We all went a little nuts in quarantine.
The short film “Nuts,” an entry in the two-part star-studded COVID anthology film “With/In” and Chris Cooper’s directorial debut, builds off that premise.
The Oscar winner (”Adaptation”) and real-life wife Marianne Leone, who penned the script, star as a pair brought together by the dog they share custody of and frequently interrupted by the reality of coronavirus and Claire’s misophonia, in which particular sounds elicit certain emotional or physiological responses.
“Nuts,” which screened June 14 at the Tribeca Festival, marks the first time Cooper and Leone, both 69, have worked together since before they married in 1983.
“We ended up having a lot of fun doing it,” the “Sopranos” actress told the Daily News over Zoom last week. “There were moments of extreme fear but [chuckles] for the most part it was totally fine.”
The “August: Osage County” star wasn’t entirely on board when producer Celine Rattray (”The Kids Are All Right” and “American Honey”) first recruited the couple for the film, which also stars Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, Rosie Perez, and more.
Not having much else to do in quarantine though, Leone insisted.
“I didn’t have to direct Marianne at all,” Cooper told The News on that call. “To my mind, we were just playing ourselves, and the closest thing I’ve ever come to playing myself.”
Aspects of Leone’s character were real as well, including the misophonia, which she says she has “but not to that extent where it’s like [groans].”
The “American Beauty” actor acknowledged that inviting viewers into the couple’s real-life home, where the film was shot, was “very” odd.
“I thought our house looked actually better than it looks in real life,” remarked Leone, who also wrote the memoir, “Jesse: A Mother’s Story,” about the couple’s son who died at age 17.
Filming or living a reality in which the “Ma Speaks Up” author and the were in each other’s space all the time.
“If I’m studying a script, I’m working out of the house and Marianne’s writing books and screenplay[s] and so, this is not uncommon for us at all,” said Cooper.
Noting that they didn’t have to deal with many of the tangible concerns so many others did during the pandemic, such as food insecurity, Leone said that quarantine was, in some ways, “an easier transition” for the pair.
“Except for, of course, the overall dread and fear and horror and crying everyday because of the body count,” she added.
As for the making of the film itself, Cooper said his wife’s writing “surprised” him.
“I mean I know she can do it. But she works really well under pressure,” said the Emmy-nominated “My House in Umbria” actor. “She turned out this very cute funny script and, so, I guess we were committed.”
They had to be, with only two days to shoot and one to reshoot, if necessary.
The “Joy” actress, for her part, does count “one mistake” of hers: writing wild turkeys into the film.
“I am the scourge of the neighborhood because I feed them,” she said. “And the only thing was, if you aim a camera at something with a brain the size of a pencil eraser, it runs away.”
“There were periods where I set the camera up on a tripod in the front yard, where they know to come, and just wait, to grab a shot,” recalled Cooper. “And fortunately, it worked out OK.”
Having previously lived many years in Manhattan, the couple was more than ready to return to the city for the festival.
“It was so great though to come back to Tribeca ... and see that, you know, New York is coming back.”
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