… my wife's real life. Sisters, dad, trauma childhood, it's just like, oh my gosh, I gotta do this. And it's just a great script. So very happy to get on board.
 
John Betancourt: Now there are just… so many layers to this film, especially when it comes to its thoughts on mental health and self-care, and I would love to know what it means each of you now to be a part of a movie that is kind of at the forefront of all the discussions about mental health and self-care at the moment.
 
Jennifer Sorenson: Um, I mean, to me, it's not a new thing. I feel like it's something that's now just… it's okay to talk about it. But thank you for saying that, first of all, that I feel like, you know, we're always told as writers, to write what you know. So, like I said, to me, it's not a new thing. But certainly, for someone. Again, this isn't my family, but my dad did struggle with a lot of anxiety. And like looking back, it's, you know, anxiety and depression are hand in hand. And the way he dealt with it in real life, and in the film, was that he smoked pot every day. And that was the way that he was able to sort of self-medicate. And sorry, this is it's this is our first interview. So, I'm getting used to this. And talking about real things, and not real things. But yeah, I, I feel like it was a great healing journey for myself to sort of write about this and to have another layer of forgiveness. For someone like my dad, who, like Cat said, had a whole other life before me, before any other children came along. And so, yeah, it's just, it's just writing what you know, and kind of having the catharsis to go through it.
 
Michelle Steffes: I think Jen and I worked a lot on the on the script’s development, and then went through some, you know, some drafts as we were in prep, and then even going back through and post and looking at dialogue. And one of the focuses that we had, was really being clear in our own hearts about what we felt about what we were saying about the mental health. And something that I think was important to us was that we were not being prescriptive, we were not prescribing a solution for someone else. But rather, describing what one family has done to deal with trauma in their lives. So, every character in the script deals with trauma in their own way. And they have their own coping mechanisms. And I think that one of the things that we wanted to do was not necessarily to pass judgment on those different coping mechanisms, or say that one is valid, and one is not. For example, Cami has drawn really strict boundaries around herself, and decides to let down at least one of those boundaries at the end to come back to June. And she's choosing that as a choice that she feels is best for herself at that time. And then June has had different ways of coping and distracting and decides that she needs to take personal responsibility for her past and her current situation. So, I think that we, it's something that we thought about a lot, because we knew that it was going to resonate with people who have had any kind of traumatic background, whether it's in the family or not. So, it's something that we want to be really careful about, and I'm hoping that it's received in that spirit.
 
Brian Thomas Smith: Um, yeah, I think I mean, like I said, like, my, my wife has such a similar story to this, and the mental health issues of the… just having a father who caused some trauma in life to the whole family. And so, I just, I just thought that you know, it's so cool to be a part of this film that talks about it. And it's just such a close personal subject to me now in my life, so it was just cool to be a part of this film. It's, it was just like, I think there's a lot of people that are gonna be able relate to it. So, that's cool.
 
Aja Blair: Oh, gosh, I mean, I don't feel like I… I think maybe this film made me start thinking about it. I don't like I come from a family that really talks about it at all. We definitely like glaze over things. So, I think it kind of made me look at my life and like, I can relate like a tad bit to like some of the trauma, but I think for me, it was just more of like, “Oh, wow, maybe I should take a step back and like think about it and look at look at it.” Which is actually kind of funny, because like, I don't really have relationship with my dad, but he's actually coming this weekend. So, like, that's something that I've been thinking about in the last few weeks. So, yeah. But yeah, we don't talk about mental health. So, this movie kind of made me start thinking about it a little bit.
 
Cat Hammons: Well, I think for me, this whole idea of mental health, just kind of dovetails with forgiveness, and the fact that we do things in the past, we have things done in the past. And I think in the world today, there's this tendency to either try and justify what happened in the past in the sense that, “Oh, it was meant to happen. And it brought me to this point, and blah, blah, blah,” and you try and soften it. And sometimes it just can't be soft. And sometimes you have to forgive it as it is. It was a series of jerk moves, I didn't like it, I did not become a better person as a result of that. I became a better person in the sense of despite that. And I think I guess in the world today, when it comes to mental health, and when it comes to forgiveness, these two things, there's such an awareness of the need for mental health. And yet, there's so little patience for mistakes in the past. And so, I just really love that idea of forgiveness is hard work, because sometimes it just has to be what it is, there is no movie ending. Sometimes someone just acted badly. And you know, all the reasons they acted badly, and you recognize the circumstances to acting badly. And you still recognize that they had a choice to make, and they made the choice that caused the most harm. And yet you can still find a place in your heart to forgive because life is life. You know what I mean? And so, people do the best that they can at any given moment, and you can still love them and recognize that they were being a bad person in that moment.
 
Jennifer Sorenson: To add to that. I think too what I hope that the film portrays is that a humanizes mental health that like I think in the end, at least, my personal journey and what I tried to express with June's journey was that she finally saw her dad as a human being. That he was just a man. And he made mistakes, but he was a human being. And just like all the all the characters in the in the movie are flawed. They've all made mistakes. And so, I hope it humanizes the mental health.
 
Cat Hammons: Oh, to also add to this. The other thing that was so great about is that it just offers kind of the, I guess you could say just the working-class, middle-class view of mental health. I mean, we have the extremes of mental health, which we see. But there are just so many people who are struggling with so many things, and they just are living their lives, they still have to go to work every day, they're raising their families. And yet, you know, there is something that is happening within them. I think that's what I love so much about the movie is that this is what a person has to do to win. It would be great to get therapy, but either I don't have the time I don't have the money, or I don't recognize myself that I might need it. And so, I love the working class, just average person every day aspect of how mental health appears in a family's life.
 
John Betancourt: Now, we’ve definitely talked about some heavy topics today, and rightfully so. But on a more positive note, I cannot help but notice how much joy and passion I’m hearing in all of your voices, and I have to ask what each of you enjoy the most about working on this project?
 
Cat Hammons: Oh gosh, being able to drive up from Seattle to where we shot in Washington. It was gorgeous. It was wonderful. I felt like such a big deal actress. I'm like, “Oh, look at me. I got a car and I'm driving. I'm something special.” And the first night, when I got there, we had a little crab dinner. They were crabs, right? And I loved it because I loved getting to know everyone. And I also realized I just can't fight with my food. If I have to dig like that. I'm not the one. And so, it was delicious. But by the end, it was like the crab had me it wrestled me down and it hid its treats where I couldn't find them. So, it was good to know for me. (Laughter from everyone)
 
Aja Blair: All the ladies, all the women that are part of the film, I probably talked about it so much. And the people in my life are probably so annoyed. But I feel like it was just almost like culture shock how many women had a hand in this project. And I think it was just like, it was just really exciting for me to like, go out every day and like work with all of them. And I feel like I learned so much like as an actor and just as a human being. So yeah, I feel like just, you know, just… just the women. That's my answer.
 
Brian Thomas Smith: Well, I came in for a one-day pinch hit. And so, I got like one at bat and I wanted to take more swings, because it was just such a fun group. atmosphere to be around. I worked the very last day of the whole shoot. So, they had all this history and all this camaraderie. And I was just like, wow, what a special project to just walk into, and I could tell everybody was so grateful to be like, we made the movie. It's done. Oh, my gosh. And then there was a little wrap gathering. So, I got to meet some other players. But it felt cool to, to walk in at the very end there and be a part of something so special, and then to see the movie and be like, “Wow, this was even better and cooler than I thought it was going to be.” So, it was a great, great experience. I never would have known that until you mentioned that now, because it seems so seamless. So that's really incredible.
 
Michelle Steffes:  Well, I'm gonna echo. You know what everyone else said. Because those were all like things that I love. Like, it was so fun having Brian come out. And last day, like our very last shot at the whole movie was Brian on his bike, like Boo Boo Bobby, like talking to the neighbors and stuff. And I also love the beautiful locations. The road trip was such was so much fun. And I also loved all the women. I loved how many women we had, like kind of powering this film. And I'm gonna say to say one different. I think that working with a writer slash producer slash actor who is telling a fictional story that draws from a lot of true-life inspiration, including some of the exact same places where real things happened, could have been a really difficult experience. Because you're trying to stay true to someone's not only like, something that they've imagined, which is what you're always trying to do with a writer's work. But something that in some, in some moments they've experienced. It's, it's so challenging. And I think that it would have been really easy for Jennifer to have been sort of a difficult person to work with. And I thought that she was amazing. I thought that she juggled so many things, so many different aspects of her heart, and her life, were like kind of flashing before her eyes, and her willingness to look at what was really best for the script. And not to stay stuck on things that are just the way that she had it necessarily, or to pull real pain into her performance, or her willingness to be flexible and to support everyone else. Even though she had so much on her shoulders during every day of the shoot because it was her script, it was her character and it was her making sure that there were seats for us to sit when we needed to eat you know, she was she was like wearing so many hats and I think I would have to say that working with her and seeing the beautiful way that she pulled all those things off was my favorite part.
 
Jennifer Sorenson: I don't know how to top that. I'm going to try not to make a joke of what she said because that's my instinct, is to like make a joke about how I you know would bitch about putting on my makeup. But um, so, this script is an eight-year journey, but my dad died in 2013. So, this has been percolating in my head for ten-years. So to choose a favorite moment is like impossible. I will say we call this the magical movie because there's no way that this could have ever gotten made. I still don't understand. I wake up in a flop sweat sometimes wondering how the hell we made this because I can't believe that I got all these people to listen to me and do these things. I'll give… I'll give a favorite moment. The first read through I had of this script. I think it was in 2015 or 2016, it was terrible 200 pages there were two Junes. It was really bad. It was a bad script. But Michelle's husband was there, Joey Aucoin. I went to college with him. And he must have heard something that he liked because he came home and he told Michelle, how much he liked the script. And I got a random text from Michelle just saying, because she's also a fellow writer saying, I heard your table read went well, and I just want to congratulate you. And we weren't really friends. But she, you know, she had messaged me, and just because we didn't know each other that well, anyways. And so, when a series of events happened, where different directors weren't able to do this project, I always had it in the back of my mind that Michelle sent me this really nice, nice text seven years ago. And out of nowhere, I was like, “I should ask Michelle,” and our producers Meredith Riley Stewart and Alethea Root, knew Michelle, and they're like, “Okay, well, let's call Michelle.” And I just knew, I kind of knew the moment she sent me the message if I'm really honest, that she was going to direct this film. And it just it's one of those things that is magical about this film. I feel like a lot of things just went by gut and not by logic, because if you knew how we made this movie, and they all do, it was not by logic, no, no logical person would do what we did. So, I would just say like, that was sort of like one of the magic little pings that I got at a very early stage in this that I kind of just knew certain things. And Michelle was one of those things. And thank God that she texted me and thank God that she was the director because she definitely elevated this project, way more than I could have ever done. We worked very closely on it. And I too, am very grateful for the relationship that we had. And it could have been a nightmare, you know?
 
John Betancourt: Last question I have for each of you today, what are you each most proud of when it comes to this project?
 
Jennifer Sorenson: I would say again, I don't know how we did it. But I'm actually proud of… I watch it sometimes. And I don't know, as an actor how I did this, because I do know what I was doing on the day. And I don't see myself and I watch it and I wonder in a little bit of a worried way of like, “am I a little crazy?” Because I don't know how I did some of the stuff that I did. And I've seen, I was in the editing room. And so, I it's not like, I know that we edited together a performance, I've seen a lot of things. And there's some bad stuff. I'm not saying that. But I am I'm proud of my performance, especially given the amount of… I was rewriting things at the time as the writer, I was finding seats for people I was doing, you know, all these other things. And I also then was able to make a one take phone call and was memorizing it in a different scene with Aja, ten minutes before, because that's the other dirty little secret. And Cat will tell you that I don't know my lines. But when you're the writer, you think that you know your lines, but you don't because you've rewritten them for seven years. So, you don't know your lines, but you certainly will correct the other person in your scene, that they are saying the wrong lines, while you don’t know yours. Is that true? Ladies? I did do that. That's my very long answer. Thank you. (Laughter from all.)
 
Michelle Steffes: We had a producer watch that recently, who called it a tonal high wire act. And I think that's what I'm proud of the most is the is the blend of tones. That there's like a black humor in the various scenes. And there is something that is like… there's a lot of joy, and love, which could come out like overly sweet. And there is a… there's a real sad emotion to it. You know, it's very serious in parts. And all like all of the actors here have scenes that exemplify that, you know, Brian had mentioned his line about like, “did you just try to kill yourself in a low emissions vehicle?” That was such a… I love that line. I love it in the movie. He's just this like, he's very authentic saying that line, you know, like, he doesn't… he's not being funny in the moment. He's being sincere. And there's something so hilarious about his performance in that whole scene because he's being sincere, but he's just so flabbergasted by her behavior. And then like, you know, Aja has the scene in the hospital. I don't want to you know, get into spoilers but like, there's a really, one of my favorite, like jokes in the movie is Aja's reaction to something really dark that that Jennifer says in the hospital, you know, and Cat has lines about like smothering people. You know, needing to practice smothering people because their husband snored and like that, like got a huge laugh at our last screening. And I think that I'm really proud of the way that the that the tone, that the different tones blend together in the movie, it's probably, to be totally honest, not going to work for every single viewer, but I think that it was what we meant to make.
 
Cat Hammons: I think I'm most proud of the fact that there's a very businesslike way of approaching when someone's in the hospital. And that, you know, you're trying to balance that with your own emotions. And if you're a mom, or a parent of any kind, and you have kids, regardless of their age, you're trying to help them move through what is ultimately going to end a certain way. And so, balancing that business aspect of it, whereas the nurse says this, the doctor says this, this has been, these are the things that need to happen. And I think you're on the verge of losing your father. And so, I guess that's what I'm most proud of is catching that… the both sides of that, the business as well as the empathy and the love.
 
Aja Blair: Oh, man, um, I feel like, I'm just proud that I was able to sit through the screening and watch myself in a movie, let's be real. I mean, I'm just like, it was just like a really cool process to like, read it 500 times, and then work on it, and then finally see it. And, man, I just like, I'm just like, so happy that I like got to like to stand next to Jen and Liz. And just like, it's so cool that like, I tell everyone about this film, and that I got to be their younger sister and like, so just seeing it, like, as a whole and like seeing that, like those sincere moments that Michelle was talking about, like how, like, no one is trying to be funny. Like, we're just being ourselves and like, the moment and how it like comes together so beautifully.
 
Brian Thomas Smith: First of all, I'm just super proud to be in the movie. I mean, it's such a good movie, and I've done other movies where I don't tell friends to see the movie. So, I think that's why I'm telling everyone that you have to see this movie, it's so good. It's so good. I'm so proud to be in the movie. You know, I am proud that I was able to step in on short notice and I get to set the tone for the very beginning of the movie. And I you know, I read my scenes and, and got the gist and I showed up and you know, and I felt like the movie starts off in a great spot and takes you on a really cool ride. And I'm very proud of the movie.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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