The Cinema Society and CBS Films hosted a special screening of new dramedy Dean at The Roxy last eve, with leading man Kevin Kline on hand for the occasion. The film, which also stars actors Demetri Martin, Gillian Jacobs, Reid Scott, and Mary Steenburgen, is centered on a New York illustrator (played by Martin, who also wrote and directed the flick) who falls in love with a woman while trying to prevent his father from selling the family home after his mother’s death.
“You know, in some ways Kevin [Kline] is a little like my dad,” Martin told The Daily. “I love Kevin’s sense of humor. I’ll be 44 this month. My dad died when I was 20, so it’s been 24 years since I’ve had a dad. During the first scene we shot together I remember thinking, ‘How would I relate to my dad as a grown-up?'”
“He always stood out to me,” Martin added. “Kevin is very intelligent and generous, I just felt so honored that I got to work with him because he had so much trust for me as a first-time director.”
“[Martin] is a wonderful director,” said Kline. “There was a lot of improvisation without a script. We layered it if something happened spontaneously—he encouraged that, and not every director does. He’s really good.”
As a Hollywood megastar, Kline has made countless red carpet appearances. “Oh I’ve gotten some strange questions [on the carpet],” he told us. “What’s strange is when people always ask, ‘What drew you, what attracted you to this project?’ But the strangest question is, ‘What did you eat today? Do you have a special diet, regimen? How do you make a marriage last longer than three weeks? Do you bring the character home with you at night?’ To that I say, ‘No, sometimes I just drop it off at the diner on the way home.’”
Guests who came out to support the film included Molly Ringwald and her husband Panio Gianopoulos, Kelly Bensimon, Sally Singer, Will Cotton, F. Murray Abraham (Homeland), model Alex Lundqvist, and Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir. Dean is set to release on June 2. Check out pics from the evening, below.
BY SERENA MINITER