Shear Writes, Directs and Stars in Debut 'Fantasy Life'
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- Matthew Shear makes his feature debut as writer, director and star of 'Fantasy Life,' which expands to theaters nationwide Friday, marking his first completed screenplay after years of dabbling.
- The NYC-set romantic comedy follows Sam (Shear), an anxious law school dropout who begins babysitting for Dianne (Amanda Peet), a married actress whose musician husband David (Alessandro Nivola) is the son of Sam's psychiatrist who arranged the job.
- Shear drew on his real-life experience as a Manhattan 'manny' (male nanny), saying it let him 'access a certain sort of class and milieu of New York' and ask 'who is actually living in these brownstones.'
- Shear originally shopped the Sam role to other actors, until his wife told him 'This is obviously for you,' prompting him to take ownership of the part.
- On set, Shear leaned on his cinematographer and script supervisor for performance feedback so he could act in and direct the film simultaneously.
- Both Sam and Dianne deal with chronic mood disorders; Shear said 'vulnerability' exists even in seemingly 'fulfilled' lives, defending why stories about privileged characters can still resonate.
- Shear's prior acting credits include M. Night Shyamalan's 'Old,' Nathan Silver's 'Between the Temples' and Noah Baumbach's 'Mistress America,' and he began writing the script during a career dry spell his wife called him out on.
Why it matters: For an actor who described his pivot to writing as born from 'a euphemism for not working,' Shear's triple-threat debut shows a rare path from supporting roles to full auteur control, while the premise — a babysitter entangled with his client's wife and his own psychiatrist's family — uses an autofictional NYC romcom to give an intimate look inside an upper-middle-class brownstone life that audiences rarely see from the inside.
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