INTERVIEW WITH ABIGAIL SMITH

Adam Bloom is a tender coming-of-age story about a young photographer who sets out to absorb the wisdom of his famous mentor, yet ends up learning about life and love from his dying grandmother. Director Noah David Smith's own mother,  Abigail Smith, 78, takes on her first feature film role playing Adam Bloom's grandmother, Rosalia—a character based on her own mother.  

Q: What was it like playing your mother?

A:  It was amazing and fun, and I kept thinking that I WAS her and that this is exactly how she would feel and think about things that were happening in the film.

Q: How do you feel now, at your stage in life - in relationship to your mother aging?

A: Now that I am in the late stage of my own life I find I am thinking more and more about her, and now I know so much about what she was going through.  I realize how difficult everything about aging really is, and that I had little idea of what it was like for her when I was still young and healthy and working and trying to be a mother to my children.

Q: What was most surprising?

A: I was most surprised to see how amazingly organized the whole day to day process of shooting this film was, thanks largely to the skills of Elizabeth.  Had things not run so smoothly I would have had real trouble in sticking with it physically. I was certainly no longer used to working a full day (more than a full day) every day, and for three straight weeks, and as wonderful as the experience was, it was very exhausting for me.

Q: What was it like working with the crew - being in a film?

A: The crew was amazing!!  They were wonderful in every way.  Every crew member was completely professional, kind, and fun, and really, for me, a joy to be with and to work with.

Q: What role do films and art have in your life?

A: Films and art have the highest priority in my life, and always have had.  As a child my parents took me along with them to see mostly foreign films in NYC.  Many I was too young to understand but I developed a love for the art of the film and became acquainted with the work of so many outstanding actors and directors and styles of film.  This is what we did as a family for fun.  

Art of all kinds is for me the most important part of life.  It was my major study in college and in graduate school, and was the center of my career.  It still looms very large in my life.

Q: What was it like working with Jake Horowitz and the other actors?

A: Jake Horowitz is a love.  I think he is a very talented actor and look forward to hearing lots of wonderful things about his developing acting profession.  He was absolutely the perfect actor to play Adam Bloom.  In his role he reminded me 100% of Noah at the age of 20.  In my mind they could have been the same person.

 Although I did not get a chance to meet David Margulies, seeing him in the film brought to mind exactly the kind of person that I knew this character to be. It was a thrill to play alongside him as one of the two mentors in Adam’s life.

Q: What was it like seeing yourself on screen? With other people in the audience?

A: Seeing myself on the screen was a bit of a shock.  I look like my real self and my real age.  I keep telling people that I was not acting.  That is the real way I go about living, unfortunately.

Q: What was it like working with your family on a creative project?

A: I could not have done this without the superb structuring of everything for me done by Elizabeth.  She arranged for a bed for me to rest between takes, for quiet time for me, for food and snacks that I like at times when I needed them, for  easy transportation, and on and on.   

It was very fun for me to see Noah at work and the superb job that he was doing, and my daughter, Sarah, also helped quite a bit with my learning lines and with general support and staying overnight in the hotel, etc.,  It was indeed a family project and that was much fun and very rewarding!  

Q. Overall how would you describe the experience?

A:  The experience was one of the most interesting I have ever had.  My only regret is that I was not in better health to fully enjoy all of it, but as it was, I’m glad that I had the opportunity to do this, and the story and especially the photography in the film is absolutely beautiful, and I hope many more people will have a chance to see it.