{"id":7040426,"date":"2026-08-17T07:13:04","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T07:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/max-greenfield-is-that-dad\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T07:13:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T07:13:04","slug":"max-greenfield-is-that-dad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7040426","title":{"rendered":"Max Greenfield Is That Dad"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The first thing you may observe about the dad in Netflix\u2019s upcoming teen drama Don\u2019t Say Good Luck<\/em> is that his hair looks perfect. That\u2019s only the start of the aspirational cues coming from this character played by Max Greenfield. In this funny \u2014 and, yes, tear-jerking \u2014 family drama, Greenfield\u2019s character juggles work, elementary-aged twins, a big-feeling teen, and his wife\u2019s cancer diagnosis. While he is at times off-kilter from all that life throws his way in the film, this dad does not bumble his way through it. In every scene, he finds ways to be the emotionally available parent and partner.<\/p>\n
Greenfield says that understanding the character was easy. \u201cThere\u2019s so much of me that\u2019s in that movie,\u201d he tells Fatherly. \u201cI felt so close to what we were doing.\u201d It could be, perhaps, because his daughter, like the main character, is a high schooler; she has mutual friends to the lead actress, Sunny Sandler; and her experience \u2014 at least onstage, navigating high school life \u2014 just resonated.<\/p>\n
I finished watching <\/strong>Don\u2019t Say Good Luck<\/strong><\/em> today. I definitely did some crying.<\/strong><\/p>\n
They keep playing clips in these interviews that I\u2019m doing for press, and they\u2019ll play it before the interview, and I\u2019m constantly like, \u201cI need a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s intense. It\u2019s a wonderful film. I\u2019m wondering how close of a dad are you to who you play on screen in <\/strong>Don\u2019t Say Good Luck.<\/strong><\/em> Are you that dad?<\/strong><\/p>\n
I mean, there\u2019s so much of me that\u2019s in that movie. I felt so close to what we were doing. It was really the reason I wanted to do it. My daughter, I think, is a year younger than Sunny [Sandler, the lead], and I was really aware that this was going to be a movie that Sunny was starring in. And from everything that I had heard, I had never done a Sandler movie before, but his sets are famously the best. And so I really wanted to just make sure that she had a comparable experience on this with somebody else. I felt like I knew how to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know if I was going to be very good in the movie as an actor, but I was like, \u2018I think I know how to be the dad.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My daughter and her have mutual friends, I know where she goes to school\u2026 just a lot of the stuff I just was like, \u201cI know this world well.\u201d And so talking to somebody like Sunny is not an issue for me. And trying to be light and supportive in this environment, it was something I felt like I was capable of doing. I didn\u2019t know if I was going to be very good in the movie as an actor, but I was like, \u201cI think I know how to be the dad.\u201d And then there\u2019s the two young boys in the movie, the twins, and they were so funny because they were just never acting. They just were running around.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re a little bit younger than my son, but I just coached my son\u2019s basketball team, and wrangling all those kids and getting them going, getting them involved, it was very good prep work for dealing with these two boys. And it made the scenes and made the movie so much fun.<\/p>\n
It felt very real.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Yeah. Everything was just like, \u201cOh, this is what my real life is.\u201d And being there with Sunny, I understood that relationship. Being there with the boys, I was like, \u201cI get this relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a more dramatically real scene later in the movie \u2026 I personally had a similar experience to the lead character. My mom had cancer when I was a sophomore in high school, and all I could think about was how I wanted you \u2014 your character \u2014 to be my dad for that time. For example, that scene when you were sitting in the car and Sunny asked, \u201cAre you okay?\u201d And you asked, \u201cAre you okay?\u201d And both of you said, \u201cNo.\u201d It was just\u2026 right.<\/strong><\/p>\n
That was a really cool scene. Julia Hart, who had directed the movie and wrote the movie along with Laura Hankin and Jordan Horowitz \u2026 [had] a lot of conversations about that scene, and they were so generous in my input. It really felt like that scene was going to be the scene for this relationship. And as we started to see how the movie was playing out and what was happening before then, we had sent a bunch of drafts of that scene back and forth to one another, and we all collectively landed in that spot because it really needed to set up everything that comes after that, but it needed to honor everything that was built up before it, and it needed to feel real.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t want there to be an answer or a fix to what was happening, but I wanted them to feel it, both characters. When we shot that scene, it was nuts. It was really heavy, man.<\/p>\n
In this movie, you run a bagel shop. So what\u2019s your order?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Oh, wow. Great question. I\u2019ve probably gotten older and more healthy than I need to be, more LA than I need to be. I\u2019ll give you two. One\u2019s an everything bagel [with] just cream cheese, onion, tomato, lox.<\/p>\n
That can\u2019t ever miss, it\u2019s the best. The other one is \u2026 either a light cream cheese spread [or] the right type of hummus and then just veggies. But fresh, good veggies that are with the right type of dressing on it and salt and pepper. There\u2019s a place in LA that has been hyped and hyped and I finally went there, I don\u2019t know, a month or two ago. It\u2019s called Courage Bagels. And the line is a mile long. And I was like, \u201cI\u2019m not waiting in line.\u201d And then my daughter and I were like, \u201cLet\u2019s go wait in line.\u201d So we went over there and they had one, I think it\u2019s called the Garden or something. I don\u2019t know. Holy sh*t. It was unbelievable.<\/p>\n
One of the big themes of the movie I wanted to get your take on is disclosure to children. That is, what you tell a kid, what you don\u2019t tell a kid, when you\u2019re protecting them from the truth, and when that backfires. I was just wondering if you had thoughts on how you strike that personally.<\/strong><\/p>\n
It\u2019s a really good question. I actually feel like I\u2019ve done a good job with this, personally. There are certain things that I want them to discover on their own, and hopefully my job is to have created a space where they feel comfortable to then bring those things up to me. And then depending on how the question\u2019s asked or how much they want to know, you ease them into certain topics of discussion and what you choose to discover based on what they\u2019re asking. And you let that conversation be ongoing. And so I\u2019ve had some real good success in some areas where those conversations have opened up and become more in-depth over time. And as a result, I see that my kids are way more comfortable with information that I was worried might be confusing or scary. And because they\u2019ve sort of been able to take it in at their pace.<\/p>\n
How has your outlook changed now that you\u2019re past the baby and elementary parenting and you have a 16- and 11-year-old?<\/strong><\/p>\n
I\u2019m making a lot more mistakes. That thing we talked about, responsibility versus what to let go, that line is thinner and thinner every day. And there\u2019s so many times where, what are the things that I feel like I need to control to make me feel safer in this situation that is so scary? And being a fear-based parent is not a good zone to operate from.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m sitting in a car with my daughter and she\u2019s driving, this is real fear. This is what real fear feels like.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And so it\u2019s like my daughter\u2019s now driving and she gets her driver\u2019s license and it\u2019s just like, my wife and I are both like, \u201cWell, so the next day, is she just driving to volleyball practice? Is that how that works?\u201d And if you strip all the fear away from it, you\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, she practiced and worked up to it and has now passed the test and she\u2019s allowed to legally drive. So yes, why wouldn\u2019t she be able to?\u201d There\u2019s a period of time when they\u2019re small where you\u2019re like, \u201cYeah, this is just going to keep getting better.\u201d And then it shifts in the most terrifying way and you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, this is all so much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we were [learning to drive], I would sit in the car with her, we would drive, and I would go, \u201cOh, you know what? All the anxiety and fear I have about the future and life and work and all the nonsense, that\u2019s not real.\u201d When I\u2019m sitting in a car with my daughter and she\u2019s driving, this is real fear. This is what real fear feels like. It\u2019s like, this is the shark in the water kind of fear. And it\u2019s heavy and it\u2019s tangible. And you almost hold it and you go, \u201cThis is what real fear feels like, and this is appropriate for the situation.\u201d So outside of that, when I do feel any sort of anxiety about the future or whatever it is, I go, \u201cOh, this is not real.\u201d And now I know the difference. So at least I have that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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