Garret Price (‘Love, Antosha’ director): New documentary is a ‘love letter’ to Anton Yelchin’s parents [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]
“Anton found me to direct this story,” declares Garret Price about his directorial debut “Love, Antosha.” The documentary about the life of the late actor Anton Yelchin has brought Price, a longtime editor on documentary films, his first success as a director. The film has earned a nomination for Best First Feature at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. In our exclusive video interview (watch above), Price confesses that the awards are secondary with his experience becoming familiar with Yelchin and his family. “I went into making this thinking that if nobody ever sees this movie,” Price says, “I wanted to give a love letter from Anton to his parents.”
Price sees the documentary as more than just a document of Yelchin’s life, and as much an account of the loving relationship between the young actor and his parents. The director worked closely with his parents in making the film, primarily because they allowed Price to tell every part of Anton’s story rather than simply making a puff piece. This included bringing to light Yelchin’s struggle with Cystic Fibrosis, as well his experiences with women and drugs. “This is stuff that people can relate to as human beings,” Price explains. “[Anton] would not like if we were skipping the darker, weirder things about his life because to him that’s what makes us human.”
One of the centerpieces for “Love Antosha” is a series of letters and journal entries written by Yelchin. Price wanted to have someone read those excerpts in the film, but struggled on whom to ask until his mother Irina suggested his former costar, Nicolas Cage. “He was a very important person in Anton’s life,” Price says. The director flew to Las Vegas to record Cage reading the passages, and was shocked to see that Cage had practically memorized them, a sign of Cage’s emotional connection to Yelchin. “You can really hear what an emotional experience it was for [Cage] doing this — you can really hear it in his voice.”
The film also includes an array of Hollywood talent, with testimonials from everyone from “Star Trek” co-stars Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, to Oscar-winners Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins and Martin Landau. That level of talent, according to Price, is a reflection of Yelchin’s impact on everyone he encountered. “If you knew Anton for two minutes or two years, he had the same effect on you,” Price explains. “He was just such a real person, and in this industry I think it’s real hard to find people like that.”
PREDICT the Oscars nominations; change them until January 13
Be sure to make your Oscar nominee predictions today so that Hollywood insiders can see how their films and performers are faring in our odds. You can keep changing your predictions as often as you like until just before nominees are announced on January 13. And join in the fun debate over the 2020 Academy Awards taking place right now with Hollywood insiders in our film forums. Read more Gold Derby entertainment news.
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions