The story behind Manson Family Vacation, the new film from writer-director J Davis, which stars Jay Duplass and Linas Phillips, stemmed from a conversation between friends. “It came from my life-long fascination with the Manson crimes and my friend Jay’s utter revulsion when he heard that,” said Davis. “Jay didn’t understand my interest in the Manson family at all, and I decided to explore that difference between us with this project.”
A renowned independent film-maker with his brother Mark, whose recent HBO show Togetherness was a critical hit, in the film Jay plays Nick, a buttoned-up family man whose life is thrown into upheaval when his black sheep of an adopted brother, Conrad (Phillips), shows up at his house for a visit. Conrad is obsessed with the Manson family and their gruesome crime spree and asks Nick to join him on a road trip across Los Angeles and into the desert to explore the Manson murder sites.
In the spirit of family unity in the wake of their father’s death, Nick agrees to the trip, even though he is uneasy with his brother’s obsession. “This was one of my first acting jobs,” said Duplass, explaining that his character’s revulsion drew on his own. “When [Davis] said I would like you to play the guy who was repulsed and doesn’t understand, I said, yeah, I can do that.”
“It wasn’t a stretch,” Phillips added.
Playing the Manson-obsessed brother, Phillips took a deep dive into Manson family lore. “I bought a Manson book right away,” he said, and soon found himself able to whip out Manson family trivia at any moment, much to his co-star’s dismay. “My excuse is that it was method acting,” said Phillips. “I got really into my reading, but subconsciously you know it’s going to be better for the character.”
It was this kind of passion that caught Davis’s eye. Early in his career, Phillips made a movie called Walking to Werner, documenting his walk from Seattle to Los Angeles on the off-chance that he could meet film-maker Werner Herzog. While Phillips didn’t succeed in his quest, Davis seemed to view the film as one long audition for the part in Manson Family Vacation. “I knew Linus would understand the obsessive nature of this character,” said Davis.
Phillips’s character isn’t just a trivia junkie, though. He’s clearly a lost soul hoping for some sort of redemption that he can only reach with the help of his brother. “My character doesn’t have many options, he’s burned so many bridges,” Phillips.
Duplass and Phillips have a natural chemistry that gives their characters depth and believability. “We ended up becoming really close friends during the movie,” said Duplass. “When you’re with your siblings you don’t really speak in a direct way. Mark [Duplass] and I call it brother-speak, but it’s like you know so much about each other that you operate in weird ways. We started operating that way. We started getting in on the concept of not only exploring the mysteries of Manson and the nature of family, but the mysteries of these characters.”
As the film unfolds, the relationship between the brothers shifts. By the end of the film, they end up somewhere wholly unexpected, but still completely believable.
“When we were on the set it was really the three of us just figuring this thing out and getting the most that we could get out of every day of shooting.” Like many indie productions, each member of the cast and crew wore multiple hats. “We represent a large percentage of the cast and crew,” laughed Duplass, who starred and also executive produced along with his brother Mark. “I did make-up! And sometimes windows,” added Phillips.
Low-budget films tend to be labors of love, and Manson Family Vacation is no exception. The film was primarily shot on weekends so the cast and crew could keep their day jobs, before a script rewrite required them to spend a few weeks in the desert. “We had considered the twist early on in the writing process, but we felt like it might be too big or unbelievable; but as we were watching the footage, we realized that it made the most sense,” said Duplass. “We had to do a lot of re-shoots.”
The twist transforms the film from just another dark comedy to something else entirely: a meditation on the meaning of family in the midst of the Charles Manson crime spree. The end product is a film that they are all very proud of. “I think we made the best movie we could make,” Duplass said.
“We were aware that we making a movie with controversial subject matter with non-famous people and were just pushing ourselves so hard,” said Duplass. “We did what we had to, to get something that we all love and believe in and can be proud of. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
“That’s exhausting,” added Phillips. “When you care that much about something, it’s rough.”
“It’s like you’re swimming in chaos the whole time, it’s incredibly uncomfortable, but in my experience it makes the best art,” said Duplass. “If you don’t push yourself every day to make the best thing you can make, you’re just not going to make the best thing. This stuff comes from a very real place.”
- Manson Family Vacation is now available on iTunes and Netflix.
