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Now, when you are writing a script like this, do you have specific actors in mind? Are you writing in their tone of voice?

LK: Not for this movie. Even Kevin [Kline], who I have worked with a lot, we weren’t really thinking about him when writing it. I always wanted to work with Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins…I put him in his first movies 25 years ago. These were people I idolized.

MK: We were trying to write parts that people would want to play. That’s how we thought of it. Giving each part some richness so we could get good actors to commit to it. Our dream came true. We got everybody we wanted.

LK: …When you admire people and you just want to work with them and then to hear them do your stuff and to have them respond very enthusiastically when they read the script – that’s all you are hoping for.

Someone like Kevin Kline seems like someone who could improvise an entire scene without blinking an eye. Are you someone that is open to improv like that or are you a by-the-script writer/director?

LK: I used to talk about sticking to the script. I had a lot of success with people in the beginning. I thought it was coming from people sticking to the script. But, my ideas have loosened up a bit over the years. What I really believe and I have always believed is that improvisation is what actors do every single time they open their mouths. They may be speaking my lines, our lines, but what they do is bring life to it. They find the rhythms and new meanings in it. So I consider every single performance an improv.

Your previous films like The Big Chill and Grand Canyon are ensemble pieces where the characters aren’t blood related, but they end up feeling like a family at the end. With Darling Companion, they are a family from the start. So how does the writing dynamic change when you are writing about a real family as opposed to a group of characters?

LK: I make so many ensemble films where there are a lot of characters and not one protagonist. And the result of that is you see a family forming and falling apart. Even The Accidental Tourist, which is based off of a wonderful novel by Anne Tyler, is really about the main character’s family falling apart and how he has to form a new one with Geena Davis. Silverado is absolutely about families trying to get together and new families forming. I think it is a major thing for me and a major interest for me. Here we obviously have generations, as you say, dealing with each other, which is always complicated.

I was wondering how your opinion on family over the years has changed the way you see it.

MK: We have two sons and they are grown up. We have a grandchild. I think that experience, of raising children; of having them go out in the world and having them start to form their own families, is central in our lives. Family is a reference to us in every conversation.

LK: When you have children, your life changes forever. Something really rich and wonderful comes into your life. And you have fear. Fear is a concern for something beyond yourself. It starts when you fall in love with someone and are committed to them. But you know that marriages fall apart, people do separate. But once you have a child, that connection is never broken and you feel responsible. You never have peace when you have a child. You always ask, “Where are they?” Even when they get to be 30 years old, he is still your son. Our oldest son has a little boy and they are going to have more and right now we are very involved with the next generation. “Where is he?” (laughs).

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