Cinema Scholars’ Rebecca Elliott sits down via zoom to chat with Oliver Thompson about the Director’s Cut of his 2016 debut film Welcome To Happiness, wearing many hats on an indie production, and whether or not he sees the film in a different light five years later.
Introduction
When Oliver Thompson released his directorial debut Welcome To Happiness back in 2016, the world was a different place. People had yet to experience four years of a controversial U.S. presidency. The phrase “me too” didn’t have a hashtag in front of it. Police violence was only beginning to get attention. And no one (except, perhaps, the experts) could have predicted a pandemic would ravage the globe, affecting the lives of nearly everyone who calls this blue marble home.
Though Thompson’s whimsical tale about self-forgiveness is considered an inspired indie darling by fans, Welcome To Happiness was widely panned by critics. Considering the world’s recent paradigm shift, it is fascinating to see how the film might shine brighter for many within a new context. The success of feel-good projects like Ted Lasso, Schitt’s Creek, etc proves that audiences have a growing taste for sincerity over snarkiness, and the upcoming release of the Welcome To Happiness Director’s Cut seems like perfect timing to revisit the refreshingly sweet film under a new lens.
About The Film
For those who missed Welcome To Happiness on the first go around, the story follows Woody (Kyle Gallner), a children’s book author going through the customary stumbling blocks of young adulthood. While fighting obligatory bouts of writer’s block and forging new relationships in real life, Woody has also found himself the steward of a mysterious portal in the closet of his apartment.
Unlike dimensional doorways in films such as The Chronicles of Narnia or more contemporary stories like Being John Malkovich, complete strangers (often quite confused) show up at Woody’s door awaiting further instruction. Woody then must proceed with a mystical vetting process before the person gets their chance to pass through the one-way entrance.
When Woody eventually discovers what secrets the portal holds, his desire to gain entry sends him down his own path to self-redemption. In tandem with Woody’s story, parallel subplots that subtlety connect to one another interweave a greater narrative about the beautiful butterfly effect of life, even when things go terribly wrong.
The whimsical, homage-filled tale of resilience and self-contentment not only holds up five years later, but it might read a little (or, a lot) different under a 2021 microscope for those who initially didn’t connect with the twee vibes of the film. It also doesn’t hurt that Thompson’s stellar cast includes perennial favorites like Nick Offerman and Keegan-Michael Key.
Interview
Rebecca Elliott: How are you today? Nice to see you.
Oliver Thompson: I’m fantastic. Thank you.
Rebecca Elliott: Good! Here we are revisiting Welcome To Happiness, and I feel like so much has changed since the film’s release in 2015, correct?
Oliver Thompson: ‘16 I think.
Rebecca Elliott: Ah, 2016. Yes. And do you think that the film might take on a different significance considering everything that has changed since its initial release?
Oliver Thompson: I hadn’t thought about that, but now that I’ve been doing press and interviews, other people are bringing that to my attention. So it’s getting me to think about that now…Because you make something, you don’t really think about that. I’m just thinking about the movie and trying to make the movie as good as I can make the movie and trying to just make it entertaining. But certainly now I’ve been asked that, and I’ve been told that it does seem like it’s more apt now than it was then, that it seems like it’s the right time for it. So I hope that’s right. I hope that it finds a whole new audience that’s going to like it even more than the first time around.
Rebecca Elliott: That must feel weird. It feels like you’re a soothsayer or something with everybody looking for happiness in light of the pandemic and the general unrest around the world.
Oliver Thompson: Absolutely. Yeah. Again, I definitely, it wasn’t really on my radar, but when I think about it now, it’s really, it’s cool. And I can relate to it more as a fan of other movies. It’s a little too hard to have to feel that or see that about my own thing, but certainly I know exactly what you’re talking about. When I revisit my favorite movies- or even maybe they aren’t my favorite movies because I revisit something you happen to catch on HBO because you’re sitting there and you see it.
And you’re like, oh my God, this time this really got me in a way than when I saw it the first time. I just wasn’t in the right place or I hadn’t gone through this thing yet that clearly the filmmaker understood. So I certainly know what that feels like to be on the other end of that. So I would be stoked if I was able to provide that on this side of the camera.
Rebecca Elliott: Kind of in the same vein, you had a couple actors at that time that were really starting to see this huge trajectory in their career, namely, Nick Offerman and Keegan-Michael Key, but you also have an incredible ensemble cast. Can you talk about what it was like to put that incredible cast together with a smallish film? And then also what it’s like looking back now and being like, “Oh my gosh, how did I pull that off?!”
Oliver Thompson: Ha! No, it wasn’t so smallish, it was a small film. And we somehow got this incredible cast, such an incredible cast. And I never in a million years thought we’d get some of the big names that we got. Some of it was just the normal channels. We did have an awesome casting director, Lauren Gray. And she was really kind of… She’s a huge casting director now. So that’s another person, more behind the scenes, who’s blown up too. And at the time she wasn’t nobody, but she was still small enough to do a movie like us, but just about to break…So she was really instrumental.
And then the other half was just people, a little bit more of a back channel. Paget Brewster, for instance, texting Keegan and saying, “Hey, you got to read the script.” And then Keegan, listening to her and then reading it and going, “Oh, God, I do want to do that.” So there was that. There was actors helping find other actors, and then there was just more traditional channels. And so we just got really, really lucky.
Rebecca Elliott: Incredible. You work with people behind the scenes who are coming up and they connect you with other talent who are also coming up at the time and the stars sometimes align.
Oliver Thompson: Yeah, the stars align. And that’s kind of like the thing with this whole movie. This movie did always feel like it. It kind of had a little halo around it, like it was blessed in some way. We had all kinds of problems and stuff that, of course, happens, but they would work themselves out and it would always be for the better. And a big scheduling push would happen. And it was just the most devastating thing, but then you realize that, “Oh wow! Now that made this other thing work out.” And so that’s kind of the theme of the movie-
Rebecca Elliott: That’s true! It’s so meta in a way! You penned the script as well, is that correct?
Oliver Thompson: Yes.
Rebecca Elliott: Yeah. It turns out to be such a grand idea with all the various connections in life. And just like we were talking about the stars aligning behind the scenes, that’s exactly what’s happening in the story. But there’s also all these wonderful Easter eggs throughout the film. I picked up on a few, like the D missing from Lillian’s “birthday” blocks, or-
Oliver Thompson: Oh, you picked up on that?
Rebecca Elliott: Yeah!
Oliver Thompson: You just made my whole day!
Rebecca Elliott: I love stuff like that, hidden clues. I was like, “Oh, what? What’s that?” And then just obvious, more overt Easter Eggs, like the teepee in the mural on Woody’s wall or Nyle’s drawing the cat on the Monet book…
Oliver Thompson: Exactly. Awesome.
Rebecca Elliott: So do you have… Is there a comprehensive list of these Easter eggs? Obviously, you’re aware of all the connections and everything, but have other people made these connections and created a list?
Oliver Thompson: I don’t know. That’s an amazing question. Maybe there’s some Reddit forum out there or something. But I’m not sure because I’m pretty allergic to Googling myself. I’ve never even been on my own IMDB page. That’s not a lie. I get really weird. I don’t know why I get really weird about seeing my name on the computer screen.
Rebecca Elliott: Oh, I’m weird just with the camera on right now. So I totally understand.
Oliver Thompson: Isn’t that the funny thing too? With Zoom, we’ve gotten used to this thing where I’m talking to you, but I’m also kind of in my own periphery right here. And it’s super weird. Anyway, what were we talking about?
Rebecca Elliott: Easter eggs.
Oliver Thompson: Oh, the Easter eggs. Someone should make a comprehensive list. I’m sure I have now forgotten about some of the ones, and I need to go through it and remind myself what they are because there’s a ton.
Rebecca Elliott: Well, they’re so fun, and they did not go unrecognized by me.
Oliver Thompson: Oh, awesome. Thank you.
Rebecca Elliott: What about some of these incredible locations? It’s I’m such an architecture nerd and home nerd and I’m like-
Oliver Thompson: Me too!
Rebecca Elliott: Can you talk a little bit about working with your location scout or manager and how you came up with such cool settings?
Oliver Thompson: Well, one of the main sets, Woody’s apartment, which has this big, giant mural on it and is pretty stylized, I guess you could say. We, again, we’re a small movie. So when I knew I wanted the main apartment to be covered in this, it’s a huge mural that covers every speck of the wall, the only way we knew how to do that was to just practically paint it. So it was me and a couple other artists, not that I did much of the painting. I’m not a painter. But our producer, Bay [Daris], he did most of it with another friend, a woman named CC. And they did all this amazing art work…it took like three months.
And so we knew we can’t afford to rent a location for two or three months of pre production, just to paint that stupid mural. So the only way we’re going to be able to do this is to use one of our own places. So the main location is where I lived at the time. That was my apartment. And so then I lived with that mural for years after we were done with the movie, which a lot of people thought was really weird when they’d come to my place and I had to explain why there’s skeletons and demons on the wall. But-
Rebecca Elliott: It’s totally cool!
Oliver Thompson: It’s a working piece of art. But yeah, all of the locations, some of them were actually sets that we built, I think maybe two. And then some were just found a more traditional way. And some were same kind of thing, a friend or whatever would just lend us their homes. Ripley’s house belongs to a very close friend of mine. He doesn’t live there anymore, but he lived in that house. I’d go jam with him on the weekend, and it was like, “Man, I want to shoot something in your house. One day, I’m going to shoot something in your house.” And then when we started working on it, it was, “Hey, can I shoot in your house?”
Rebecca Elliott: Need that favor now!
Oliver Thompson: Exactly! So yeah, we did, we have cool locations.
Rebecca Elliott: Proctor’s house was so fairy tale incredible.
Oliver Thompson: Yeah. It feels like you just walked into a Disney princess thing or something. And the little-
Rebecca Elliott : The little cottage?
Oliver Thompson: Yeah. That was pretty much done just for the movie.
Rebecca Elliott: Was it? Wow!
Oliver Thompson: But we got really, really cool locations. And my brother is an interior designer. He’s got a design firm in my hometown of Detroit, Patrick Thompson Design. And so he came on and he helped me out a lot with the production design.
Rebecca Elliott: Right. That was going to be my next question about how you collaborated with your production designer. I noticed a similar last name. So I wondered if that was a relation.
Oliver Thompson: Yeah. So my brother is in no way a movie production designer. He does real spaces, not fake spaces. But I also have a pretty keen eye on what I want in the world of production design. I’m pretty hands-on with that department. So working with him, it was a little bit of a joint effort, but he was super helpful. And actually, his whole firm was really helpful because they, you want to talk about some Easter eggs? They made full CAD drawings of the spaces for us.
Rebecca Elliott: Nice.
Oliver Thompson: Because that’s what he does with a client so you can try out different-
Rebecca Elliott: Let’s put this here, and that over there…
Oliver Thompson: Yes. And so he did that for me with our spaces. And so I had these big print out CAD drawings of the spaces from various sets of Welcome to Happiness. I was like, I have to use these things somewhere in the movie. So if you look in Osmond and Claiborne’s teepee, I don’t know if that’s a spoiler or whatever, but there’s a drafting table way in the background and they have the blueprints for Woody’s apartment on it.
Rebecca Elliott: That’s so cool. I was wondering about all the background stuff. I’m like, I’ve got to go back and catalog.
Oliver Thompson: I don’t know why it’s on there, but I just had to use them somewhere. The ones for Proctor’s house show up too.
Rebecca Elliott: It’s just so cool visually. And where in the world did you guys find a dot matrix printer that works?
Oliver Thompson: We had two of them because he has to smash one.
Rebecca Elliott: Oh, that’s right!
Oliver Thompson: Spoiler alert! So I don’t know where they found that. Luckily, someone else had to worry about that.
Rebecca Elliott: I didn’t know if that was your precious dot matrix printer you had been hanging on to.
Oliver Thompson: Ha! No, Craigslist or something, I’m not sure.
Rebecca Elliott: Tell me about the music in the film.
Oliver Thompson: That was my close friend, Pete LeClair that did all the songs for the movie. So there’s songs and score. And he did all the songs. Anytime you hear basically, singing, it’s Peter with one exception of my friend, Emily Rose. She sings one song. And he’s just, they’re both brilliant. I wanted one unifying voice. I was thinking about Cat Stevens with Harold And Maude or Elliot Smith with Goodwill Hunting, these soundtracks where… Badly Drawn Boy did the About A Boy soundtrack.
Rebecca Elliott: Right. Or like Burt Bacharach with Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.
Oliver Thompson: Exactly, right, yeah, which fascinates me. So I think to me, I liked that idea that the Welcome to Happiness soundtrack could essentially be like a Peter LeClair album because I’m such a huge, huge fan of his. And I have been, and we went to high school together. That’s like a friend and hero. So yeah, that was my idea there when I knew I wanted that one voice. It was like, there’s no one else. It’s got to be Peter. And then for the score, I ended up scoring the movie. That’s actually what I went to school for, and I have a bachelor’s degree in music composition.
So when it came time to score the film, I was actually pretty resistant to it. But some circumstances led to me being the one that just had to do it. So it ended up working out well because I learned that I love scoring movies and have since gone on to score a couple of other movies, and would love to continue scoring movies. But at the time I thought that those were enough hats. I’m a filmmaker on the left side of my brain and a composer on the other side. So I didn’t, I was like, “Eh, I don’t need to…” But that’s all…
Rebecca Elliott: You can be an auteur. It’s okay!
Oliver Thompson: I’m not going to lie. It does feel a little heavy handed, like, okay, we get it. Oliver Thompson had a lot to do with this movie.
Rebecca Elliott: And his brother! (laughing)
Oliver Thompson: (laughing) I’m aware enough to know that that’s a little nauseating. Plus you want to be collaborative. I wanted another voice. Even if at the end of the day, it just didn’t work out. And so yeah, I got to have a blast writing a bunch of music.
Rebecca Elliott: Well, if it works, then it’s okay. But I can totally respect the fact that you want to delegate because that’s a lot of work. But I guess if you can space things out, then you can handle it.
Oliver Thompson: Yeah, right. If you can pull it off-
Rebecca Elliott: But wow. That’s so much work. What is your personal inspiration for the story and then what are your cinematic inspirations for the film?
Oliver Thompson: So the first conversation I remember having about the movie, the spark of the idea came from me and my producer, Bay, talking about “Lost”, a TV show. And we’re just having a conversation about it and loved it, obsessed with it. I think I said at some point, “It’d be cool if we could take something that had all the magic of “Lost” and all the mysticism and all the different connectivity and stuff like that, but just instead of a big magical island, to do it in a little one bedroom apartment.
And it just spiraled from there and turned into this thing that I slowly but surely figured out and wrote into the script…once it came time to make the movie, put the director hat on, I definitely wore my influences pretty heavily on my sleeve. And certain scenes would almost be like an homage to certain directors…there was an innocence to that and almost like a naivete to that that I thought…I don’t want to get jaded or anything, but I was actually criticized for that in a lot of cases. And I just thought that was the cool thing to do. There’s a whole Cameron Crowe moment…A whole Wes Anderson moment, which people all over talked about that one. There’s a big Fellini moment. There’s all of these ideas.
And I did it very purposefully. There was a big Scorsese moment, or this is going to be that moment where this scene feels like a Wes Anderson movie. This scene feels like a Cameron Crowe movie. There just were these little moments where it’s like, oh, that can be that homage. Here’s my big Fellini homage. It’s all the stuff at Proctor’s house. We were trying so hard to just do a scene from 8 1/2. And then it turns out, some people that like those things get upset when you do that. So I don’t know.
Rebecca Elliott: People suck! That’s just no fun. I think people forgot to love movies at some point. I don’t know what the deal is with that. I’m like, “It’s awesome. It looks so great!” I loved all your fast zooms. I loved your 180 swivel shots.
Oliver Thompson: Exactly. It’s all that exactly.
Rebecca Elliott: Why do those styles that have to just belong to Scorcese or Fellini? And what’s so wrong about a proper homage anyway? Yeah, I don’t share that attitude at all. I liked it a lot, which is why I wanted to ask the question. And I love your answer because it, again, it’s almost like an Easter egg thing. I recognize your homages to these greats and, some of them I missed. I wasn’t picking up on the Fellini stuff. But now I’m like, “Oh, okay. Clearly, I need to revisit that.” It’s just part of loving movies and part of embracing all of it. I am so sick of haters.
Oliver Thompson: Yeah, no, I agree. I was just talking in an interview a day or two ago. Someone had asked, because I think it was primarily a horror podcast, even though we’re not a horror movie, we were on it. And so she asked me my favorite horror movie, which, I could talk about horror movies all day long. I love horror movies. And I said, probably the movie that made me actually want to make movies, like really consciously realized, I actually want to do this was Scream.
Rebecca Elliott: Master Wes Craven!
Oliver Thompson: And talk about self referential, it just sticks to your point. What was so exciting about that movie to me as a 15 year old kid who was just really starting to realize movies are my passion is that movie almost gave you, with Easter eggs and then other things too, it gave you a checklist of all the horror movies you need to see.
If you’re going to be a horror movie buff, you need to see all these little references that Scream makes. And so I did. If it had a kernel… He says at one point, “This looks like The Town That Dreaded Sundown.” And he’s like, “Oh, I remember that movie.” And then I’m like, “Okay, I’m renting that tonight.” So I think it’s okay to… It’s just like you said, they love movies. Kevin Williamson loves movies. That’s why he wrote that brilliant script. And so it’s fun. It’s just fun.
Rebecca Elliott: I know!
Oliver Thompson: Why so serious?
Rebecca Elliott: Exactly. Well, I love Welcome to Happiness. Congratulations on the Director’s Cut. I feel like it hit all the right notes for then and now. And I really enjoyed this interview, but I guess I better cut you loose. It was great chatting with you.
Oliver Thompson: Thank you so much.
Strike Back Studios will release Minutehand Pictures’ director’s cut of Welcome To Happiness on streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime and iTunes, on August 27, 2021.
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