We were joined on the Popternative show by filmmaker and actor Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth, Shithouse) who writes, directs, and stars in the heartfelt dramedy series, Hal & Harper. The series premiered with the first two episodes on MUBI’s streaming platform on October 19.
Also starring are Lili Reinhart (Riverdale, Look Both Ways), Mark Ruffalo (Task, Poor Things), Betty Gilpin (American Primeval, GLOW), Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms, No Exit), Alyah Chanelle Scott (The Sex Lives of College Girls, Reboot), Christopher Meyer (The Sex Lives of College Girls, The Fosters), and Addison Timlin (When I’m a Moth, Derailed).
Hal & Harper follows two siblings, Hal (Raiff) and Harper (Reinhart), who have built their adult lives side by side in Los Angeles bonded by a lifetime of shared trauma. When their father (Ruffalo) announces he’s having a baby with his girlfriend, Kate (Gilpin), it forces the siblings to reexamine their past and face the versions of themselves they’ve carried into adulthood.
While this was the first project Cooper and Lili Reinhart worked on together, they both got to bond before filming: “We knew each other for a year before we started shooting and we have a close relationship off camera. But the more you trust someone and the closer you get with someone, it just helps you be able to get close in a different way on camera,” Cooper tells us.
On balancing his directing and acting in one project, Cooper says, “As an actor, I’m never thinking about the audience, but I know as a director, I’m only thinking about the audience. I have these emotional shot lists and it’s just for the audience, I would never show it to the actors, so I probably do have a bit of a separation in terms of the hats [I wear].”
When the series has flashbacks to Hal and Harper as children, Lili and Cooper play themselves rather than child actors: “It didn’t feel strange and it didn’t feel weird. It felt accessible in a way that was quite hilarious but also real and grounded. It was just what the characters needed. I think Hal and Harper needed to go back to that year,” Cooper explains.
Watch the full conversation with Cooper Raiff below.
New episodes of Hal & Harper release on Sundays through November 30 on MUBI.
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