SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The opioid epidemic is at the center of the new film, "Union County." The story follows a young man in Ohio as he struggles towards recovery. It is a fictional story but often told by people who have lived through those struggles, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "UNION COUNTY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) How you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) I'm doing great.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) That's good. How's your weekend?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) It was nice. I went to my aunt's house and everything and had family dinner. Finally - I don't know - got back into my dad's side of the family. I kind of left there for a while because of, you know, living on drugs and everything. So I haven't been around them in a long time, but they were really excited to see me.
SIMON: That's someone in the program at the Adult Recovery Court of Bellefontaine, Ohio, and that's where director Adam Meeks shot much of "Union County" using people in that program to play versions of themselves. Will Poulter stars as Cody Parsons, the main character in the film. The British actor has also starred in the "Maze Runner" trilogy and has been nominated for television Emmys for "Dopesick" and "The Bear." He joins us from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
WILL POULTER: Scott, thank you so much for having us on. We appreciate it.
SIMON: Tell us about Cody. Where is he in life when we meet him?
POULTER: So at the point at which we meet Cody, he's at something of a crossroads. He is basically facing the possibility of going back to jail for the possession of drugs, and he's given an opportunity to enroll in this program, the real-life adult recovery program in Bellefontaine. And in turn, he is reunited with his foster brother, Jack, who is played by Noah Centineo. And really, the film gives audiences a look at how this recovery program helps people get back on their feet and works with participants to walk the road of recovery.
SIMON: To be exacting, it doesn't always work, does it?
POULTER: That's correct. I think something that the film does really well is that it doesn't shy away from the realities of substance use disorder as far as how devastating it can be and the effects that it has not just on the folks who experience substance use disorder but loved ones and people immediately around them. But where I think its focus lies mostly is on the success of this program, and the success rate of this program in comparison to some of the alternatives, if I can say, some of the more punitive and criminalizing responses to folks with substance use disorder, it fares a lot better. The success rate of this program is over 50%. Some of the alternatives, you know, the rate at which folks are able to sort of avoid relapsing rarely gets into the double figures if they're simply sent to jail.
SIMON: What was it like to work on this film alongside people from that actual program, playing characters based on themselves?
POULTER: It was such a gift. You know, I think, because Annette Deao is the real-life director of this program, and she is also one of our lead actors. She and Adam had worked together before on a short film by the same title, and they developed an authentic sense of trust between one another. And that had given rise to, I think, Adam, who is from the area, being able to form genuine relationships and a really authentic and compassionate understanding of the program and folks local to the area.
So for Noah and I and other members of the kind of traditional acting community, coming into the recovery community and sort of doing this in collaboration with people, we were really the benefactors of that trust and that kind of understanding that we were all here to be additive, that we were here to make it in collaboration with a community, as opposed to just making something about a community. And, you know, there's a real shared sense of pride in the program and the group effort that it took to make this.
SIMON: A lot of the dialogue is spare for your character, in particular, until he gives one major speech. A lot of your performance seems to be looking and reacting. What are the challenges of that?
POULTER: Yeah. I think we spoke a lot about the degree to which Cody internalizes his trauma, his experience and often his reaction to the world around him. And I think what's interesting is he starts to talk more. He starts to blossom, I think, a little bit more from a sort of personality and social standpoint, as he gets better.
And that's something that authentically represents, from my understanding and what I learned through being part of the film, the experience of walking the road to recovery that often substance use disorder robs folks of their real selves, of the ability to express themselves and in order to feel the full range of emotions, and there's participants in the program that speak to that in the film.
I think what that also does is something that fits within one of the key kind of requirements in the making of this film, which was to humanize folks who experienced substance use disorder and challenge audiences to look past the label of addict and really see folks for the individuals that they are.
SIMON: I find it irresistible to note in the series "Dopesick" you played a pharmaceutical salesman. Now, we don't see any in "Union County," but it's hard not to think of the role of the drug industry in selling fentanyl and OxyContin.
POULTER: Absolutely. Yeah. I think "Dopesick" was critical to my sort of education on the subject matter, by being part of "Dopesick." For anyone listening who hasn't seen the show, it's a TV show that basically documents the opioid crisis, specifically on the subject of how human greed and one particular family and company took advantage of a lot of folks in America by wrongly selling a dangerous narcotic under the guise of that it was medicine and that it was safe to prescribe via doctors. And it is definitely weighted on looking at the injustices and the sort of pervasive nature of how that affected folks in many different kind of social circles and across a number of different demographics.
And it was certainly weighted on the devastation caused. I think that towards the end of that series, one of the questions that is sort of held up and posited is, well, how do folks get back on their feet? What are the workable responses to what is largely an irreparable situation, but what is the ways that people can support others towards recovery? How can we sort of undo some of the damage? And I think Union County, in many ways, answered that question for me.
SIMON: What have you learned, do you think, about addiction and people who struggle with that challenge?
POULTER: I think I learned that actually more often than not, the actual use or misuse or overuse, however you want to put it, of substances, is actually one of the last things that folks talk about because underpinning all of those things are factors that unite all of us that are fundamental to the human condition, that actually make the line between addict and someone who doesn't identify as an addict. Very, very permeable and largely insignificant.
You know, we're talking about a disease of the brain, and you realize that when you sit in rooms with folks and you hear that their conversations are characterized by things fundamental to the human experience, and that's conversations about family, talking about housing situations, talking about friends, talking about mental health, all of these things that really exist for all of us, regardless of whether we experience substance use disorder. And I think that's the biggest thing that I have taken away from the experience.
SIMON: Will Poulter, who stars in the new film "Union County," in theaters now. Thanks so much for being with us.
POULTER: Scott, thank you so much. We appreciate the opportunity to speak about the film here. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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