Posted in: Exclusive, Interview, Movies, Sony | Tagged: The Best You Can

The Best You Can: Director Weithorn on Casting and Integrating Music

Director Michael J. Weithorn (The King of Queens) spoke to us about his Sony rom-com "The Best You Can," ensemble cast, music, and more.

Since building his TV empire for over four decades, Michael J. Weithorn has been ready to move on creatively, especially since he's had one of the most successful sitcoms with CBS's The King of Queens. While still working on TV, he dabbled in films with his theatrical debut in 2010's A Little Help. Now, 15 years later, he's into his next passion project in the form of the second slice-of-life rom-com in Sony's The Best You Can, which made the rounds at Tribeca in June. The film follows Cynthia Rand (Kyra Sedgwick), a tightly wound NYC urologist whose life is upended when her husband (Judd Hirsch), a brilliant former Watergate prosecutor, begins showing signs of dementia. Stan (Kevin Bacon) is a bright but underachieving security guard struggling to reconnect with his adult daughter (Brittany O'Grady). When a robbery unexpectedly throws Cynthia and Stan together, their unlikely friendship deepens into something more complicated—and more meaningful. Weithorn spoke to Bleeding Cool about filling in his ensemble cast with Hirsch, O'Grady, and Meera Rohit Kumbhani, tapping Ray Romano from his days on Queens for a cameo, and why music plays such an important role in the film.

The Best You Can: Director Michael J. Weithorn on Hirsch, O'Grady, Kumbhani, Music & More

How did you recruit Judd, Brittany, and Meera?

I knew Judd's work and thought he was amazing. When we approached him and he expressed interest, I was thrilled and thought he was the perfect persona. Even knowing how brilliant he is, I was impressed by the way in which he found a level at which to play a man sliding into dementia that felt genuine, believable, and wasn't a caricature of that. He has such fine control of his acting instrument.

Brittany came through the casting process. We read a lot of actresses. It was a tough part to cast, because the one thing I didn't want to do was make the character (of Sammi) a one-dimensional joke of a millennial where everything hurts her feelings. That's an element of it, but I wanted to show there's a very sympathetic person here, and then a lot of that bluster is about anxiety, fear, and putting herself in a vulnerable position, and her dad doesn't get that. He thinks like, "Get off your ass and get out there!" He doesn't really get a sense of how complicated it is until later, so we needed an actress who could pull that off sympathetically, bring you into it, and could sing. There are plenty who could do one or the other, but not a lot who can do both. When Britney auditioned for the part, I knew her work from The White Lotus and a couple of other things, and she won the part in the audition.

Regarding Meera, I did a short-lived series on Fox about 10-12 years ago called Weird Loners, and I found her on that show. She had such an incredible, unique energy and inner light as an actress that it was one of those things I walked away. When that series ended, I said, "At some point, I have to work with this this this person again." When I wrote the script, I wrote that part and said, "If it works out, this is Meera's part," so that was the only one I cast before I made the movie, and fortunately, it did work out.

Was Ray one of those Easter egg-type of castings there? How did you get him involved?

It's funny, because I wrote that part (of Doug Finkelman), and it was originally written as "[Cynthia] goes to the guy's office. They're in the same medical facility, and she goes in." There's a whole scene, and then I thought Ray would be so good and so funny, but we shot in New York, and Ray was in LA. We didn't have the money to fly him out to do this part. Still, I thought it worked out well, because subliminally, when people watch a movie like in 2025, anything that reflects current reality versus 10-20 years ago helps root the film in the present day.

The fact that Zoom has become so common, and that it almost felt like it was after the fact. I said, "Yeah, if she knew this guy and needed to ask him some questions, that would probably be the way it would happen, rather than schlepping over to the guys." We shot the scene, Ray was in LA, and zoomed in as we shot the screen of him. I was directing him over Zoom, and I know Ray a little bit from when I did The King of Queens, and he appeared on our show a number of times. He delivered so much, and yeah, a little Easter egg. He's in the trailer, so I don't know how much of a surprise it'll be now, but when we screened at Tribeca and other places, when he came on the screen, there was always an audible, "Oh!" kind of thing.

One of the parts I enjoyed was when Kevin played on the ukulele, The Family Ties theme, and I was wondering with him, and Brittany involved, playing father and daughter, how important music was as far as the spirit of the film?

I'm a huge music lover, and I feel that when used correctly in films, it can highlight, not just scoring, but actual songs. It can create a whole other element of enjoyment. One of the things in my first movie, A Little Help (2010), Jakob Dylan wrote and performed three original songs for the film, which were amazing. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life to be able to have that happen.

In this case (of The Best You Can), too, I found there's Rob Benedict, who has a small part in the film as Rosemary's (Heather Burns) husband. Not only does he have a band, but he's a fine actor. He's had a band called Louden Swain for years, and the song 'She Waits' was one of his songs; I thought that would be perfect for the film. The other song I found, there's a wonderful singer-songwriter named Raelee Nikole, whom I happened to stumble upon while listening to Spotify radio. I thought that song would be great for the film, and we were able to secure it.

I love what those things can add, as opposed to the fact that the daughter is unable to get off the launching pad of her career as a lawyer or something. It's not as interesting as you see, then you know, you don't get that great last scene where you see her up there now feeling confident, and it sends you out of the theater, your living room, or whatever with a good feeling. It's about trying to create an emotional environment that will make people feel a range of things, but ultimately, at the end, I wanted them to feel good and end with a smile on their face, so [Brittany] was able to deliver that for us with Kevin accompanying her.

The Best You Can, which also stars Olivia Luccardi and Victor Williams, is available on digital.

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