Thanks for Sharing marks the directorial debut of Stuart Blumberg, who received an Oscar nomination for co-writing The Kids Are All Right with Lisa Cholodenko. The film tells the story of three men who have very little in common with each other except for the fact that they are in different stages of recovery from sex addiction.
Adam (Mark Ruffalo) is an environmental consultant who, as the movie opens, has reached his fifth year of sobriety when he meets the breathtakingly beautiful Phoebe (Gwyneth Paltrow). Mike (Tim Robbins) is a small business owner with a loving wife, Katie (Joely Richardson), and a wayward son named Danny (Patrick Fugit), who has addiction problems of his own. Then there’s emergency room doctor Neil (Josh Gad), who is in deep denial about his own sex addiction, and he soon realizes that he needs to face up to it before it’s too late.
It’s a wonderful movie that follows each of the characters and those closest to them as they go through the highs and lows of life while taking everything one day at a time. But for an addict, keeping free of triggers and temptations proves to be very hard work.
The press conference for Thanks for Sharing was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, California this week and while there w were able to attend a press conference with Stuart Blumberg, Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alecia Moore (better known as music star Pink) and Josh Gad.
Check out what they had to say below!
We tend to think that Hollywood stars are perfect, but this movie shows that no one is perfect and that everyone has their own set of problems to deal with. Gwyneth, was this a fun role for you to play and how did you respond to the script after first reading it?
Gwyneth Paltrow: I loved the script when I read it, but one of the things I really was interested in is that she is a person who is holding all these judgments, and all of these judgments have helped her make this construct around herself. Through compassion and empathy and a situation she never would’ve imagined herself in, she starts to understand and have real self-awareness and reflectiveness. I think it’s such an amazing and essential human process to be brave and start to address your own shit. Mark Ruffalo’s shit looks dirtier, but actually it’s all the same and I thought that was a really interesting piece.
Stuart Blumberg: It’s all brown (laughs).
Alecia, with you using your real name in this film, do you see this as a transformation for you and is Pink your alter ego?
Alecia Moore: Pink was a nickname given to me when I was younger. Pink is what people call me referring to music and to some of my friends back in Philly. But outside of that, I am Alecia or mom and I wasn’t given a song to sing in this film.
Because of your Pink persona, do you think you will be typecast as an out of control, sex obsessed person in other movies?
Alecia Moore: Until this I had scripts that were as a convict or a runaway, the girl that beats somebody up, the girl that stops somebody from being beat up or Janis Joplin. I was waiting for a part in Saved but that didn’t happen.
What has been the toughest addiction you have had to deal with in your own lives?
Josh Gad: Food has always been my addiction and that’s maybe something that goes to my happy place. I’m working on it. I’ve been doing the Pink diet which is just Cirque du Soleil acrobats in my home and it’s been working great.
Alecia Moore: When I was younger I used to do a lot of naughty things and I’ve seen all of it. I’ve lost a lot of friends. I think the first funeral I went to was when I was 13. That’s part of what drew me to this; I believe that addiction is addiction regardless of the form it takes and I can empathize and see the pain that it causes everybody whether you’re the person going through it or if it’s someone you love. It’s all around us.
Stuart Blumberg: I was going to say solitaire (laughs). I think one thing that I’ve made a lot of strides on is being addicted to what other people thought of me. I think it’s a testament that I really hope you like the movie but I kind of don’t care. It’s a process and its one day at a time, especially on a day like this.
Gwyneth Paltrow: I’m just straight up Internet porn (laughs).
Tim Robbins: I’ve been lucky that cigarettes are the worst. I f**king hate them, but I’m addicted.
Would you be able to understand if your lover or spouse was a sex addict?
Gwyneth Paltrow: I’m an extremely open minded person, so I think if it was something I knew going into it and someone said, “Look this is part of who I am and what I’m dealing with,” it wouldn’t keep me from exploring a relationship with somebody if I felt like everything else was lined up. I think it will be hard for me to be one of those wives that, twenty years in, you find out that it’s been going on behind your back for your whole life so you’re questioning what your life is. I think that would be harder for me. But if there is authenticity and honesty at the beginning then I wouldn’t hold a judgment about it.
But if there was a relapse, would you be able to forgive cheating because it is a disease?
Gwyneth Paltrow: I think that in life the idea is that if you’re committed to someone and you’re in a relationship that’s important to you, you surmount things. I think for different couples it takes on different challenges, and I would like to think that I would be forgiving. It’s also something in that scenario I would know going in what I was signing up for.
Alecia Moore: I agree 100%.
