We'll never have Paris
Simon Helberg's new and very "personal" movie is now out on general release. Based on the real life love story between Simon and his wife, Jocelyn.
“The film is based on the story of our break-up and then our proposal that followed shortly after, both of which were epic intercontinental disasters." says Simon.
“We are married now, and thought, ‘Let’s tell the story of our demise and relive that for years to come’. Why we did that, I’m still trying to work out. It’s really personal, it’s really scary. I feel freaked out knowing that this movie is going out into the world.”
The 34-year-old actor said reliving the experience is not at all therapeutic. “The ideal version is that it was cathartic, but I think it was a bit more masochistic probably in some ways, and twisted,” he explained.
“Watching it again with an audience helps. There’s a lot of gasping and smacking of the forehead or that kind of laughter where you would hear at a tragic crime scene that’s very inappropriate. That’s great. “I know that means people are relating and I think that as long as people are relating in some way, even though it’s an embarrassing time and it’s a pretty poor light I’ve shown that guy in, I know that that’s good because it’s human and it’s flawed and that’s the way we are.”
The film, which premiered at the 2014 Edinburgh Film Festival, stars Melanie Lynskey as Simon’s wife Jocelyn. “Me playing a version of myself was cool but we didn’t want to get into working our issues out on screen. We didn’t have a conversation about it but we knew we needed to cast somebody else (as Jocelyn). We would have needed a lot of therapy for years to come,” he said.
