Re: Uniting Director On Crafting Relatable Characters & Working With Executive Producer Jesse L. Martin

Summary Premiering May 31, Re: Uniting follows college friends reuniting on Bowen Island, revealing heavy admissions and unexpected paths.

Director Laura Adkin interweaves multiple storylines inspired by The Big Chill, striving to balance levity and depth.

Actor and EP Jesse L. Martin's involvement adds depth, bringing a pivotal song and contributing to the bond among the cast.

Premiering in theaters on Friday, May 31, Re: Uniting follows six friends from college (including The Flash's Jesse L. Martin and Michelle Harrison) who meet on Bowen Island for their 25-year reunion. What is meant to be a picturesque getaway quickly turns into a trip full of heavy admissions, as the characters slowly begin to unravel. Despite their college plans and chosen lifestyles, it becomes clear that the future didn't pan out exactly like they'd imagined.

Laura Adkin serves as the director of Re: Uniting and is excited to share her film with the world after writing it in 2019. She admits that landing on the right number of characters was vital to maintaining the story's balance, and allows the audience to follow the friend's separate journeys without getting lost. While Adkin is also a talented actor, she hopes to continue pursuing opportunities behind the camera.

Related The Irrational Cast & Character Guide: Where You've Seen The Actors Before The Irrational cast is led by TV actor Jesse L. Martin, but there are plenty of other recognizable actors who round out the cast of the NBC drama.

Adkin chats with Screen Rant about the inspiration behind her feature directorial debut, creating stories the audience can connect to, and what Jesse L. Martin brings to Re: Uniting.

The Big Chill Inspired Adkin To Interweave Multiple Storylines In Re: Uniting

Screen Rant: Congratulations on directing your first feature film! How has this experience been as a whole?

Laura Adkin: It's a lot of work to make a film and now is the fun part. Now we get to show it to the world. I started writing it in 2019. It's been like a long time coming, so now it's great. Now we get to show it to people and see it on the big screen, but it's been a long road to get here.

I'm curious how you landed on the title.

Laura Adkin: Full disclosure, I'm terrible at titles. I was part of this thing called "Women in the Director's Chair," and we had a bunch of mentors and story editors and people helping us throughout. Someone else was like, "What about this?" and I'm like, "Oh, that's a great title," because I didn't really have a title. I wish I could take credit for Re: Uniting. The whole idea, obviously, is an email and communication and the way we communicate with each other and playing on the word, but it was not my idea. Linda Coffee. She was amazing. She came up with that.

All the characters are going through their own internal struggle. What inspired these different stories?

Laura Adkin: I love these types of stories. That's why I wrote this in the first place. Years ago, I was at the Toronto Film Festival, and they were doing an anniversary screening of The Big Chill, and I remember watching it and going, "Wow, why don't we make these movies anymore? Like, I don't understand why we don't watch people and hear their stories and have all these intertwining things happening." And so that's where I came up with the idea, and then it was just finding that right balance, finding the right number of people to be able to interweave the stories without it being crazy. Should it be four or five, should it be six, should it be seven? I came up with six because it felt like it was enough that we could follow each person's journey and get enough of their story, but not too much that we would get lost. I also really wanted everyone to feel like they could connect to someone. We had different characters going through different things. So you could be like, "Oh, I'm totally like Rachel," or like, "Oh, I totally know a Natalie."

That leads me to my next question. Do you connect to anyone's story in particular?

Laura Adkin: I think a little bit of all of them, honestly. Probably Natalie the most as far as being very career-driven for a very, very long time. Part of it for me, as well, was, "Do I want to have kids? Do I not want to have kids? Do I want to be in a relationship? Do I not?" I am married, but I don't have my own children, and I have a career. I just turned 40 yesterday. There are parts of Carrie that I connect to, but Natalie the most I would say.

You also incorporate moments of comedy. How do you find the right balance without taking away from how serious these issues are?

Laura Adkin: Part of that really was making sure we had a lot of levity at the beginning, because I felt like the more light-hearted and funny stuff that was happening at the beginning, the harder the punch would hit. And then, within that, the moments where everything gets really dark, I think, in life, it's funny. I have laughed at multiple funerals because sometimes your emotions just intertwine and mix up. Things can be really, really funny when they're really, really sad. I think that's very human, and I think that's something that people can relate to. There's just something you can connect to when someone is just saying the totally wrong thing when they really should not be saying it. And that's me. In my life, if there's something that's really uncomfortable, I will make a joke. So I wanted to have that in there. I wanted people to have moments where they could just breathe, because there are some stuff that gets kind of intense in the film, and I think an hour and a half of that would be too much. It's too much for me. I don't want to watch that.

Actor And EP Jesse L. Martin "Brought A Lot To The Film"

Jesse L. Martin stars in this film, but he also signed on as an executive producer, correct?

Laura Adkin: Yeah. It's an independent film, so a lot of times, if you look at our EP list, a lot of the actors are on it or other people. Jesse came on board, he wrote a song for the film. I don't know if you know that. There is a very pivotal moment where some stuff happens, which we won't give away, but there's a song that plays, and that's Jesse. He wrote that song and sings that as part of the soundtrack of the film. He brought a lot to the film, and I'm just so grateful for him. He came on board in a producing role to support the film, which has been awesome.

This entire cast is stellar. It’s about a group of people who are bonded, but I imagine you all formed a bond in real life while filming this.

Laura Adkin: Vancouver's a very small film community, so I either knew everyone or knew of them, or they knew each other. Everyone knew someone, so none of the actors came into the movie not knowing anyone. Jesse and Michelle worked on The Flash together. Carmen also worked on The Flash. Michelle went to Bronwen's wedding fifteen years ago. David knows Michelle. Roger, I was connected to through Michelle, who was friends with him for twenty years. So everyone knew each other, which was really cool. We shot on an island during the middle of the pandemic, and so everyone really got to know each other and got to connect with each other.

How has being an actor helped you in the writing and directing process?

Laura Adkin: Thank you for asking that question, because I think it's such an important part of my journey. I started out as an actor, I always wanted to be an actor, and one of the reasons that I pursued it is because everyone on TV looked like me, right? So it was one of those things where I believed I could do it. I never worked with a female director for years and years and years, so it never occurred to me that I could be a director. When I finally started seeing women directing, I was like, "Oh, maybe I could do that. That's cool." Which is, sidenote, why representation is so important. Why people being able to see themselves reflected onscreen or in the industry is so, so important. But for me, all the years that I spent understanding acting and learning acting and being on set, I think has made me a good director. I love actors. I married an actor. I run an acting school. That's my day job. I love working with actors, and I think spending so much time training as an actor has made me understand how to communicate with them, I think, and really just be on the same page. I think that's something that happens a lot with directors who maybe don't have an acting background or haven't worked with actors that much. You can have the most beautiful shot in the world, but if you don't have the performances, who cares? It's all about the actors, and it's all about their performance and their connection and all of that. One of the keys to directing is figuring out very quickly what each actor needs to succeed, because they're individual human beings, right? So they need different things. How can I make this actor feel safe and feel competent? Feel like they can just be vulnerable? Because that's what we're doing on set. We're creating a space for people to be incredibly vulnerable. I've worked really hard to make that happen.

Would you like to direct more feature films in the future, or are you hoping to jump back into acting?

Laura Adkin: Here's where acting has kind of gone for me. It's this thing that I love to do that is my side thing. The idea of being the lead of something sounds terrible to me. I love to show up on set, do a couple of scenes, say some lines, look around, and go, "Oh, my gosh, I'm not in charge of any of this. Oh, that looks expensive. Not my problem." So that's really fun for me as an actor. I'll probably always still do it, because it's really fun, and it gives me a lot of joy. But as a career, being a director is my path, definitely. I'm working on my next feature right now. I would love to break into directing television. That's kind of where I'm going. I would love to work on these types of movies. I love irreverent dramas, which is what I would refer to our movie as, but I also love action movies. I would love to direct a Mission Impossible or a Marvel movie or something. I think that would be really fun too.

About Re: Uniting

Close

Filmed on Bowen Island in B.C., Re: Uniting stars Jesse L Martin (Law & Order, The Irrational, RENT), Michelle Harrison (The Flash), Roger Cross (War For the Planet of the Apes), David James Lewis (Child’s Play), Carmen Moore (Nancy Drew) and Bronwen Smith (Firefly Lane) as six best friends from college who reconnect for their 25 year reunion. When Rachel, played by Michelle Harrison, receives life-changing news, she secretly grapples with her mortality while playing host to her friends who have grown up and gone their separate ways since college.

Carrie, a mother of 3, Natalie, a workaholic neurosurgeon, former football star turned sportscaster Collin, and playboy man-child Danny join Rachel and her husband at their picturesque home on the beautiful and secluded Bowen Island. As soon as they are all together it’s like no time has passed; they laugh, drink and dance the night away. Rachel’s nostalgia is echoed by the group as they realize how much time has gone by, and how much they have all changed. As secrets are revealed, they are forced to change the way they look at their futures.