by Gill Pringle
If audiences think they already know Tom Holland from his lovable Spider-Man persona, then he flips the switch with his darkly humorous turn in award-nominated drama Cherry, playing a college drop-out who signs up as an army medic drafted to Iraq.
Returning home with undiagnosed PTSD, “Cherry” is adrift with only his college sweetheart to anchor him through a dark dive into opioid addiction, turning to small-time bank-robbery to feed his demons.
“The scale of what we had to do to create this character and this arc for Cherry’s journey was pretty daunting,” says Holland. “Even the physical transformation, losing and then adding weight and then the intensity of the Iraq scenes, was very hard but was vital to telling the story.
“I have friends who’ve suffered with addiction, and I spoke with them about their experiences, though their substance abuse was different than people suffering from PTSD. When we got to Cleveland, I went to VA hospitals and met with veterans and addicts going through this day in, day out. When you’re telling a story about something that affects people this way, you have a duty to do it right,” says the 24-year-old Brit.
If Holland felt out of his depth then his old friends, Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo had his back, shooting Cherry on location in their own backyard; their hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, serving as the background for this dark story inspired by Nico Walker’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.
Making Cherry a truly family affair, not only did the Russos shoot in familiar childhood locales, but their own sister, screenwriter Angela Russo-Otstot, together with Jessica Goldberg, adapted the novel for the screen.
For the entire Russo family, Cherry’s timely coming-of-age story struck a chord, having lost loved ones to oxycontin addiction.
With Holland already committed, only one piece of the puzzle remained – casting the role of Cherry’s sweetheart and partner-in-addiction, Emily. After seeing scores of actors, the Russo brothers were struck by Ciara Bravo, 23, a former child star best known for her family friendly role in Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush, who wowed them with her willingness to match Holland on this intense journey.
While Holland is busy shooting the third chapter of the Spider-Man series, we spoke with Bravo and screenwriters Russo-Otstot and Goldberg.
Ciara Bravo
You visited rehab centers during your research. How did this help in understanding Emily’s opioid/heroin addiction?
I was lucky enough to speak with one nurse in particular who had a shockingly similar journey to Emily; trying to uphold a job in the beginnings of addiction and then being in a relationship with someone very similar to Cherry, where it’s so passionate but almost toxic. Speaking with her and learning about the nuances of battling a heroin addiction and understanding the way you look at yourself and the way that you look at your partner at the different stages; the way people treat you on the street; the way you dress and the different tics that you pick up. I also learned what it’s like to be tweaking – all kinds of stuff that isn’t even available on the internet. The battle of addiction is one that’s mostly fought in the shadows and there is this stigma around drug addiction and searching for help and going to rehab, that really breaks your heart. It makes this information hard to access and I imagine it becomes a far more isolating experience, so I was really grateful for their vulnerability and their generosity because, without them, I would be so lost in trying to bring Emily to life.
How was it for you to go from Nickelodeon and voice-over roles on family animated fare to this very dark path. Did you have any concerns about making that big leap?
Yeah, there’s a lot of responsibility when you’re bringing a story like this to life. I do feel lucky in my career that I’ve been able to make slow and steady steps towards this type of movie. I’ve now done a couple of other projects that also handle dark, heavy topics so it wasn’t a completely new experience, but of course this is the most intense role to date for me, for sure. I’ve never been to the extremes that I’ve gone to for Cherry. But, nevertheless, it was very intimidating. This is a story that is so personal for anyone who has been through this, so I just wanted to make sure that I’m doing them justice as well as the character of Emily.
You beat everyone out in your audition. What do you think made you stand out?
It was very unique in that there was clearly different versions of Emily as she went down this path, so I knew they were going to be tracking them over an extended period of time so there was one scene from college life, another scene from her falling in love with Cherry and then one scene from the depths of dope-life so there was such a wide range and so much to go off of with only three scenes. It just goes to show how incredible Jessica and Angela’s writing was.
We all know Tom Holland has such a great sense of humour. Was it hard for you both in those scenes where you’re high, just keeping it in the moment?
I will say, as much as a jokester that Tom is, he’s also extraordinarily professional. He knew when we needed to be serious and when we needed to laugh and, honestly, I’m grateful for him being such a jokester because it kept things so light-hearted when they needed to be and helped us take a breath of air after coming out of such deep scenes. But he was fully committed to the vulnerability and the seriousness of these scenes and of the story. He absolutely delivered.
You and Tom both started young, you’re the same age and have similar career trajectories – you in TV and Tom in film. Did you learn anything from him?
I think I learned from him what it was really like to be a supportive co-worker and partner in filmmaking, but also he has very strict rules about not bringing his work home with him and making sure that what happens on set stays on set. And learning how to develop and build that skill certainly helped me preserve my sanity throughout this project.
Did you shoot Cherry during the pandemic?
Bravo: No, I wrapped by Christmas 2019 which seems like yesterday and seven years ago all at the same time! And then Tom and everyone else spent another month in Morocco so they were finished by February 2020, so it really was just before we all went into lockdown, so I think we all feel very lucky that we got to finish the movie when we did.
Do you know anyone personally who suffered from PTSD to help you understand Tom’s Cherry? Also, PTSD, as we are learning today, doesn’t necessarily have to be war-related, it can come from a variety of past stresses?
I have plenty of family members who are vets, my grandfather being one of them, but PTSD was never something we have discussed openly so I’m not sure what their experiences were with it. So, there are different versions of PTSD and I think once we begin to understand PTSD more and dive more into educating ourselves on the topic, we will learn that there are more people in our lives than we thought who are battling it.
Born and raised in Kentucky, you were nine years old when you were discovered, how were you able to launch your Hollywood career?
My mom is actually an angel and she was kind enough to travel back and forth with me to Los Angeles whenever I needed to be there for either auditioning or work. And if she couldn’t do it, my grandparents would come. I was very privileged in that my family really supported my passion and dreams and allowed me to pursue them. That’s how we operated until I was 18 when I moved out to Los Angeles permanently and my older sister graduated at the same time and she also moved to LA. She’s also in the business – not an actor, thank god! – but she’s a very talented film publicist and we have intersecting circles which is nice. We each understand what each other does and it allows us to live together in this nice symbiotic relationship.
Angela Russo-Otstot and Jessica Goldberg
Cherry is based on Nico Walker’s novel of the same name. Did you have any personal experiences of the opioid crisis or PTSD prior to adapting the book for the screen?
Russo-Otstot: I think one of the things that connected myself and Jessica to the book, and also Anthony and Joe, is that each of us have had our own experiences with addiction; family members and loved ones. Anthony, Joe and I have lost loved ones to addiction, so we had a deep understanding of the complexities that come along with this, particularly with oxycontin addiction. I think that allowed us to feel not only an opportunity but really a responsibility to tell this story as authentically as possible, knowing that our experiences are ours and they are not indicative of everybody’s experiences and this is Cherry and Emily’s story. But, in that, we were able to find those lines of connection for others who have suffered through substance abuse disorder and also for loved ones who have felt powerless watching them struggle. This was some of the most personal, and also the most challenging work for us in terms of adapting the book.
Goldberg: At this point, it would be hard to find an American who hasn’t been touched by addiction in some way or another so, likewise, I have shared experiences with loving addicts and have spent some time in Al-Anon myself so there is a lot that I felt personally compelled to write about. Angela and I did our work and talked to doctors and soldiers and family members in order to really write this movie.
Cherry is very much outside of Joe and Anthony’s Marvel universe. At what point did Tom Holland and your brothers get involved?
Russo-Otstot: The script was already underway and, two months into it, we found out that Tom had expressed interest in playing Cherry. Part of the reason that Joe and Anthony went to Tom were the inherent challenges that come with telling this story successfully. Tom brings such a level of empathy and he also feels very accessible in a way that we really needed the audience to be able to connect to the character. The story really took someone like Tom to go in there and commit to some of the more expressionistic interpretations and stay so grounded. I found it so remarkable the way he’s able to break the fourth wall so easily in the moment and then come right back. And he’s not only just breaking it but he’s breaking it to be a version of himself 15 years in the future, reflecting on that moment. We were so gifted to have Tom playing this role.
Before Tom was cast, did you have anyone else you were thinking of in visualising the character of Cherry?
Goldberg: It got a lot easier once Tom was in! As soon as I heard Tom’s name, it changed how I was thinking about the movie, it just felt so much more like Cherry could be our neighbour even though obviously he’s an extraordinary human being. But there is that quality of next-door neighbour, all-American boy about him that really just helped focus the film for us and understand how to write the character. Same with Ciara, it made it so much easier, because we didn’t have her in mind when we started.
Angela, Cherry was all shot in your own backyard of Cleveland, Ohio. Were you able to be present on set?
Russo-Otstot: Tragically I wasn’t able to be there for the whole production due to my own family circumstances at the time because we had just adopted our first, but I did go in pre-production with our cinematographer and production designer and show them all the places that we thought might translate well cinematically and also that we felt really captured the essence and spirit of the city of Cleveland and is very reflective of Cherry’s existential journey. For example, Cherry and Emily’s house was on the same street as Joe and Anthony and I were born on and we shot in our father’s old high school. It’s really quite personal in that regard.
Can we spot any extended Russo family members in Cherry?
Russo-Otstot: There’s quite a few including our cousin who was quite excellent. Also, Joe has a cameo as the restaurant owner. This isn’t something new – they had about 12 family members with cameos in The Winter Soldier which was also shot in Cleveland!
What was it like bringing someone as well-known as Spider-Man shooting on the streets of Cleveland, Ohio?
Russo-Otstot: People did hear about it and they were coming to set to watch but it was surprisingly low-key and I think it’s very much to Tom’s credit – he goes through some physical transformations within the role which he truly inhabits – that he doesn’t look like Spider-Man. And because he was so immersed in the character, I think it allowed him to fly under the radar and, in some ways, become a Clevelander. And it is really nice because they would do family dinners at various restaurants around town with Tom and Ciara and Anthony and Joe and the crew.
What do you say to people who might think the opioid crisis is over now that the pharmaceutical company has been brought to justice by the US legal system?
Goldberg: I think because Covid and the US elections have sort of brushed it under the rug, but it’s certainly not over. Opioids are replaced by heroin and other drugs that have gotten into our cities and suburbs so everyone is still affected. It’s important to realise that it’s still out there. I live in LA and you drive through the streets and see so many kids living in tents and you know that this is part of what has happened to them and we need to keep our eyes open to this ongoing problem.
Russo-Otstot: This past year, we have more deaths on record from opioid overdoses than we had before and it’s not forefront on the news because there are so many other struggles that we’re facing right now. But it’s very much alive and if we can do anything with Cherry, we want to draw a sense of compassion from viewers because ultimately what we need, at least in the US, is to find more meaningful ways to support people who are addicted. The pills were designed to form addiction and if we can highlight this, at least that’s a step in the right direction. For us, we felt that we wanted to break down the barriers of judgement and stigmatisation about people who are struggling with addiction and elicit compassion for them.
Cherry is streaming on Apple TV+ from Friday, March 12, 2021
