Away We Go brings together a group of people from different corners of the entertainment world to tell the story of a young couple searching for a home for their impending family.
Starring as the central couple are John Krasinski, from TV’s The Office, and Maya Rudolph, best known as a chameleon on Saturday Night Live. At the helm is Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, fresh off directing the much more dour Revolutionary Road.
While a much different movie, Mendes sees Away We Go as a companion piece to Revolutionary Road, as the other side of the same coin. “It was a wonderful tonic after the darkness of Revolutionary Road, to be able to flip and do something completely different,” Mendes explains.
“Revolutionary Road is about the mechanics of a couple facing each other. It’s about the relationship itself. This treats the couple as a unit,” he says. “I’ve never done two movies that are at opposite ends of the same spectrum.”
Krasinski previously worked with Mendes, playing a small role in Jarhead, and the chance to work with the director again was too good to pass up. Their history together made Mendes think of Krasinski immediately upon reading the script for Away We Go. But the idea of casting Rudolph didn’t come as quickly. Luckily for the actress, screenwriters Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida had supposedly created the part with her in mind.
“Someone told me about the script,” Rudolph remembers. “They said Dave and Vendela had me in mind when they wrote it. I didn’t know if that information was true, but when I read it I just had to be a part of it. So I stalked them.”
– Away We Go opens in theatres Friday
