Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies | Tagged: Eliza Roberts, eric roberts, hippo, interview, Kimball Farley, Kinematics, Mark H. Rapaport

Hippo Stars Eric Roberts & Eliza Roberts on Family Dynamic & Tragedy

Eliza Roberts and Eric Roberts spoke to Bleeding Cool about their roles of Ethel and the narrator of the Kinematics black comedy Hippo.

Actors Eric Roberts and Eliza Roberts have a mutual love for the craft with the rare opportunity to participate in the same project together in the Kinematic and Rough House Pictures' film Hippo. While the couple never share screen time together, Eliza stars as Ethel, the eager-to-please single mother of Hippo (Kimball Farley) and adopted daughter Buttercup (Lilla Kizlinger), struggling to find identity in their adolescence. Hippo, who's an avid gamer, develops increasingly toxic embracing survivalist tendencies in his isolation. At the same time, the religious Buttercup longs to create a family to make up for the broken home she came from. The Roberts spoke with Bleeding Cool about their established rapport with director Mark H. Rapaport and Farley and whether the father's presence or lack thereof affected the film's message.

Hippo: Eric Roberts & Eliza Roberts on Narration, Family Dysfunction & More

Bleeding Cool: How did you both get involved with 'Hippo' and what intrigued you about the film?

Eliza Roberts: What happened was that Mark Rapaport was doing a short film called 'Andronicus' (2021), and Eric self-taped for it, a regular old audition. I read with him, and Mark cast Eric. I asked our agent who the reader was; it turned out to be me. He cast us both in 'Andronicus' and Kimball Farley and thus started the Mark Rapaport Repertory Company, and then the next movie was 'Hippo.' I was cast in the 'Hippo,' and as a supposed afterthought, Mark decided to ask Eric if he would do the narration. He probably had that up his sleeve the whole time, and then Eric did the narration, and here we are with this family affair.

Eliza, how does a film like 'Hippo' compare to your previous work?

Eliza: I've done a lot of comedy. I was in 'Animal House' (1978), and I've done a lot of situation comedy. This is a different kind of comedy, which is organic, where you don't hit it on the head and try to be funny. You stay open and use your imagination. I recently made one of those Vertical Films, and I've done a lot for Hallmark and Lifetime, which are very different.

Sometimes, you have a writer who you must stay word for word. You cannot change a thing; you can't add or subtract a comma. In the case of Mark, he's open and has a vision. There were all different-sized roles, which was very different because you could feel the energy, and it didn't have all the bells and whistles of a major production. Eric was in 'Babylon' (2022) recently, which is a major production, and 'Hippo' had none of those bells and whistles, but it had the energy of something huge, and it was different in that way.

Eric, did you talk to Mark and Kimball about maybe stepping in physically, or was it always just for you to be the narrator?

Eric Roberts: They just approached me about narrating.

Eliza: There wasn't a role. We probably thought for a minute if they would show any current stuff of [Ethel] and her husband, maybe playing the doctor or something. It didn't fit and might have been distracting. The narration was perfect for him in this case.

Did you guys have any conversations about whether the father character makes a physical appearance, or was it fine how it ended up being Hippo discovering the truth in a letter?

Eliza: God, that was so amazing. I love that part. That's a good question. Mark probably answers it better. I'm trying to remember. There is a little flashback of Ethel with the dad, which features Eric and me. As an audience, I would have craved that. I would have liked to have seen that, but you also had to convey that this woman couldn't distinguish between reality and fantasy. If you were going to show the reality of the dad, that could blow up the fact that you don't know what happened there or who he was. She could have made the whole guy up. That's how far out her mind went. What about you? Did you crave to meet the dad?

I thought that it was intriguing, but there was some mystery we didn't know. I thought maybe Hippo and Buttercup's upbringing was largely affected by the fact that he wasn't in their lives. It ultimately molded who they are and their upbringing. To build off that, aside from the script, Eliza, was there any inspiration that you drew to help mold Ethel? Perhaps externally from somebody you know or read?

Eliza: It wasn't from other things, although that's always in there. As actors, we are shock absorbers. We take it all in whether we're conscious of it or not, and it all comes back out of my own life because my kids are two incredibly intelligent, very sensitive, and extremely creative people. I never wanted them to feel any pain. It's a ridiculous concept all parents go through, but I was phobic about it. I was so afraid that anything could hurt them or hurt their feelings.

I was constantly averting any obstacles or any stubbed toes, anything. It was easy to find Ethel because that's what she was doing. She said "Yes" to everything. Hippo's whole obsession and tantrum about ketchup and mustard, she didn't want her kids to hurt, and I drew from that. Even though neither of my kids had a crossbow or any interest in possessing it, it came from that. A mom who is obsessed with avoiding pain is probably the cause of a lot of pain for her kids but can't do much about that and is obsessed with stopping any external pain.

Hippo, which also stars Jesse Pimentel and Vann Barrett, is in select theaters.

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