City native and booster—actress and producer Olivia Wilde recently paid tribute to the resilience of the Big Apple in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. Now, in meadowland, she plays a New Jersey teacher facing the ultimate loss

by Matt Scanlon

Our metropolitan area and points south simply resonate for Olivia Wilde. Yes, the 31-year-old actor was born in the city, lives here with Saturday Night Live alum Jason Sudeikis, and recently acted as producer for a 15-minute biopic describing the life and work of Timmy Brennan, a former World Trade Center worker whose Breezy Point home was destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. But in her role in this year’s Meadowland, Wilde— veteran of five seasons of the FOX’s hit series House, multiple film star, and soon to-be lead in the HBO drama series Vinyl—took on the most challenging role of her life: a New Jersey teacher whose son vanishes into thin air.

The film, which premiered regionally at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released nationally in late October, was directed by veteran cinematographer Reed Morano (Frozen River, Kill Your Darlings, The Skeleton Twins), who helped revise the original script by Chris Rossi.

In Meadowland, Wilde’s character Sarah commutes between New Jersey and the Upper West Side, and just a few minutes in, we are presented with the world being snatched from under her and her husband (played by Luke Wilson). After leaving their son Jesse in the bathroom of a roadside gas station for just a few minutes, they find he has disappeared, and the rest of the plotline is a fascinating and heartbreaking process of search and reclamation—both physical and spiritual.

For a modestly budgeted film, one that was both produced and distributed outside of typical Hollywood channels (by Bron Studios and Cinedigm, respectively), Meadowland features a wide ranging and decidedly upper-register cast, including Elizabeth Moss, Giovanni Ribisi, and Juno Temple. Wilde, like the other stars, were drawn by a script that offered few easy answers, and fewer still expected outcomes.

“The original way that I discovered the material was as an actress,” Wilde explained at a press event for the Tribeca Film Festival premiere. “I read the script and thought it was sensational. I also met Reed and was completely blown away by her. I wanted to help get it made, so I asked if I could join the team, and I met Matt Tauber, who is a producer, and asked if I could please join them…said that I would do whatever I could to help get it through.”

“Getting it through” for the former Gaiety School of Acting student meant being both star and producer—the latter role an intimidating challenge as well as a learning experience.

“In the financing process, once you see those lists with all the actors posted by value, you look and ask yourself ‘Where am I? Where? My gosh…way down here.’” Wilde laughed. “I was very lucky to be a part of the project that had such high standards in terms of collaborators as well as financing producers. And we weren’t completely willing to sell our souls, so we waited and found a tremendous company in Bron and [fellow producers] Aaron Gilbert and Margot Hand. They pretty much let us do what we wanted. But sure, there are still the realities of casting. They’d say ‘We really want to let you cast this unknown person, for example, but would love it if you would consider these people.’ I did find it interesting to watch the process of financing a female-driven film—one starring a woman and directed by a woman. Not just because of gender driven challenges, but also because of the first-timer situation [this was Morano’s directorial debut]. It was illuminating.”

At the same event, the director made reference to a particularly tough scene for Wilde to tackle, one in which, while cleaning out her car, Sarah happens across bits of cracker that constituted the last meal her son had in her presence. Searing and sacramental…it was a moment of wrenching vulnerability, both on screen and off, and the director found she needed to keep a delicate balance between realism and actor security.

“For me to expect Olivia to go on this journey by herself was simply not fair,” Morano explained. “It’s all about making people feel safe, and I thought if we can go to that dark place together, the movie would be better.”

At this year’s Savannah Film Festival, Wilde expanded upon the difficulty of that filming moment.

“That scene is the one that drew both Reed and I to this film, and both separately,” she recalled. “When we read the script, that is what made us want to be a part of this, so when we were shooting, we were dedicated to making it as impactful as it felt when we read it on the page. To me, it was by far the most heartbreaking moment, because Sarah realizes there’s this tiny bit of Jesse still there. She can connect to him, and when she discovers the cookie and eats it there’s this moment of bliss, almost a spiritual moment, like she’s taking communion. It surprised me when we were shooting—we hadn’t necessarily thought to stay on that shot …and there’s limited time in the story to spend on any one scene, but we could’ve gone on and on.”

Wilde actually has six producer credits, the most regionally significant of which was 2013’s The Rider and The Storm—a dramatic adaptation of the life of ironworker Brennan, who escapes from the stress of working on the rebuilt World Trade Center by surfing. He, too, finds his world turned upside down, this time by the hurricane that changed so many lives on the Eastern Seaboard in 2012. In Brennan’s case, he not only lost his Breezy Point home, but also his beloved surfboard.

The film’s co-director David Darg offered at its premiere (also at the Tribeca Film Festival) that the production was an exercise in depicting “hopefulness and resilience, both in his particular community, and the city itself.”

“The aftermath in Breezy Point was the biggest fire in New York City history,” Wilde added. “We wanted to pay tribute to human resilience and compassion. This is my dream…to be able to facilitate films like this.”

Wilde fans need only wait until February 14 for their next dose of the city booster. That date marks the premiere of the Martin Scorsese-directed HBO series Vinyl. Set here in the city in the 1970s, it describes the carnal and drug-fueled adventures of the music business when disco and punk were ascendant, with Wilde playing a former model and now wife of a volatile record executive (played by Bobby Cannivale). Scorsese has agreed to direct the entirety of the first season, scheduled for 10 episodes. Bona fides for the series come not just at the hands of its Academy Award-winning director, but also in the presence of none other than Mick Jagger as a contributing producer.